AS A board member of a nonprofit community-organizing group working on the foreclosure issue in the Merrimack Valley, I am usually encouraged by any coverage of this crisis.
However, the examples in two Feb. 28 pieces, “Foreclosure crisis hits affluent towns’’ (Globe West) and “Fixing the homeowner default trap’’ (Op-ed), cause me to wonder whether this issue is taken seriously only when upper middle class homeowners are finally affected.
An increase in foreclosure petitions in Concord from 15 to 18 homes may be seen as a jump, but in communities such as Lawrence and Lowell, several houses on a single street may be vacant. Many of these are multifamily, owner-occupied properties, so a foreclosure may affect not just one family, but several.
Both articles promote the image of those facing foreclosure as people who have bought more house than they can afford or used their homes as piggy banks.
However, foreclosure stories defy classification and stereotype. They include families experiencing job loss or medical expenses, or even people who have fallen behind a few payments and who are awaiting evaluation for modifications but for whom the bank has pushed forward with foreclosure proceedings anyway.
Highlighting more affluent homeowners who have gotten in over their heads also subtly deflects the responsibility away from the banks. Some of the very banks that are turning a deaf ear on distressed homeowners have been rescued by taxpayers’ money.
Rosemarie Buxton,
North Andover
The writer is president of Merrimack Valley Project. 
