by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
Jacksonville Area Legal Aid is calling for “troops” from the legal and business communities to help combat the rising rates of foreclosure and murder in Jacksonville. And now, they even have a map to target the war-torn areas of the First Coast.
Neighborhoods within the 32206, 32208 and 32209 zip codes have the highest murder levels in the city. Those areas also have the highest foreclosure action levels, according to information released by JALA in conjunction with reports from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and RealtyTrac, a California-based company that measures foreclosure actions nationwide.
“Where there is murder, there are higher rates of foreclosure,” said Michael Figgins, executive director of JALA. “The cost of abusive mortgage lending is killing us. We know how to fight back. Stability is what we need.”
JALA released a map Tuesday illustrating foreclosure actions and murders in Duval County. They also released a map showing JALA foreclosure defense cases in relation to murders.
Foreclosure actions include homes that are in some stage of the foreclosure process including pre-foreclosure lawsuits and judgments of foreclosure sales.
Evelyn Mew is a mother of seven, grandmother of 19 with number 20 on the way, and achieved her dream of owning her own home in 2001. Today, she’s worried about losing her home.
Mew worked for the Duval County School Board, but twice sustained injures that inhibited her from working. Shortly after her injuries, Mew suffered a stroke, and then another. Mew struggled to pay her mortgage and turned to JALA for help after her mortgage company filed a foreclosure case.
JALA attorney Lynn Drysdale has worked with Mew for four years in the foreclosure litigation and helped settle her case. However, the lending company continued filing suit against Mew. Her lending company, HSBC — formerly Household International — is a sub-prime lender to America’s poor, according to one national report.
According to Drysdale, HSBC kept adding fees to what Mew owed. And, they returned Mew’s payment because she had used the company’s unabbreviated name, instead of its initials.
“I feel like they’re really after my house,” said Mew, wiping away tears. “I’m too old to start over and I don’t have the money and I want to leave something to my children. This is all I have.”
Drysdale called Mew the “face of foreclosure.”
Mew lives in the 32209 zip code, an area on the Northside that has had 11 murders and 16 JALA foreclosure defense cases from January to June 2006.
“She has seen first hand how vacant homes cause neighborhoods to deteriorate,” said Drysdale.
Mew explained the cyclical nature of a boarded up home, which can lead to people outside gambling or using drugs and homeless, who need to eat and will steal to get food.
“It causes the neighborhood to go down,” said Mew. “Drugs cause good people to lose what they’ve got. It’s overwhelming.”
JALA is working with the Jacksonville’s Sheriff’s Office, City Council and the mayor’s office to help find ways to curb both the murder and foreclosure rates.
City Council member Kevin Hyde worked closely with the issue during his Council presidency and called on the business community to develop products and services to lead to a solution. Foreclosure and murder is a community issue, said Hyde, and it requires help from the private sector.
A Chicago-based study released in 2001 showed a direct correlation between foreclosure and crime — one foreclosure equals a 2.33 percent rise in crime.
The study and a plethora of citizens walking into JALA with foreclosure issues, prompted JALA to do its own Jacksonville study.