Isn't it interesting that the housing crisis for poor folk has been going on for decades!

[bobbolink]

Yet, now the muddleclass is experiencing a problem, and now it's a national crisis.

It's really fun to be so invisible.

"A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness. The gap between the number of affordable housing units and the number of people needing them has created a housing crisis for poor people. Between 1973 and 1993, 2.2 million low-rent units disappeared from the market. These units were either abandoned, converted into condominiums or expensive apartments, or became unaffordable because of cost increases. Between 1991 and 1995, median rental costs paid by low-income renters rose 21%; at the same time, the number of low-income renters increased. Over these years, despite an improving economy, the affordable housing gap grew by one million. Between 1970 and 1995, the gap between the number of low-income renters and the amount of affordable housing units skyrocketed from a nonexistent gap to a shortage of 4.4 million affordable housing units--the largest shortfall on record.

"The lack of affordable housing has led to high rent burdens (rents which absorb a high proportion of income), overcrowding, and substandard housing. These phenomena, in turn, have not only forced many people to become homeless they have put a large and growing number of people at risk of becoming homeless. A recent Housing and Urban Development (HUD)study found that 4.9 million unassisted, very low-income households -- this is 10.9 million people, 3.6 million of whom are children--had "worst case needs" for housing assistance in 1999. Although this figure seems to be a decrease from 1997, it is misleading since, in the same two-year span, "he number of units affordable to extremely low-income renters dropped between 1997 and 1999 at an accelerated rate, and the shortage of housing both affordable and available to these renters actually worsened."

"From 1996 to 1998, the time households spent on waiting lists for HUD housing assistance grew dramatically. For the largest public housing authorities, a family's average time on a waiting list rose from 22 to 33 months from 1996 to 1998--a 50% increase. The average waiting period for a Section 8 rental assistance voucher rose from 26 months to 28 months between 1996 and 1998."

That is TEN YEARS AGO. It certainly hasn't improved.. it's only much worse.

Can someone please tell me WHY this housing crisis isn't important??

[jwirr]

1. The only time a problem that involves the poor is recognized is when

it either begins to include the middle class or when it threatens those richer than them. Think about drugs - does anyone care what is happening to the poor? Not unless middle/upper class kids start doing the same drugs, not unless the poor start stealing from the rich to buy drugs. Otherwise it is ignored. Many of the social problems are blamed on the poor but the programs that are meant to fix the problem never actually reach the POOR. Look at many of the housing programs for low-income people and then go in an apply for one. You will soon know that they are not for anyone in trouble economically. We do not address most of the problems directly.

[dajoki]

2. You are right on...

The vast majority of people have no idea of the many crises that are causing untold suffering among our fellow humans until it hits them. Maybe, but I'm not holding my breath, the current housing crisis will open the eyes of the middleclass and the government to the very real crisis of affordable housing for the homeless and people about to become homeless, which has been unaddressed for decaces.

It is no longer falling through the cracks, but chasms are swallowing up entire families and much of the population. Until our government wakes up and understands the consequences, the ruling class will have no one left to rule, we will all be invisible.

K&R:hug:

[bobbolink]

9. I don't know if they "have an idea" or not, but they sure don't care!

Where has this been a big issue on DU?

Where has this been an issue in the campaigns??

Yes, the suffering is immense, but that means very little to anyone. I'm ready to hang it all up.

:hug:

[dajoki]

17. Yes, I found that out...

even our own party, and the "liberals" dismiss you when you try to raise this issue, I tried but they wouldn't listen, but I'll give them one thing, they didn't even pretend to care.:cry: :hug:

[bobbolink]

19. "but I'll give them one thing, they didn't even pretend to care"

EXACTLY!!

Yet, we're supposed to work our hearts out for the "least of the weasels".

PAH!

I can't even believe how completely fooled I've been for so many years by "progressives"!

I'm sick to my stomach about it!

:puke"

Thanks, dajoki, for "getting it"!

I wish others could!

[flashl]

3. Somebody have gotten rich since GSEs were created to run a 'secondary' housing market

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("FHLMC") NYSE: FRE, commonly known as Freddie Mac, is a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) of the United States Government. As a GSE, it is a stockholder-owned corporation authorized to make loans and loan guarantees. The FHLMC was created in 1970 to expand the secondary market for mortgages in the United States.

The FHLMC and the Federal Home Loan Bank System is described in this June 28, 1990 article: The Six Trillion Dollar Debt Iceberg; A Review of the Government's Risk Exposure

As of 1990, taxpayers were exposed to trillions of dollars of debt allegedly generated by GSEs to assist Americans to obtain housing. Think about it, trillions of dollars in 1990, if they had just outright purchased a house for anyone who had a desire to own one, we all probably would be in homes by now.

[bobbolink]

4. Apples and oranges! What I quoted was RENTAL, not "mortgages", which means BUYING.

Please understand, I'm not talking about muddleclass people!

That was my whole point!

I'm talking about those of us who are VERY POOR and HOMELESS because there is NO HOUSING AVAILABLE for us!

We're not crying because we can't BUY a house... we're crying because we're living in our cars, and nobody gives a flying fuck.

[flashl]

12. And, you believe that if the trillions of dollars for housing didn't disappear in a puff of smoke

that housing availability wouldn't be better?

[bobbolink]

20. No, because people like you don't give a rip.

We are FAR down on your priority list...

Check ANY list of priorities on DU.. WHERE do you see low-income housing?

We don't even rate an honorable mention.

edited to say: I'm so tired of hearing the same old thing.. it's all about the war... if we poor people would just concentrate all our efforts in ending the war, then we would reap the benefits of our effots.

HOGWASH!

We weren't important before the damned war, if you read the dates in my post, and we won't be important AFTER the war.

We'll still be mats to have the boots of the latte liberals wiped on...

[flashl]

22. You sound angry and probably have cause to be angry. The point that I am attempting to make,

the GSEs are a blackhole where trillions of taxpayer housing dollars disappear. And, I firmly believe, if the monies (the trillions of dollars managed by GSEs) earmarked for housing had been spent as proposed, affordable housing would not be a concern for anyone.

Now, the question is, how do the American people stop putting tax dollars into the GSEs (quasi-government agencies) money pit and re-direct those same tax dollars to affordable housing.

[bobbolink]

25. Yes, I'm angry. And I wasn't clear what you were getting at.

"Now, the question is, how do the American people stop putting tax dollars into the GSEs (quasi-government agencies) money pit and re-direct those same tax dollars to affordable housing."

It has to be important to them, and so far, it's not. Most "progressives" really don't give a rip about low-income housing. They don't CARE whether some of us are living in our cars, because they can so easily dismiss us as addicts and/or mentally ill. After all, it was in all the papers, so it must be true.

BTW, "affordable housing" has been made into a misnomer, which is why I use the term "Low-income Housing". In today's parlance, "affordable" means for muddleclass people. It can mean $100,000 or $200,000 houses. That's most assuredly NOT low-income.

[flashl]

31. Accepting the change in the meaning of "affordable housing" while ignoring

cost of living increases is a betrayal of democratic principles and all that is humane. And, yes, there is still massive denial after all of the "American" bootstrap levitation myths have been exposed.

I mean, "affordable housing" in the traditional sense. Not, the "affordable housing" that requires a couple to work two or more jobs.

[fed-up]

5. how are 10.9 million people (unassisted, very low-income households) made to be invisible? nt

[bobbolink]

6. Is that a snarky question? Do you realize how it feels to be in this segment of the population?

[fed-up]

14. not snarky at all-since most former meth labs are in low income areas-there is almost NO

attention paid to them, so they are left contaminated and the county and state know that low income people will NOT have the funds to get a lawyer to resolve the issue or to get them cleaned-if one is poor one has little to no resources to fight for their rights

I just got denied disability and have to drive my expired registration tags car to the bank to pay my two week late car insurance bill

then I will make a measly $25 payment to PG&E which will be shut off tomorrow if I don't

I am doing all I can to keep repeating to myself that somehow things will get better



and speaking of HUD housing, the HUD house down the street was rented to a HUD employee at a hugely discounted rate

[bobbolink]

16. I don't get any sense out of what you're saying. We're not invisible, and yet

everything is blamed on meth.

I've seen good posts from you, but this is like dealing with the slippery RW here.

[fed-up]

21. please don't attack me-I was just giving another example of a problem for low income folks

that gets little publicity and/or resolution

and I was going by your comment in your OP-"It's really fun to be so invisible."

I will just go back to bed now, sorry for trying to contribute

[dajoki]

13. Obviously...

you are not one of them and I really hope that you don't have to find out. I did, and the OP is 100% correct, and your question verifies that. I have no idea of you or your situation, so I won't assume anything (I hate when people do that) but if you really don't know then you have answered your own question.

I once posted a piece about this subject having to do with the politicians not even attempting to look to the poor for votes, they actually believe that its not worth their time and money because they assume that poor people don't vote, so therefore no representation, hence invisible. That is just one small answer to your question, if you look the answers are all around you, just read some things right here. Peace!!

[fed-up]

15. I should have put a sarcasm thingy but there wasn't room-also having a bad day and thought

someone would answer as the visibility of the issue is a huge part of the problem

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

7. The housing crisis for the poor has been going on since man crawled out of the

ooze.

[bobbolink]

8. Well, that's a real nice discount, grammy.

See in the ghetto, eh?

:mad:

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

10. Huh ?

[bobbolink]

11. Yeah, HUH, indeedly. Same old conservative shit... "the poor you have with you always"

So that makes it just fine to step over us, and keep right on going.

See ya in your hovel...

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

23. I've been poor. I know poor. I also had no self pity---things got better.

[bobbolink]

24. well, aren't you the smart one.... so superior...

"It is common, among the nonpoor, to think of poverty as a sustainable condition--austere, perhaps, but they get by somehow, don't they? They are "always with us." What is harder for the nonpoor to see is poverty as acute distress: The lunch that consists of Doritos or hot dog rolls, leading to faintness before the end of the shift. The "home" that is also a car or a van. The illness or injury that must be 'worked through," with gritted teeth, because there's no sick pay or health insurance and the loss of one day's pay will mean no groceries for the next. These experiences are not part of a sustainable lifestyle, even a lifestyle of chronic deprivation and relentless low-level punishment. They are, by almost any standard of subsistence, emergency situations. And that is how we should see the poverty of so many millions of low-wage Americans--as a state of emergency."
Nickel And Dimed,Barbara Ehrenreich, p.214

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

26. Gee,thanks so much for that nice explanation of poverty.

Adios !

[bobbolink]

27. Do yourself a favor, and put me on ignore.

Ten year olds don't have much concept of poverty.

[Naturyl]

45. Whoop, there it is - anti-poor buzzword numero uno

"Self-pity."

Any attempt to highlight the reality of what poverty does to people socially and psychologically is dismissed as "self-pity."

Don't complain, poor people! Buck up and start tugging those bootstraps for all they are worth, and if you can't do it, don't come crying to me!

Make no mistake - the characterization of people who complain about a situation which they should RIGHTFULLY be complaining about as "self-pity" is very much a right-wing masterpiece. The existence of this sort of mentality among "progressives" is a testament to how effectively and thoroughly the right has reprogrammed our whole culture.

[bobbolink]

18. Here is one good example "Housing Crisis".. but it only relates to those who already OWN a fucking

home!

Are there any Dems at all who give a rip about those of us who are living in our CARS???

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3251750

[superkia]

28. The system is set up to keep us all divided in one way or another.

Either by race, class, you name it, if they keep us divided, the elite and corrupt will continue forward with their agenda until we are all poor and enslaved to the system. Sometimes many of us get it on a small level but most have no clue what the elite and the corrupts agenda is and what has in store for all of us average citizens of the world.


You would think with how much people have heard the saying, " together we stand, divided we fall" , more people would get it but their divide and conquer plan is working flawlessly. Obviously I changed the wording below but it fits just as well.


First they came for the poor
and I did not speak out
because I was not poor.
Then they came for the middle class
and I did not speak out
because I was not middle class.
Then they came for the blacks
and I did not speak out
because I was not black.
Then they came for the women
and I did not speak out
because I was not a women.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

[bobbolink]

29. Thank you for the Niemoller quote -- very apt.

You have it pegged.. we ALLOW ourselves to be divided.

:( :cry: :mad::( :cry: :mad::( :cry: :mad::( :cry: :mad:

[superkia]

30. Yeah, to be clear, I in no way was taking away from the original...

quote, just wanted to put a twist on it so maybe more would see what is happening these days. Below is the original!


First They Came for the Jews

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.


Pastor Martin Niemöller

[bobbolink]

33. Yes, I've done the same thing with poverty.

It's a brilliant thought, and deserves to be updated from time to time!

[Traps]

32. America or South Africa who's talking about poverty?

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/traps/2008/04/01/obama-clinton-or-mccain-facing-a-great-depression-but-whose-talking-about-poverty/

[bobbolink]

34. Very good article.. thank you. Especially the mention of John Edwards.

:(

[Cresent City Kid]

35. Affordable housing is fresh on my mind

I'm living through a double-whammy; Katrina and the Bush economy. I was just laid off as a direct result of the housing market crisis, and rents in my home town of New Orleans are too high for me to return. I'm not here to seek pity for what I've been through, I just want to say that I know from personal experience that the point of the original post is correct.

The only time the economy gets coverage or action via policy, is when the situation is bad enough to touch the lives of at least some middle class people. For those at the bottom, a bad economy is bad, but a good one is still pretty bad. At least when the economy is good there are more opportunities to escape poverty. Not enough, but more.

[bobbolink]

36. Welcome to DU, Cresent City Kid!!

:toast: :bounce: :party::toast: :bounce: :party::toast: :bounce: :party::toast: :bounce: :party:

[bobbolink]

37. "I'm not here to seek pity for what I've been through"

Why not?

We should all be able to count on having empathy and support from our fellow Dems. If we aren't capable of doing that much for people who have survived tragedy, then who are we?

:hug:

"For those at the bottom, a bad economy is bad, but a good one is still pretty bad."

You are so right! I've been reading various figures on this, and it's clear that when the muddleclass rises, people made poor rise either very little, or not at all. Enough years of that, and there's a real problem, to paraphrase a silly cliche'.

Yet, there is so little understanding of the true nature of the mess, by people who think they are so much smarter than the opposition.

I'm about to abandon all hope.

:(

[Cresent City Kid]

38. Thanks bobbolink

My instinct is to say "don't give up hope", but I don't have convincing arguments as to why you shouldn't.

Despite its benefits, capitalism is designed for capitalists, not society. We are a part of the system only in the way that the deer is part of the hunt. Business has creeped into every part of our lives, from religion to sex. The only thing not on the market is a fix for poverty. No one's figured out a way to make a buck for such a thing.

[bobbolink]

39. "We are a part of the system only in the way that the deer is part of the hunt."

I'm going to have to start collecting DUers one-liners! This is great. Quotable. May I?

"The only thing not on the market is a fix for poverty. "

"there you go again.." to quote a useless old geezer.

You've come up with some great ones, and I can see you're going to be a fine addition to DU! Please contribute often to the Poverty Forum!

And.... also... thanks for not trying to pump sunshine. Sometimes we just need to feel what we feel, without putting on a mask to pleeeez people, yanno? I appreciate it. :pals:

[maryf]

41. Hope?

Hi, I was at a peace and sustainability conference yesterday, and people without homes or substandard living were a huge part of the discussions, as was the fact that without economic justice there would never be peace...a small tidbit? but maybe a little bit of hope for you? You can't eat it or sleep on it, but people are starting to take off the blinders as they realize but for luck, the grace of god, whatever, goes I, and they are starting to ask sincerely, what can be done,...bless you and your courage...

[maryf]

42. PS

One woman said she has been buying multi dwelling houses where they are being bulldozed to not only save a neighborhood considered one of the "worst" in the city, she thinks its the best and lives there, but to be able to provide really low-price rentals to people with little means or ability to find housing...she ain't worried about her back yard...

[bobbolink]

40. bumping this up because it's tiring to have the spotlight on only one aspect

[maryf]

43. And it just got worse...

http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=577&Itemid=1

looks like people without homes might get even more company...wtf:cry:

[Naturyl]

44. You're exactly right.

Poor people's entire lives are one crisis after another, and nobody cares except for the 5 seconds it takes to shout "get a jawb" or the equivalent. But let the sacrosanct middle class skin their knees and all of a sudden it's the apocalypse.

I'm tired of it too. It's getting to the point I can't even feel good about our Democratic candidates because I'm too aggravated every time they make another promise to the "middle class" - who frankly never experience anything worse than a little bump on the noggin.

My response to the latest middle class "crisis" is pretty much the sound of the world's smallest fiddle... precisely the same thing most of them have for me and other people with REAL problems.