Shanty Towns Are Beginnings

Karen · #1 03/22/08, 08:56 AM

This video is by the BBC of shanty towns beginning to pop up due to those homeless from foreclosures. It's a good, straight to the point, piece.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/289.html

QuiltingLady2 · #2 03/22/08, 09:21 AM

Thanks Karen for linking this. We have a homeless camp that travels every 6 weeks or so around the NW. Churches and Non-pro sponsor the camp. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Just lots of hard working people who have made financial mistakes or have health bills too big to handle. So sad.

QL2

unregistered29228 · #3 03/22/08, 10:05 AM

It's a crying shame, that people in the USA would have to resort to living like this. It makes me mad, thinking of the $$$ we pay out of hubby's paycheck in taxes.

seedspreader · #4 03/22/08, 10:19 AM

If that's the one I think it is, they said that only one family is there as a result of foreclosure.

muzzelloader · #5 03/22/08, 10:58 AM

I think the larger question is. How is it that the richest nation on the planet has a growing homeless problem? We can say well some of em just don't want to work or some of them are druggies etc. that still don't answer the bigger question. Why all the homeless in this day and age? Something is out of whack. Its time for this nation as a whole to get to the bottom of this mess or it will grow and cause major societal disruptions.

**ladycat** · #6 03/22/08, 11:43 AM

Several years ago I read an article that a study on the homeless was done at the urging of Hilary Clinton. They found third and fourth generation homeless living in Washington DC.

They gave the estimated numbers of homeless in various cities around the country. I don't remember the figures but it was a LOT.

Cyngbaeld · #7 03/22/08, 11:44 AM

Well we had a war on poverty and all we did was end up with generations of people who feel the rest of the world owes them a living.

I'm not hard hearted, but if there is no "horrible future" awaiting those who will not try to take care of themselves, many, many will never even try. Trouble is, trying to help the truly needy without enabling the truly uneedy.

kinderfeld · #8 03/22/08, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyngbaeld

Well we had a war on poverty and all we did was end up with generations of people who feel the rest of the world owes them a living.

I'm not hard hearted, but if there is no "horrible future" awaiting those who will not try to take care of themselves, many, many will never even try. Trouble is, trying to help the truly needy without enabling the truly uneedy.

I agree. Most of those in that video who want to succeed in getting out of that situation, will. It's important for the poor to be made uncomfortable.

Karen · #9 03/22/08, 01:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kinderfeld

I agree. Most of those in that video who want to succeed in getting out of that situation, will. It's important for the poor to be made uncomfortable.

Yes, but the problem truly is, those people who didn't want to be there shouldn't be there to begin with. There are many things in life that we cannot possibly plan for or see coming. Only through the grace of God is it not one of us -- but it may be someday.

mightybooboo · #10 03/22/08, 01:56 PM

There will always be poor people,just as there are people who get overwhelmed and need a hand up,not an endless hand out. The hand out group will always remain.

But there IS a growing gap between the wealthy and the poor.Add more to the wealthy side,and you get more poor folks. This trend has been going on for quite some time and is reaching depression numbers regarding distribution of wealth.

Gary in ohio · #11 03/22/08, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karen

This video is by the BBC of shanty towns beginning to pop up due to those homeless from foreclosures. It's a good, straight to the point, piece.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/289.html

Most of those people who lost there homes from foreclosure should have NEVER had those homes in the first place. Its a liberal society that somehow beleive that you have the right to own a home even if you cant afford it.

unregistered29228 · #12 03/22/08, 06:29 PM

Here is a good example of people who are perfectly content to let the government support them for multiple generations. Whatever happened to people wanting to work and have a better life?

Quote:

Known as the "Shameless" family among horrified neighbours, the McFaddens "boast" three generations of adults who are not working.

All ten members of the clan share a council house and live off benefits amounting to around £32,000 a year. And very happy they are, too.

Matriarch is grandmother Sue McFadden, 54. "Our neighbours are so snobby - they call us the "Shameless" family and say that we ought to go out to work. But how can we work when we have all these children to look after?

"The only problem is," she says without a hint of irony, "that we're living in a three-bedroom council house, which is ridiculous.

"I'm asking the council for a ten-bedroom home for all of us. We need more space. It's awful sometimes when all the children are squabbling. Still, we do have a big TV with Sky, but we need some relaxation."

Of course they do, poor lambs. What a damning verdict on our claim-it-all society, a grotesque mirror of the dark television drama Shameless. That show features fictional father-of-eight Frank, who is work-shy and self-pitying. Living on the Chatsworth Estate, he heads a family of dysfunctional teenagers living on an estate of benefit claimants and cheats.

The McFaddens bear an uncanny resemblance. Grandmother Sue is divorced and has three daughters, Theresa, 34, Debbie, 32, and Tammy, 24. None of the adults living in the house in Ellesmere Port, near Chester, has a job, and there are also six grandchildren living at home - Kyle, 18, Clayton , 12, Tyler, nine, Courtney, eight, Jodie, seven, and Lucas, six.

But the really disturbing aspect of the McFaddens' lifestyle is that they are far from alone. Six million Britons are living in homes where no one has a job and "benefits are a way of life", according to a report by MPs. Shock figures also revealed that 20,000 households in Britain are pocketing more than £30,000 a year in state benefits.

With thousands of children growing up in families where their parents and grandparents have never worked, a senior government adviser warned this week of a "terrible legacy" of youngsters who had no expectation of ever getting a job.

Sue herself is defiant. "People don't understand how hard it is to keep a family like this going - no wonder we can't work. How could I go out to work with all these children at home? Local people call us scroungers and that is so unfair. We need the money to keep the family going.

"We get about £2,700 a month in benefits, from income support to disability allowance, and child benefit for the kids. Kyle is at college and he gets the Education Maintenance Allowance of £30 a week, and we get Housing Benefit, too. Our rent is £40 a week, so our benefits don't go far."

See the full article at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770

hfwarner3 · #13 03/22/08, 06:39 PM

There are different categories of urban homeless - there are "functional homeless" - these are usually people who just made financial mistakes in life until the ended up homeless. We have multiple charities (MUST ministries is the one I have worked with) that give them a place to live for free, classes on finances, and get them the best paying job they can find.

Then there is the "institutional homeless" - the people who think it is someone else's job to take care of them.

Then there are the "addicts" - drugs, booze, whatever - they have chosen their habit over everything else in life and ended up in the gutter begging and stealing. I categorize these as the "predictably dangerous".

And then there are the "mentally ill homeless" - the people who belong in an institution but, for whatever reason, are not in one. Maybe they stopped taking their meds. Maybe they have PTSD. These are the "unpredictably dangerous."

We have a friend whose husband was approach by a homeless man - the mentally ill type - who asked for money. When he said, "I'm sorry but I can't help you" the homeless man took his cane and beat the friend's husband within an inch of his life. The friend's husband is now in a wheelchair and the homeless man is in a state institution.

As shanty towns form, I realize that most of the people will fall in the first category but there will also be some from the other three too.

lorian · #14 03/22/08, 07:14 PM

hfwarner3, that is a good summary of the situation.

I feel compassion for people in the functional group. We ourselves could be only a few paychecks away from disaster but we do have family that would help us till we got back on our feet.

WanderingOak · #15 03/22/08, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gary in ohio

Most of those people who lost there homes from foreclosure should have NEVER had those homes in the first place. Its a liberal society that somehow beleive that you have the right to own a home even if you cant afford it.

Not necessarily. I was searching for a home in 2000, and many Realtors were desperately trying to hard-sell me into houses that were more than twice what I could actually afford. They plugged my income into some mystical formula that was supposed to tell me what type of house that I could afford, and if I had taken their advice, I would have had to boil my boots for soup afterwards. These Realtors were extremely offended at the concept of me searching for a home in a less expensive neighborhood. They basically called me 'white trash' to my face when I told them that I wasn't willing to spend more than half of my income on my mortgage. There was an EXTREME amount of pressure for me to overextend my finances when buying a house. Most of the places these Realtors were trying to sell me were not much to look at, but I was told was that the market was going to keep on rising forever, so I'd better buy now before I was completely priced out. All I did was keep moving further afield until I was able to find a market that hadn't completely lost it's mind yet. Yet, even in a housing downturn, I was able to sell the house that I did buy, eight years later for more than twice what I paid for it.

Karen · #16 03/22/08, 08:59 PM

Let's not debate that "housing market" thing again. We've beat that one to a pulp!

And yes, there has been and always will be, the druggies/alcoholics/mentally ill homeless. There will also be a few homeless because they have no incentive to work.

But I think many are missing the point. It doesn't really matter who is at fault in the housing market scandal and we can point fingers at making financial mistakes. The point is, these are not people who think anyone owes them anything; nor are they among the people listed above.

They are middle class folks who made a mistake and don't deserve to be homeless because of a mistake or bad judgment call. If you notice, these weren't those who were living high on the hog and had expensive homes. These were just folks like you and I.

The point is that millions of Americans are one pay check or a couple of bills away from losing everything they have worked their entire lives for. As Boo said, the gap is widening and it's accelerating every day.

Life in America means you work and your pay gets eaten up by taxes, insurance, a house, food, utilities, and transportation. There are few companies with benefits any longer. Just getting to work is becoming a major financial undertaking! There is no way of saving for financially difficult times when every week is a financially difficult time.

Whether you think these folks deserve it or not, it's problem that is there and America is going to have to deal with it and this isn't the only shanty town in America. There cropping up in many places and will continue to increase.

AngieM2 · #17 03/22/08, 09:05 PM

And I had a pricing eye-opening today.

People going from 'houses' sometimes end up in a mobile home. I looked into a small two bedroom, interior the cheap version of a decent brand, the upgrade was vinyl sideing and a shingle roof... I don't even think it was a 16", and maybe 60" long. $25,900 was the price. I was astounded, so even "cheap" housing is going up. Then if a mobile, you'd have to purchase land or on a small trailer park lot (as I am now) and that adds at least about $100 a month to the payment....

Angie

PS: I was just looking to see what was being made now...

hfwarner3 · #18 03/22/08, 09:32 PM

Where we are looking, local ordinance says you must own at least 5 acres to put a trailer on the land and land runs $5000 - $8000 an acre.

seedspreader · #19 03/22/08, 09:54 PM

Angie are you saying that housing prices are RISING in your area?

I've seen the opposite. In fact, I think that is the trend nationally.

It's turning into a buyers market as best as I can see... if the buyer can get credit with the newer strict financing.

AngieM2 · #20 03/22/08, 10:24 PM

I don't know that housing is rising, but they sure the heck are still building - average new house (ticky-tack builder) starts $125,000 or better. Nice houses $250,000 or so, subdivision stuff.

Where I am - 5 years or less - an acre touching the road $4,000, interior acre $3,000. Today out a ways further from me $12,000 dry acres, $8,000 with swampy land an acre.

The mobile homes that I lookied at today, that little one that I thought would be maybe high teens, being $25,900 was shocking to me. The double wides with medium grade carpet and 2 x 6 walls, one was $59,900 and the new nice large one Mid low $70,000's.... then you'd have to purchase land. In this county where I am the city is coming... 2 miles from here is going in a Publix and 20 other stores, a new Credit Untion is here and rumors of a new bank coming, a piece of land I looked at today - it does have septic, water, electric and has had a mobile home there before.... $39,900 for two acres, supposedly still country...

This area of the country is suppose to receive a lot of BRAC realignment folks and the housing industry has gone nuts, building subdivisions.

BUT, my daughter does the papers for a Countrywide office in town, you know - the inch of papers that you have to sign to purchase.... today at a shower, 3 of them were talking about how much slower than usual it still is.

But the 25 year old guy in the next cubical, new Ford F250, New $210,000 house (he did sell his other smaller house).

So.... the people around me and the building around me doesn't show much slowing down. (except one or two started subdivisions that haven't gotten anywhere, but they are rare).

Angie