In Hard Times, Tent Cities Rise Across the Country ("Seeing Encampments Not Seen Since 80s")

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

In hard times, tent cities rise across the country
By EVELYN NIEVES (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
September 18, 2008 12:03 PM EDT
RENO, Nev. - A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer. Then others appeared - people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.

Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a "tent city" - an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.

From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation. Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.

"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition. "The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future." The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up. "What you're seeing is encampments that I haven't seen since the 80s," said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an umbrella group for homeless advocacy organizations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Seattle.

Read more: http://enews.earthlink.net/article/nat?guid=20080918/48d1d240_3ca6_1552620080918-1589777073

[blueclown]

1. yet the fundamentals of our economy are strong?

[madmax]

3. In what respect, Charlie? n/t

[roguevalley]

24. Hoovervilles, just like in the depression.

[Delphinus]

31. What you said

reminds me of the adage, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

[tblue]

2. Not to sound opportunistic, but we really should register these people to vote.

We are on THEIR side. McPalin will drive their Straight Talk bus right over their tent cities in a heartbeat.

[Union Thug]

12. Not opportunistic so much as it is helping them help themselves...

The teamsters in 1934 won the street wars by enlisting the aid of the unemployed. I think we would all be surprised by the amount of support and enthusiasm that can be generated by informing people that we are all on the same side and that we all share the same interests.

Your's is a great idea and should be SOP.

[Kolesar]

14. Democratic activists have registered homeless people before

That is one reason why the Republicans invented this fake "voter fraud" issue. They implemented ID requirements to discourage the homeless from voting.

[groovedaddy]

4. Is this a wonderful country or what? ;-> n.t

[Jamastiene]

15. ...

Love your reply. :spray:

[demnan]

5. Bushvilles . . .

n/t

[TalkingDog]

13. Shruburbias n/t

[Juan_de_la_Dem]

21. yep

[kestrel91316]

6. What did people EXPECT from the housing disaster and all the foreclosures

and layoffs?? If you have no job, or got foreclosed, NO ONE WILL RENT TO YOU.

[DinahMoeHum]

7. I'll say it again: Republicans Suck Like A Hoover.

n/t

[EFerrari]

8. Hey -- that's Paul Boden!

:woohoo:

[KansDem]

9. "The 80s?" Oh, yeah...the "Reagan Revolution"

Here's St. Reagan with his protégé...

[GliderGuider]

10. Painkillers do not cure cancer.

Some choice tidbits from a truly great financial blog:

Burning down a house on fire

Funny to see Wall Street rise this morning on the central banks’ quarter trillion dollar capital injection.

Funny, because the injection can’t save anything at all; instead, it’s nothing but a sign of despair.

Trillions of dollars have been pumped into the global financial system over the past year, and it hasn’t helped one infinitesimal iota of an inch. That is because the problem is solvency, not liquidity. The world is drowning in liquidity, thanks to Alan Greenspan and his mob-men at the Bank of Japan. It’s just not where the banks would like it; it’s not in their pockets.

These banks are insolvent, they are bankrupt. Sooner or later they will go the way of the pterodactyl, unable to pay back the credit they now receive, for which the central banks accept ever more worthless toilet paper as collateral.

And then the central bank will turn to the Treasury, and the Treasury will fork over. You know what the Treasury will give them? Your money, that’s what. So you will be paying through the nose for paper that your central banks and Treasuries have acquired from banks, knowing full well that it wasn’t worth even a fraction of what they're giving the banks in exchange.

Credit injections do not help, because they cannot. Painkillers do not cure cancer.

The system is way beyond salvation, and has been for years. The sleight-of-hand "efforts to save the system" cannot succeed. And it is in no way in the interest of the taxpayer to try to save the system. It’s in the interest of the people that run it, the ones that have one hand on the triggers of the central banks, and one hand in your pockets.

[Union Thug]

11. Republicans reinvent Hooverville whenever they hold power.

Same bullshit, different era.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Ah hoovervilles rising all across the land

should we call them bushvilles?

[TomClash]

17. Talk to your betters and they say: "I've got mine!"

"I don't want to pay more."

[izquierdista]

18. Problem and obvious solution

Are there no boarded up buildings in Reno? No vacated K-Marts, abandoned supermarkets close to a Wal-Mart supercenter, factories that closed when their jobs went to China? Bankrupt casinos? Motor lodges that even Indians don't want to rehab? I will bet that there is at least 100,000 square feet of commercial real estate in Reno that is an eyesore that has been boarded up for months.

This is the perfect solution for the homeless "problem". If the cities could take title to these eyesores using eminent domain, they could put the homeless to work renovating these buildings and giving themselves a place to live. They need to realize that there isn't going to be some white knight capitalist who will come in and revitalize these properties. Capital is always chasing the dollars of the rich, not the pennies of the poor. They will build new subdivisions and strip malls further and further out, but ignore the old downtown. No, it has to be up to the city itself. Take ownership of the eyesores, rehabilitate them, and bring the city back to life.

[annabanana]

19. Lending a hand to these, our Countrymen, is not only

the right thing to do,
it will gain us invaluable friends in low places.

[Javaman]

20. republicamps. nt

[tom_paine]

22. Bushies say MISSION ACCOMPISHED.

In every possible way the American People (the Subject Populace, really) have been reduced. Socially, financially, politically, environmentallyy...all of that and more.

We are the Chinese and the Bushies (soon to be the McBushies) are the Commie Bosses.

That is the relationship, now and probably forever, between the Amerikan Subject populace and those who rule us...

[roody]

35. If they were Commie Bosses, we'd have good health

care and organized hurricane evacuations. They are just plain worthless.

[Hand]

23. Welcome to Dubyaville...

Our motto: "Compassionate conservatism in action" :grr:

[Odin2005]

25. Bushvilles.

:grr: :cry:

[Blaze Diem]

26. 'The Grapes of Wrath' 21st Century.

& we're supposed to trust Sarah Pork-Barrel Palin to lift our Nation out of this?
Does she even know of tent cities?
Has she visited one?
Maybe not, cuz if your home was a tent in Alaska you'd freeze to death.

Make McSame & Palinausea walk the city-of-tents, talk to the people there & ask them what took them to this place in their life.
Consider it Community Service 101..Sarah.

McSame/Palin..You're NO FDR.

[damntexdem]

27. Hurrah -- people can still afford tents.

Just wait until the tent-industry meltdown.

;-)

[htuttle]

28. I think it's time for John Carpenter to release a sequel to They Live

Then there would be one for each Bush...

[Stand and Fight]

29. 1988 was when it came out.

Reagan was still president. Bush Sr. was vice-president.

[fasttense]

30. I was wondering where all the foreclosed families were going.

Just like in the last Republicon Great Depression. Families have to live out of tents while homes remain vacant.

I wonder if Hoover, I mean bush, will send U.S. Army forces to burn down the tent cities?

"There is nothing inside the bush but jelly!"

[brentspeak]

32. Here in NJ, there's more and more people living under highway overpasses

Sights I've never seen before.

[musette_sf]

33. another reason why Judy Ruiliani should be Prez!!

he will run all the homeless off to Mexico and get their unpleasantness out of sight!

:sarcasm:

NYC before Judy's rule will look like a picnic by the time we are through with this financial disaster.

[Hugabear]

34. I have a feeling it won't take much before some of us wind up in these camps

We all know it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. What are you supposed to do if you lose your job, can't afford to stay in your house, nobody will loan you money to get into a new place? It really is going to be a return to the 1930s in many regards.

[ikojo]

36. When I was in New Orleans for a scooter rally at the end of March

I saw a tent city under a bridge along Canal Street. Sad that things like this are allowed to happen in a country that can fund private sports stadiums and bail out private investment firms.

Capitalism for the poor
Socialism for the rich

To think a Democrat (Clinton) is the one who championed doing away with Glass Stegal. I wonder what kind of advice Robert Rubin (of Citibank) is giving Barack Obama and why has Barack Obama surrounded himself with so many of Clinton's economic advisers, some who share responsibility for the mess we are in today.

[Swede]

37. The 80's,wasn't that during the Reagan miracle years?

Just saying.