Mortgage crisis takes toll on children too

WASHINGTON -- Everyone realizes the cost of foreclosure can be staggering. A recent report by the Joint Economic Committee of Congress pegs the average at nearly $78,000 a house. But there's also the human component to losing a home that can't be counted in dollars and cents.

Take the toll on children, for example. According to the group First Focus, a bipartisan children's advocacy organization, nearly 2 million youngsters will be directly affected by foreclosure before the subprime mortgage crisis is over.

And that doesn't count children being evicted from investor-owned rental houses that go into default or those whose parents default on conventional loans.

Foreclosures often result in disruptions to a child's education, a recent First Focus report points out. Moreover, behavioral issues are more likely to arise in children who lose their homes, partly because peer relationships tend to disintegrate when children are forced from their neighborhoods.

"When families lose their homes, kids often lose their schools and access to services," says Bruce Lesley, the group's president.

The physical and mental health of displaced children can be severely compromised because there is likely to be less money available for healthcare or insurance, according to the report.

Schooling suffers too. Displaced children are only half as likely to be proficient in reading; they are more likely to be held back and eventually drop out; and they are more likely to experience behavioral problems, says the report.

Lew Sichelman can be reached at lsichelman@aol.com.