Foreclosures Cause Budget Cuts In Homeless Shelters

Foreclosures and REO homes are increasing while the sizes of budgets are decreasing. This is bad news for homeless shelters. The approach of winter has made matters worse. The chill is driving many in South Florida to seek accommodation in shelters but there is hardly any place to stretch out and sleep – the shelters are full to capacity.

In Broward and Palm Beach Counties the shelters are full. There is nothing that can be done with hundreds of requests pouring in each day. Families are in great trouble whether from errant landlords or banks foreclosing on borrowers America has never seen such a surge in demand for shelter.

Luke Wilson of Broward Homeless Hotline said, “Right now, we have more than 200 families on a waiting list for housing.” He notes down the initial help requests and sends them to a network of agencies that set up the seekers in many churches, group houses or other types of shelters Previously there were 15 requests but today it has swollen to 100.

The shelters run by counties in West Palm Beach and Belle Glade open their doors only when the temperature goes down below 40 degrees. But foreclosures have triggered off a mass search of shelters that is not related to the weather. This puts the pressure on many of the non-profit shelters that are ready to be deluged with people looking for a warm bed and hot meal.

Rev. Avis Hill of Westgate Tabernacle Church in West Palm Beach said that in the church shelter could be provided for 130 people. He thinks more requests will come in and is worrying about the capability of the church to meet the rising demand. He explained, “The demand is up, and our donations are 50% less than what they were this time last year. With the economy as it is, we have a lot more families with children than we once did. We’re just about maxed out.”

To make matters the budget at all levels – federal, state and local have been undersized. Donations are also dwindling as the foreclosure crisis has affected people horizontally and vertically across all socio-economic divides.

Sean Cononie of Homeless Voice in Hollywood says that he is seeing a group of people who would never have knocked on the doors of the shelter under normal circumstances. Job loss and rising housing costs have led to mayhem and chaos in society that bodes no good for anybody.