| If you saw the news the other night or listened to NPR yesterday, you learned that we have seen a surge in foreclosures this year. There are over 100 homes in some state of foreclosure in town right now, and they were sent personal invitations to the Neighbors Helping Neighbors Event last weekend.
Neighbors Helping Neighbors was a joint effort between the Town and the churches of Dedham to provide resources to anyone who may need it. Banks, financial counselors, and representatives from food and fuel assistance programs were all represented and gave up a Saturday morning to come and offer help to anyone who needed it. A full list will be provided in a separate post.
While we've been spared the worst of the foreclosure crisis that is crippling many parts of the country, in the past three years we have seen the number of foreclosures skyrocket from three in 2005 to 16 in 2006 and, to date, 25 in 2008. Click on the map below to see exactly where they are. The ones in purple are from 2006, blue are 2007 and red are 2008.
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| A couple things jump right out at you. First of all, not a single home in Riverdale has been foreclosed on in the last three years. Likewise the core part of Oakdale, defined here roughly as everything between East Street and Cedar St/ Oakdale Ave, and between the Middle School and the Endicott train station, is untouched. The houses in Oakdale all lie along the periphery, and in one Ashcroft neighborhood in particular.
While none actually lie on Dale Street, there were 5 foreclosures on the streets that intersect with it. This includes one house on Border St that was foreclosed upon twice, two on River Street very close to one another, and two on Quincy Ave very close together. In Greenlodge there were four altogether, and two close neighbors on Ledgewood Rd. All in the Peanut Butter Valley came during this past year. There were also three in the Manor, two this year and one last.
By far, however, the hardest hit area was East Dedham. This neighborhood accounts for roughly half of all the foreclosures in Dedham. On the stretch of Curve Street between Maverick and Washington there are a half dozen homes that were foreclosed upon either on the street or a few houses in on a side street. On the other side of Brookdale Cemetery there were five homes in the little triangle of land made by High, East and Brookdale streets.
There were even a few in Precinct One, though not among the mansions we typically associate with that part of town. They were concentrated along the Rt 1/ Washington Street corridor in the area of the Dedham Plaza.
These are tough times, and people are struggling. I commend the Town and the clergy for acting to try and help people who need it. The Neighbors Helping Neighbors event was a great idea, but I think many people who could have used the help offered were too embarrassed to come. Letters went out to over 100 homes, plus the announcements made in churches, at the Selectmen's meetings and the in the local press, yet only about 10 families attended. There were far more people there offering help than taking it.
The St. Vincent de Paul Society told me that they conducted over 450 home visits last year. There are many who will be too proud to accept any kind of charity - I'd probably be one of them - but I think that if we want to really help then bringing the mountain to Mohammad is the way to go. I'm not a social worker and I would struggle to find a way to do it with tact, but I think bringing the offer of these services directly to people in the privacy of their homes would be a far more effective way to connect the people who would benefit from these services to those who are offering them.
In the meantime, I want to draw everyone's attention to the Holiday Harvest Telethon this Friday night. Tune in on your local station to watch a number of acts perform and call in your pledges for the Dedham Food Pantry. Despite rising costs of their own, and a quadrupled demand, they were still at Neighbors Helping Neighbors offering help to even more people on Saturday. They do much good work, and they deserve our support.
Also, don't forget about the Toys For Tots event being held at the Legion on the 14th. Every child should wake up with a present under the tree, and you can help to make Christmas morning a little bit brighter for a lot of deserving kids. |
