December 04, 2008
Can Foreclosed Houses Become Shelter for the Homeless?
Two outcomes of the country’s economic downturn are a proliferation of bank-owned foreclosed houses sitting empty and an increase in people lacking adequate shelter.
Joel John Roberts, chief executive of PATH Partners, a social-service charity in Los Angeles, wonders if something positive can come out of this situation.
“Why not match these people who are home-less, with homes that are people-less?” he writes on his LA’s Homeless Blog “The banks need someone to protect their homes, since vacant properties attract criminal elements. And people need temporary places to stay.”
An antipoverty activist group in Miami, he notes, has started to explore this possibility with some success.
“It’s a creative alternative to putting people into shelters,” Mr. Roberts writes. “Granted, it’s not a permanent solution. But it gives people the taste of home life, and keeps them off the streets.”
What do you think? Is this an avenue charities should explore?
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DC-based CityFirst Enterprises is working on a similar solution – to turn foreclosed homes into permanently affordable housing. I think models like this have a lot of potential and are worth exploring and experimenting with. www.cfenterprises.org
— Vanessa Dec 5, 10:11 AM #
I understand the goal, but does anyone else see the irony in this proposal? Would the foreclosed homeowners be eligible to stay in their own home? Also, I remember a scene in “Dr. Zhivago” where he comes back to find his home has become a communal house overrun with unsympathetic occupants. “You still have too much space.” This is only a couple of steps from the government saying we have too much space, too many houses. “Spread the Wealth”.
— Mark Dec 5, 01:50 PM #
I have to agree with Mark’s assessment, at least in part.
Using bank owned foreclosed homes as temporary housing for the homeless, only protects the bank, and does nothing for the average home-owner turned home-less. It justifies the bank taking away any equity the home-owner may have had, and turns her and/or him into a ‘serf’, living at the pleasure of the bank.
What happens then, when the market turns around and the bank is able to recoup their investment as well as make a profit on that property? Does the bank give the former owner’s equity back to them? I seriously doubt it.
I’ll use my own situation as an example. My home was recently valued at over $530,000. The bank owns $222,000 of that value. When the bank is finally able to find a buyer after foreclosing on me, will I be reimbursed for my equity after the bank note is paid off? No – the bank will absorb my equity as their ‘just’ profit.
In the mean time, I’ll be living in some half-way house for Veteran’s widows, paid for by the government I suppose. And all my other possessions are no more – sold or thrown out to make way for the new owner. No more photo albums, or personal items, no mementos of one’s children and grandchildren, or paintings and sculptures, no books on the shelves…
Why not just save us all a step? Go door to door, offering homeowners the opportunity to sign over their property in exchange for their place in history as our country’s latest, greatest “mobile population”. Transient is SUCH an ugly word.
What happened to all the funds given to banks in recent bail-outs? As a condition of receiving bail-out funds, those banks should have forgiven mortgages about to be foreclosed upon – especially those homes occupied by the disabled. After all, where did the bail-out money come from? Forget the government – the money came from tax-payers. The same tax-payers who are now being dumped into the street!
Oh sure, I’ve seen on-line that one can apply to Hope Now, or some other government backed refinancing. I’ve looked at those sites and what I can tell you is that those programs still require the homeowner to be able to make their monthly payments. The two million workers we’ve been told about recently can’t make that guarantee. Neither can disabled workers, because the government application process for benefits takes so long.
As a disabled worker myself, I recently asked the Salvation Army for help with my mortgage and heating bill. After all, I’ve donated money to them all my adult life. I was told that I needed to go to my local “C.C.A.P.” program, fill out a rather lengthy form, and then I’d get an appointment to talk about my situation. Well, I had a question about the form, so I called in to the C.C.A.P. office last Friday. In ferreting out the answer to my question, I was also able to get some more information. (Yes – ferreting. Isn’t it amazing that straight answers are so hard to come by?)
I found that in order to qualify for a very limited, one-time help benefit, the board of directors would require me to prove that I would be able to cover all my future expenses. They would also balk that I was already two months behind on my mortgage, and their limits wouldn’t be high enough to cover that amount. Therefore, said the woman in the office, she doubted they would approve any help for me at all.
As an afterthought, the woman added that since their program couldn’t help with my mortgage, they would certainly be happy to pay the deposits to move me into low income housing.
Is this what you fundraisers do all day? Find ways to prolong the agony of those in need? You don’t see that offer of paying deposits as nothing more than a kick in the teeth? My deposits are ALREADY PAID for the home I’m in… and I paid them.
“A taste of home life” you say??? Another kick in the teeth!
Where do you think those homeless people come from, Mr. Roberts? At one time they had all the home life they could ever want!
No! “Virginia” – charities should NOT explore that as an option. Charities need to do some housecleaning and reform of their own, kick out ineffective bureaucrats, do away with fantasy thinking habits, and KEEP people in their homes to begin with!
I apologize in advance to those who are about to feel offended by my remarks. Then again, no one has offered an apology to me or the millions like me who are about to become new-age serfs. If you’re offended, perhaps you need to do some soul searching of your own.
If you really want to know what to do to help, go pick a homeless person off the street and put them on your board of directors. Better yet, spend a year in their shoes.
Banks stand to turn a profit from the poverty of others, and our government has given them license.
— Terrice Kennedy Dec 7, 11:45 PM #