Some Homeless Squat in Foreclosed Houses

[dkf]

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The nation's foreclosure crisis has led to a painful irony for homeless people: On any given night they are outnumbered in some cities by vacant houses. Some street people are taking advantage of the opportunity by becoming squatters.

Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up and dilapidated houses abandoned because of rundown conditions: Sometimes the heat, lights and water are still working.

"That's what you call convenient," said James Bertan, 41, an ex-convict and self-described "bando," or someone who lives in abandoned houses.

While no one keeps numbers of below-the-radar homeless finding shelter in properties left vacant by foreclosure, homeless advocates agree the locations -- even with utilities cut off -- would be inviting to some. There are risks for squatters, including fires from using candles and confrontations with drug dealers, prostitutes, copper thieves or police.

"Many homeless people see the foreclosure crisis as an opportunity to find low-cost housing (FREE!) with some privacy," Brian Davis, director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said in the summary of the latest census of homeless sleeping outside in downtown Cleveland.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080217/homeless_foreclosure.html

[mdmc]

1. See, things are getting better for the poor

:kick:

[Yavin4]

2. Is This An Example of Irony?

I think so.

[Raejeanowl]

3. I Agree n/t

[bridgit]

4. Or to paraphrase Babs, "Most of these people were poor to begin with...

"This is actually working out quite well for them."

[lildreamer316]

5. I ALMOST don't have a problem with this.

I know, I know.
But at least someone has a roof over their head.
Irony, indeed.
Those utilities are not going to waste...
I dunno.
I'm sure it will all be straigtened out in the end.

[dkf]

6. I'm sick at the thought that all these homes are going

unlived in.

Then again I have a problem with second homes too.

[JanusAscending]

7. My only comment is...

GOOD FOR THEM, and God bless them as long as they can get away with it!

[EvolveOrConvolve]

9. GOOD FOR THEM - my exact thoughts also

Many of these homes are abandoned and ignored anyway. If they can provide some good for someone, even temporarily, then there may be at least a sliver of silver lining in the dark clouds of the foreclosure mess.

[kineneb]

8. See! I knew this would happen.

With all the empty houses, there are simply not enough police or security personell in the entire country to guard them. This is what happened in Europe; in fact, there was (and perhaps still is) a Squatter's Rights Movement.

Hey all you homeless folks out there- there are now plenty of empty houses awaiting your presence. Just check the back pages of the newspapers for the addresses. It will take years for the courts to untangle the ownership of many forclosed houses. In the meantime, may as well put them to use; if left empty for too long, they will disintegrate anyway.

(anarchist at heart)

[mia]

16. Adverse possession is sometimes called "squatters' rights".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_possession

[Greyhound]

10. K & R

[Contrary1]

11. A person who works in collections told me the same thing a couple weeks ago...

She said that California was where most of this was happening. Can't say that I blame those looking for shelter.
It's only going to get worse.

Oh wait...the Chimp's tax "rebates" will save the day!!

[Contrary1]

12. Delete...Dupe

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. If someone, somewhere had any smarts

they would try to offically co-ordinate temporary homeless shelter with the foreclosures.

Some city or country agency could vet "caretakers" (i.e. - the homeless) with the houses. The caretakers live in the houses at little to no rent but agree to keep up lawn maintenance, etc. and not to trash the place. If they take good care of the house, then when that house sells, they can be placed into another caretaker situation. Homeless families could try to only caretake houses in the same school district so their kids wouldn't be yanked all over the place.

Why wouldn't this work?

[theHandpuppet]

14. Sounds like a great plan to me!

The only problem would be that you need a lot of people to supervise/oversee such a project. The banks don't want to be bothered and if other counties are like mine, they barely have enough resources to do the jobs they have now..

[lildreamer316]

18. Step further.

Those families that are abandoning the houses should go find a homeless family to 'take over', if possible.
May be a bit complicated, but I bet sometimes it could work.

[DadOf2LittleAngels]

19. I just dont think it would work

And I really don't meant to sound classest here but I have two family members who own duplexes and in general I would not even trust life long renters to maintain a property let alone someone who is homeless. There was a story in the twin cities recently about someone who rented out their home while they were sent to Iraq and in 5 months the family did 20K worth of damage.

There are other reasons not to do it, it ties caring for the poor to a bad housing economy...

[SoCalDem]

20. There is that... and

the issue of payment for utlities too. Most people would want to have water/elec/gas..and if one has no credit or bad credit, or if a bank has issued a shut off notice, you might not be able to have those things turned back on.

But, then a roof over ones head is still better than sleeping outdoors..

It's a tough nut to crack..

If the lenders were smart, they would allow the people who were foreclosed upon, to "rent" the place at 1/2 price until a buyer could be found.. They would at least be living there with their own stuff (less likely to vandalize the place), and keeping up the yard...

[barbtries]

15. this thought has crossed my mind

what about all those empty houses and all those people living on the street. makes sense actually. i'd choose a roof over a doorway any day.

[SoCalDem]

17. Yes.. that's happening around here too..

All one really needs to do is to llok for a realtor sign that has a non-local phone number... You can bet that not all that many people are going to blow $3 gas to show homes, when there are closer ones to the office..

One can get by with using the fireplace for heat (if the utilities are off), and can always "borrow" water from neighbor's hoses (for flushing toliets, if the water's off)..

There are many lights available these days that are battery operated..as are dvd players/radios/tvs..

Local fast food places offer cheap food...so who needs to bother with paying rent, if you can "camp" for free in an unoccupied house?

Cops don't care (at least around here).. I had cops come out 3 times about the foreclosed/vandalized/"occupied" house next door and they told me.. "It's the responsibility of the owner (bank)"..and for them (the cops) to go inside the house (even though the front door had been KICKED IN) would be "trespassing"..:grr:

[ileus]

21. talk about a real drop in home value.....wait until a bum gets finished with a home.