Forgotten homes: Cities ponder what to do with properties in foreclosure

Leaders considering ordinances to tackle neglect after foreclosure

By INGA MILLER
miller@modbee.com

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MANTECA -- The same day Holly Olmstead packed up the house she no longer can afford here, the City Council took up the troublesome question Tuesday of what to do about homes that have been lost to banks and are now deteriorating.

The Northern San Joaquin Valley is ground zero in the foreclosure crisis: San Joaquin County ranks first in the nation, followed by Merced County in second place and Stanislaus County in fourth.

The homes are left vacant by the bank. Their lawns go yellow. Their swimming pools turn dark. And sometimes, vagrants move in. The homes sometimes become not only a blight and drain on home values, but also a danger.

"Whatever we do, we need to do it soon," Councilman Vince Hernandez said during a council discussion about possible elements for a law to upkeep the homes. "The market is not going to change. It's going to be this way for a number of months, and we have to think about the city's law-abiding citizens who still need to feel safe in their neighborhood."

The council reviewed what might be the most extreme solution offered: fines of as much as $1,000 per day, or as much as $100,000 per house, for failing to maintain landscaping and to shutter a home properly. The council added another element -- allowing police to secure a home. Members directed Police Chief Charles Halford to return within 90 days with a proposed ordinance.

The council appeared lukewarm to a third measure offered by Halford, which would allow the city to re-establish water service to revive a home's landscaping. Halford said one caveat to his proposal was the possibility for a pipe to break inside the home and cause water damage, in which case the city might be held responsible.

Furthermore, the city would be unlikely to recoup costs from financially distressed homeowners or, until the property officially is foreclosed on, the bank. And a property can be in foreclosure a long time, more than enough to dry lawns, said City Attorney John Brinton.

Halford said the city has no estimate on how many houses are in foreclosure or have been foreclosed on during recent months. He estimated that officers have been to 10 such homes where squatters had taken up residence, including one in which the new residents had restored water service and filled the swimming pool.

"One of the challenges for us is identifying whether people in the home really, truly have the permission of the owner to be there, because until the home is foreclosed on, the owner has the right to rent out the home," Halford said. "And the people we find there may or may not have permission to be there."

Sometimes there are signs someone likely forced their way inside, such as one home where officers encountered a jagged, broken window that Halford likened to a guillotine.

Olmstead teared up Tuesday at the possibility of losing her house to the bank. She said she had to stop watering her front lawn when she couldn't pay the bills. She lost her job shortly before escrow closed in May 2005 on a two-story, five bedroom home on Tannehill Drive, a fact she said her lender knew, but still told her she would be able to refinance in two years with money to spare.

"I'm devastated," Olmstead, 44, said. "By the time I tried to refinance, (the lender) said I didn't qualify."

She put the house on the market a year and a half ago, but it didn't sell despite enlisting the help of two real estate companies. She has dropped the price from $650,000 to $515,000. If she doesn't find a buyer by Sunday, the home goes into foreclosure, she said.