By the wide stretch of the American River in Sacramento, history is repeating itself. Here, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, men and women who had lost everything and despaired of finding work built rough shelters and huddled around fires.
Now the spiral of job losses and house repossessions has left another wave of Americans homeless, and a new tent city is growing rapidly on lumpy, derelict land between the river and the railway tracks here in the capital of California.
There are more than 300 people living in scattered encampments stretching a couple of miles along the river bank. As many as 50 more arrive each week. Unemployment in Sacramento reached 10.4 per cent in January and California is suffering some of the worst repossession rates in the country, with as many as 500 people losing their homes every day last year.
Charity workers in the city can no longer cope with the number of people coming to them for help. The shelters are full, with one home that caters for women and children turning away 200 people a night.
oan Burke, director of advocacy for the homeless charity Loaves and Fishes, said: “The folks we deal with typically are the working poor. But right now the economy is in such turmoil that it is affecting a new layer of middle-class earners - construction workers, farm labourers, retail workers, restaurant staff.
“People who have earned good money but have not got any savings are finding out about the reality of being just one or two pay cheques away from becoming homeless.”
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I don't get these people who won't seek the help of their families, or the families that won't give them help. That is the saddest part of these stories!
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't the people who lost their construction jobs (the ones who played straight and lived in modest homes and spent within their means) having the heads of those who made $10.00 an hour and bought 350K to 500K McMansions, getting them repossessed, and thereby causing all this homelessness to begin with? Both classes are in the tent cities, one class because of the other. YES, lets help them all---no doubt about that, but I am waiting for the crooked buyers (and lenders) to be held accountable, for wrecking both their own lives and those of their neighbors. Help comes first--accountability for their actions follows closely behind. You tell me if that isnt a fair approach?
ReplyDeletehttp://pencildicksvstheworld.blogspot.com/2009/03/beginning-of-end-or.html
ReplyDeletePut that in your search engine and smoke it.
I'm quite dismayed at this news. However, Californians are notoriously naive. Not to mention stubborn. It's just not my fault.
ReplyDeletesure glad we still have penty of money for the miltary, bailouts and Pelosi's plane trips....
ReplyDeletemy grandad and grandma lived in worse conditions than those with 10 children. Its time people take responsibility for themselves and quit relying on the government and the state to provide or meet their needs. If there is no work start walking to find some. I lost my job, cars, home, with no savings, no unemployment check, no help from the government, (Nothing) 5 years ago. I started over and have built back these people can too.
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