Foreclosures Leave Behind Trail Of Homeless Woes

October 10th, 2007

In Sacramento, at a good guess, 10,000 houses are in the clutches of some stage or the other of foreclosure. This means thousands of house owners together with their family members and dependents, their pets and neighbours as well as their memories will soon be thrown out if they have already not been evicted. A desperate search will begin for a roof above the head safe from the rage of the elements.

In the ongoing struggle the focus in the next stage shifts to the new accommodation problem. Some will be lucky while other will not be. Michelle Steeb is the Director of St. John’s Shelter for women and children. She has many stories to tell about families having lost everything when the bank came knocking at their door. Finding shelters for many like them is not easy matter. Their credit rating is down. Friends and relations cannot support them indefinitely. St. John and other institutions like it are limited in their scope of action. It is already bursting in capacity and daily about 55 women and children seeking help are being turned away. During the first half of the year the number was only 25.

Steeb is reluctant to make a sweeping statement that the health of the economy is directly connected to the rising number of foreclosures. Nevertheless, some link seems to be there. She adds however that a third of the women who come to her are employed.

Her biggest apprehension is that the limited numbers of agencies like the one she runs will not be able to cope with the situation if there is a sudden onrush.

Another sensitive point is that St. John’s caters to only women and children. Men and boys are turned away. This means families will get broken up which does not auger well for the society in general.

The problem was kicked off primarily by predatory lending and irresponsible borrowing in the sub-prime mortgage market. But now the entire nation and international markets are being affected because of the jumbo size of the foreclosures. With no money coming in mortgage houses both big and small are downing shutters. With so many people floating around shelter becomes a big question. The homeless cannot be wished away. Life has to go on. Life will go on but with violent colours of a bitter struggle for survival.