The number of US households threatened with the loss of their homes increased 15 percent over the first half of 2009.

That’s according to CA-based RealtyTrac, which tracks foreclosure filings nationwide. In Illinois, more than 63,500 foreclosures were filed in the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metropolitan area from January through June, 30 percent higher than the same period last year.

The mortgage crisis is about abuses and exploitation by Walls Street and lenders. They try to blame the homeowners by claiming that homeowners made bad personal decisions. This is an outrageous statement given that over ten million homeowners are at risk losing their homes. It is not possible that this many people individually made a bad decision. In fact the responsibility lies with Wall Street and the lenders who created and profited from them.

A year ago, Boston-based United for a Fair Economy warned the public about the impending danger of the subprime mortgage crisis in their annual State of the Dream report. According to the UFE report, the subprime mortgage crisis is considered as “one the greatest loss of wealth to people of color in modern US history.”

The crisis has ruined many economic lives and many communities. It has cost the financial institutions that underwrote massive numbers of shaky subprime loans hundreds of billions of dollars. There is talk of a government bail-out. These losses in turn triggered an ongoing global economic crisis, the end of which we have not yet seen. And the next chapter in the subprime crisis could well be a deep US economic recession.

The mushrooming foreclosure crisis has affected more than 1.5 million homes in the first six months of the year. The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan research and policy organization, projects at least 2.4 million additional foreclosure starts this year, causing nearly 70 million surrounding households to lose a combined $500 billion in property value.

Minority communities have been hit the hardest in the economic downturn that plagues many American families. In a collaborative effort by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the National Urban League (NUL), and the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD) and with the support of Bank of America, the Alliance for Stabilizing our Communities (ASC) held one of its scheduled 34 home retention fairs during NCLR’s Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.

The purpose of the alliance is to direct new resources to a nationwide network of local housing counseling entities in communities throughout the US with numbers of multicultural homeowners at risk of foreclosure above the national average. Bank of America’s role is to provide home retention associates that will work with the nonprofits at these fairs to review loans and determine refinancing, modification or other options.

NCLR is considered to be the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the US, with a network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations (CBOs). As one of the leading Latino organizations in the country, NCLR has received its fair share of criticism within the Latino community. I am no exception.

When it comes to the Latino community, organizers are faced with a number of challenges in how best to engage and meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population; and to do so in a manner that satisfies all sides. One wrong move in trying to decide which cultural values should be fostered in this society could possibly serve to hamper a positive working relationship. For all the criticism, I have written about NCLR; that should not take away all the good the organization has done for the community and should be applauded for trying to navigate through these complexities.

Soon after my confrontation with the Chicago and IL Minutemen, Kety Esquivel of National Council of La Raza’s We Can Stop the Hate had asked me if I wouldn’t mind helping her interview some of the families who received information at the Home Rescue Fair.

It was not surprising there were many families seeking relief. It would be a serious shortcoming to only view the Latino community from a limited social and economic lens. The purchasing power of this community permeates virtually all sectors of this nation’s economy and can be found among those who are citizens, documented, and undocumented. The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity has found that Latinos start companies at a higher rate than their white counterpart. As for immigrants, the rate of entrepreneurial activity has “increased sharply from 0.37 percent in 2006 to 0.46 percent in 2007,” according to the latest Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity.

I bring this up because the circumstances that affected family I interviewed were no different than what is happening to native born small business owners in this slumping economy. Because I promised I would withhold her from being published, for this post, I will use the name Esperanza.

During the height of the real estate market, Esperanza, along with two other business partners decided to enter an agreement to purchase office space to open their own cleaning service company. Not long after they purchased their office space, tension between two of the business began to arise. To settle the matter, Esperanza along with one of her business partners decided to buy out the third persons contract – it was either that or lose her business entirely. Several months later, her partner skipped town and left her with the full cost of the office building. Her profits were quickly eaten up.

As the economy began slumping, she was beginning to lose clients. Trying to make enough money to contribute to the house payment that her husband bought, but even that became impossible because as her husband was laid off. Relying on one job, Esperanza became overwhelmed and quickly fell behind on her payments. Not able to make the payments, she had to swallow the bitter pill and dissolve her business. The financial stress was beginning to take its toll; Esperanza said she was starting to fall into depression. Luckily, she found a buyer and was not forced to go into foreclosure.

Based on several months of underemployment resulting from lack of employment, she and her husband moved back to Mexico to open a family owned restaurant, so they can pay their mortgage. However, the poor economy in Mexico forced to close down. Again with a little luck on their side, they found a buyer to take the property off their hands. However, they were unable to to make their house payments and were forced to foreclose on their home.

Coming back to the US, their daughter took them in. Complicating matters further, their daughter real estate business was beginning to dry up. Esperanza’s daughter home is now close to going into foreclosure. However, she did not attend the Home Rescue Fair just for her, but for her clients because she felt responsible for them losing their home.

As I asked how she is holding up, her eyes began swelling red just seconds before tears rolled down her checks. She wipes away the tears with her fingertips. Esperanza’s daughter explained how the real estate market in Chicago had dried up. The events of the past year have been difficult for her kids, Esperanza’s daughter said, and her main priority now is helping them cope.

The American economy is in shambles today, and it doesn’t seem to be getting better anytime soon. Esperanza and her daughter are at a lost and are trying to figure out where to go from here. I choose to use the name Esperanza because when translated into English, it means “hope.” Throughout the interview, both kept mentioning how they are hanging on to hope while economy is in shambles.

Their story is snapshot of the challenges that face thousands of Americans after they lose their homes. It was hard to keep from crying. All I can do was to tell them they are not alone. But that really does not make it any easier, and the feelings of helplessness are so great at times it is hard to bear!

While the Latino population in the US is increasing, Latinos continue to be portrayed as “problem people” in the media and anti-immigration groups like the Chicago and IL Minutemen. Latinos are objects of news stories, not subjects and are generally portrayed as causing trouble in our society. Television has the power to dispel myths and combat stereotypes. The problem of the generally negative images of Latinos in the media, especially the news, people are beginning to accept what they see and hear as real.

The view of the impact of the Latino community must never be narrowed to social problems without losing sight of the incredible contributions this community makes and the challenges it faces. At the height of the real estate market, people claimed that subprime loans at high interest rates provide homeownership opportunities to people who have not had such an opportunity due to credit issues or lack of savings. The result is the financial and personal devastation of hundreds of thousands of hard-working people.

While I may have criticized NCLR for aggressively marketing homeownership, NCLR is doing the right thing by helping families modify their high interest rates to rates that borrowers can afford before they lose their homes.

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