New Haven Independent

Griffin lives with her mom, sister, one niece and five nephews in a two-story home at 501 Quinnipiac Ave. Since she bought the house in 1996 as a first-time homeowner, she’s kept the place in order, helping her arthritic mother and serving as a surrogate mom to the children as they grew from students to young professionals. After the unfortunate turn of events last year, she found herself this week in housing court.

Sitting up straight in a black jacket and a floral skirt, Griffin waited her turn at New Haven foreclosure court Monday, where a whopping 180 properties stood on the docket awaiting their fate.

“At first, I was nervous,” said Griffin, who couldn’t afford an attorney and so was appearing pro se. Looking across the benches of the fourth-floor hearing room, “There was nothing but attorneys” in suits.

Then she spotted a few other everyday homeowners like her. Across the aisle sat a construction worker. He said he had fallen behind on mortgage payments after getting injured on the job. When his payments suddenly spiked, he couldn’t handle the blow.

“It feels good to know you’re not alone,” said Griffin. Indeed: Some 1,150 New Haven homes are currently in various states of foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties. Her case comes as communities across the state and country are feeing ripples of a sub-prime lending crisis.

As is happening across the state, New Haven got gut-punched with a spike in foreclosure actions in the second quarter of this year. The number of legal proceedings filed against residential homeowners jumped 85.1 percent, from 121 in the second quarter of 2006 to 224 in the second quarter of 2007, according to The Warren Group.

Griffin remembers the day she got her letter in the mail from Connecticut Housing Finance Authority. It was her late father’s birthday. June 27.

She had seen the day coming for a while. In August 2006, she got laid off and, a week later, found out there were tumors growing in her uterus. She went in for surgery in October then tried to keep the house afloat while struggling with recovery and unemployment.

“It was demeaning,” she said, being without work for the first time since she was 13, and having to ask her mom for money to buy shampoo. Her home, which she bought in 1996 for $72,000, is now worth $235,500, according to the most recent city assessment. With just $70,000 left to pay off, and kids in school, she doesn’t want to lose the home — not now. Being unemployed, she hasn’t been able to refinance her mortgage.

When CHFA started legal proceedings this summer, she knew she had to pull things together. She walked to the Fair Haven Library and read up on housing law. She filed a motion to protect her home from foreclosure, hoping to buy enough time to get a job and make back the payments.

When her name was in court Monday, Griffin stood tall, with a smile on her face, before Judge Juliett Crawford. The judge looked over her motion. She shook her head and told Griffin she had more work to do. “What you need to do is provide the evidence for your case.”

Griffin smiled, thanking her for her patience. “I’m just trying to figure this out.” The two shared a moment of laughter as Griffin sat back down to scribble a few notes.

Luckily for her, the plaintiffs in her case didn’t show up on Monday, so the judge didn’t rule on the motion, biding Griffin more time. In the meantime, Griffin has been sending out job applications and looking for buyers for her home, just in case.

“Christmas season’s coming up. I can work two jobs if I have to,” she said in the hallway after court. “I just want to be able to pay my bills.”

She wants to move back to Texas, where she has family — just not yet, not before the school year’s out. In the meantime, she’s hoping for the housing court, and “the man up there,” to give her another chance.

“I’m trying to be positive,” she said. “We’re going to be OK. We’re not going to end up in a shelter, we just have to regroup.”

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