Shantytowns Spring Up in Major US Cities
By Scott Reeves Nov 14, 2008 11:00 am
Jobless, homeless, and living in tents.
It’s a scene not seen since the “Hoovervilles” of the Great Depression.
In Reno, Nevada, the homeless have pitched tents downtown next to fancy hotels, casinos and restaurants. Some members of the tent city say they came to Reno looking for work in the casinos, but even the gaming industry is cutting back.
Reno has a limited number of beds in its homeless shelters, and people can stay only 2 weeks. Even fleabag motels cost about $200 a week, a cost far beyond the reach of many of the newly homeless.
Reno is built on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, at about 4,500 feet. It starts to get cold this time of year, and the city can receive significant snowfall. City and local charities need to work fast to get residents of the new tent city out of the cold.
Nevada has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. But that downbeat economic indicator hasn’t stopped job seekers. Earlier this week, a casino in Las Vegas received about 25,000 applications for 1,000 jobs.
The National Coalition for the Homeless reports that 61% of local and state homeless coalitions report a spike in homelessness since foreclosures began to climb in 2007. No region of the country is immune.
In Seattle, homeless encampments are popping up in a number of neighborhoods, including on the fringes of high-class, high-rise construction sites.
A quick Internet search turns up news reports of similar tent cities emerging in Santa Barbara, Fresno, and San Diego, California; Portland, Oregon; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Columbus, Ohio - you name it.
There are no definitive statistics on how many people have been made homeless by the economic downturn, but here’s hoping no jobseekers freeze to death in tents while officials in Reno and cities across the nation try to figure out what to do next.
So far, all efforts to help the newly homeless appear to be piecemeal and local. Clearly, no one anticipated this. Most cities are strapped for cash as tax revenue falls, and can't afford to launch a publicly funded park-school-municipal building clean-up, even if they wanted to.
But cheer up: So far, no one his pitched a tent near Wall Street’s bronze bull in Lower Manhattan.
No positions in stocks mentioned.
The information on this website solely reflects the analysis of or opinion about the performance of securities and financial markets by the writers whose articles appear on the site. The views expressed by the writers are not necessarily the views of Minyanville Media, Inc. or members of its management. Nothing contained on the website is intended to constitute a recommendation or advice addressed to an individual investor or category of investors to purchase, sell or hold any security, or to take any action with respect to the prospective movement of the securities markets or to solicit the purchase or sale of any security. Any investment decisions must be made by the reader either individually or in consultation with his or her investment professional. Minyanville writers and staff may trade or hold positions in securities that are discussed in articles appearing on the website. Writers of articles are required to disclose whether they have a position in any stock or fund discussed in an article, but are not permitted to disclose the size or direction of the position. Nothing on this website is intended to solicit business of any kind for a writer's business or fund. Minyanville management and staff as well as contributing writers will not respond to emails or other communications requesting investment advice.
Copyright 2009 Minyanville Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2009 Minyanville Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
(4)
Reply
2008-11-14 16:15:05
This, too, shall pass.
Tent cities have flourished under Republican presidents. They fade away during Democrat Administrations.
I used to rail about homelessness. I learned by volunteering at a shelter that there are as many causes of homelessnes as there are homeless. As revealed by the spike in homelessness, homelessness is a symptom not a condition.
I used to rail about homelessness. I learned by volunteering at a shelter that there are as many causes of homelessnes as there are homeless. As revealed by the spike in homelessness, homelessness is a symptom not a condition.
2008-11-16 04:52:33
Alantowns?
In regards to the homeless encampments springing up across the country, the question of what to call them is still an open one.
The name that stuck in the thirties was Hoovervilles after then President Hoover.
I am sure that any number of names involving President Bush will be suggested but I would like to point out some problems with that. President Hoover was actually a very intelligent man. A successful Engineer and accomplished student of economics. His problems was a blind spot when it came to human needs in the face of obvious distress.
I don't think many people will look at President Bush as the brains behind even his own administration. His blind spot is a more general one than that of human distress. The fact that it took days for him to even notice that New Orleans was flooded, I believe shows a complete detachment from reality.
No, I think that we need to look elsewhere for a name to describe the homeless encampments of the twenty first century. In that vein I would like to propose Alantowns. Do you think Billy Joel will mind if I modify his classic song to fit the occasion?
Living here in Alantown
Music by Billy Joel
Lyrics not by Billy Joel
Well we are living here in Alantown
And they're closing all the home equity lines down
At the FED they're just killing time
Inventing new forms, creating new lines
Well our fathers fought the First Gulf War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance, danced with them slow
And we're living here in Alantown
But the but the interest rates were artificially held down
And it's getting very hard to stay
Well we're waiting here in Alantown for the recovery we never found
For the promises our leaders gave if we worked hard, if we behaved
So the ARMs hang on the wall but they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Savings and thrift, fixed interest rate deals
And we're waiting here in Alantown
Because they've securitized all the risks that were found
And the counterparties all crawled away
Every child had a pretty good shot to get at least as far as their old man got
Something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face
Well, I'm living here in Alantown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting up today
And it's getting very hard to stay
And we're living here in Alantown
The name that stuck in the thirties was Hoovervilles after then President Hoover.
I am sure that any number of names involving President Bush will be suggested but I would like to point out some problems with that. President Hoover was actually a very intelligent man. A successful Engineer and accomplished student of economics. His problems was a blind spot when it came to human needs in the face of obvious distress.
I don't think many people will look at President Bush as the brains behind even his own administration. His blind spot is a more general one than that of human distress. The fact that it took days for him to even notice that New Orleans was flooded, I believe shows a complete detachment from reality.
No, I think that we need to look elsewhere for a name to describe the homeless encampments of the twenty first century. In that vein I would like to propose Alantowns. Do you think Billy Joel will mind if I modify his classic song to fit the occasion?
Living here in Alantown
Music by Billy Joel
Lyrics not by Billy Joel
Well we are living here in Alantown
And they're closing all the home equity lines down
At the FED they're just killing time
Inventing new forms, creating new lines
Well our fathers fought the First Gulf War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance, danced with them slow
And we're living here in Alantown
But the but the interest rates were artificially held down
And it's getting very hard to stay
Well we're waiting here in Alantown for the recovery we never found
For the promises our leaders gave if we worked hard, if we behaved
So the ARMs hang on the wall but they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Savings and thrift, fixed interest rate deals
And we're waiting here in Alantown
Because they've securitized all the risks that were found
And the counterparties all crawled away
Every child had a pretty good shot to get at least as far as their old man got
Something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face
Well, I'm living here in Alantown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting up today
And it's getting very hard to stay
And we're living here in Alantown
2008-11-16 08:35:53
working class homelessness
Dear Scott,
I wasn't reading Minyanville in the '80's, but were you this outspoken when Reagan was saying "they want to be homeless!" and his "free press" propaganda machine convinced the American people (when we became lobotomized, I couldn't say) that:
1) they numbered only about 250 to 300 thousand
2) they were caused by the supreme court decision that prevented mandatory commitment to mental hospitals for the "seriiously disturbed"
3) they were either psychotic, drunks, or drug-addicts.
4) it was not a problem caused by capitalism's inability to provide affordable housing (this, of course, was never even mentioned explicitly or it might have sparked a debate)
5) they - "the homeless" - were nobody that you would ever want to invite to dinner.
I worked in a family-homeless shelter in 1987 & the government's first line of attack on the problem was to deny it existed. Stays were limited to a relatively short period (forget how many days - maybe 30) because, of course, this could only be a short term problem - house fire, flood, temporary shortage of funds, etc. Families, therefore, were forced to be shuttled from one shelter (the one wherein I worked was the former cafeteria of St. Cecilia's High School in Englewood, NJ, where I was a student for one year in the early '50's) to another, at times clear across the state. Then to another. And another. Try keeping yourself sane under those conditions, living in a ten-by-ten cublcle formed by movable partitions, w/ your children either endlessly changing schools, or deciding, like Leona Helmsley that (paraphrasing) work was for the little people. After all, look where work got Mom & Dad!
Reagan's great contribution to the American system was to make government & business partners. As you well know, he was a great & outspoken admirer of Japan Inc., & governemt as a protector of Joe Sixpack vs the ravages of Champagne Shirley had no place in such a partnership between gov & biz. Neither, obviously, does democracy. How a priveleged class can control the government & yet insist that the press is "free" (when obviously it's one of the two partners) & that the system constitutes a democracy is, like man y other things in life, beyond me. The essence of democracy is that the people have the ultimate power.
How powerful are YOU feeling these days? But, hey, you can still vote, right?
Have you noticed how much criticism there is of government these day, now that even the partners are feeling the pain? Is anyone talking about RICO? They didn't in the '80's either, when the savings-and-loan grifters were ripping off the public; after all, thanks to Reagan's de-regulation, they could make however many high-paying, high risk loans they chose & their deposits were still guaranteed by the US taxpayer!
And that half-assed, muddle-brained fascist is still revered as one of our great presidents!
Lotsa luck,
Seamus O'Bannion.
I wasn't reading Minyanville in the '80's, but were you this outspoken when Reagan was saying "they want to be homeless!" and his "free press" propaganda machine convinced the American people (when we became lobotomized, I couldn't say) that:
1) they numbered only about 250 to 300 thousand
2) they were caused by the supreme court decision that prevented mandatory commitment to mental hospitals for the "seriiously disturbed"
3) they were either psychotic, drunks, or drug-addicts.
4) it was not a problem caused by capitalism's inability to provide affordable housing (this, of course, was never even mentioned explicitly or it might have sparked a debate)
5) they - "the homeless" - were nobody that you would ever want to invite to dinner.
I worked in a family-homeless shelter in 1987 & the government's first line of attack on the problem was to deny it existed. Stays were limited to a relatively short period (forget how many days - maybe 30) because, of course, this could only be a short term problem - house fire, flood, temporary shortage of funds, etc. Families, therefore, were forced to be shuttled from one shelter (the one wherein I worked was the former cafeteria of St. Cecilia's High School in Englewood, NJ, where I was a student for one year in the early '50's) to another, at times clear across the state. Then to another. And another. Try keeping yourself sane under those conditions, living in a ten-by-ten cublcle formed by movable partitions, w/ your children either endlessly changing schools, or deciding, like Leona Helmsley that (paraphrasing) work was for the little people. After all, look where work got Mom & Dad!
Reagan's great contribution to the American system was to make government & business partners. As you well know, he was a great & outspoken admirer of Japan Inc., & governemt as a protector of Joe Sixpack vs the ravages of Champagne Shirley had no place in such a partnership between gov & biz. Neither, obviously, does democracy. How a priveleged class can control the government & yet insist that the press is "free" (when obviously it's one of the two partners) & that the system constitutes a democracy is, like man y other things in life, beyond me. The essence of democracy is that the people have the ultimate power.
How powerful are YOU feeling these days? But, hey, you can still vote, right?
Have you noticed how much criticism there is of government these day, now that even the partners are feeling the pain? Is anyone talking about RICO? They didn't in the '80's either, when the savings-and-loan grifters were ripping off the public; after all, thanks to Reagan's de-regulation, they could make however many high-paying, high risk loans they chose & their deposits were still guaranteed by the US taxpayer!
And that half-assed, muddle-brained fascist is still revered as one of our great presidents!
Lotsa luck,
Seamus O'Bannion.
2008-11-17 09:08:58
working class homelessness
Reagan did nothing but create the great credit empire, doomed to fail.
Get real-time options trading ideas from Steve Smith, veteran options trader and newsletter author, plus let him show you the way to cut risk and boost your returns through the strategic use of options. Click here for a free 14 day trial to OptionSmith by Steve Smith.
Copyright 2009 Minyanville Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved
