Recession Creating Legions Of Newly Homeless

Washington Post:

The ravages of the recession, including a surge in foreclosures and unemployment approaching 10 percent, have driven thousands of families onto the streets.

Although the number of homeless individuals remained relatively stable between 2007 and 2008, the number of homeless families rose 9 percent, and in rural and suburban areas the number jumped a staggering 56 percent, according to a report released last week by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[PresidentRobertBooth]

Conservatives don't believe in the sanctity of life if said life is living under a bridge and has a beard.

[williamina]

weird

[whoknew---]

Or a young mother with a couple kids sitting by that guy under a bridge....

[wadda]

They don't want to interfere with the family unit.

[Skepticat]

life is only sacred if it has money.

[Raster]

With what's to come, you gotta think there may a historical parallel with Germany in the 1920s. With a Germany 1930s ending?

[Chernynkaya]

Yes, if the C Street Group has their way.

[jalowe1957]

It would be a great day when the homeless get the emergency shelter and resources they need to get back on their feet, and Goldman Sachs and AIG have to hold bake sales and garage sales to help pay their monstrosities of employee bonuses

[WorkingClass]

I think the government should provide shelters for homeless people. Does that make me a communist?

[Chernynkaya]

Only from the conservatives' point of view. They believe in that "can-do!" American self-reliance. They believe it's for your own good to never get a handout. They are, by and large, smug, self-satisfied and selfish.

[BlackMagicWoman]

Maybe they should handout some jobs. That's a start.

[SteveWoodward]

So millions of people have no place to stay while millions of homes sit empty and deteriorating due to foreclosures. What a country.

[SamKnause]

It really boggles the mind doesn't it? The banks would rather have a house rot then to help people stay in their home.

[Samalabear]

I've been saying this for weeks. It is mind-blowing.

[IndelibleVoice]

Welcome to "capitalist" America! Greed, greed, greed.

I have heard though that some homeless people are taking homes, either abandoned in mid-construction or otherwise empty, and living in them. Now that's capitalizing on the situation ;) I mean, with no job and no prospects, where else are they suppose to live?

[lysistrata]

good government would be able to confiscate the empty properties and house homeless families.

[DosGatos2]

Reagan encouraged people to be so angry about "welfare queens in Cadillacs" that today, American mothers and children in need have to sleep in cars or shelters. Billions are shelled out to the banksters however, who are going to make record bonuses this year.

I have always been baffled about why so many Christians are conservative. This is not the way Jesus would have wanted things but this the kind of country conservatism has given us.

[Chernynkaya]

Yes. Americans prefer to do what's bad for the other guy rather than what's good for themselves. They were so intent on punishing so-called welfare queens, that they destroyed the safety net. And I also don't get these "Christian" values. What version of the NT are they reading?

[fcsakes]

Should that be, "...why so many conservatives say they're Christians­."

[HarmonyAlexandria]

the number of homeless families in rural and suburban areas jumped a staggering 56 percent.

Those are conservative communities, I sure hope those "good hard working people" venture into the city so I can toss handfuls of change at them ..... "Damn suburban refugees stinking up our community, why can't they get jobs instead of living off OUR tax dollars and OUR community's charity! Why can't their own communities take care of them! Why did those damn soccer mums have so many children they couldn't afford".

[Chernynkaya]

:))

[deadcustodian]

Thank the FSM that R. Reagan is d ead.

[lastams]

Behold the jobless recovery!
Meanwhile over at Goldman and Sachs, they're on track to pay out the biggest bonuses in their history.
Oh, and Summers says the worst isn't over.
Hmmmm ... maybe a few more trillion to the investment bankers will make everything just fine.

[whoknew---]

If their driveways were to turn into gold it wouldn't help the ordinary citizen out....

Maybe we should all collectively pull out what little we have left and create a credit union instead of letting these banks who base their decisions on the needs and greed of the investors.

When you invest in a credit union you are the owner, the member.

Also as a non-profit entity credit unions any profits (dividends/lower interest rates) go directly to the credit union members. Any profits a bank has goes to the investors not to the guy who opens a bank account, a loan, etc.

How these banks have gotten us into the financial ditch and also how they are handling themselves in the aftermath can pretty much indicates they are not performing in the consumer and the countries best interests.

[Laura Minnick]

A friend of ours has been ill the last year and working only sporadically. She lost her apt and moved into our basement. How many people out there are doing similar things? If they were counted as homeless, the numbers would shoot up even further.

[gakabani]

The legacy of a lunatic, Bush!

[lastams]

Yea it's all Bush's fault.
Thank God we've got those straight thinkers like Summers and Geithner on the job.
Shoot, things are already looking great at the big investment banks.
Who cares about all those losers on the street anyway?
Start a few more wars and maybe we can use them in the military.

[snake in the grass]

Born and raised in the briar patch!

[vibroluxor]

The guys in the picture are certainly not the 'new' homeless. more like your garden variety substance abusers.

[Dynamohum]

They could possibly be homeless military veterans with PTSD and a host of other ailments. Sounds like you are just one more heartless, soulless piece of conserva cr*p.

[Samalabear]

I wonder how you'll look after you've been on the streets a few weeks or months.