Many People’s Refuge Becomes a Nightmare

I am not in the United States, but I am still stressed. According to a study released by the Pew Hispanic Center, almost one in ten Hispanics in the country is behind in his/her mortgage payments and about 3% say they had received a foreclosure letter. The study found that Hispanics are extremely worried about their finances. Seventy-five percent said that their personal finances were fair or poor, but 67% said they hoped to see their condition improve.

According to this research, 9% of respondents said that they had not paid their mortgages on time. Nearly half, 47% of respondents indicated that they owned the house where they lived, a figure similar to census data for last year’s third quarter which shows that 49.5% of Latinos living in the US were homeowners.

Among Hispanics who rent, 5% said they had lived in a house that was later foreclosed. Latinos are experiencing the impact of the mortgage market crisis. A significant 25%, for example, are worried that their current homes may be foreclosed. The study is based on surveys of 1,540 Hispanics. Hispanics make up 15% of the U.S. population.

The situation facing Hispanics is also similar to that of owners. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported last month that a record 1 in 10 Americans with outstanding mortgages were behind in payment by at least one month or were about to have his/her homes foreclosed. Housing experts argue that the number of Hispanics facing mortgage problems will increase because, in the past, financial institutions made great effort in pushing high-risk mortgage transactions to minorities.

A previous study indicated that the unemployment rate among Hispanics was 7.9% during last year’s third quarter, compared to 6.1% of the total US workforce.

It is estimated that over 100,000 Venezuelans live in the United States and that they anguish about losing their homes, jobs and even schools and universities. That is, they fear losing everything with the possibility that many will return to Venezuela and have to start over again, having lost the American Dream.

These are some, and those who for current political reasons cannot return to the country, experience moments of terror. Even the undocumented will not be able to survive. In the coming months unemployment will increase in record numbers, at least until the end of the year.

What an ironic destiny. American supremacy is over in terms of economics and we have experienced only three stages of the crisis, but, keep in mind, there are commitments made by president-elect Barack Obama with migrants and with the Latino community. Obama almost fell to his knees in front of the Senate to expedite funds to try to alleviate unemployment. But why didn’t he do this earlier? Did he try to leave this issue for Bush until the last moment?