foreclosure

i started reading this article about california, because it reminded me of a book i read in under grad, the title which i cant remember, but it chronicled the homeless population setting up tents in a public park, bu this is much more than just california.....please take the time to read this story, and demand that our leadership (better known as politicians and legislators)do something REAL about this, something fully for the citizens and not for lenders and contractors and ceo's, not so they can have maximum profits, as they never should have made such grand profits by being vampires on vulnerable communities.... something that could save out our country from increased marginalization.....a balanced society is a healthy society, and our scale has become very tipped in an uncomfortable direction

from yahoo news --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tent city in suburbs is cost of home crisis
By Dana Ford
Fri Dec 21, 8:18 AM ET

ONTARIO, California (Reuters) - Between railroad tracks and beneath the roar of departing planes sits "tent city," a terminus for homeless people. It is not, as might be expected, in a blighted city center, but in the once-booming suburbia of Southern California.

The noisy, dusty camp sprang up in July with 20 residents and now numbers 200 people, including several children, growing as this region east of Los Angeles has been hit by the U.S. housing crisis.
[snip]
As more families throw in the towel and head to foreclosure here and across the nation, the social costs of collapse are adding up in the form of higher rates of homelessness, crime and even disease.
[snip]
Nationally, foreclosures are at an all-time high. Filings are up nearly 100 percent from a year ago, according to the data firm RealtyTrac. Officials say that as many as half a million people could lose their homes as adjustable mortgage rates rise over the next two years.
[snip]
The pattern is cropping up in communities across the country, like Cleveland, Ohio, where Mark Wiseman, director of the Cuyahoga County Foreclosure Prevention Program, said there are entire blocks of homes in Cleveland where 60 or 70 percent of houses are boarded up.

"I don't think there are enough police to go after criminals holed up in those houses, squatting or doing drug deals or whatever," Wiseman said.

"And it's not just a problem of a neighborhood filled with people squatting in the vacant houses, it's the people left behind, who have to worry about people taking siding off your home or breaking into your house while you're sleeping.".....