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Tiger Beer
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
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 Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:19 pm Post subject: Tent city in suburbs is cost of home crisis |
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071221/us_nm/usa_housing_social_dc
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ONTARIO, California (Reuters) - Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits "tent city," a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.
The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.
The unraveling of the region known as the Inland Empire reads like a 21st century version of "The Grapes of Wrath," John Steinbeck's novel about families driven from their lands by the Great Depression.
As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease.
While no current residents claim to be victims of foreclosure, all agree that tent city is a symptom of the wider economic downturn. And it's just a matter of time before foreclosed families end up at tent city, local housing experts say.
"They don't hit the streets immediately," said activist Jane Mercer. Most families can find transitional housing in a motel or with friends before turning to charity or the streets. "They only hit tent city when they really bottom out."
Steve, 50, who declined to give his last name, moved to tent city four months ago. He gets social security payments, but cannot work and said rents are too high.
"House prices are going down, but the rentals are sky-high," said Steve. "If it wasn't for here, I wouldn't have a place to go."
'SQUATTING IN VACANT HOUSES'
Nationally, foreclosures are at an all-time high. Filings are up nearly 100 percent from a year ago, according to the data firm RealtyTrac. Officials say that as many as half a million people could lose their homes as adjustable mortgage rates rise over the next two years.
California ranks second in the nation for foreclosure filings -- one per 88 households last quarter. Within California, San Bernardino county in the Inland Empire is worse -- one filing for every 43 households, according to RealtyTrac.
Maryanne Hernandez bought her dream house in San Bernardino in 2003 and now risks losing it after falling four months behind on mortgage payments.
"It's not just us. It's all over," said Hernandez, who lives in a neighborhood where most families are struggling to meet payments and many have lost their homes.
She has noticed an increase in crime since the foreclosures started. Her house was robbed, her kids' bikes were stolen and she worries about what type of message empty houses send.
The pattern is cropping up in communities across the country, like Cleveland, Ohio, where Mark Wiseman, director of the Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Prevention Program, said there are entire blocks of homes in Cleveland where 60 or 70 percent of houses are boarded up.
"I don't think there are enough police to go after criminals holed up in those houses, squatting or doing drug deals or whatever," Wiseman said.
"And it's not just a problem of a neighborhood filled with people squatting in the vacant houses, it's the people left behind, who have to worry about people taking siding off your home or breaking into your house while you're sleeping."
Health risks are also on the rise. All those empty swimming pools in California's Inland Empire have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, which can transmit the sometimes deadly West Nile virus, Riverside County officials say.
'TRICKLE-DOWN EFFECT'
But it is not just homeowners who are hit by the foreclosure wave. People who rent now find themselves in a tighter, more expensive market as demand rises from families who lost homes, said Jean Beil, senior vice president for programs and services at Catholic Charities USA.
"Folks who would have been in a house before are now in an apartment and folks that would have been in an apartment, now can't afford it," said Beil. "It has a trickle-down effect."
For cities, foreclosures can trigger a range of short-term costs, like added policing, inspection and code enforcement. These expenses can be significant, said Lt. Scott Patterson with the San Bernardino Police Department, but the larger concern is that vacant properties lower home values and in the long-run, decrease tax revenues.
And it all comes at a time when municipalities are ill-equipped to respond. High foreclosure rates and declining home values are sapping property tax revenues, a key source of local funding to tackle such problems.
Earlier this month, U.S. President George W. Bush rolled out a plan to slow foreclosures by freezing the interest rates on some loans. But for many in these parts, the intervention is too little and too late.
Ken Sawa, CEO of Catholic Charities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, said his organization is overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle the volume of people seeking help.
"We feel helpless," said Sawa. "Obviously, it's a local problem because it's in our backyard, but the solution is not local." |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 12:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Someone get Anderson Cooper here a violin... |
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Czarjorge
Joined: 01 May 2007
Location: I now have the same moustache, and it is glorious.
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:27 pm Post subject: |
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| You can always expect compassion from Gopher. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Czarjorge wrote: |
| You can always expect compassion from Gopher. |
Well, at least we can be sure he won't be sentimental about people who made for-shit investment choices.
I'm sure that there are some people in that lot who were genuinely deceived, but you can't tell me there aren't some people there who were just plain fiscally foolish. |
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sundubuman
Joined: 04 Feb 2003
Location: seoul
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:18 pm Post subject: |
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We can expect an avalanche of such sob stories up until the election, particularly if things in Iraq continue their gradual improvement.
I have a hard time feeling sorry for people who bought homes with no savings while carrying credit card debt with the EXPECTATION that prices always rise. |
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blaseblasphemener
Joined: 01 Jun 2006
Location: There's a voice, keeps on calling me, down the road, that's where I'll always be
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| While no current residents claim to be victims of foreclosure, all agree that tent city is a symptom of the wider economic downturn. And it's just a matter of time before foreclosed families end up at tent city, local housing experts say. |
So, the tent city has nothing to do with the foreclosure crisis?
Journalism at its' finest... |
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wannago
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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Wait for it....its coming....just be patient.....
Someone will say it.....too many lefties on this board to let it go unsaid. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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| W. Bush intentionally did this because he wants to hurt Californians? |
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wannago
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| W. Bush intentionally did this because he wants to hurt Californians? |
Is that a correct answer Johnny?
DING DING --- Close enough for the judges! |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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| BLT appears to have left us, however. And I doubt any other poster would assert such a silly thing as that. |
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wannago
Joined: 16 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Gopher wrote: |
| BLT appears to have left us, however. And I doubt any other poster would assert such a silly thing as that. |
Gopher, I'm sorry. The judges have come back again and said your answer just wasn't compete. You neglected to mention that the failed economic policies of the corrupt Bush administration left these poor people in this situation. You could have also scored bonus points by adding that the tax cuts for the wealthy have hurt even normal Americans like this.
Better luck next time. |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 7:13 am Post subject: |
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Bush shouldn't even be under discussion. He cannot be blamed for what has happened, although his appointment of Bernanke might come under fire in the next few years.
HOWEVER, since wannago brought it up, I do think Bush deserves very little credit for exhausting public resources in a time of plenty.
A lot of the Democratic candidates's criticisms of Bush are along these lines: Bush has done nothing while the working class has suffered. That's different from blaming Bush [edit: different from blaming Bush directly for causing the working class to suffer]. But, for Democrats already upset at Bush for other aspects of his administration and Bush's general partisanship, it'll have the same force as blaming him for causing that suffering.
I don't believe in substantial state intervention into the economy, so I think the Democrats's reasoning assumes that its Bush's job to intervene. I'm quite happy that Bush's mortgage plan is very tepid and meek. But I think that criticising Bush for standing by while the GOP left the public $9trillion in the hole is ABSOLUTELY warranted.
You really should not have brought Bush up, Wannago. 
It'll be interesting, because the people who are getting hit hardest in this crisis are those employed in finance. The suffering will trickle down, and sure, anyone who lives beyond their means suffers in an economic downturn, no matter to what class they belong. But thats my point about Bush and the GOP: America will suffer more because Public America as a whole has been living beyond its means. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:20 am Post subject: |
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| Kuros wrote: |
| It'll be interesting, because the people who are getting hit hardest in this crisis are those employed in finance. |
Well, not really. Unless we include mortgage slingers as "finance". The residential construction industry has been wiped out, as have nearly all title companies in coastal cities. Commercial property will also crap the bed in this crises, and the commercial construction will follow the residential. Reno/general contractors are going bust at a large rate and the real estate industry (agents, specialist lawyers, appraisers etc) will be wiped out in near total.
On the other hand:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071221/ap_on_bi_ge/wall_street_bonuses
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AP
Bonuses on Wall Street surge 14 percent
NEW YORK - This might have been one of Wall Street's most dismal years in a decade, but that hasn't stopped bonus checks from rising an average of 14 percent.
Four of the biggest U.S. investment banks � Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bear Stearns Cos. � will pay out about $49.6 billion in compensation this year. Of that, bonuses are traditionally estimated to represent 60 percent, or almost $30 billion.
But that might not sit well with investors who held on to investment bank stocks this year � and watched them plunge by up to 45 percent. Investment houses have been slammed by the credit crisis, and top executives this past week said they've yet to see a bottom. |
The reason for this is that all the new money that gets pumped into the economy is first handled by the finance guys, and also massive amounts of short/hot money is being sped between banks (mostly foreign into domestic), acquisitions from abroad are hot, and they turn a profit off of a situation where they should be taking a loss. The system is set up for the financials to benefit first.
But how this will affect the real economy is the big question. Can industry kick it up quickly enough and start exporting high-value stuff to prevent a catastrophe?? |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:57 am Post subject: |
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| thepeel wrote: |
| Kuros wrote: |
| It'll be interesting, because the people who are getting hit hardest in this crisis are those employed in finance. |
Well, not really. Unless we include mortgage slingers as "finance". The residential construction industry has been wiped out, as have nearly all title companies in coastal cities. Commercial property will also crap the bed in this crises, and the commercial construction will follow the residential. Reno/general contractors are going bust at a large rate and the real estate industry (agents, specialist lawyers, appraisers etc) will be wiped out in near total.
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really?
really??
really???
According to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, those 130,000 job cuts are nearly three times the 50,000 cuts reported for all of 2006, and has already smashed the all-time record of 116,000 layoffs set in 2001. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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