09. Is its parent directory writable by the server? The Invisible Homeless

March 11, 2009 by Daphne Muller, Writer | 2 Comments |

Last Sunday three thousand people packed the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. A concert? A high profile speaker? A trade show? None of the above. Instead, it was a group of Tri-state residents eager to capitalize on the increasingly dismal housing market. Packing the convention center, they placed bids on foreclosed homes at prices 70 percent below their former values.

What made this auction so remarkable wasn’t the turnout, but who turned out. While these auctions have typically attracted house flippers, real estate investors, and the occasional curious buyer, this time it brought in a new demographic—the protester. With New York state home foreclosures up 64% in January from the previous month, buyers looking for affordable housing for themselves had to withstand the objections of recently evicted homeowners. “Evictions are a crime! It could be your house next!” they chanted as the auctioneers sold over a thousand properties, one by one.

With 1 in every 54 homes currently being foreclosed on in the U.S. (2008’s statistics are up 225% from 2006’s), there are certainly a lot of vacant properties that can go at great bargain rates. But what about the families who formerly lived in those homes? What happens to them? Where do they go?

Although the housing crisis kick-started this economic crisis, the realities faced by these displaced Americans are only now coming to light. Some homeowners who are having trouble hanging onto their mortgages have resorted to renting to those who have already lost their homes. Still others plagued by the bad credit that bankruptcy brings or the financial woes of lost wages, are obliged to stay in shelters. However, in many cities shelters are at maximum capacity and families are forced to rent cheap motel rooms. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that in California, one of the states hardest hit by the housing crisis, residents are packing motels just as fast as the state’s budget cuts are shutting down vital social services. In Anaheim, there are over a thousand families living in motels and, with nearly 24,000 foreclosures in California this February alone, there are certainly thousands of other homeless Californians looking for shelter at a cheap nightly rate.

At the same time, people who don’t have the means to spend several hundred (or even thousands) of dollars a month on a one-bedroom shelter have had to become more creative. In Miami, Max Rameau has founded Take Back the Land, a foundation that matches families with empty, foreclosed homes. Rameau pairs people with houses that they can squat in until the local government, bank, or police interferes. He defends his actions by asserting that, “It’s morally indefensible to have vacant homes sitting there, potentially for years, while you have human beings on the street.”

California dreaming...

In Los Angeles and Sacramento, tent cities have become the norm. Forty miles outside of LA, local officials designated a patch of land last year for a handful of displaced families to set up temporary housing. Today, it boasts several hundred people. In Sacramento, there are 2,000 homeless, with 300 of those individuals setting up a tent city nearby. With people in the capital city losing their homes and jobs at an alarming pace, this shanty town has several dozen new people take up residence each day.

While the Obama administration has set forth a housing plan to help troubled owners, it hasn’t presented any solution to the escalating number of displaced Americans. While it is certainly important to lower rates and adjust payments for those struggling to pay their mortgages, there also needs to be a plan for the people who are jobless and homeless already. Hopefully, the stimulus’s infrastructure initiatives will employ people who have lost their jobs, help them get back on their feet, and eventually put them in a financial position neccessary to find a permanent residence. However, the federal government does not have the pulse of every town, city, and state’s particular problems, nor can they.

In order to stave off this crisis, local governments must step in and confront homelessness not as fringe social problem but as a critical issue that directly or indirectly affects all their residents. States like California and New York cite budget shortfalls for their inability to do more, but even if they are strapped for cash, they must prioritize some funding to help those who have lost their homes. If they don’t, then they will inevitably bear the burden in a more indiscreet way: Schools will have to feed more hungry children on free-lunch programs, non-profit institutions that depend on local tax breaks will have to stretch their resources to house and clothe the needy, and hospitals and health care clinics will certainly see more people fill their emergency rooms with non-emergent health problems as these homeless individuals struggle to stay healthy in a stressful and sometimes unlivable environment. The federal stimulus money presents an opportunity for states and cities to provide temporary housing, food, and other benefits before this housing emergency completely debilitates communities. Local governments must find some way to institute comprehensive plans that offer shelter—and dignity—to those who have lost theirs.