The Youngest Victims Of Foreclosure

In Midst Of Mortgage Crisis, Kids Are Left In Limbo - But There's Some Help Available

(CBS)  It's the week after spring break and instead of hitting the books, 11-year-old Matthew Antico is helping his mom, Sharon, and brother, Wesley, pack boxes.

"Lots of memories on the walls, I notice," CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella said.

"Yes, me and my friends drew all this," Matthew said.

He's also saying goodbye to his childhood room.

"I'm gonna have to make all new friends," Matthew said. "It stinks."

The Anticos are leaving their Bradenton, Fla., home because they have to. The bank foreclosed on it in February after Sharon lost her job and fell behind on the mortgage.

For the first time in her life, she and her kids are homeless.

"What do you do when you have kids and you're in that situation?" Sharon Antico said. "You don't know what to do; you really don't know what to do."

They're not alone. In their county of Manatee, 400 kids are homeless due to the foreclosure crisis.

And the numbers are rising in other housing hot-zones across the country. Cleveland public schools have nearly 1,700 homeless students, 500 more than a year ago. Minneapolis schools have 5,600, up more than 1,000 more homeless kids than last year.

Deb Bailey runs Project Heart, a group helping homeless families on Florida's west coast.

"It's not even the tip of the iceberg," she said.

Her group is financed in part by the Manatee School District to help kids better deal with the effects of foreclosure.

"There is a period of grief, a period of anger and a period of 'why me?' and for children it is a very difficult adjustment," said Roger Dearing, Manatee School District superintendent.

Matthew's mom found a family friend willing to take them in, but the tiny house is much farther from school.

Project Heart helped convince the district to go miles out of its way to keep Matthew with the same kids and teacher.

"Because it is monumental everything that he finds stable outside of here is in upheaval," Nick Leduc, a teacher in Matthew's school district, said.

Despite that, Matthew's grades are strong, his outlook stronger.

"I don’t really let it get to me because me and my mom and my brother know that God's going to bless us someday," Matthew said.

They would need $2,000 for their own apartment - a goal that feels as out of reach now as their old home.

[terryw41]

newsterl - minorities screaming? I didn''t hear any screaming. Why did they only start screaming during Bush''s term? Most of the people I see on the news in foreclosures are white. Did the No Child Left Behind Act include double and tripling the amount of US homeless children? He''s doing a "heckuva job" isn''t he?

There was a reason for mandating lowering loan qualifying to home buyers - to drive up the price of real estate. Supply & demand. Lots of people made LOTS of money off of that, investors were buying up properties and reselling them at 3 times their cost - you know, flipping. That was the real reason for the mandate. They all took their money and ran, leaving the little people & the mortgage companies to deal with the big mess they got richer off of. What used to be merely having a home to live in became "an investment" It''s all about "investing" now. Who do you think are setting our lovely gas prices now? INVESTORS.

The Bush administration has been about one thing and only one thing, making "their base" richer, the Have''s and the Have More''s.

Are you enjoying filling up your car? How about paying your utility bills or grocery bills?
Got health insurance? Are you in support of the coming North American Union? And the coming big super highway from Mexico to Canada so China can deliver their inferior slave labor products cheaper? For now diesel gas in Mexico is half the price it is in the US because Mexico has price controls on their diesel.

[ranger1948]

newsterl
I have been to Iowa and didn''tlike any part of it. I only went there to arrest a guy. No desire to go back His brother was a big time drug dealer and had connections with the local DA. DA told me i couldn''t tak the guy and when i did he oput out a warrant for my arrest. Politics is the same everywhere. I got my guy back to Texas without being caught.

[newsterl]

HIS adminstration mandated mortgage companies to lower their qualifying standards to allow more Americans to own homes. Remember how they bragged that more Americans now own homes than ever before.

Posted by terryw41

Thats right, because if they didnt then black people and minorities were screaming DISCRIMINATION and complaining they were being unfairly discriminated against BECAUSE they were black/hispanic/poor whatever.

[newsterl]

Wrong, its your repubiCON corporations who shipped jobs OVERSEAS to china and elsewhere, Posted by newsterl

"Right. Last time I checked, it was Bill Clintax who signed off on NAFTA."

Clinton hasn''t been the president for almost EIGHT YEARS, all of this krap we are seeing now and the recession, and the jobs going away- happened during your butt buddy BUSH''s terms.

There''s nothing wrong with FREE TRADE, in the modern world protectionism doesnt work its a GLOBAL system with all monies depending on everyone else as well as oil driving it all.
Blame the bush regime for failing to enact a law that if you are a company based HERE in the US, with CEO''s who live HERE- you have to keep your manufacturing HERE in the US.


"Go cry on his shoulder. And I dare say if it wasnt for confiscatory taxes and bedwetting lib regulations, maybe the republican corporations wouldnt have left."

DOnt blame dumbocraps or clinton for that, this all is the result of OVERPOPULATION, what happens when you jam 300 million people in an environment that held 150 million in 1950- the DOUBLE demand on everything has driven skyrocketing prices, shortages, electric grids that can''t keep up, oil supply issues, housing prices and all the rest.

"These were loans made to people who didnt qualify or
Posted by LibH8er"

Whether they were or were not isnt the issue, banks and mortgage co''s are privately owned BUSINESSES, and its called free enterprise, they screwed up like any business venture can and does.

[terryw41]

THIS adminstration mandated mortgage companies to lower their qualifying standards to allow more Americans to own homes. Remember how they bragged that more Americans now own homes than ever before. Well now you see the results of that bright idea - like everything else THIS administration has touched it turned to ***. Developers across the country built these instant communities and made millions and/or billions of dollars while the mortgage companies were handing out mortgages to anyone who applied. How about those interest-only payments? Or those schemes to get people to buy - like a cable company offering half rates for new customers - after a certain time they have to pay the regular rate like everyone else. Mortgage companies did the same thing. Of those developers who came in a little late on this whole deal, many are now left with empty "instant communities". And when the DEMAND was high so went the prices of real estate. Suddenly a $100,000 home was selling for $300,000 and so on. Not to mention what these bloated prices have done to our property taxes.

Yes, the Republicans have done such a fine job ''managing'' our country, we now can''t afford housing, gas, food, and utility bills and our jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries in record numbers. A new vehicle now costs more than I paid for my home/property 10 years ago.

Thank you CONSERVATIVES!! Stop blaming this HUGE MESS on the previous administration. Times were pretty good in the 90''s.

[libh8er]

Wrong, it''''s your repubiCON corporations who shipped jobs OVERSEAS to china and elsewhere, Posted by newsterl at 01:30 PM : Apr 24, 2008

Right. Last time I checked, it was Bill Clintax who signed off on NAFTA. Go cry on his shoulder. And I dare say if it wasn''t for confiscatory taxes and bedwetting lib regulations, maybe the republican corporations wouldn''t have left.

And I''m right. Admit it. These were loans made to people who didn''t qualify or deserve them.

[forthepeopl1]

please this is a simple thing to fix, why are you bending over for all of the wallstreet scum.
you have the right to do what this paulson/ben did for wallstreet,saying they had to to save america. so you can say the same thing, but this time you would be saveing america, and not wallstreet.
you must come out and stop the forcloseing of all these millions of homes, now,
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS MANDATE THAT ALL MORTGAGES THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT FROM 2000 TO 2007 BY ALL AMERICANS TO BE RE-FI A.S.A.P. NO EXCEPTIONS,


NO MATTER WHAT THE CREDIT IS, THEY WILL RE-FI EVERYONE AT JUST OVER PRIME, AND AT A RATE OF 40% OF WHAT IS OWED ON THE PROPERTY( PERSONAL HOMES ONLY)!!
WHY, BECAUSE MOST HOST ARE SELLING AT FORCLOSER FOR 20 TO 30 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR, SO AS TO WHAT PAULSON SAID TO BEARSTEARN 2 DOLLARS IS BETTER THAN NO DOLLARS SO TAKE THE DEAL..NOW REMEMBER ALL OF YOU, IF THIS COMPANY IN 6 MONTHS LOST 98% OF THEIR VALUE FROM 700 BILLION TO WHAT IS IT NOW. AND FOR SOMEONE TO COME IN AND BUY IT FOR NOTHING, WHAT IS THE REAL VALUE OF ALL THESE HOMES???NOBODY KNOWS, SO WHY NOT JUST START OVER??? AND STOP THE BLEEDING FOR ALL AMERICANS.

[e-mail]
DAVID A BELANGER
FOR COMMON SENSE THIS IS SO EASY TO FIX DONT MAKE IT HARDER THAN IT IS PEOPLE.

AND LOOK AT THIS MORNINGS NEWS, THE GREAT POTATOHEAD PAULSON,AND BEN ARE IN TALKS WITH ANOTHER WALLSTREET FIRM GOING DOWN. MERRILL LYNCHWHAT MORE BAILOUTS FOR WALLSTREET COMING.

[chatmandu002]

You would think this hasn''t happened before. I can remember 50 years ago my dad not being able to find work and having to move out. What do people want? Cradle to grave government support. Oh, that''s right the new democratic party....

[newsterl]

When I stopped paying PMI they threatened me with foreclosure and reported me to the credit agencies that lowered my FICO credit score so by 100 points so I can not refinance a lower interest rate anymore.
Posted by Mom_O_Truth

My FICO score is close to 400

[chatmandu002]

You would think this hasn''t happened before. I can remember 50 years ago my dad not being able to find work and having to move out. What do people want? Cradle to grave government support. Oh, that''s right the new democratic party....

[newsterl]

Look at Iowa Ranger, the lowest unemployment around- about 3% and with Microcrud and google building high tech server farms.

[alexma50085]

What about all the people who are losing their jobs and having to take lower paying jobs eh? They knew they couldn''''t afford their houses eh? They knew that the corporations would begin shipping all the better paying jobs overseas? They just knew all of this did they? It''''s all their fault.
So many of you are out of touch... When your job is finally shipped overseas, then maybe you will wake up.

Posted by mortal3 at 12:28 PM : Apr 24, 2008

A+ post!

[tireslinger]

As much as I feel bad for those losing their homes, a level of the foreclosure problem lies with consumers: People really must use some common sense, and stop implicitely trusting lenders of major money, that they''ll tell you all that you need to know. We must arm ourselves with knowledge, ask question, and for goodness sake, DON''T sign anything until you''re certain that you understand what the document is saying. If one who should know the answers to your questions, can''t or won''t answer it in plain English, it is not too physically taxing to stand up from a chair, and walk away.
Stay on top of when your PMI should cease. If your mortgage company does not discontinue it per schedule, stay "in their face," until you get the results that are required of them. Yes, a pain in the @#$, couldn''t agree with you more. Yes, you shouldn''t have to deal with that sort of thing, but wouldn''t you rather deal with that, than the pain and uncertainty of foreclosure and homelessness??

[barbaraf4]

My lender also refused to remove the Mortgage Insurance (PMI) from the monthly payments as required by the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, enforced 2002, that requires a lender to stop collecting PMI for LTV below 80 percent. Posted by Mom_O_Truth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We have a PMI problem too. It is hiway robbery.

[libh8er]

No oversight on the banks and mortgage lenders. People suffer!
Posted by zoe2006 at 09:21 AM : Apr 24, 2008

You bedwetting libs are such assclowns......15 years ago, you dems were whining about how banks wouldn''t lend money to high risk and minority borrowers. So they relax their standards and now you see the result.

But you foaming at the mouth Bush haters are too intellectually dishonest with yourselves and others to admit the real problem.

You haven''t got the brains God gave a doork n o b!!!!!

[libh8er]

OMG.....CBS has now taken the lead in the bleeding heart liberal press category! What a bunch of losers.....

[bgwinnett]

excoachken -It''s because, "vacuous" james isn''t articulate enough to try and rebuff our arguments, so he has to use simplistic rhetoric or failing that insults.

[mom_o_truth]

In my case I tried to refinance with my own lender. I qualified but not the loan-to-value LTV-ratio. My lender FORGED the appraisal through their own appraiser to set the market value as low as possible in order to make me pay more CASH DOWN, even though my LTV with this forged appraisal is still below 80 percent. My lender also refused to remove the Mortgage Insurance (PMI) from the monthly payments as required by the Homeowners Protection Act of 1998, enforced 2002, that requires a lender to stop collecting PMI for LTV below 80 percent. Moreover, When I stopped paying PMI they threatened me with foreclosure and reported me to the credit agencies that lowered my FICO credit score so by 100 points so I can not refinance a lower interest rate anymore. My lender ignored all my certified mail contests. Now I have to consult with an attorney. WAKE UP PEOPLE.

[bgwinnett]

excoachken and bgwinnett....examples of "mental midgets"

Posted by jamesm12341 at 10:31 AM : Apr 24, 2008

I''m sorry sunny jim, I forgot that you were such an "intellechctchewall".I acquiesce to your formidable mental prowess.Not!

[excoachken]

To james12341: Please explain with some detail why you consider me and bgwinnet "mental midgets." Of course, I doubt if that will be possible for a guy who can''t seem to count above 4! FYI, 5 is the number after 4.