Tent-City

quote:

SACRAMENTO, CA (KGO) -- It is the sad reality of a California city hit hard by foreclosures and huge job losses. In the shadow of downtown Sacramento, tent cities have sprung up, housing as many as 1,200 people.

SIGN-UP: Get breaking news sent to you

"I just try to keep the peace, organized, make sure everybody eats," Rico Morales said. Morales is the defacto mayor of one of the tent cities.

Many of the homeless here do not fit the stereotype of homelessness. Many had good jobs and stable family lives until the economy spun out of control.

Now the real mayor, former NBA star, Kevin Johnson, is thinking about sanctioning the tent cities, essentially legally zoning them. With a $50 million dollar deficit, the city cannot afford to expand services.

"Our shelters have seen an increase, four-fold, there are not enough shelters, and I believe as a city, we need to look at every option, and tent cities are something we should consider," Johnson said.

For the most part police are looking the other way, which may be one reason the tent cities have grown so quickly.

Neighbors close by would like to see more enforcement of zoning laws.

"I have constituent neighbors that live there that are terrorized by these people day and night," Sacramento city councilman Ray Tretheway said.

Tent city residents say they do not want to live this way, but with nowhere else to go and no jobs to get, they say providing land where police wouldn't harass them would help their already difficult life.

"That's a big thing, we don't like rolling up everything that we put out and having to find another spot, only to get messed with the next day," tent city resident Daniel Thomas said.

quote:

TENTS have mushroomed in the concrete jungle of Sacramento, the state capital of California.

The city, where former movie star turned governor Arnold Schwarzenegger works, has one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the United States.

As many as 50 people a week arrive at the tent city and the authorities estimate it is now home to more than 1,200 people, reported the Telegraph.

The plight of the new homeless was featured in the Oprah Winfrey Show recently and came as a shock to the estimated 40 million Americans who watched it.

One resident of tent city known only as Tammy, 47, told the show that she has been living with her husband in this tent city for a little less than a year. 'My husband's job fell through,' she said.

'He was a tile setter ... (but people) weren't buying houses anymore, and there was no need for tile setting. We lost our car and our home, our apartment. We lost everything we had.'

Though Tammy and her husband are both actively looking for work, they say it feels impossible in this economy.

'That's where we're going this morning,' she said.

'To get cleaned up and go out and try to make our best appearance.'

The hardest part about living in a tent city is losing the everyday amenities most people take for granted, Tammy said. 'Taking a shower when I want, walking into my bathroom, turning the light on. Fixing my hair and doing my make-up,' she says.

Conditions are primitive, with no water supply or proper sanitation.

Many residents have to walk up to 5km to buy bottled water from petrol stations or convenience stores, reported the Daily Mail.

Charity

At other times, charity workers arrive to hand out free food and other supplies.

Ms Joan Burke, who campaigns on behalf of the homeless, said the images of Americans living in tents would shock many.

'It should be an eye-opener for everybody,' she said.

'But we shouldn't just be shocked, we should take action to change things, because it's unacceptable.'

Now residents and relief workers are hoping that being featured on the show may bring some relief to their plight.

'We're very glad that Oprah and her team have chosen to give this crisis a voice, because it is a crisis,' Ms Michele Steeb, executive director of St John's Shelter said.

The shelter is full and had to turn away people, some of whom end up in the tents.

'Our turnaway numbers have risen from 20 women and children being turned away per day in 2007 to 80 in 2008 to our current number of 230 women and children being turned away a day,' she said.

The city and county of Sacramento have already received US$34 million ($53 million) to help fight the effects of the foreclosure crisis but, in the meantime, hundreds of people have moved into the shelters.

Authorities in Sacramento are suffering as the state has a US$42 billion deficit and the tent city looks like becoming a permanent fixture, reported the Telegraph.

'I can't say tent cities are the answer to the homeless population in Sacramento,' Mr Kevin Johnson, Sacramento's mayor said, 'but I think it's one of the many things that should be considered and looked at.'

quote:

Op woensdag 11 maart 2009 20:15 schreef superworm het volgende:

[..]

Jep. December 2008 al 5 miljoen foreclosures, weet niet hoe het nu ermee staat. Die mensen eindigen in Amerika dus gewoon massaal op straat, dan mag je blij wezen met goeie vrienden of familie die je kan opvangen, maar een deel woont dus in tenten. Californië en Florida gingen het eerst, inmiddels hebben bijna alle staten geen budget meer om te helpen en miljoenen inwoners die het allemaal niet meer aan elkaar knopen financieel - plus ook nog eens 250.000 werklozen per week (!) er nu bij. Gaat helemaal naar de klote, en daar hebben ze eigenlijk al dertig jaar uitstel op lopen breien.

Zie ook het FOK!-bericht: 'Tentsteden' doemen massaal op in VS

quote:

Op woensdag 11 maart 2009 20:47 schreef PietjePuk007 het volgende:

[..]

Foreclosure alley mergen?