Foreclosures in Jamaica now home to squatters, druggies - making ghost town
BY JESS WISLOSKI DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, February 17th 2008, 4:00 AM
Noonan for News
For sale - and often taken by the lender - is the sign of tough times in Jamaica, near 118th Ave. and Sutphin Blvd., and throughout the borough, as map of 2007 foreclosures indicates.
The empty houses that surrounded her South Jamaica home didn't concern Marilyn Cush at first.
"There were always people going and coming," said Cush, 49, who noted that turnover in ownership of the single-family houses has been common in the 18 years since she and her husband moved to 152nd St. But lately, no "For Sale" signs have been going up when previous owners move out. Then a new neighbor - an illegal squatter - moved in.
"He knew it was a foreclosed house," she said and pointed at a smashed upstairs window and scattered debris in the front yard. "He's destroying the place." Even for homeowners who have weathered the subprime mortgage debacle, the epidemic of foreclosures in Jamaica, South Ozone Park and Rochdale has created another major headache. Friendly streets once populated by predominantly black, working-class families in starter homes are now haunted by drug dealers and squatters. Five of 20 houses on Cush's block went into foreclosure last year; 32 homes have foreclosed within a five-block radius.
Vacant, litter-strewn yards have become the norm for residential blocks like 118th Ave. and 152nd St., the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in Queens. "It's not good. Not good at all," said 30-year resident Billy Alston, 43, who inherited and now owns his home on 118th Ave.
"Most of my nephews were born in this house," Alston said as he swept the snowy sidewalk last week in front of his house and a vacant one nearby.
"When squatters go and stay in houses, they start smoking and the houses catch fire," said Alston, though he said it has not happened nearby "yet."
A neighbor, who did not want to give her name, said that a recently foreclosed home on 118th Ave. that is behind her family's home has been turned into a crackhouse.
"You see drugs, you see young kids coming through, adults passing through. It's a disaster," she said. "It's sad. It devalues our block."
Stray cats roam yards strewn with real estate signs, loose trash and flyers offering to buy the house in an "all cash sale."
A congressional subcommittee convened Monday at City Hall to assess the citywide toll of the subprime mortgage crisis and review outreach efforts.
Sarah Gerecke, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services, a citywide advocacy group, said experts forecast that the New York metropolitan area will lose $10 billion in 2008 due to losses in sales, transfer and property taxes.
"Abandonment of the 1970s, where entire blocks are stripped ... is what this will look like," she predicted.
But for Gillanne Duncan, 26, a small house on 118th Ave. holds her future. The airport worker and part-time student plans to buy the place from her mother this year. Her mortgage will come from a credit union.
The two-story house next door was a squatter haven for months, but she hopes to avoid the fate of less-fortunate neighbors.
"People save for years for this, and to be losing their homes like this - it's really scary," Duncan said.
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