Sheltered from the Soaring Costs

[MountainLaurel]

Today's case of irony overload: a motel called the White House where 4/5 of guests are long-term residents who can't afford any other housing.

Again we see the same stories. Families that can't afford even an apartment. A woman who makes too much for Section 8, but can't get a regular apartment because of bad credit due to ovarian cancer.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3413-2005Feb6.html


There are no rose gardens at the White House Motel.

Not anymore, at least, since Interstate 95 was built and the tourists who used to stop for crab cakes found a more direct route north and south. But the motel still stands, hugging Route 301 near ramshackle vegetable stands in the swampy oak forests of Southern Maryland.

Near the end of the road, just before the bridge to Virginia, the White House rises up to catch those with nowhere left to go.

Overnight guests occupy just 10 of the 45 rooms. The rest are filled by the working poor, long-term residents who pay $175 a week and stay for months, sometimes years. On weekday mornings, school buses rumble into the parking lot, which is pointed out from the highway by a dented arrow, to pick up nearly two dozen children.

[Sugarbleus]

1. EXCELLENT Article!!

I don't think I've ever read about the motel residents in other states before. We have them in our area...a lot of them are in the same situation as the ones in the article. Some are druggies.

In any case, I'm astounded that the rents are as high in that area as they are in mine. In No. Central Coast Calif. it is beyond belief what they want for rent...or for homes to buy even.

Apparently, these poverty trends and housing issues have spread across the nation. The crisis is complete now.

Housing especially, but poverty issues in general are MY PASSIONS in terms of activism. The general population just doesn't GET IT.

I'm sure there are those who do rent or buy first time homes; working families with a bit more income who DO feel some pinch. But most everyday "housed" folks just don't KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON. They don't have a clue how dreadful life is for a small family maybe just a mile down the road from them.

During the Dot.com bubble in silicon valley here, a lot of people thought they were going to get wealthy over night. Man o man did the properties start going up in price. Commuting became a natural part of life. People communted something like five hours one way everyday just so they could live/buy a home in a community far from their work place.

Others started going into even the lower end neighborhoods and began buying up the properties to fix up and live in. Of course doing that THREW HUNDREDS of low income families out on their rears.

My family was living in a rather decent subsidized (section 8 voucher supported) duplex. It was clean, accessible and just the right size. We lived in it for 7 years. All of a sudden, due to the silicon valley boom, people from out of town swooped in and bought the place and we had to move. Period. There were twenty people looking at the unit we eventually rented as they had similar things happen to them. Anyway, we ended up in a teensy weensy tiny little inaccessible dirty dump. Paying over $1800. Our portion via voucher came to $175 so even though the unit is disgusting we felt like the rent was a deal. Last month, after 4 years here, the HUD raised our rent to $512!!!!!!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH BUSH THE VULGAR!

There is one fully handicapped adult and one partially disabled adult, one teenager living here. All right on top of each other...but at least better than a motel.

In terms of not renting to people because of credit histories, well that just makes my BLOOD BOIL. If a person has a history of not paying their rent over and over in the private sector then I can see a reluctance at not wanting to rent to them. However, did you know that public/subsidized housing ALSO asks for a perfect credit history in order to rent from them too?? This is outrageous. If someone needs subsidized housing it's because they are having difficulties of some sort surrounding money. Now I have one of my adult daughters living here temporarily as she cannot find housing anywhere either. She isn't suppose to be here under the rules, but what is a person suppose to do?

WHADDA A COUNTRY!

[MountainLaurel]

2. I hear you Sugar

I volunteered with one of the homeless shelters for families in Fairfax County, VA, for several years. It's one of the wealthiest counties in the country, yet there's a two-year waiting list to receive a Section 8 voucher, and most people can't find a Section 8 residence because too many landlords know they can charge market rates and find someone to pay them. The waiting list to get a spot in the shelter was over a year; in the meantime families were given motel vouchers. But because of the way the vouchers are set up, the families can only stay in one place for a limited amount of time (90 days?). So, they'd have to load everything they owned up and go somewhere else for 5 days, and then move back.

In our shelter, a majority of residents were working -- they just couldn't find an apartment they could afford. Some were mentally ill. Some had a physical illness -- one family lost its home after the primary breadwinner was injured on a construction job -- because he was a day laborer, there's no workmen's comp, no insurance. In another case, a mother and six children had to leave their home after the eldest daughter came forward that her father had been raping her and was starting on a younger sister. THEY had to leave the home; he got to stay, and he got counseling paid for by the government. Those girls got nothing.

In the same neighborhood, you have multiple families sharing a one bedroom apartment: one gets the bedroom, one gets the living room. Or a family subletting its floor space to single day laborers.

Meanwhile, a couple miles away you've got families whining about how they can only afford one vacation home, or that Brittney is only going to Brown instead of Yale. How do these people sleep at night?

[Biased Liberal Media]

4. That is horrible!!!

HOw did he get counseling and get to keep the house and the mother and children got nothing?? Our system is so fucked up it's not even funny!!!! :angry:

[Sugarbleus]

6. Yep, way out here on the left coast the motel vouchers work

about the same way.

The other thing you mentioned is happening here too. That is: WORKING PEOPLE CAN'T FIND AFFORDABLE RENTALS so end up living in cars or shelters too! WTH??? A few years ago there was a local news piece on this issue. There were folks working and earning a pretty good salary..but they could NOT afford the exhorbitant rents in the cities they worked in. With that in mind, how hard is it then for those with no job or a low paying job! It just makes me CRAZY!

The waiting list for vouchers is enormous in my area also. It's worse today than before Shrub took office. Additionally, as you mentioned, when we were forced to move because our lovely unit was sold to an out of towner, we went looking for another place to rent just like always. We started with rent management companies--ones we'd done business with before and all of a sudden they had ZERO to offer. We went to another place that normally has something listed and guess what? They had a huge sign right on the front door that said not to bother asking IF we were using section 8!!

A for rent sign on one house also posted a NO SECTION 8 sign along with it. Our jaws just dropped. We've been living in this town for more than 35 years. We have always been 5 star tenants. Our credit history is perfect. "Section 8" implies "bum". It's a negative stereotype today. I say that because in our area--until recently--a landlord could jack the rent up to a million dollars and a person could still rent it if the owner agreed. His rent and reimbursement is guaranteed. The tenant only pays/paid 30% of their income towards the rent.

It's all changed today and we know why. It's all about greed and paranoid sterotyping.

As it turns out, I'm having to house my daughter on the QT--she has no money, no assets at all. She just enrolled in college at the age of 38. She is motivated to make it. However, one cannot enroll in college asking for a grant/loan IF THEY ARE HOMELESS. I guess the deck is stacked against people ever getting off the bottome isn't it. :grr:

I too live in a community where just down the street are the Lexus/Mecedes driving citizens who are completely clueless OR they have set their teeth against the have nots. It's sickening.

There is a phenom that might be at play too. It is this: after we lived in a dwelling for several years we didn't pay any more attention to the housing market. We "saw" the newscasts but it didn't become REAL until WE had to hit the pavement to find out the harsh realities for ourselves. We simply could not believe HOW MUCH attitudes (and costs) had changed while we were housed. Perhaps the same holds true for those folks who own their homes for years and years...they just "Don't see it" so the homeless, shortage of affordable housing problem isn't real, it doesn't exist.

I just wish I were a photographer. I'd take pictures of what the real deal is out here and then try to get them published in newspapers. Somehow the housing crisis and the poverty crisis HAS to be aired to the public on a regular basis. I know that is a huge, rather pipe dream, but geez something has to be done and done PDQ. I heartily recommend that folks find copies of the great depression on film. Get a load of what America will look like under further neocon government. Heck, some of that IS happening right now; it's just been spiffed up to seem "different"...but it's not. The "poor" are being swept off the streets and hidden a bit better; perhaps photojournalists are forbidden to even take a look, who knows. It's real though.

Best, SB

[Biased Liberal Media]

3. I know someone who was denied because that person was

an ex-felon from YEARS ago. Hasn't had the money to pay off their felony case therefore their rights have not been restored. This person has children too. Eventually he found an affordable place to put his wife and children in. Sad huh??

I used to live in California, but we moved because of the soaring costs. We now live in Washington State and it's better up here but we rarely have money for extras, seems like we're paying off the debt we accrued while in California (one credit card, a student loan (which will be waived once I get the paperwork done since I'm a FT student now), and it just feels like we're getting no where. Cannot afford to save up for a down payment on a home and the cost of living is rising yearly up here now. I keep seeing our dreams of owning a home go down the drain. I won't complain, we have it a LOT easier than some- but we've been in the boat of relying on food stamps for meals, WIC for our daughter, and food bank. We've had to do whatever it took to put food on the table. I'm not ashamed whatsoever.

You know what makes me disgusted?? These conservatives who chalk it up to "personal responsiblity". I've heard it all before "You shouldn't have had a baby if you weren't prepared financially". WTF?? I've even seen that nasty attitude in the Lounge here, single people who griped about the Earned Income Credit. Someone chalked it up "personal responsiblity" because that person didn't get a tax break bc they had no children. That attitude bothers me. MOST of the people who get the EIC are making under $27,000 and they could stand to benefit from it. Last year, if it weren't for the EIC, We would have been evicted. My husband just lost a temp job and I had just gotten hired on working a low-paying telemarketing job. If it weren't for that EIC, we would have been on the streets. Nice attitude coming from conservatives...even people who call themselves "progressives" as well.

It's disgusting. Poverty is a huge issue for me, having been there throughout my life. Things may be okay now, but whose to say they won't in a year from now?? I never take what we have for granted.

[Sugarbleus]

5. Sister friend, I sooooooooo hear you!

NO BODY KNOWS unless they've "been there". I've been there and then some.

Again, I was surprised and disheartened to learn that creeping high costs and less help are spreading across the country today. It breaks my heart to learn of so many people struggling to just keep body and soul together.

I also understand that there are some odd attitudes coming from our "fellow dems" on these issues. Perhaps they are just too young or from affluent families and therefore IGNORANT to the real world.

I don't want to kill capitalism but I want things to go back to the "regulation era" where people couldn't just run roughshod over the working class with impunity. I want a level playing field so "opportunity" is REAL for every person able and willing to work.

"American Dream???" What's that and for whom???

CHARITY is NOT a four letter word. However, in a sensible/ethical society(which this one is not) with a level and dignified playing field, many individuals wouldn't have need for much help as they would be able to get on with their lives under their own steam.

Now---->We've had to do whatever it took to put food on the table. I'm not ashamed whatsoever. I TOTALLY understand what you are saying here. My family has to do the same thing. I actually warned readers in here many months ago that "things" would change in big ways if fair and decent treatment for the poorer/struggling among us wasn't forthcoming. People can only be pushed just so far.
I even wrote similar words as yours to a radio host last night. I told him that our family was being squeezed like orange juice, as members of the underclass, aging and disabled. We are getting it in the shorts and I WANT TO LIVE. I told him "Our family has to do what it has to do in order to make ends meet..." BLM, I'm not ashamed either. I wish the situation was different but it isn't.

My very best wishes to you and your lovely family. Hang in there and keep yourselves safe. We hope for a brighter future; especially for your kids. :hug: ~~Peace~~