Sandra T., who has asked that her full name not be published, contributed this article about her own experience during the mortgage crisis in the United States:

In 2004, my three children aged 4, 6, and 12 and I were living in public housing.  The area was ridden with crime, and although the free rent was nice, especially since their father wasn’t paying child support and I was unemployed, but staying in that negative environment with my kids was no longer an option.  Every night it seemed someone was getting busted for drugs or break-ins.  There was a lot of violence and inappropriate behavior among adults who had no clue how to act in public, people always cursing and swearing in front of kids, being obnoxious and loud.  I knew I didn’t have much to offer anyone but my good intentions, but I decided to get out somehow.

First, I got a job working in a fast food restaurant.  I put the kids in day care, and at least I was getting government assistance to help with that cost.  I also found out if I could find a rental property that was section 8 housing I could rent it for a fair price, so I looked into that.  But the government subsidy on the cheapest place I could find outside the projects was more than I could afford.  After about four more months of searching, I happened to call this one lady who had a sign in front of her house that I thought had said “for rent.”  When I called, she said she was going to sell the house instead.  I thanked her and was about to hang up, but she spurred a conversation that led me to investigate the possibility of home ownership.

I didn’t think much of it, but I went to a bank anyway.  I gave them the price for the house:   $70,000.  They asked me for check stubs for the past six months, and I confessed I’d only been working for four.  That was okay with the banker, so I turned it in.  Somehow all of this came together for me, and they explained I could purchase the house with no money down with a two year adjustable rate mortgage (they call it an ARM) and that my payment was going to be less than $400 a month.  Too good to be true, so you know I jumped on it.

Soon I was having trouble making my payments, but I got them made.  Until the rate went up from %6 to %8!  Suddenly my payment, which I was already scraping to make every month, was almost $200 more.  For me, that was what the mortgage crisis meant.  I did eventually lose the home, but I am working on saving up for a down payment on another one soon.