Bright, well-kept houses on Madison Street, where a small number of foreclosures have had little effect on the neighborhood. — Photos by Diego Cupolo

It has been over a year since we first visited the specter of foreclosure-related urban decay in the neighborhood, particularly the more owner-occupied southern part. Since then, the situation nationally has ripened, and a new president has bailed out crippled banks and announced reforms and new regulations across the economy. Home prices are down in most markets from their inflated highs, and South Bushwick’s values haven’t escaped the market’s ax. But despite a recent report that all but declares the end of Bushwick, local residents say that since the bubble burst, their blocks are actually stable or better.

Eva Sanchis, a reporter for El Diario/La Prensa (EDLP), part of the Spanish-language nationwide news conglomerate ImpreMedia, visited Bushwick for several months in 2009 to research a report on foreclosures. She sought to focus on how the foreclosure crisis was affecting Hispanic communities, particularly in South Bushwick with its higher home forfeiture rates. Because the south side has more two- to three-family homes than the north side of the neighborhood, it has the highest concentration of owner-occupants and therefore foreclosures.

In the report, published in February of this year, Sanchis profiles three families. An Ecuadoran woman, who borrowed over $600,000 and had a monthly payment of $2800, prayed to the Virgin to intercede on her behalf — a prayer she says was answered by President Obama in the form of loan modifications. But the program, despite the presence of legitimate — and free — local modification counselors, was hijacked by hucksters seeking to squeeze a few extra dollars out of desperate, ignorant homeowners before they lost their homes for good. [Read in English | Spanish] Most of the people, including the counselors, whom Sanchis interviews bemoan the difficulty of the program, which as of December had an overall success rate of just about one percent.

Another family is current on their mortgage, having purchased their home many years before, but worries about the stability of their block of Harman Street. [English | Spanish]

The first report in the series, however, is the most shocking, compounded by the title "Bushwick Is Dying," which some locals considered offensive.

	Flawlessly maintained twin brick homes on Eldert Street near Bushwick Avenue belie a community in crisis.

"We were just trying to make people pay attention to what is going on in Bushwick," Sanchis told BushwickBK, "particularly those who have the power to do something about it."

"Bushwick Is Dying" [English | Spanish] covered the financial troubles of the Ortiz family. The patriarch had paid off the family home, purchased in 1972 for just under $22,000, when in 2002 his daughter needed help paying off her credit card debt. He took out a relatively small mortgage – $29,000 – on the home, and presumably paid the debt. However, two years later, the property was refinanced again for $135,000. Subsequent loans were taken for $165,000, $217,000, $254,000 and the last, for $330,000, in 2007.

Sanchis, in her story and subsequent interviews, maintained that most of the money went to fees; none of her interviewers pressed her on the issue. In correspondence with BushwickBK, she avoided a direct question as to where the money went, insisting it was mostly spent on fees, without explaining why even the most ignorant consumer would continue to take loans under such conditions. Sanchis maintains that many Bushwickers don’t understand mortgages, due in part to the neighborhood’s lack of bank branches.

Manny Feit, a sales manager at South Bushwick-based Weichert Realtors-Property Works, said that while he is sure the Ortiz family was preyed upon by unscrupulous loan brokers, they are not completely innocent victims. Each transaction was not likely to have incurred more than $15,000 in fees, which is, while a large amount, par for the course with multiple refinancings.

"There is less incentive for a bank to process paperwork for a small loan, therefore fees will impact more greatly," added Feit. Refinancing six times could have cost the Ortiz family nearly $100,000 in fees. Sanchis reports that some $15,000 in repairs were done by a contractor connected to one of the mortgage brokers, but this would still leave some $200,000 in cash. Feit speculates the family may have spent the money on "frivolity."

The other materials accompanying the series are meant to impart a sense of doom, including video clips and a photo of a junk car. Bushwick-raised realtor Anthony Fernandez is a bit irked by the inclusion of one of his wall-mounted billboards in a montage of homes the viewer is led to assume are for sale for threat of foreclosure. "I don’t mind the free advertising, though I wish it was on a positive article," said Fernandez. He added that the building in the clip has been paid off for two decades, the owner — Hispanic — in no danger of losing his property.

Sanchis writes alarmingly of graffitied and trash-strewn streets, though residents say their South Bushwick blocks, including ones cited in the EDLP series, are cleaner and safer than ever.

	It’s not all roses — there’s no denying Bushwick has seen hard times. This house on Evergreen Avenue at Harman Street has been boarded up for years.

Richard McGee, a homeowner on Woodbine Street between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue, spoke with BushwickBK last year about how his block was affected by foreclosure. Back then, several properties had been vacated by banks and boarded up, and yards had become overgrown. McGee reports now that the street has improved, though some homes are still vacant. Across the street, two previously boarded-up properties have been renovated and reoccupied, while his side of the block still has six vacant homes — three boarded up, one for sale, and another two that were cleaned out by the Dept. of Sanitation and "look tidy."

"The rest of the block has owners and renters that would make good neighbors in any neighborhood," adds McGee. "That really wasn’t the case three years ago but the bad apples are now gone."

Ray Gillan, a homeowner on Madison Street between Evergreen and Central Avenues, says his block has had a small number of foreclosures, but they have not had a negative impact on the neighborhood because the houses were usually reinhabited or resold quickly.

The only building that was vacant for a significant amount of time is next door to Gillan. There, the basement door was left unlocked and people vandalized the property. But Gillan called the police, who emptied the house of vagrants and had the landlord chain up the door. 

"If you leave something like that unlocked around here, you should bet on having crackheads go in there," Gillan said. "But that’s the only building on the block that was vacant for a little while and since then the owner fixed it up, had this big open house, and somebody bought it." 

Gillan’s brick two-family was worth $500,000 before the block was reassessed in 2008. Now it’s in the upper $400,000s. But the slight value drop doesn’t bother the homeowner because he sees continuous improvements in the neighborhood.

Certainly, quotes could be mined to show an opposite trend — there’s no doubt this is a matter depending on perception, and can change block to block. But overall, the neighborhood doesn’t seem worse off with a few problem foreclosures than the tragedy of fire and crime it suffered in the 1970s and ’80s. Scare pieces aside, much looks up in a stable, family-dense South Bushwick.

With reporting by Diego Cupolo.