Vacant Homes and Homeless People in America

First, I think there is a common misconception about the homeless in America. Not all are the "crazy" people standing on the street corners holding their signs. Many may have a job or some type of income but don't make enough to afford a home. They may live in cars, stay here or there with friends and/or relatives or even camp in parks.

Now to the point of the vacant homes which are mostly foreclosed homes. Either the people abandoned the home or were forced to leave. If I were the previous owner who was forced to leave or walked away I would be pretty upset if the bank allowed some other person to live there because they said they were homeless. If anything, the banks should give the opportunity to the previous owner to reside in the home, especially if that person is now homeless.

reply to post by SJE98


Thank you for your research. Your reply just reeks of money and control and makes the government look like psychopaths. The focus - as far as the government and the banks are concerned is money. So when the government and the bank have all the money they desire and many millions of people are homeless - what then? It is just insane to think that the people who are supposed to make decisions on how society should be managed are actually managing their way to a huge disaster.

Bulldozing homes - rather than allow families to keep living in them - or re managing them and turning them into accommodation. Why on earth is this nightmare happening? How much longer will it continue until people say enough?

The real depth of this topic is not about allowing a family to remain in their home and make alternative mortgage payments and it is not about allowing homeless people to live in foreclosure homes - it is about a government that is out of control. If the government wants money and would rather own millions of vacant homes - and have millions of people homeless - then what do they really want? They certainly do not want to help people. They certainly do not care about anyone but themselves.

I hope that the homeless people are not going to be marched off into the FEMA camps. Anyone who says the FEMA camps don't exist wants to talk to a survivor of a NAZI internment camp or the relatives - they will tell you that what happened was real and that their very own government orchestrated the entire nightmare.

Homeless people are incredibly vulnerable and to see how the government does not care for them makes me very suspicious - I hope others can see what I see.

Much Peace...

reply to post by taccj9903


The banks are just there to take - I do not see them allowing anyone to live in a foreclosure home. When banks start to care about people - that is the day pink elephants will fly.

I too agree that families should be permitted to remain in their homes - but we are not psychopaths - we care enough to talk about the problem. Government officials and banks - they are psychopaths and are clearly insane with their greed for money and power.

Much Peace...

reply to post by Amanda5


I do agree with your post; however, the government doesn't own these homes the banks do.

reply to post by taccj9903


While you are technically correct the government and the banks are in cahoots. The two walk together and how they continue to get away with such criminal and heartless activity is beyond my understanding.

Much Peace...

its true. im currently homeless even tho ive been at my job 2 years . once my wife left me i was (unknown to me) 2 months behind in rent and in less that 2 weeks i was on the street.now im contemplating how to gtfo of america. i drive by homes that have been unoccupied for 6+ months and cant believe it. now im using more money then i can afford to get a hotel just so i can keep clean so i wont lose the job i have. sad times for this country .

Great thread OP. Many are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures. I think a lot should happen before tossing someone out their home. Once a person becomes homeless it becomes much harder to regain employment, setting someone up to a much longer dependency on "welfare". In many cases a foreclosure is done illegally but still favor is given to the banks in the process of determining if a foreclosure was illegal, with the person/family unable to reside in the house during the court case.

I understand where people come from when they say that is doesn't make sense to just give people homes and it's somewhat true however, perhaps a program can be set up (more government..I know) that is some sort of life boat for families that fell on hard times. Our entitlement programs are such a failure, the whole thing needs a revamp. You don't qualify for help until you're destitute and as soon as you start climbing up you're cut off and end up falling back into the hole.

I don't honestly have a solution I just know we are in crisis and the rich keep getting richer and are hoarding the wealth to the point it feels abusive. As a free person, I don't want to punish someone's success but how many times are we going to hear about XYZ Corp. made billions in profit then shut down a plant or laid off 1,000 workers or received a bailout or got millions back in tax rebates?

We live in insanity.

Here in Australia our Govt has thousands of perfectly good Housing Commission homes empty - and many single parents and homeless people can't tap in to them so these homes lay empty, some of them have been empty for up to 2 years.

Am thinking that those foreclosed homes should maybe be refurbished if possible and given out in a lottery to those who lost their homes when the great harvest began. It would be a "good faith" payment on the interest for the trillions of dollars we gave them after they took out homes. As for the "ruined" properties, How about donate the materials to home for humanities or such and demolish them piecemeal for recyclable materials? I have done this when I was flipping houses, used recycled fixtures and lumber can turn a junk development into several livable homes for little more than labor or as we used to call them, jobs.Nah I read that crap in my leaking roof rental paying in rent 100$ more than the mortgage they took due to slack construction and loss of savings due to medical bills( A whole other issue is how one can have almost a full retirements savings reaped in a maze of deductibles, pre-existing conditions and impossible premiums and co-pays).and I am p*ssed! So if these freakin' corporations are people they should have to take up residence it the homes they chose to take and leave empty.
I am telling ya'll history says if you squeeze the basics like food and shelter too hard the SHTF in short order.
APB

Great Post OP !



For if one looks at the bigger picture and the agenda imposed upon all of us have nots by the owners (The Banks).

This is all orchestrated by design.

First we had the housing boom of 2000-2006 .....and at the tail end we had the Refinancing Boom.

Remember the 0% down loans ? This was all done on purpose....to people to sign their property away to the Banks.

Then what followed was the banking crisis and many lost their homes due to fraudulent mortgage contracts...that ballooned to excessive monthly amounts which were impossible to meet.

One only needs to Think about the Powers ultimate goal ....as well as by coincidence....

The FEMA camps are being readied and staffed and at the same time we have record numbers of Homeless in which to fill them with.

This is hardly at all by coincidence.

WHY ?

As the Fascist Nazi's used their interned prisoners.....for slave labor....until they can no longer produce and/or cease to exist.

Read Behold a Pale Horse by Bill Cooper ....it's uncanny in it's predictions about what we are currently facing now economically and why.

Peace to All

and a Happy New Year !!

Originally posted by MrWax11
reply to post by Amanda5

 

It's a complicated issue. I worked for a company that received money from the 2009 stimulus package. I lost my job later that year because of cut backs. Why? I don't know. They just received huge sums of money from the government yet still many were laid off at my facility. I received unemployment through the state of Texas for the first and only time of my life. The federal government added a whopping $25 per week to my unemployment as part of their package.

Couldn't find a job for months and had my home foreclosed on in 2010 after paying my mortgage and taxes on time for 8 years. 3 payments behind and I was out. My old home still sits empty until this day and I have a small apartment. "They" would rather have my home sit empty than allow me, and my children, who has worked all his life and NEVER sponged off of government programs to be homeless if that was the case.

But the issue also is that if "they" let some homeless people live in these homes for nothing many of these people who became homeless from doing nothing will continue to do nothing and ride out the freebies for as long as they can.

Catch 22 I guess!!!!

I dont mind giving poor people freebies. There are always going to be moochers. The trick is to keep the moochers poor.

Right now the moochers are the super, mega, disgustingly rich. Let me say that again the rich are the moochers. Not the middle class, or even the upper upper class. The moochers are richer than that and take more than the poor ever could.

Keep the moochers poor and they're can't buy yachts and champagne hot tubs with our tax money. Its not rocket science. Its common sense. The whole damn welfare idea is flip flopped.

Originally posted by Amanda5
Title - 3.5 Million Homeless & 18.5 Million Vacant Homes in the US

These are two separate and independent problems. You mentioned that you don't live in America, so you probably have no idea how big and spread out our country is. The bulk of vacant homes in this country are 30 minutes to an hour from a city center and are utterly worthless for housing the homeless. These homes are large and expensive to maintain and they are remote, and that is largely why they are now abandoned. Even people with jobs and transportation can't afford the utility bills and upkeep expenses. We need small, high density housing close to city centers with mass transit access and we just don't have much of it right now, this is the problem we're just now awakening to. It is a focus of our current green movement initiated by the USGBC, but it will take decades for it to take root.

Originally posted by Amanda5
Why would any government want their people on the street and homeless?

It is a myth that homeless people are cast out into the streets in America. It's simply not true. There are tons of assistance programs here covering food, housing, education and medical issues. Anyone that is down on their luck has all of these things available to them. It may not be the Ritz Carlton, but the idea is to give them temporary housing until they can get back on their feet, not to give them luxurious accommodations that will discourage them from seeking work and something better. There is only one requirement, they must remain alcohol free and drug free to qualify. And THIS is why there are people living on the streets, they choose NOT to remain free of alcohol and drugs. And thus they lose their access to assistance. There are two types of homeless in America, the ones mentioned above that are down on their luck and the ones you see or hear about that live in cardboard boxes, but the latter have CHOSEN that life. There are plenty of documented examples of these people being offered homes and assistance and a few weeks later they abandon their free homes to return to their life on the streets. As hard as it may be to believe, it's what most of them want- a life completely free and devoid of responsibility, even the responsibility of bathing.

reply to post by Amanda5


Get rid of the need for money and there will be no homeless...

For more, see My thread here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Amanda5
Why is there an assumption that people are homeless because they have mental health problems? Maybe some homeless people do have mental health problems but I believe it would only be a small percentage.

If anyone has a mental health problem it is every member of government who thinks they are actually helping the people of their country.

There has to be a solution - image if every single homeless person - squatted in every single vacant home. Just as an example - I wonder how difficult it would be to get them out - for them to move straight back in again. I wonder how the news would report the activities and how the public would react...hmm.

All I know is that having homeless people and having vacant homes - should equal - problem solved. Is society so messed up that people still cannot see this reality? Thank you for the input thus far - hopefully more discussion will come.

Much Peace...

Let me use the state of Texas as an example, when state benefits run out for mentally ill persons in certain facilities in the state they give them a one way ticket to a major Texas city, most likely Houston because it's the largest. So yeah in the past the majority of those who were not homeless by choice were the mentally ill, things have shifted and you have victims of foreclosures catching up with the two other groups.

You know what I can see both sides of the coin, yes having all those vacate houses available could benefit many people who lack shelter. The other side of that coin is, many of those people may find themselves in another pickle because they can 't maintain that property due to lack of finances? Oh I agree the solution is there but the government can't be relied upon to provide it because that would create more red tape from hell.

People might would want to look into the "squatting laws" in their neck of the woods if they really want to find a home but can't afford to buy one.

3.5 Million people willing to do anything? I can only imagine a riot of that scale nationwide

This is the problem....less than half of all American citizens pay taxes.....floating the bill for the other half to include themselves and corporations that pay no taxes.

It's a lopsided system that has to fall sooner or later. Social programs are a lark at best as they only offer minimal help. Even then you have to be dirt f*ckin poor to qualify for any of it....other wise you make too much to qualify and not enough to float the months bills. Your stuck in between the rules of the system which means the rules don't apply to you unless you happen to contribute to the social medium welfare demographic of being a minority race....lots of help there.....wouldn't wanna be seen as a racist social welfare program after all.

Anyway, it's going to get worse the broker our country gets.....and the more they raise that damn debt ceiling the worse the inevitable will be as inflation will take hold...then hyper-inflation......then chaos. Look this isnt fear mongering....any a**hole that knows history will tell you that history repeats itself as it is now...and probably will again in the future.

Expect horrible things to come.....I am......and enjoying every minute of it......

Originally posted by Kali74
Great thread OP. Many are calling for a moratorium on foreclosures. I think a lot should happen before tossing someone out their home. Once a person becomes homeless it becomes much harder to regain employment, setting someone up to a much longer dependency on "welfare". In many cases a foreclosure is done illegally but still favor is given to the banks in the process of determining if a foreclosure was illegal, with the person/family unable to reside in the house during the court case.

I understand where people come from when they say that is doesn't make sense to just give people homes and it's somewhat true however, perhaps a program can be set up (more government..I know) that is some sort of life boat for families that fell on hard times. Our entitlement programs are such a failure, the whole thing needs a revamp. You don't qualify for help until you're destitute and as soon as you start climbing up you're cut off and end up falling back into the hole.

I don't honestly have a solution I just know we are in crisis and the rich keep getting richer and are hoarding the wealth to the point it feels abusive. As a free person, I don't want to punish someone's success but how many times are we going to hear about XYZ Corp. made billions in profit then shut down a plant or laid off 1,000 workers or received a bailout or got millions back in tax rebates?

We live in insanity.

Clearly the banks would have been better off making the payments on homes smaller before kicking people out and letting houses sit and rot, the weirdest of all is that there are so many new houses being built even here in our small tow. Houses sit empty year after year but new houses are being built.

reply to post by Amanda5


You clearly have a wrong take on the United States. Anyone homeless here is homeless by choice.

I think many from other countries do not understand the abundance of resources here to help people. I think the reason is other countries do it all through taxation and the government is a genuine Nanny, while here we give and give and give privately. My Wife for instance hauls a truckload of food to a local food bank once a month.

Our homeless are mostly mentally ill who refuse housing along with drug addicts and alcoholics who also refuse housing.

As to the empty houses, why should people who choose to work pay and those who choose to stay in the streets because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol get free housing? Enabling them is the stupidest thing any society can do. You may as well stick a gun to their head and pull the trigger. Not to mention the unfairness of it.

There are millions of job openings at all times in the US. Problem is they are jobs the "Takers" refuse to do or to learn to do. Anyone going hungry is doing so by choice. There are food banks and kitchens everywhere. In the cities they can eat many times a day if they wish. On top of that they get Food Stamps and if they sober up they get subsidized housing. Subsidized out of our pockets of course.

It's a shame all the lies about America are out there and that so many self-loathing Americans lie to enforce them. Often those lying are the same drug addicts and alcoholics or from the I'll live in my Mommies basement until she dies crowd. The Takers.

Come visit sometime and see the truth. America is still a wonderful place were at least 80% of us are doing just great and in most cases better than nearly the entire world. If you need help, there is no better place to be than here or Canada for that matter. We as a people give and give until it hurts and have always done so. Not all of us have turned into Alinsky Progressives who want the State to do everything.

Two of my employees are handicapped. The gentleman who cleans for me is in a facility for the mentally ill and I make sure he earns enough to take care of his personal needs. I raised about $350,000 for charity last year. I am a fairly normal American. Please don't judge us by haters words and the spin you see in the news from fanatical Progressives. To call their spin lies is an understatement. As to those who don't live here who hate us, what can anyone say about that. They believe what they believe, because they want to believe it and we just happen to be who they picked out to hate.

reply to post by Blaine91555


I've known a few homeless folks and they were none of those things - of course some were, but not all.
I used to work with the mentally ill and have volunteered at a homeless shelter, and this is just not my experience at all.

It'd be fair to simply give the homeless homes, if everyone was given the opportunity to have a home without the burden of working hard for it.