Health & the Law: Foreclosures Putting People in the Hospital
By Andrea Nehorayoff
People are just sick over our foreclosure crisis. No really, foreclosures are literally making people sick. A study based on new research relating health problems to foreclosures states that the two are directly correlated.
According to two university researchers, “an increase of 100 foreclosures corresponded to a 7.2% rise in emergency room visits and hospitalizations for hypertension, and an 8.1% increase for diabetes, among people aged 20 to 49,” based on statistics since 2005 in Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, and California. These high-foreclosure areas are also faced with large populations of unemployed, underemployed and uninsured. People are driving themselves sick and they need help!
These numbers are flat-out scary. One solution to this problem is to help people find ways to avoid financial duress and keep their homes. Legal aid is a viable option for people facing foreclosure.
A Staten Island resident was able to receive a loan modification and stop her from losing her home altogether with the help of Staten Island Legal Services. Solutions like this one can help relieve the stress-related ailments—- respiratory problems, pneumonia, chest pain, shortness of breath and suicidal thoughts– associated with financial hardships, but by no means is a permanent one. We need to fix this problem. The research might only cover four states, but the statistics could be just as bad, or even worse, in other states.
What are your ideas about how attorneys can help alleviate the stress that foreclosures create?
Andrea, a newbie PSLawNet Blog contributor, is a Project Assistant at NALP. She is a senior at The George Washington University pursuing a degree in Political Science. Prior to joining NALP, Andrea’s political interests had her working for a variety of New York State political campaigns, including Governor Paterson’s reelection campaign, Kathleen Rice for NYS Attorney General, candidates for state senate, congressmen for reelection and the New York State Democratic Committee. She can be reached at anehorayoff@nalp.org.
