May 6th, 2009 by Reed Allmand 
According to an article in the Star-Telegram, the foreclosure crisis is emptying many neighborhoods, leaving behind literal ghost towns. Federal legislators are so worried about the amount of empty homes being left by foreclosures that they have set aside nearly $6 billion for local governments to fight blight by rehabilitating or demolishing vacant property.
The article said:
The federal money will be distributed based on a complicated formula that considers local rates for foreclosures, high-cost mortgages and vacancies.
There are over 4 million empty homes in America, many of them the victims of foreclosure. That’s 3 percent of all the housing in America. These empty homes are a serious problem that is like a vicious cycle which is very difficult to break. Foreclosed homes often stay empty for 90 days or more. Lawns are unkempt; the homes are often stripped of valuable materials and then the squatters move in. Not to mention the loss of tax revenue and the negative impact on the neighborhood–increased crime, depressed home values and blight.
As we have mentioned several times here, foreclosure is a problem that extends way beyond the individual homeowners losing their home. Foreclosure is a community problem that we all need to be concerned about.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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