Homeless Family Victim Of Foreclosure
Couple, 5 Children Live In, Out Of Shelters
POSTED: 5:03 pm EDT October 9, 2008
UPDATED: 5:55 pm EDT October 9, 2008
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BOSTON -- The financial meltdown has another casualty besides people losing their money. Families are losing their homes, and advocates expect the numbers to grow.NewsCenter 5's Liz Brunner reported Thursday that a local family knows what it's like to have fallen into the bank-mortgage trap.
Homeless Family Victim Of Foreclosure"The kids loved that house. That's what I miss, just being able to have a place of your own. Coming to a shelter, it's hard -- it's very tough," Kim Malanson said.Malanson, her partner of nine years, Christian Berry, and their five children, all under the age of 6, have been in and out of the shelter system for a year now."I got approved for a $350,000 mortgage. I was a rental agent at a rental car company, mind you; I was only making $9 an hour. So obviously, I couldn't afford the mortgage," Berry said."Letters started coming in the mail saying they're going to foreclose on us. It's very scary, very frustrating, very stressful knowing that the bank's going to take your house," Malanson said."It left us in a worse situation that if I didn't get approved for the home loan," Berry said.More and more families are finding themselves homeless."Just in the past three or four months, it's gone up by 25 from, from what I understand to be about 2000 families in shelters to 2,500 to 2,600 families in shelters and motels that are being used as shelters now," said Sue Heilman, of the Horizons for Homeless Children. "There was a lot of pressure and interest in getting families to own their own home, which is a fabulous concept, but it's very complicated."Berry admits he was young and inexperienced and doesn't blame anybody for his predicament, but he said it's still very hard for him."It really challenges your manhood to not be able to support your family," Berry said. "I've learned a lot from this. The next home we buy, we will be in complete control."
Homeless Family Victim Of Foreclosure"The kids loved that house. That's what I miss, just being able to have a place of your own. Coming to a shelter, it's hard -- it's very tough," Kim Malanson said.Malanson, her partner of nine years, Christian Berry, and their five children, all under the age of 6, have been in and out of the shelter system for a year now."I got approved for a $350,000 mortgage. I was a rental agent at a rental car company, mind you; I was only making $9 an hour. So obviously, I couldn't afford the mortgage," Berry said."Letters started coming in the mail saying they're going to foreclose on us. It's very scary, very frustrating, very stressful knowing that the bank's going to take your house," Malanson said."It left us in a worse situation that if I didn't get approved for the home loan," Berry said.More and more families are finding themselves homeless."Just in the past three or four months, it's gone up by 25 from, from what I understand to be about 2000 families in shelters to 2,500 to 2,600 families in shelters and motels that are being used as shelters now," said Sue Heilman, of the Horizons for Homeless Children. "There was a lot of pressure and interest in getting families to own their own home, which is a fabulous concept, but it's very complicated."Berry admits he was young and inexperienced and doesn't blame anybody for his predicament, but he said it's still very hard for him."It really challenges your manhood to not be able to support your family," Berry said. "I've learned a lot from this. The next home we buy, we will be in complete control." Copyright 2009 by TheBostonChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
