NYC foreclosures hit Queens hardest

The borough of Queens had the highest rate of home foreclosures in New York City over the past year, averaging more than 150 foreclosures a month.

Only in September 2008 did the Queens foreclosure rate dip below the rate in Staten Island, according to online real estate data company PropertyShark.com.

As of Oct. 1, “New York City foreclosures climbed 60 percent to 1,118, led by Staten Island and Queens,” Bloomberg.com reported. (Oct. 1) This is the highest citywide level in two years.

The latest round of Queens foreclosures came on top of a huge spike in August, when the borough’s foreclosures “shot up like the Alps,” increasing by 113 percent over the last year. (wcbstv.com, Sept. 4)

New York City’s largest borough geographically, Queens is also the most diverse county in the U.S. Statistics from the U.S. Census and combined demographic studies show that Queens has the highest number of foreign-born residents—more than 48 percent—and that 87 percent of Queens residents like the diversity of the population. (New York Daily News, Sept. 18) The borough also includes a number of large African-American communities.

As in other major cities with high foreclosure rates like Detroit and Los Angeles, it is communities of color in Queens that are hardest hit by the seismic wave of foreclosures.

Southeast Queens has been the epicenter of the foreclosure earthquake, where oppressed communities such as Jamaica and South Jamaica, Hollis, St. Albans, the Rockaways and Broad Channel, Laurelton and Cambria Heights top the list.

“This could be the single greatest loss of Black wealth since the Great Depression, the greatest loss of Asian wealth since Japanese internment,” said City Council member James Sanders Jr., whose Laurelton district is in southeast Queens. (Queens Chronicle, Sept. 11)

Queens communities such as Jackson Heights, East Elmhurst and Corona, home to many Latin@s, have also suffered from high foreclosure rates. In addition, many Queens foreclosures affect two-family, three-family or larger homes, which jeopardize tenants who face eviction from rental apartments in foreclosed buildings.

A moratorium on foreclosures and evictions is needed to turn this situation around and stop the catastrophic loss of homes in Queens and throughout the U.S.