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Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
Slaphappy

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TildeMarks
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
In Arizona, tent city is jail. (Yes, our sheriff houses inmates in tents, in all weather, including 120 degree heat.)

Still, I wouldn't wish homelessness on anyone. I was within 24 hours of homeless one year ago. Thanks to good friends, I'm okay now.
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wednesdayam
03/26/09

@TildeMarks is giving out some serious side-eye: Yeah, that's where Charles Barkley hung out the other weekend, if I recall correctly.
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Jack_Burton
03/27/09

@wednesdayam: Indeed, you are correct:

[www.stopduiaz.com]
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clonie
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
The tent city here in Sacramento has been around forever and it's only now that Oprah shined her lens on us that anybody even cares. I could go on ranting spree about Kevin Johnson, but I already did with my coworker right before I typed this.
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Cam/ron
03/26/09

@clonie: Don't get me started about how the city may not get federal stimulus money since Johnson's nonprofit screwed around with their federal funds.
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Atomic Bowling
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
I'm fairly certain that the Seattle tent city has been around since before the recession began, given that the papers have been writing about the location and relocation of the tent city for at least two or three years, and their writing always implies that it has been around for longer than that. It's great that the issue of inadequate resources for the homeless is being given more attention now, but it sucks that this never came up before the "good" type of homeless person became a national obsession.
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taranwanderer
03/26/09

@Atomic Bowling: Longer. Seattle tent cities have been around for so long that there are multiple ones.

My college hosted a tent city one year. It was incredibly educating to have the people so close by. The school promoted this education by posting giant boards in all the buildings with some of the participant's pictures, names, and the reasons behind their homelessness. It took away some of the "otherness."

The Seattle tent cities have rules and are a safer way for the homeless to live. I get so frustrated whenever I read an article about another upper-middle class King County neighborhood freaking out about a tent city setting up at the local church. Talk about vilifying people who deserve our respect, compassion, and help. Sigh.
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dianersb was bit by a zombie
03/26/09

@taranwanderer: My favorite was always when the media interviewed members of the church hosting the tent city and they were all "who will think of the children?!?!"

It always frustrated me. They are going to church but not living by the edicts.
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tomatoheart
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
Austin TX has this amazingly beautiful area surrounding it called the Greenbelt. Aside from being a great place to hike, it's also a HAVEN for folks that do not reside in homes. It's just filled with camps of homeless folks (those who chose the lifestyle and those there due to whatever circumstances.

Honestly I can't think of a more beautiful place to be homeless and those tent camps have been there for forever. It's part of the austin weirdness I guess.
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pandorasmittens
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
It's something of which we are more aware. For example, we diagnose more diseases as we find out more about them, but that doesn't necessarily mean the number is increasing. There are more reported rapes, not necessarily because there are more rapes, but because the environment is conducive to reporting them. Kids are "crueler more than ever" because the same amount of rude kids have the internet as a tool to deal insults 24-7.

What upsets me about this is that people are essentially seeing what they want to see in order to place blame on something, anything for the mess we're in. This worries me, because the last thing we need are "acceptable" and "unacceptable" forms of poverty. We don't need stories about the "nuveau homeless"; we need tools to help ALL homeless, regardless of how or when they became such.
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emilyanne
03/26/09

@pandorasmittens: exactly. The idea of the 'acceptable' and 'unacceptable' poor is a throwback to the nineteenth century and early 20th when Sidney and Beatrice Webb categorised people into 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, it led to means testing and was horrific. It's far better to, as you say, consider the tools to help everyone.
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R_Claw
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
In Hawaii there are tons of tent cities, right there on the beach. Real estate has become so expensive that a lot of the people native to the islands can no longer afford housing. It's pretty amazing, and really sad.
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happysquid
03/26/09

@R_Claw(a/k/a Mrs. Edward Cullen): I read that Hawaii wants to ship its homeless to the mainland... link: [homelessness.change.org]
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Schm
03/26/09

@R_Claw(a/k/a Mrs. Edward Cullen): I have a friend who lived in his tent on a beach in Hawaii for like 6 months, until the government finally kicked him out. I thought it was hilarious, because this guy isn't poor by any means. He was just a hippie who graduated college and didn't feel like working, so that's what he decided to do.

In Hawaii the homeless problems might be somewhat similar to here in California, that the weather is basically survivable year-round so anyone can just kinda be homeless if they want. When I was in NYC for a year I was surprised at how many less bums there were than in a place like SF or LA, but when winter hit I realized why.
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Mymoustache
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
The real story is the horrible way the mentally ill are treated in this country.
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pandorasmittens
03/26/09

@Mymoustache: In many respects, that is true. In the state in which I live, 70s era de-institutionalization resulted in most of the homelessness in the state capital. There are people who are homeless for multiple reasons, yes, but many of the people who will never be able to receive help or help themselves are mentally ill, and it breaks my heart that they are discarded like trash to be swept around and ridiculed.
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whynotshesaid
03/26/09

@Mymoustache: Yes, this. I just wrote a story this morning about a man who was shot and killed by deputies in a city north of where I live. The deputies were called because he had been jumping in and out of traffic, and when they sent a K-9 to confront him, he stabbed the dog.

So they shot him.

Turns out, the guy had been Baker Acted earlier in the week, his medication had not kicked in and his only family member in the area couldn't watch him 24/7. He thought he was being chased by demons, which was why he had the knife.

Fucking tragic, all the way around.
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margareita metermaid
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
Here in Seattle, we have had a few tent cities for many many years. Unfortunately, our crummy mayor (one of the cities that was recently destroyed was dubbed 'nicklesville', after the mayor) has bowed to corporate pressure and gentrification and has been trying to obliterate them. what he doesn't seem to understand is that these people have NO WHERE to go. the homeless shelters are already at capacity (despite his insistence that anyone can find a bed to sleep in-- this is NOT TRUE) and that razing the tent cities is not a viable solution. one of them was knocked down only to be replaced with condos that no one can afford to live in. this situation gets some press for a brief period of time, then ignored again every couple years. it drives me nuts.
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megnificent
03/26/09

@margareita metermaid: I lived in Seattle 10 years ago, and I can remember NIMBYs yelling about a tent city back then. I always thought it was weird that a city that likes to think of itself as so progressive has such a hard time admitting that they have a real homeless problem.
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happysquid
03/26/09

@margareita metermaid: CONDOS THAT NO ONE CAN AFFORD TO LIVE IN - who is building these evil condos?? Why can't they build low-cost subsidized housing as well? Or rent-controlled apartments??
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argle-bargle? or fou-ferraw?
03/26/09

@margareita metermaid: there are a number of chronically homeless in my town who are outdoors for the majority of the year. shelters are required to let them stay if the temperature drops below freezing, but still... most of them are mentally ill or somehow physically handicapped. it's awful. the city just rounds them up periodically and they move to another part of town until people complain and the city rounds them up again.
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margareita metermaid
03/26/09

@megnificent: Our homeless problem is really, really terrible. But it gets ignored and swept under the rug-- and lied about. @happysquid: I'm not really sure-- when Seattle became a boom city in the mid nineties, with microsoft, starbucks and boeing making lots of money, the corporations and their ilk got it into their heads that seattle was going to be an upper class bourgeois city. so all these rich developers poured money into long term projects that are now even more ridiculous in this economic climate. cute affordable neighbourhoods turned into homogeneous condo zones, and pushed middle/lower class people like me into suburbs and the last holdout urban communities that are mostly immigrants. which are great places, but are also fading fast. I've been so disgusted by the turn of events that i stopped following most of the local news about this shit here, but i am enjoying a bitter laugh as the developers are forced to lower their condo rent prices SOMEWHAT to those more people can afford. but that still doesn't help the bottom tier of society. i don't think there are ANY rent controlled apts in the urban areas. and very few subsidized housing options.
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megnificent
03/26/09

@margareita metermaid: Slightly OT, but I was back for a wedding in October. I saw a car with a "Ballard welcomes our new condo overlords" bumper sticker and about died laughing.
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margareita metermaid
03/26/09

@argle-bargle? or fou-ferraw?: yeah, that's basically what happens here too. I hate to ignore stuff like this, but it's one of those huge problems that make you feel quite helpless.
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happysquid
03/26/09

@margareita metermaid: The odd thing is that they are building those condos EVERY.Where.

in Wisconsin, we were practically drowning in these vacant condos that were built all over the place, and in LA, there are tons of unsold condos in downtown... it is like bizarro-world.

I think that maybe part of the reason is that condo-developing is some kind of scam?
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hovy
03/26/09

@happysquid: Because the developers complain to the city council and find loopholes to get around low-income housing requirements. The apartment situation in Seattle is fucking stupid. So many apartments were converted into condos, pricing so many people out of the city, and now there are hundreds of empty, unsold condos littered about the city.
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dianersb was bit by a zombie
03/26/09

@hovy: The funny thing is, the zoning codes were changed so that giant unaffordable condos buildings could be built in SLU. All in an attempt to make people move into the city, and in reality all it has done is make people move further and further out (Yay urban sprawl).

Like it or not, not everyone has benefited from the tech boom, such as everyone who does not work in the tech industry.
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dianersb was bit by a zombie
03/26/09

@dianersb was bit by a zombie: By that last bit I mean, if you didn't work in the tech industry, you didn't benefit from it.
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Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
Mr. Vivelafat got laid off on Monday. I'm stressing hard. This does not help.
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NefariousNewt
03/26/09

@Vivelafat is the Quizat Haderach: Hang in there.
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SarahMC
03/26/09

@Vivelafat is the Quizat Haderach: My dad got laid off this morning. Hugs.
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PilgrimSoul
03/26/09

@Vivelafat is the Quizat Haderach: Sorry lady. :( This makes my note above seem self-centered.
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Benevolent_Dictatrix (patently absurd)
03/26/09

@Vivelafat is the Quizat Haderach: That's really terrible; I'm sorry.
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victoriasauce
03/26/09

@Vivelafat is the Quizat Haderach: I hope you're doing okay. We're having a somewhat similar situation and I've been job hunting like crazy. This next month is going to be hell.
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bluebears
03/26/09

@Vivelafat is the Quizat Haderach: oh no! sorry to hear that, he'll find something. People ARE still hiring. My friends dad lost his job back in the fall and he just got a new job this week.
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Vivelafat says Sweep the leg, Johnny.
03/26/09

@all: Believe it or not, you all on this site keep me sane. I sit at work and I am able to have intelligent discussions with people whose opinion I actually care about. And the support that commenters give to other commenters is insane. I LOVE YOU ALL.

It is not too dire yet, he can get unemployment and my check pays all of our bills but ........ we have to give up WEED! SOB! At least we aren't living in a tent.
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NefariousNewt
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
They are the shards of shattered humanity

Scattered by the wind

Clustered together

Far from the place they started

Tossed aside

Bereft of walls

And so they huddle together

Beneath boiling Sun

And twinkling stars

Once the best of us, now lost

Awaiting a hand

Awaiting hope
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megscissorhands
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
While it's conceivable that someone who was truly middle class could lose their job, burn through any savings they had and then have NO safety net of friends and family to fall back on, it seems unlikely to be happening in epidemic proportions. Rather, it's the people at the bttom of the tote pole, the inimum wage earners and migrant workers who are getting hit the roughest and in the most numbers right now.
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emilyanne
03/26/09

@megscissorhands: I don't know - The Observer had a startling article this weekend about how you are only two paycheck from being homeless (this is in the UK) it made for incredibly sobering reading.

Link here: [www.guardian.co.uk]

As a side note, I know the journalist who wrote this and she's a very responsible and excellent reporter.

Also I accept that these cases are rare but i felt it highlighted that you think it couldn't happen but that's not always true.
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Laulau
03/26/09

@megscissorhands: I think this also really depends on where you live, within the U.S. In Michigan, unemployment is 12% and things have been bad for years, so a lot of people's savings have already been hit. If your friends, and family, and community are all already suffering, and there's no real work to be had, and you can't sell your home because no one is moving into the area (for obvious reasons), it could hit a crisis point fairly quickly.
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TheUptightMidwesterner
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
Tent cities are almost impossible in Minnesota, but I know of at least families that have lost or sold thier houses and are living in RV Parks.
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TheUptightMidwesterner
03/26/09

@TheUptightMidwesterner hasn't smoked in 30 days but is stil...: Whoops- that should read 2 families..
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morninggloria
03/26/09

@TheUptightMidwesterner hasn't smoked in 30 days but is stil...: In Minnesota, they're called Igloo Cities.
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happysquid
03/26/09

@TheUptightMidwesterner hasn't smoked in 30 days but is stil...: Midwest homeless people - I don't even know how they survive, their tenacity must be amazing. There was always read one story each winter about some poor person freezing to death.
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stealthird
03/26/09

@TheUptightMidwesterner hasn't smoked in 30 days but is stil...: Yeah especially because two days ago, it was 50 degrees, and right now its 27. Why did I move back here?!
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thesciencegirl wields the truth like a mighty axe.
03/26/09

@happysquid: I see people sleeping outside in Chicago winters, and I just wonder how they survive one night. It makes me feel so awful and helpless.
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Eeva
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
I can't read all the way through this article, the intentcity is just too much for me.

(Sorry, I had to.)
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
Right, it's "new" because it's not dirty old street people. So it's different! And more sad! Because, like, these were *regular* people who used to have homes and jobs and vacations, but the recession has put them into reduced circumstances and they have to live outside!! But we won't bother looking at the people who've been homeless for decades because they don't count. They're just bums.

Yes, people losing the homes they've saved and struggled for is awful. But it's no more awful than the sufferings of so many people who've been living this way forever. So what I'm trying to say is that one is not worse than the other, IMO.
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morninggloria
03/26/09

In reply to Are Tent Cities Springing Up Due To The Recession?
The recession is bad, but I'm starting to feel that the media is starting to get a little foamy at the mouth for stories that attribute everything terrible to the economic crisis.
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PilgrimSoul
03/26/09

@morninggloria: This economy gave me herpes.
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morninggloria
03/26/09

@PilgrimSoul: AIG made me genocide all over the place.
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pandorasmittens
03/26/09

@morninggloria: Ford Motor Company is turning people away from Jesus.
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PilgrimSoul
03/26/09

@morninggloria: Citibank makes the Baby Jesus cry.
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morninggloria
03/26/09

@PilgrimSoul: Credit Default Swaps created the patriarchy. Alan Greenspan invented rape.
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PilgrimSoul
03/26/09

@morninggloria: Jim Cramer once had an abortion.
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morninggloria
03/26/09

@PilgrimSoul: John Thain impregnated Nadya Suleman with 8 fertilized embryos.
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PilgrimSoul
03/26/09

@morninggloria: Geithner cheated on his taxes.

Oh wait...
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kelsium
03/26/09

@morninggloria: Alan Greenspan is Nadya Suleman's sperm donor.
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morninggloria
03/26/09

@PilgrimSoul: Deregulation killed Mohammad.
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kelsium
03/26/09

@morninggloria: Oh damn, you already said that and I didn't see it. Kelsium fail.
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PilgrimSoul
03/26/09

@kelsium: There are eight kids. They could totally have different fathers.
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Trulymadlyme
03/26/09

@morninggloria: Lehman Brothers fathered Masie's baby.
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