Report: Foreclosed Homes Attract Crime

As one report says the biggest jump in delinquent mortgages occurred in NY State (up 35% last year), another report is linking a rise in crime to the rise in foreclosed homes. Based on ACORN's studies, the Daily News reports, "The only Queens areas where crime rose between 2006 and 2008 - Jackson Heights, Kew Gardens/Woodhaven, Jamaica/Hollis and Rockaway/Broad Channel - had high foreclosure rates." (Lawmakers have said those areas were targeted with subprime mortgage offers.) Looking at NYPD and FBI data, ACORN found that high-foreclosure neighborhoods had much more crime than low-foreclosure neighborhoods over that period, "The increasing displacement of homeowners leaves neighborhoods without the deterrent presence of concerned neighbors' watchful eyes." The News offers one example: "Two serial rapists who terrorized southeastern Queens last summer viciously attacked women more than a dozen times in a vacant church and other abandoned buildings."