Will Children Survive the Foreclosure Crisis?
by This is an article about the effects of the foreclosure crisis on our children. Many have been uprooted from their neighborhoods, friends and teachers. Most will suffer from long term effects as a result of a split family unit. Some will become the new residents of our prisons of the future.
Stanley K. Campbell
November 17, 2008
It is too soon to tell exactly what the long term effects will be on the children of families losing their homes to foreclosure. Soon, it will become obvious that the affects will be adverse and long lasting. This major shift in living arrangements and demographics in our society will lessen our children’s ability to become or remain good citizens. Most homes lost to foreclosure are primarily in moderate to intermediate income level households with pre-teen and teen aged children.
Most are recently unemployed or have an adjustable rates mortgage that has caused an increase in their house payments. The safety and well-being of our children has always been our primary concern. However, when it comes to teens and the lack of employment opportunities there is very little control we as parents have. The high rate of unemployment is increasingly causing us to have to compete for the jobs they once would have had.
Most teens will be forced to be moved into smaller cramped apartments or homes of other family members. They soon begin to feel pressured to contribute financially to the household. They lose their privacy and self esteem because it seems as if the family has taken a step backwards. It is fast becoming similar to the rural South years ago. Most will choose to forgo their education in order to help provide financial support. Some will have no choice but to share a bedroom with a family member. For some, it will be an encroachment on their privacy and as children, they will feel unfairly treated.
Some will be made to feel it is in some way their fault for playing video games and not focusing on school by their parents. Others will simply become a target of gangs and become rebellious. Many will become victims of physical and verbal abuse at the hands of their own parents and eventually experiment with the use of drugs and alcohol as a way to escape.
As parents and professionals, soon we will begin to realize a spike in teen pregnancy and petty crime. Our teachers will become ill equipped to deal with emotional and and motivational issues. There will be a rise in absenteeism. Our children will become unenthusiastic and disconnect from the ability to learn which is caused by stress. Eventually they will be motivated to do things otherwise unheard of to obtain money, food or clothing.
The Bush administration should have been proactive in heading off this national problem. It is certainly a problem which we will all be asked to confront. It will soon become more obvious when we will be faced with an over crowded juvenile court system, a rash of teen pregnancy and an increase of gang activity and property crimes.
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