Revison 1

Everyone works hard to have a place call home. It should not be taken away by unwanted disturbance due to next door neighbor to foreclosing their home. Unfortunately in Slavic Village, Cleveland Jim Rokakis, a Cuyohoga County Treasurer had their fare share of disturbance. He felt that after 800 homes been foreclosed, crime seem to have rise. It seems to be that squatters and looters start to move into the empty homes. Mark Wiseman who’s the director of Cuyohogan County Foreclosure Prevention Program said that “It takes about 72 hours for a house to be looted after it is vacant.” They would then trash the vacant home leaving the yard covered in garbage.

Home’s being foreclosure attracts gang members. Joe Krasucki whose 78 died the next day after being badly beaten, he was outside noticing gang members stripping aluminum sidings making the homes nearly worthless. They take doors, moldings, appliances, and pulling the piping out with a sledge hammer. Putting the homes back together takes a lot of money and effort, not worth it for buyers to purchase, leaving homes vacant for more crimes to occur. This is especially hard on low income family’s that works hard to earn a safe secure place for their family by moving out of the ghetto and into the suburb. Not only do they now have to stress on mortgage, but also worry about their children in what they thought is a safe environment.

Sheriff Ted Mink ran into the same problem. He has a problem with foreclosure home being left unattended for months. His community crime rate has also rise. Homes that are left for no one to watch are asking for unwanted people into the community. There has been reported incident where homeless person or runaways use the empty home as shelter. There are also times when they attempt to rig wiring to get power to the house. This is dangerous because the house could easily catch on fire. But worst, Sheriff Mink was reported meth labs, and vandalism in the vacant foreclosed homes.

In regards to unwanted community, having a neighborhood watch, people know who is exactly their neighbors. That means some communtiy enforces background checks according to Sheriff Mink. Background checks are not overly invading privacy; they just ask simple questions of employment and who lives in this household.

Ms. Daniel, a banker in Desoto and resident says that “the neighborhood suffers from increased in burglaries, decline in community spirit and unity.” This is all due to foreclosures. The community notices that if something is not glued down, squatters and looters are taking it.There’s been reported incident of burglaries breaking into houses, steal appliance, furnaces and air conditioner out of yards to resale and make money for themselves. Whether their buying drugs or alcohol it is very difficult to have a safe neighborhood without the community pitching in to catch these unwanted disturbances.

Market to sale homes are difficult as it is by having a neighborhood watch, neighbors can pitch in, watch the empty homes and helpout by cut grass or plant flowers just to make homes more inviting, helping foreclose home sell quickly would not only benefit the real-estate agent, but also benefit both sides home value.

This is one of the most effective and least costly ways to prevent crime and reduce fear is by starting a neighborhood watch program. It can reduce burglaries,robberies, crime, and strangers. With this program in place members not only learn how to secure their homes but watch out for each others homes by reporting activities that raise their suspicions to the police and sheriffs.

A lot of times people are discourage in starting a neighborhood watch because they feel as if their being watch constantly. There’s no privacy, all there will be with this program is giving the rights for noisy neighbors permission to watch their every moves. Which is not true. I personally was help by my neighbors who gave me a description of a man wondering around in his car looking very suspicious. It turns out that this man was keeping a little notebook spotted by my neighbors on which house has what car, where the car is usually park and time of day car is at home. That help me to keep a close eye on man description and my car. Police arrest the man thanks to my neighbors.

Neighborhood watch programs are for incident to be reported immediately. There are not enough police and sheriff to patrol all corners of the street. This is when neighborhood watch program comes in handy.


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Mink, Ted. "Foreclosed HOmes and Their Impact on Neighborhood." Apr. 2008. 7 July 2008 .

Appleton, Roy, and Jake Batsell. "DeSoto Neighborhood Hit Hard by Foreclosures." 29 Feb. 2008. The Dallas Morning Neews. 7 July 2008
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Gridley, Clinton P. "Foreclosed Properties." 2007. 8 July 2008 .

Mantell, Ruth. "Safeguarding Your Home's Value as Foreclosures Flood the Market." 8 May 2007. Real Estate Journal Archives. 7 July 2008 .

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