Approximately eight percent of children in Colorado, or 88,000, have been affected by foreclosures, a report released today by the Brookings Institution said.
The report, called “The Ongoing Impact of Foreclosures on Children,” estimated that nationwide eight million children will be directly impacted by the mortgage crisis.
Of the eight million children affected, 2.3 million have already lost their homes. Three million more children are at “serious risk” of losing their homes in the near future, and an additional three million have been evicted, or may face eviction, from rental properties that undergo foreclosure.
The report is the first to quantify the children in rental units affected by foreclosure.
“Children are the often invisible victims of the foreclosure crisis,” said Julia Isaacs, who wrote the Brookings Institution report.
In Florida, 15 percent, or 589,000 children, have been affected by foreclosure and in Arizona, 14 percent, or 218,000 children have been affected.
California, Michigan, Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, Colorado and Georgia round out the list of the states where children have been hardest hit by the mortgage crisis.
The report said that nationally about one in 14 children, or seven percent of the child population, live in households that have already gone through a completed foreclosure or are at immediate risk of foreclosure.
The report stresses that foreclosures affect not just owner-occupied homes, but also rental properties. About 245 million children, or approximately one-third of all American children, lived in rental houses and apartments in 2010 .
The report said that foreclosures can have a negative affect on children in four different ways.
First, families receiving foreclosure notices are much more likely to move than other families, and children who move frequently tend to do less well in school.
Second, homeowners receiving a foreclosure notice are under a lot of financial and psychological stress. Parents under this type of stress sometimes engage in harsher and less supportive parenting.
Third, foreclosures have a negative impact on physical as well as mental health.
Finally, because foreclosures are often highly concentrated, children living in or near foreclosed homes may suffer the consequences of living in neighborhoods with more vacant houses and higher crime rates.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
