A study being released this week by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reports that the stress of foreclosure can have detrimental effects on families and marriages. The study is based on interviews with 25 Latino families in California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, and Texas.
“People losing their homes is more than losing a physical space, bricks and mortar,” said Janis Bowdler, deputy director of Wealth-Building Policy Project at the National Council of La Raza. “We have been so focused on the short-term impact of the financial crisis, the policy solutions, the physical loss of the house, that we don’t always consider the larger picture.”
Around half of the married couples interviewed reported problems in their relationships, and more than a third were considering separation or divorce. More than half of the families reported that the children had developed behavioral or academic problems after losing their home, along with increasingly strained parent-child relationships. According to the study, “Parents often perceived their children being withdrawn and having trouble making new friends.”
The study adds to mounting evidence of the emotional and psychological effects of foreclosure. Last year, a study by the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine found that 47 percent of the homeowners going through foreclosure showed signs of depression, and 37 percent showed signs of severe depression.
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