A landscape can speak volumes about a community and, in the city of Chicago, the disparity between community landscapes can be extraordinary. In a 2013 Chicagobusiness.com article, Alby Gallun wrote, “Even as neighborhoods and suburbs to the south and west struggle with abandonment and neglect, downtown Chicago and wealthy northern communities are bouncing back. But vacant homes impose a burden on the entire region, part of a cycle of poverty, violence and dysfunction that drains city and suburban budgets and tarnishes Chicago’s image.”

Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood on the South Side has one of the city’s highest foreclosure rates, with one in every 362 properties in some phase of the process. Homes that have been abandoned often times are decorated with plywood in the windows and red X marks indicating structural hazards. The only solution for some of these neighborhood scars is to remove them via demolition. Others are simply in need of investors who wish to transform these eyesores. At AHP, we aim to nip the problem in the bud, before sheriffs are summoned to deliver notices and multi-year court proceedings ensure. In modifying a loan for an Auburn Gresham homeowner this week, AHP hopes to have made a sliver of positive impact in this community.

Jared took out an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) on his brick home in 2005 for $132,000. Jared’s original monthly payments on the note were for $957.09. With loan terms that could skyrocket at any moment and a housing bust and recession looming, Jared, like millions of others at that time, fell delinquent on his mortgage payments. The recession reached all parts of the country but, in 2010, a quarter of Auburn Gresham’s nearly 50,000 person population was unemployed or living below the poverty level.

This past week, AHP executed a loan modification for Jared that will help him avoid foreclosure and help swing this community’s foreclosure rate in the right direction. In working with AHP, Jared was able to settle his multi-year delinquency for $2,000 and reduce his monthly payments to just $280. Additionally, Jared still owed $122,495.27 in principal balance when AHP acquired his loan. As the home’s value had plummeted, AHP provided Jared the option to settle his mortgage for just $26,600.

In providing these transformative solutions, AHP is helping hard-pressed communities not only in Chicago, but nationwide. If a home is acquired vacant by AHP, we work tirelessly to re-service the home promptly, as we are well aware of the blight these vacant homes create in communities. It is a long road to recovery for neighborhoods like Auburn Gresham, where the root of the problem goes well back beyond the foreclosure crisis. But in working with homeowners and investors who care to make a difference, AHP hopes to play a role in the step-by-step rebuilding process.