In a stealth aftershock of the Great Recession, nearly 100,000 loans that allowed senior citizens to tap into their home equity have failed, blindsiding elderly borrowers and their families and dragging down property values in their neighborhoods, USA Today reported. In many cases, the worst toll has fallen on those ill-equipped to shoulder it: urban African Americans, many of whom worked for most of their lives, then found themselves struggling in retirement. Alarming reports from federal investigators five years ago led the Department of Housing and Urban Development to initiate a series of changes to protect seniors. USA Today’s review of government foreclosure data found that a generation of families fell through the cracks and continue to suffer from reverse-mortgage loans written a decade ago. Those foreclosures wiped out hard-earned generational wealth built in the decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
