On Thursday, September 25th, members of the Worcester Anti-Foreclosure Team, residents from 244 / 250 Pleasant Street, and neighbors stood outside buildings that for months have been plagued with issues as serious as broken sewer lines, and thousand dollar electric mis-wirings.
Yesterday's press conference put a human face on a crisis that is most visible in the boarded up buildings, and unmaintained properties in the neighborhood. Instead, residents, families, mothers and children stood in front of their home, which, by no fault of their own, may be repossessed by the bank. While our elected officials argue about the best way to bail out some of the country's most wealthiest, these families are asking for assistance in getting their building back to living condition.
No one has been all to certain of the status of these properties. The property owner had been telling tenants the building was being foreclosed on. Meanwhile, court records had no notice of a complaint by a bank. Regardless, one thing is for sure- raw sewage spewed from a burst pipe this past week, running down the sidewalk and along pleasant street for a half a block. With no one to call and fix the problem, tenants took it into their own hands and secured the burst pipe with duct tape.
As conversations in DC decide the fate of a few on Wall Street, we are called to pay attention to what is happening next door. Our neighbors may be the ones bearing the brunt of this financial crisis, and it doesn't seem like help is coming anytime soon.
Clive McFarlane T&G article
Clive McFarlane wrote a good column about this issue.
"Two-forty-four Pleasant St. is the site of an apartment building that no one, except the people who live there, seems to want.
The owner has abandoned it. The mortgage company seems to be in no hurry to finalize foreclosure proceedings on the property. The city would like to help, but because of legal issues its hands are tied."
http://www.telegram.com/article/20080926/COLUMN44/809260680/1008/NEWS02
244 Pleasant Street..A City under siege!
I usede to live there and the place was unfit then as it is now..shame. this is in large due to the housing issue and long before the housing crisis which we now face. Worcester has many slumlords and the city refuses to build affordable housing yet instead people are to be placed on a waiting list. Where does it all end or meven if anyone really cares about these people yet Worcester has failed projects at the taxpayers expense such as the Worcester Common Outlets. The list goes on and will continue as we now see on a much grander scale. The money is mismanaged therefore some have to take what they can get even if its 244 Pleasant Street