February 18, 2008

I think we should thank the nation's builders and failed housing gamblers for helping to solve the homeless problem in America



I hope the homeless crash the empty foreclosed homes across America. All I ask is that they mow the lawns and look after the place. There's something poetic about this one. A homeless guy living in a McMansion is just so, well it's just so representative of what's happened in America these past few years.

Seriously, for a "rich and powerful" nation like the United States to have millions go homeless, while at the same time we have millions of unwanted homes, is simply perverse. To have millions go hungry in one of the fattest nations on earth is also amazing.

Gotta give it up to capitalism. It does some really weird things along the way.

Some Homeless People Turn to Empty Houses for Shelter Amid Nation's Foreclosure Crisis

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.

"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

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you remember the homeless guy living in one of Casey's vacant houses? I remember he at least had the decency to mow the lawn though, LOL.

-BC

tater said...

I can just hear it now - a conversation between some homeless people. (Just an attempt for some dry humor: not meant to belittle any homeless folks)

Homeless person#1: Man, some mega builder just went under down on the southside. Check out all those brand new houses on 23rd. I stayed in one of em last night, and it has a 7 foot jacuzzi. I hot wired the house and cut the water back on. I didn't realize water could reach so many places on my body- talkin about feelin' good!

Homeless person#2: I got you beat. I found a house on 14th where they evicted some realtor. They kicked him out so fast that the utilities were still on. AND, the fridge was full of all kinds of nice stuff. I had t-bone steaks with nice imported red wine. Plus, I pulled the dude's tv back from the street and hooked back up his cable. I watched pay per view all night!

Homeless person#1: Wow, would you mind if I change houses with you tonight. I think all that fine food and all those free movies would do me some real good.

Homeless person#2 (laughing loudly): Nah, I don't mind. In fact, just help yourself to the realtor's house. I hear tell that this former bigwig just got evicted from his house up on 2nd Street, and it is a MANSION. What's his name, you say? I can't remember, but I believe it was something like Greenscam, Greenstain, or Greenspan. YEAH, that's it GREENSPAN -- !!

Paul E. Math said...

Why is there not a better process for getting these foreclosed homes onto the market at a sellable price?

It seems to me that there is ALWAYS a willing buyer if the price is right.

In the meantime, while these homes linger on the market, their value deteriorates due to damage caused by the homeless and drug-dealers and prostitutes.

It just seems like a real waste to me.

Anonymous said...

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


I love it a "BANDO!"

Anonymous said...

I love it a "BANDO!"

It is ironic. Countrywide used to issue those rubberize wristbands, which would be aptly named BANDOS...

Anonymous said...

"Why is there not a better process for getting these foreclosed homes onto the market at a sellable price?

It seems to me that there is ALWAYS a willing buyer if the price is right.

In the meantime, while these homes linger on the market, their value deteriorates due to damage caused by the homeless and drug-dealers and prostitutes.

It just seems like a real waste to me."

Because of one simple reason - the banks in this nation are truly clueless. If they were smart, they NEVER would have tried to give suicide loans to people in the first place. Now they are sitting on empty homes because they won't cut through their own red tape to sell to willing buyers. I personally know of many short buyers who have to wait two months just to get a call back from one of these idiots. When they do, they have to go through all these other "procedures" just to PAY CASH for the home....You would think that the banks would be cold calling high net worth individuals and sponsoring "sales events" just to get these houses off the books, but then again, that would make sense....right. It really is sad, since a lot of these homes are really very nice, and are deteriorating because of the same neglect of common sense that caused the mess.

Frank R said...

Ridiculous. If I want one of those houses, I'd have to pay an inflated price, but if I decide to be homeless and refuse to work I can live there for free.

Welcome to America.

Anonymous said...

did the builders think they could sell all these houses to illegal immigrants because if everyone can recall the builders were counting on illegals buying these homes they were happy they were coming here in droves. Remember the Mexicans were coming here 100,000 a day but when the boat people were coming from Haiti to America pulled guns on them and told them to go back. Manufactors changed the labeling on packages in stores to court the hispanic customer all the customer call centers made you decide if you spoke english or spanish, when COMCAST added new stations they were all spanish speaking. Ford sent assembly line jobs to mexico and who know's where else to show America loves you. (seen their stocks lately) People were screaming this is a nation of immigrants give us your tired hungry poor And now the whole we welcome you here to buy our houses goods and services has backfired into a ball of financial holocaust and all I can say is "what took the homeless so long to figure it out, what took so long". Millions of houses intended for immigrants who could not effectively join the job market because there was no paperwork for them, they could not speak the language. That bullshit line about "a better life for my family" (what about those Haitians now they are eating dirt, those Mexican mamas look like it's rice, beans and tortilla's every night and in large quantities) everyone wants a better life for their family especially hard working americans who should have gotten the job long before an illegal Mexican. They drove down the pay and stole jobs from the poorest segements of society who have lived here forever and know how much things really cost American dollars and are not same as Mexican peso's. The saddest thing is these people think they have a right to come here and live here and we are racist because we won't just make them American citizens and let them stay. Pull that shit in China, Russia, Europe or in Mexico. We pay taxes to support them and they send thier money back to Mexico. When America courted these people to come here to do the jobs American's don't want to do, all that consisted of was picking fruit not all the construction jobs, McDonald jobs, maintenance jobs, and the last of the manufacturing jobs. I always thought that was a bullshit con job to make American's look lazy and everyone needed a gardener and housecleaner of Latin decent excuses to explain why they were here. The only reason American's wanted it was because it showed another false illusion of prosperity. I know this has very little to do with homeless living in abandoned houses, but in a way it does. The houses were built with the idea that all these "immigrants" will chase the american dream, these immigrants took away your ability to find a part time job to afford your american dream, it has taken away the ability of teenagers and young men who didn't go to college or trade school to find some sort of employment (at least to make sure they have money in their pockets and not robbing you) they can not go into the military to help defend this country yet they reap all the benefits they get to keep the jobs and live here and when our troops come home not one illegal has to give up anything for one American. They have stolen all the advancements that Black Americans have made (neighborhoods and programs)and demanded that they be intitled to the benefits of a people they have publicly admitted they hate. So I say every homeless man, woman, family live in the houses intended for every illegal immigrant because why should they get something that you as an American aren't even entitled to. Quiet as it's kept alot of the people probably living in these houses are illegal immigrants where do they stay at night after standing in front of HOME DEPOT all day. If you don't like what I have to say to bad, because when you have an illegal standing in your way then you will understand Bush allowing these people to come in to prop up the American economy (and boy did that plan backfire, they ultimately distroyed the American economy) and employers ignoring American workers for people "who don't talk back" (they don't know what you are saying) and how it affects you you'll sound just like me. Also I am not a disenfranchised American citizen. I have owned (rented) my home since 1993, I have been on my job 30 years. But what American has failed to see all this illegal immigration from a variety of countries (over stayed visas, green cards and what ever else they use)will take a toll on the young people of today when they reach the age of 18 where will they work where will they get a start. Like anything that is used to much or making too much of it lowers the value and soon it looses it's novelty and then you don't want it anymore but our economy can't take that sort of hit and stay solvent. All I can say is America fucked up praising others instead of being loyal to their own.

Princess Mononoke said...

Paul E. Math said...
>>>Why is there not a better process for getting these foreclosed homes onto the market at a sellable price?

It just seems like a real waste to me.
February 18, 2008 2:02 PM
=========================

Banks - 07 - 08 Darwin award winners said...
>>>It really is sad, since a lot of these homes are really very nice, and are deteriorating because of the same neglect of common sense that caused the mess.
February 18, 2008 6:34 PM
=========================

Darwin, I totally agree with your analysis and description of why?

I'd like to add that not only are the banks stubborn and stupid. The other main reason is NOT to inflict SUPREME $shock$ on the market.

Paul E. Math ask why not sell at a sellable price? That's the problem. They can not mark to market because there is no market right now. And what any of us want to pay is insulting to them.

Anonymous said...

This anti-immigrant tirade just makes no sense. You have seen your career going no where in 30yrs, perhaps due to all the taxation and regulation . . . yet, you want more government bailout to make your sorry excuse of a non-productive job fetch more in the market place, in the spirit of, let me guess, "Germany for Germans!"

News flash, there are a lot of "illegal" Americans who get paid on cash basis or use fake SS#. There are far more fake SS# use than there are illegal aliens. The reality is that, having a piece of paper or not makes no difference in terms of a particpant's contribution to the economy. A person who makes a living doing things that the market demands is an economic participant. Prihibition is a retarded policy choice; it would only produce

(a) An overgrown bureaucracy to enforce the prohibition;

(b) A high tax rate on the above-ground economy to support the bureaucracy ;

(c) Making illegal behavior (smuggling) more profitable as organized crime, thereby endangering the whole neighborhood;

(d) Enforcement against both the original artificial "crime," smuggling, and gangs necessitate draconian measures that endanger the civil liberty of all other members of the society.

If you want an example of how "paper requirement" disrupt economy, look to the former soviet bloc, where all migration required government approval. There was actually a time Americans derided such totalitarian population control methods (like in the movie "Casablanca": "where are your papers?" before the Nazi sympathizers shot a businessman, presumably Jewish, running away.)

Anonymous said...

Don't homeless people gain the right to occupancy after 30 days of squatting in some states?

Anonymous said...

Keith wrote
"Gotta give it up to capitalism. It does some really weird things along the way."

Keith that is not Capitalism, that is fraud.
True Capitalism, which implies "free markets", have been corrupted for decades.

True Capitalism, with free markets, helps all involved, considering fiat is NOT involved.

SO call it what you like, but capitalism, in it's most perverted sense, it is not.

Paul E> Math wrote,
"Why is there not a better process for getting these foreclosed homes onto the market at a sellable price?"

Well paul, I went to a foreclosure recently, and that is almost exactly what I said to the auctioneer and bank rep., (we were the only 3 there).
They did NOT make it easy for me to buy.
No inspection
No information on liens
No information of back taxes
No facts concerning community taxes or as a condo owner calls it, condo fees
No accounting of the type of auction
(I asked numerous times if it was minimum bid or absolute, and was not told)
and finally...
No eviction procedeings were initiated.
Eviction was the work of the winner.

I told both of them that they had better make auctions ALOT more buyer friendly, or this mess was going to linger...
for a long time....






They both looked at me like I had 2 heads...

Anonymous said...

I plan to wait until the 3rd major round of forced sales before buying. No sense catching a falling knife. Until then I'll be living rent free! Why buy? Why rent? Squat! It's free!

Princess Mononoke said...

Anonymous said...
>>>They both looked at me like I had 2 heads...
February 19, 2008 3:29 AM
========================

LMAO! Thank you ;)

Anonymous said...

They have stolen all the advancements that Black Americans have made (neighborhoods and programs)and demanded that they be intitled to the benefits of a people they have publicly admitted they hate. So I say every homeless man, woman, family live in the houses intended for every illegal immigrant because why should they get something that you as an American aren't even entitled to.

And your Nostradamus' Black Pope keeps yelling in Spanish everyday
"Si Se Puede!"

Funny how the Blacks are voting for a Black candidate that keeps kissing Hispanic a$$. The same Hispanics that stole millions of jobs from African Americans or drove their wages down the toilet.

Why any Black person would vote for a Black candidate who addresses his audience in Hispanic while in the USA, with Hispanic revolution words, is beyond me. I guess you Blacks want to give your future away wrapped in a tortilla to Hispanics.

Princess Mononoke said...

Anonymous said...
>>>I guess you Blacks want to give your future away wrapped in a tortilla to Hispanics.
February 19, 2008 9:43 PM
===========================

George W. Bush & comrades has already been preparing for the lovely marriage between Canada, USA and Mexico!!!

It is called the North American Union! He mentioned in passing during his last State of the Union. But the public does not catch on, unless you are REALLY listening. The media doesn't mention it. I have to research it on my own. But it IS VERY REAL!

http://www.spp.gov/index.asp

Wake up everybody! The 'PTB' have plans of their own...

Anonymous said...

When things go south, the privledged few will have the right to put holes through the back of the heads of those unfortunates who stand in the way and oppose the New Global Order. And the rest of you will be put into pens, but they will be called "education camps" or "emergency housing centers" or they will be baited by "food centers." These human resources will be processed, cherry picked for sexual abuse, and the remainder will, again, be shot through the backs of their heads by nice young men. Mark my words.