Some unfortunate people who used to be our customers are now our customers-becoming. They had bought homes with the assumption that real estate values would rise forever, that their mortgage payments would always remain affordable, and that even if they lost their jobs, they would own a home forever.
As we know from the rash of foreclosures and walkings-away, the assumption was not just wrong, it flew in the face of history.
Here’s my point. In the process of losing their homes, horrible things happened to our customers’-becoming psyches because of the incredible, ongoing stress that had to infect their abilities to function rationally. The website youramazingbrain.co.uk observes
Your body’s stress response is perfect in the short-term, but damaging if it goes on for weeks or years. Raised levels of cortisol for prolonged periods can damp down your immune system and decrease the number of brain cells so impairing your memory.
The best parallel is Swiss cheese. Prolonged stress kills brains cells, creating “holes” where living, functioning brain cells used to be and rational thought can cascade right through. Logical thought processes can, in people who have endured months of high stress, be seriously sidetracked into an almost total disconnect with reality.
The Los Angeles Times on Feb. 2, 2009 in an article by Melissa Healy reported on a study of medical students, all stressed out, about to take board exams. The researchers did “functional MRIs,” which measure the blood flow to the brain, on each of the 20 medical students in the study participants as they performed assigned tasks, then compared their results with those of an unstressed control group. The Times article reported
The brains of the stressed gave the inside story: During the attention-shifting task, activity in their prefrontal cortices – the seat of such functions as attention, task-planning and judgment – was far lower than that of the non-stressed-out. And connectivity between that area and other regions of the brain with which it works to translate thought into action was diminished too.
The stress of losing one’s home has to be at least, and probably more, stressful than the stress of a medical student preparing for board exams. The board exams are over in a few weeks, while those going through foreclosure have had their lives turned upside down, their hopes dashed, and despair gouge out their psyches for several months.
Unfortunately, their problems are becoming ours. They have to find somewhere to live. Many are flat out of the business of being homeowners and so will be our customers indefinitely. Their credit being shot can be the least of our worries. Since their brains have undergone a Swiss-cheese transformation, they may be incapable of understanding or remembering what it takes to be a good tenant. They are not used to having to pay for housing since they haven’t made a mortgage payment for months. They aren’t used to maintaining their homes since they haven’t done that in their foreclosed-upon home since the stress began.
Since their credit is shot, not renting to them is always an option. But if you do rent to them, be prepared to insist that the rent be on time and that they keep their homes clean and tidy. After a while stressed-out brains do recover; brain cells grow back and the formerly stressed out get their minds back. Just be prepared to manage vigilantly until they do.
