This is a very interesting article that I read in the Washington Post. The article is written by Derek Kravitz and it highlights the measures that homeowners whose houses have been foreclosed take to resist leaving. As we discussed in class last week, the mortgage crisis is very severe and it is devastatingly affecting the live of many. Last week we focused on how many people commit suicide because they are unable to pay their mortgages. However the people that are discussed in this article do not turn to such extreme measures by killing themselves. Instead they feel that these houses are theirs and it is their right to live there regardless of what the banks or police say. Therefore when their houses are foreclosed they protest to leave and at times they do some things that are unthinkable or at some times literally gross. Kravitz states that
One former homeowner rigged his front door with coffeepots filled with boiling water. Another left pile of ferret feces. Hidden compartments have been used as living spaces, with people hiding in attics, tool sheds and garages to elude police.
I understand the plight of these people. They have worked hard to achieve the American dream of home ownership. It definitely is not easy to let go of their investment, regardless of what anyone says. The people who are doing this is not necessarily the working class America who were working from pay check to pay check and suddenly lost their jobs which was their only means of survival. This is also affecting Middle class America.
In the D.C. suburbs, a new class of squatter has emerged, as people illegally remain in homes after they have lost them to the bank. Some have become aggressive in their efforts to stay, setting booby traps to ward off police.
Many people may ask why these people so resistant. Can’t they just leave and rent somewhere. Yet we tend to forget that to rent somewhere cost money. Most of these people are broke and jobless. They used what little savings that they had to pay their mortgage. Their retirement plan money that they could have used to sustain them is all lost in the stock market. Their unemployment benefit may have run out or it is just not enough to sustain them and their family. Therefore they are facing a dilemma of being homeless on the streets or squatting at a place that they once called home. This is an extremely sad predicament to be in.
A national survey released last month showing the impact of widespread foreclosures found that an estimated 42 percent of those who have lost their homes in the housing crisis now have no fixed address. A large number of the cases involve families who have lost their homes and struggled to transition into rental units that they also cannot afford.
This statistic is alarming. This is almost half of the people whose houses have been foreclosed. This is clear that sometimes rent is not an option simply because some people cannot afford to pay rent.
Squatting has long been a barometer of economic health in urban areas.
This situation is a clear remainder of the great depression and how squatting had become a way of life. I am starting to wonder how far we are now from normalizing squatting. I am also wondering how unhealthy the economy is? Are we still in a recession or is this a depression? I guess the economic experts will inform us of that soon.
This is the link to read this article in its entirety.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/02/AR2009050202150.html
