Restoration Project for California Foreclosure Properties

The Seven Trees neighborhood in San Jose, California has 353 foreclosure properties, the highest in the city. And many foreclosed homes in this neighborhood are deteriorating, with knee high grasses that are badly in need of a trim.

The growing number of foreclosure houses in the neighborhood and other areas in California has pulled property prices down to their lowest levels. And these foreclosed homes have also become magnets to thieves and vandals.

In the Seven Trees, residents took it upon themselves to address the blight caused by the growing number of foreclosed houses. Over 600 volunteers from various local churches have joined a neighborhood project to clean up all foreclosed properties in the area. They collected all the debris from the foreclosed houses and were able to fill up 40 dumpsters at the end of the day.

Residents said that they are also doing the cleanup project to prevent criminals from using the vacant homes as their hideouts. The initiative, called Project Restoration is a partnership between the neighborhoods and the city of San Jose. The city provided for free the dumpsters which the neighborhoods used for their projects.

Project Restoration director Charlie Strouss said that the problem of foreclosures has become prevalent in California that it pulled down the spirit of neighborhoods. He explained that the project aims to reclaim neighborhoods for their residents. He added that they do not want to see lawless people take over the neighborhoods.

The Seven Trees project is part of the Beautiful Day program of church groups. Every foreclosed home that had problem with the code enforcement division of San Jose had received a makeover. Code enforcement division manager Jamie Matthews said that the project in Seven Trees was the first time that his department has taken on a whole neighborhood.

Some volunteers from the Church of the Chimes said that they joined the project to give people a sense that others care about them.

California is one of the top 10 states in the country with high foreclosure rates. For the first half of this year, about 391,611 properties received foreclosure filings or one in every 34 houses. The foreclosure activity in the state during the period increased by 14 percent compared with the last six months of 2008 and 15 percent higher from the first six months of 2008.

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