According to this story from The Detroit News, Burns Memorial Chapel had been under threat of eviction for over two years, and may have been operating without a license, as well as violating a court order. At least one family was making funeral arrangements the day before the eviction.

I spoke by email with Jessica Koth, Public Relations Manager for the National Funeral Directors Association, and asked for her thoughts on the issue. Is this foreshadowing a trend?

This seems to be a very isolated incident – we’ve not heard of the current mortgage crisis affecting funeral homes in the way that it has affected homeowners because commercial mortgages differ from residential mortgages. The economic climate has made businesses in all sectors of the economy wary about expansion, but I don’t think we’ll see a rash of funeral home foreclosures any time soon.