Foreclosure Quilt : Southern Chase

I finished a new foreclosure quilt last week, this one is located in Concord, North Carolina in the Southern Chase neighborhood. I was commissioned to make the piece for a journalist, Binyamin Appelbaum, who co-wrote a series of articles in the Charlotte Observer on the unusually high rate of foreclosures seen among one particular builder, Beazer Homes.

Southern Chase Foreclosure Quilt, 2012. 23" x 30"
Linen, cotton, cotton voile, string and embroidery thread.

Beazer created the Southern Chase neighborhood to specifically provide low cost homes to low income families. One out of every five homes ended up in foreclosure. There were numerous red flags with their practices but one alarming one was that they arranged mortgage loans for  two-third's of the buyers. The idea that builders can arrange mortgage loans just seems like a bad idea to me.

Southern Chase Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2012. 23" x 30"
Linen, cotton, cotton voile, string and embroidery thread.

Beazer Homes was accused of violating federal lending laws in 2009, and reached a settlement which you can read about here.

Southern Chase Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2012. 23" x 30"
Linen, cotton, cotton voile, string and embroidery thread.

The list is long of investigations, one of them was worth $50,000,000 for Mortgage and Accounting Fraud with United States. Needless to say, Beazer is still busy building homes throughout the US. Please view the entire series of articles via this link written by Binyamin Appelbaum, Lisa Hammersly Munn and Ted Mellnik. I wonder what would have happened with Beazer Homes had these journalists not written the articles. We need more people like them!