Posted on 10/19/2009 5:43:09 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
The first night after she surrendered her house to foreclosure, Sheri West endured the darkness in her Hyundai sedan. She parked in her old driveway, with her flower-print dresses and hats piled in boxes on the back seat, and three cherished houseplants on the floor. She used her backyard as a restroom.
The second night, she stayed with a friend, and so it continued for more than a year: Ms. West — mother of three grown children, grandmother to six and great-grandmother to one — passed months on the couches of friends and relatives, and in the front seat of her car.
But this fall, she exhausted all options. She had once owned and overseen a group home for homeless people. Now, she succumbed to that status herself, checking in to a shelter.
“No one could have told me that in a million years: I’d wake up in a homeless shelter,” she said. “I had a house for homeless people. Now, I’m homeless.”
Growing numbers of Americans who have lost houses to foreclosure are landing in homeless shelters, according to social service groups and a recent report by a coalition of housing advocates.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
” She used her backyard as a restroom.”
She’s not green. Isn’t that a felony now?
Things must TRULY be horrific if the MSM (via the NY TIMES, no less!) is reporting these things when a ‘Rat is in the White House!
And to what end? This just gets curiouser and curiouser...
And not one of these offspring are willing to give her a roof over her head and let her go to a SHELTER?
And just how did she happen to get into this mess in the first place? More details are required before she gets my sympathy.
Tough times out there -- but they tell me the recession is over.
“She had once owned and overseen a group home for homeless people.”
You own a home, in most cases, when you finish paying for it after about thirty years. You get there by doing the right things over and over. You somehow get the down payment after doing without things while you save for it while renting.
Real ownership comes with a price, but it has it’s rewards for sure.
\
It was the government that led the people and the nation into this sordid mess we now have.
In my opinion, survival of the fittest produces many more fit people.
Gots to “own” a house or go to a shelter- no in-between.
LIKE RENTING?
dont forget those property taxes, never really own as long as you have to pay those
Yes, you are no longer the slave of the lender.
"I've checked and 100% of foreclosures are on houses with a mortgage" - Dave Ramsey.
Not enough info, and her offspring suck for not giving her a place to live.
“Ms. West — mother of three grown children, grandmother to six and great-grandmother to one — passed months on the couches of friends and relatives, and in the front seat of...”
She couldn’t move in with one of her kids?
Hoover’s big-government spending policies led to Hoovervilles.
Obammie the Commie’s big-government (giverment) spending policies are leading to Obamacamps.
>>dont forget those property taxes, never really own as long as you have to pay those<<
Yep. Nobody owns real estate in the US. They rent it from the government. One reason I bought my house on 13 acres in Kentucky is that the property taxes for an entire year are less than 1/3 of a SINGLE MONTH’S property taxes would be here in the Seattle area. $234.
I can stand on a busy intersection and earn that panhandling in a couple of days. :)
And not one of these offspring are willing to give her a roof over her head and let her go to a SHELTER?
I caught that also. My BS meter is pinging at about 98%. The homeless woman is probably just another one of those fictitious people that reporters makeup out of whole cloth.
Such a complete lack of information makes me think that the reporter doesn't care about her at all but is just pushing an agenda.
How many times dis she refinance her house?
How much of that money went to all of those grateful children, grand children and great grandchildren?
Where else did the money go?
Was she foreclosed because the bank didn’t like her, or did she default on a debt that she had agreed to pay?
What, if anything, was she doing to support herself before she was foreclosed??
I hate to sound hard-hearted but people end up in situations like this for reasons. In this case it sounds like she made a series of choices that we only have a piece of the information.
Maybe instead of living her life for the homeless, she should have worked and stuff. Maybe build a savings? 3 kids and none of them will give her a bed?
Since her kids didn’t take her in, she might not have been mother-of-the-year while raising them. Who knows? I do know, that if I get in her predicament, I would team up with a friend who also is having a hard time making ends meet, or doesn’t want to live alone. I wouldn’t go so far as imitating “The Golden Girls”, but there are options for single elderly people.
One big reason is the Obama economy.
That option is looking more and more attractive. Only problem is nobody needs what I do in those areas.
Exactly!
They always try to make it seem that we’re all 1 bad decision away from homelessness ourselves. But that’s BS.
WELCOME TO:
OBAMAVILLE
Gett’n a head fake,
watchin’ msn’s take;
All of their pundits oozing foul oil.
Clean’n my six gun on my front porch swing.
Felling my blood—
It’s beginnin’ to boil.
Wasted away again in Obamaville,
Searchin’ for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that Bush is to blame,
But I know it’s Obama’s fault.
There’s no rhyme or reason,
They are all commitin’ treason
With nothing to show but a brand new tax or two.
But they are real beauties,
Despotic duties, how they got passed
I haven’t a clue.
Wasted away again in Obamaville,
Searchin’ for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that it’s Bush we should blame,
Now I think,— hell with them it’s Obama’s fault.
I blew out my flip flop,
Stepped on a pop top;
Cut my heel, but I just cruise on back home.
Because no medical care will the doctors render
They say there’s little service I can tender
And there’s no need for me to hang on.
Wasted away again in Obamaville
Searchin’ for a job so I can earn my salt.
Some people claim that Bush is to blame,
But I know, it’s my own damn fault.
Yes, and some people claim that Bush is to blame, And I
know because of my vote it’s my own damn fault.
“One big reason is the Obama economy.”
No, I won’t concede that without some proof that there is no personal financial misconduct involved here. Too many people have played things right to the razor’s edge for years, and situations like this woman finds herself in were brewing long before anyone heard of Barack Obama.
Let’s also keep in mind that this all started on Bush’s watch with Henry Paulson as SecTreas.
“And not one of these offspring are willing to give her a roof over her head and let her go to a SHELTER?”
Exact same thought here. Something tells me that the dysfunction involving her family is directly related to her dysfunctional mortgage forclosure situation.
Of course, whoever wrote this article is no less dysfunctional. This author must be equally dumb (or insentitive to his/her parents as well) to think that the average reader would not see the obvious underlying B.S. of this story.
My discovery, after I'd paid off my house's note, was that my monthly payment dropped by about 2/3 but certainly didn't end due to the property taxes and homeowner's insurance. Ther's a lot more to home ownership than just principal and interst payments on a note.
When I lived in Pennsylvania, I was a member of the CTA, Coatesville Taxpayer's Alliance, a group protesting high property taxes. At one meeting, an elderly widow woman came up to talk with me. She told me that she was losing her home due to non payment of property taxes. The house had been paid for for years, yet she could no longer afford the 6000 per year in property taxes, it was all the money she had. There was nothing I could do to help her, but I never forgot it.
Since then, I have often wondered how many people would be able to stay in their homes if they didn't have 500 per month in property tax bills on top of their house note.
My taxes on the home I now own cost me more than the payments on the first home I bought.
It’s clear how the subject of this story “got there.” Overspending, risky investment on second house used as a homeless shelter dependent on risky State subsidies that fell through, credit (stores, resturants and SUV), refinancing, divorce, depression, crash.
Black city culture, in general, have a different idea than does white culture in assisting family members down on their luck. Whites come from a culture steeped in the work ethic and trust that will pull their loved ones through and trust their good intentions to become whole and independent as long as there is not mental illness, addiction/substance abuse, etc.
Inner city Blacks have a culture where this is not the case and helping others is a path to being totally sucked dry by a never ending pattern of taking. A friend of mine explained it to me in terms of what happens to the giving one in the hood...people see them as an easy mark and the requests for free stuff increase and increase until you sink yourself and are beset by crime as giving becomes taking. So it is best to not be the one seen as the easy mark.
>>That option is looking more and more attractive. Only problem is nobody needs what I do in those areas.<<
Same here, actually. However, our whole experience with this thing has been rife with “coincidences”. I put it in quotes because since I became a Christian I no longer believe in coincidences. It has actually been amazing how many things that I thought would not fall into place DID fall into place. Others were calling the whole thing a “God thing” long before I did, but it really does seem to be.
IOW, I am trusting Him to cover that part, with my own activity participation required of course. Heck, if necessary I JUST found out that I may be able to contract some Sharepoint help for a certain college nearby. What a coincidence!
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