Recession Creates Legions of Newly Homeless

[DCBob]

Source: Alexi Mostrous, Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, July 11, 2009; 5:40 PM

Louis Gill doesn't like to turn anyone away. The director of the Bakersfield Homeless Center in California has taken to laying out cots and mattresses between the shelter's 174 registered beds to cope with the rush of homeless families brought to his doors by the financial crisis.

"Last year we saw a 34 percent increase in homeless families and a 24 percent increase in homeless children," he said. "Why do we go beyond capacity? Because in a just society, a child should not have to sleep outside or in a car."

Gill is a frontline witness to the change in the makeup of the country's homeless. The stereotype of a homeless person as a single man no longer applies. A resident of the Bakersfield center is far more likely to be a young mother with a "good, solid job and a mortgage that she just couldn't pay."

"They're like folks you know and that you've worked with," Gill said. "Maybe the work's not there right now. Maybe they got behind on their payments. But the idea of a typical homeless person has changed. We're seeing individuals come in that have never had to access the safety net before."


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071102099.html

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Very disturbing. Many of us could end up pushing shopping carts down the sidewalk.

[boomerbust]

1. Here in Wi.

I seen something the other day that I've never seen before. A young man holding up a sign at an intersection, "Work for food"

[northernlights]

2. I've seen it here in Maine too

At the big shopping center in Augusta.

[DCBob]

3. Here too in DC area. We have always had panhandlers but they look different now.

Many look like typical middle class folks who lost their jobs and homes.

[808]

5. Seattle: Take a walk around downtown late at night

You will see clusters of people sleeping in the streets and in doorways in downtown Seattle - much more than before.

[schmuls]

24. I have seen that a few times in the Milwaukee area

[lib2DaBone]

4. Will work for food...? In Florida.. this is a Chamber of Commerce Day..

...the State of Florida is hurting.. yet Gov Crist raised taxes $2.2 Billion this year....License plates, Drivers Licenses, Fishing LIcenses, boat registrations...Charlie has doubled everything. (Way to go Bud...)

Have the wages gone up? No way ..Jose. Are you Kidding? Pay workers more? ROFL. Is there any hope for new jobs or new industry? ....No.. absolutely not. Florida Politicians only consume money.... they are not concerned with creating jobs or helping people. They don't "create" anything.. they only consume. What.. are you crazy?

Do we know of any other State Govenors who may have quit their Statley Duties recently in order to be able to steal more money from the Senate? C'mon.. say it.... Pa... Pa...Pa.. PALin! Congratulations... you get a Cigar.

[pitchforksandtorches]

6. Welcome to the Bush Depression - thank the FSM that Reagan is dead

nt

[destes]

7. "Welcome to the Bush Depression"

That is the mantra of the foreseeable future. It should be. Until the ugliness behind the mask of unregulated capitalism is fully revealed we can at least keep the truth alive.

The media ignores it. Politicians avoid it. It'll be Obama's depression if the blameshifting succeeds.

So much uncertainty. It's important to keep a few facts close. 2000-balanced budget and domestic tranquility, 2008-$1.5+ trillion debt because of republican tax cuts, wars and corruption

[midnight]

12. The people of Texas were propbable the first to know and

understand the financial hardships bush would be capable of accomplishing. He left Texas bankrupt.

[orbitalman]

8. I see the carts in Chicago too.

It just breaks your heart and then... you realize it could be you.

[Xenotime]

20. Obama should make Chicago a shining example of what progressive ideals could be.

With a little effort the rest of the nation could see that these ideas can and will work.

[Deja Q]

9. There's got to be a better way. What's going on is inhumane.

:(

[Stuart G]

10. It is everywhere...how sad. most disturbing..

[fascisthunter]

11. republicans like the fruits of their labour...

but too cowardly to admit that this is what they wanted in the first place.

[whatdoyouthink]

13. It is sad

I know there always have been homeless - some even by choice, but many more are joining them, I work cpl times a week at a huge center downtown, and I have seen many new people you don't expect to see there...and even were I live I have seen to women almost daily walking around, aimless and sad...
Wonder if there will be a stimulus for these folks(after banks get there cut of course)

[Stuart G]

14. So, what do you think we should do ?

Any ideas here?

[Xenotime]

15. They should open all the foreclosed homes to these people..

It would help everyone.

[conspirator]

17. It's capitalism you don't pay you starve, even if there is plenty nt

[Flaneur]

16. Time for an organized squatters' movement.

Homeless people, peopleless homes. Hmmm....

[Xenotime]

18. Love it!

[thecrow]

19. I saw on tv that tent cities are springing up

People who had camping gear and didn't want to sleep in the streets....
many families.

I like the "open the foreclosed homes for them" idea.

It could be anyone of us with just the slightest shift of fate.

[bushmeister0]

22. Already happening in FLA

"In South Florida, squatting in foreclosed homes is becoming a trend for the homeless. The homeless were left with a choice between street-dwelling and squatting. Who would not rather live under a roof, even if it is not yours?

Those who lost their jobs and homes are now secretly residing in vacant repossessed properties. Here, they try to collect themselves, be productive and get back into their feet, something tough to do if you live on the streets."

http://www.foreclosuredeals.com/wp/homeless-make-something-out-of-foreclosures/

[Dulcinea]

21. Atlanta, too. eom

[bushmeister0]

23. Sanctuary districts, anyone?

The idea from a Star Trek DS9 episode, where our intrepid heroes are dropped into the 21st century, locked inside a special district in San Francisco where the homeless and mentally ill are fenced in from the rest of the population. You don't have a job? You go to a sanctuary district where you fight with the other inmates for housing and food.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_Tense_(DS9_episode)

The city of SF actually once thought of this idea as a solution to their homeless situation. Look for it to make a comeback.