Foreclosures Are Responsible For The Mushrooming Of Tent Cities

Foreclosures

Foreclosures are directly responsible for the mushrooming of tent cities. The two are going hand in hand – increasing foreclosures and spiking tent cities. It is happening all over the country.

The big cities like Los Angeles and New York are one of the worst affected but the smaller towns have not been spared. Here too the people who have become unemployed and lost their houses to foreclosure are settling down in newly formed tent cities out of the sheer need to survive. The Associated Press reports that 61% of the homeless coalitions (local and state) report that there has been a sharp increase in homelessness.

Speaking to New York Times, Peter Stack the manager of homeless centre operations in Fresno said, “They just popped up about 18 months ago. One day [the railroad lot] was empty. The next day, there were people living there.”

Few cities in California have been spared the scourge of tent cities. In Fresno those who have lost their traditional seasonal jobs in agriculture are unemployed. They are looking around for shelter. But the new entrees are truck drivers, electricians, plumbers and many like them. The town has a population of about 500,000. Of these 2,000 people is homeless cooping up in three downtown areas according to Gregory Barfield who is the manager overseeing this problem of prevention of homelessness.

Lately Sacramento has been in the news for the large number of people living in tents. It plight was highlighted in the Oprah Winfrey Show. Sacramento has been badly mauled by foreclosures and those evicted are trying to live out life under plastic sheets near rail tracks. It means not only lack of basic comforts but also of privacy. Moreover it is not safe either to rub shoulders with questionable characters for those used to gentle living.

One of the residents Tammy speaking to reporter Lisa Lang complained of the problem of not “taking a shower when I want, walking into my bathroom, turning the light on. Fixing my hair and doing my makeup. I miss looking like a girl.”

The spiralling situation is causing the local administration to sit up and get things moving. The city council has recently sanctioned $1 million for the homeless – providing more beds in the shelters. Governor Schwarzenegger said recently that he is trying to find funds for relocating the tent city so as to be able to shut it down by the end of April.