![]() They ain’t gonna take this house,’ ” Roebuck said. When he needed to make home repairs, he turned to reverse mortgages after seeing an ad on television. Leroy Roebuck, 86, rode the bus his entire career to a nearby curtain manufacturer. Those foreclosures wiped out hard-earned generational wealth built in the decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 1. When they missed a paperwork deadline or fell behind on taxes or insurance, lenders moved swiftly to foreclose on the home. These elderly homeowners were wooed into borrowing money through the special program by attractive sales pitches or a dire need for cash – or both. USA TODAY’s review of government foreclosure data found a generation of families fell through the cracks and continue to suffer from reverse mortgage loans written a decade ago. In many cases, the worst toll has fallen on those ill-equipped to shoulder it: urban African Americans, many of whom worked for most of their lives, then found themselves struggling in retirement.Īlarming reports from federal investigators five years ago led the Department of Housing and Urban Development to initiate a series of changes to protect seniors. In a stealth aftershock of the Great Recession, nearly 100,000 loans that allowed senior citizens to tap into their home equity have failed, blindsiding elderly borrowers and their families and dragging down property values in their neighborhoods. Patricia Blair looks over the items left in the basement as she prepares to vacate her second-generation home and move into an apartment.
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