Sunday, January 25, 2009

Irreconcilable Headlines

I find it absolutely incomprehensible that these headlines can coexist:

Flood of Foreclosures: It’s Worse than You Think

Record Number of Families Seek Refuge in Shelters (Note: Link is to the NYT section dedicated to homelessness. YES, there is an entire section.)

The picture at the top of the Truthout article has a caption which reads:

Ezekiel Pierre Sejour stands in front of an empty, foreclosed home that he and his mother Marie Nadine Pierre, were moved into by the Miami group Take Back the Land after she lost her jobs and could no longer pay her loans. Take Back the Land moves homeless families into empty foreclosed homes in Miami and provides legal protection from eviction. (Photo: Getty Images)

This is exactly what should be happening all across the country.

The article says that banks are holding inventory for a number of reasons and this inventory is not being listed on the MLS. The problem with not listing these homes is that not only does it offer us horrible and incomplete data, but it keeps the homes empty, longer. The longer that the homes remain empty, the worse shape that they are in and the more money that it costs to get them to the point where they are saleable.

The banks are holding them because flooding the market with the true numbers will lower home prices substantially, everywhere. Who among us would want to continue to pay our mortgages if the value of our homes were to suddenly drop below the amount that we owe? How many of us would just walk away? That is a problem.

Another reason that the banks are not listing the homes is because they want to sell them in bulk to investors. This will be just grand; we can return to the days of slum-lords and serfdom, where just a few wealthy people own all of the homes and the rest of us lose our power of negotiation.

This is George W. Bush's "Ownership Society." This is exactly what he had in mind.

The rich will really have all of the power, owning all of the properties; the people who have to rent from them will just have to be happy with what they get. AND, we will all be renters. Brown water coming out of kitchen sinks, holes in the walls that rodents use as entry points, bugs and other nasties…get used to it…this will be the country that they are trying to create for us. Still.

Despite the election of Barack Obama and the very loud, unified, cry of “No More” heard across this country – the moneyed interests, the banks and the investments houses still are trying to enact Dickens’s England where the cry heard is “please sir, may I have some more.”

Dammit. Enough.

I believe that the many organizations dedicated to ending homelessness are already on it, that they are already moving towards the solutions necessary.

I hope that the Congress is listening and reconciles these two headlines so that people no longer lose their homes and that the millions already sitting empty become housing for those living in cars and on the streets. A country with this much wealth has no excuse for Tent Cities or too full shelters.

8 comments:

Seven of Six said...

Another reason that the banks are not listing the homes is because they want to sell them in bulk to investors.

What a perfect circle if these investor's were the Wall St. big wigs who got huge bonuses from our TARP money!

Seven of Six said...

25 people responsible for the worst economic turmoil since the Great Depression.

However, you can't blame Bill Clinton without including the corrupt Republi-con congress from 1994-2006.

And I don't see how you can include people who warned us of the impending doom, they were right.

And yes, too some extent the American public is at fault, "There's a sucker born every minute!", we took the sale... "Hook, line and sinker!" But at the same time make sure you include the unscrupulous lenders, mortage brokers and developers.

I certainly was glad an opportunity was made for me to qualify for my home... I hate paying rent.

Seven of Six said...

More republi-con obstruction, Labor Secretary holdup.

iamcoyote said...

Yeah, SoS, I love those anonymous holds - wusses can't even fight out in the open. Funny how the Sunday talk shows were still dominated by 'pukes, too. I caught 2 seconds of Boner, and turned it off. What happened to the excuse about 'pukes being in charge, so they get more face time, huh? Oh yeah. It was a lie.

Seven of Six said...

I'm waiting for Gregory to ask one of the republi-cons point blank... "Why should the American public trust anything you say, all your financial policies have failed the USA?"

I guess I'm asking for too much!

iamcoyote said...

GOP's got the goods on Gregory. I remember at the beginning of the Iraq invasion, he asked some tough questions, then suddenly, he started licking Bush's taint. We won't be seeing any objectivity from the media. Notice how the story about the NSA reading everything has vanished?

Anjha said...

I would love to take those 25 responsible pricks and reduce their fortunes to something reasonable...giving the rest of it to housing projects. We could take their riches and purchase apartments homes, etc for the homeless and then - make each of these assholes the supers. Make them live in the apartment buildings and unplug toilets and paint rooms and make sure that refrigerators are running, etc.

It is time that they give back instead of raping the world and hijacking all of the riches of the whole economy. Dicks.

David Gregory has singlehandedly (OK, Brokaw helped) killed MTP. I always looked forward to MTP and now it is just a disappointment.

Gregory could not manage to ask a single fucking reasonable question to Boner (despite the fact that I was screaming the questions at the TeeVee.) Gregory is a tool. Nothing but. He gives journalism a bad name.

Then, he friggin had an entire panel of Repuke "reporters." Could he not book a single fair journalist? Were they all busy yesterday? Jeesh!

I wonder how long before Betsy whatshername - Tim's long time producer - quits in protest because Gregory fucks it up beyond recognition. Can you imagine what a great show MTP would be if they gave it to Rachel?!

Damn. That would be great. We should start a movement.

Judith said...

There were other more qualified people for the MTP position. Gregory got it because he is a shill for the GOP.

Prediction: Gregory won't last long on MTP, because their ratings will plummet.

Rachel would have been perfect. Bright, politically intelligent, engaging, educated and a great sense of humor. However, she is (children put your hands over your eyes) a Liberal.