Thread: Tent Cities

This is a thread dedicated soley to tent cities. If you see/read/hear of any tent cities in the US, you can post articles and pics here.

SACRAMENTO, CA

Wednesday, Mar 11 2009
Pictured: The credit crunch tent city which has returned to haunt America


By Paul Thompson06th March 2009
A century and a half ago it was at the centre of the Californian gold rush, with hopeful prospectors pitching their tents along the banks of the American River. Today, tents are once again springing up in the city of Sacramento. But this time it is for people with no hope and no prospects.

With America's economy in freefall and its housing market in crisis, California's state capital has become home to a tented city for the dispossessed.



Rich and poor: The tents and other makeshift homes have sprung up in the shadow of Sacramento's skyscrapers


Shanty town: The tent city is already home to dozens of people, many left without jobs because of the credit crunch


Those who have lost their jobs and homes and have nowhere else to go are constructing makeshift shelters on the site, which covers several acres.

As many as 50 people a week are turning up and the authorities estimate that the tent city is now home to more than 1,200 people.


In a state more known for its fantastic wealth and the glitz and glamour of Hollywood, the images have shocked many Americans.
Conditions are primitive, with no water supply or proper sanitation.

Many residents have to walk up to three miles to buy bottled water from petrol stations or convenience stores.


Ben Cardwell, carries supplies to his tent at a homeless settlement


Tammy Day, a homeless woman, cooks potatoes on a campfire at the site
At other times, charity workers arrive to hand out free food and other supplies.

Joan Burke, who campaigns on behalf of the homeless, said the images of Americans living in tents would shock many.

'It should be an eye- opener for everybody,' she said. 'But we shouldn't just be shocked, we should take action to change things, because it's unacceptable.

'It is unacceptable that in this day and age we have gone back to a situation like we had during the Great Depression.'



Homeless: Keith and Tammy Day cook dinner



Authorities in Sacramento, where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has his office,
admit the sight of families living in such poverty is not pretty.


But faced with their own budget crisis and a £30billion deficit, they have had little choice but to consider making the tent city a permanent fixture.


The city's mayor Kevin Johnson said: 'I can't say tent cities are the answer to the homeless population in Sacramento, but I think it's one of the many things that should be considered and looked at.'



Shanty towns sprung up during the Great Depression as people lost their jobs and homes


Migrant Mother: Dorothea Lange's famous photograph from the Great Depression features Florence Owens Thompson, 32, a mother-of-three who had just sold the family's tent to buy food
As America's most powerful state California had the same gross domestic output as Italy and Spain, but it has been among the hardest hit by the recession and housing crisis.

Foreclosure rates last year rocketed by 327 per cent, with up to 500 people a day losing their home.

Coupled with massive job cuts that have seen one in ten workers laid off, many people who once enjoyed a middle class existence are now forced into third world conditions.

Former car salesman Corvin and his wife Tena are among the newest residents of the tent city.


Tent city residents queue up to receive supplies handed out by a local charity
The couple, who are in their fifties, lost their home and jobs around the same time.

With homeless shelters full in Sacramento, they had little choice but to use what savings they had left to buy a tent.

The couple admit they have yet to tell their grown-up children about their hand-to-mouth existence.

Tena said: 'I have a 35-year-old son, and he doesn't know. I call him, about once a month and on holidays, to let him know that I'm well and healthy.

'He would love me anyway, but I don't want to worry him.'

The shame of Sacramento's tent city was given a much wider airing after it was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show which is watched by more than 40million people a week.

Many of those who have found themselves homeless worked in the building trade.

But with no new home builds and as many as 80,000 people losing their job every month, there is little chance of employment. Governor Schwarzenegger last month approved a budget to address the state's deficit, ending a three-month stalemate among lawmakers.

As well as increasing taxes, he has imposed drastic cuts in education, healthcare and services that will affect everyone living in the state.

Many of those living in the tent city are pinning their hopes on President Obama's $787billion stimulus package which is aimed at rescuing the economy and creating jobs.

The President has also announced plans to save the homes of nine million people from foreclosure by restructuring their mortgage debt.

Link: Pictured: The credit crunch tent city which has returned to haunt America | Mail Online

Sorry, I don't understand. This happens all over the world. Should we be perturbed 'cos it's happening in the US.


Welcome to the world.

bushvilles.

Welcome to the Obamanation, eh?

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Sorry, I don't understand. This happens all over the world. Should we be perturbed 'cos it's happening in the US.

Welcome to the world.

I know it happens all over the world. Perturbed because it's happening in the US? No one should be.

It's not about welcome to the world. Not at all. It's about cyclical economics.

What is your point?

I don't understand with all that land you've got in the USA why in the first place there was a housing price boom, and why don't they build a shed load of social housing to help these poor families.

Not so shocking in the US, Canada, probably Europe, but this SHOCKED the bejesus outta me:

TOKYO'S TENT CITY



But, the govt was so embarrassed they acted:

Hibiya Park tent city for jobless closes down



By MARIKO KATO and NATSUKO FUKUE
Staff writers
Some 500 jobless people, many of them laid-off temp workers, who spent the New Year's period encamped in Hibiya Park were relocated Monday to four other sites arranged by the welfare ministry after volunteers closed the temporary shelter in the heart of Tokyo.

Hibiya Park tent city for jobless closes down | The Japan Times Online

Originally Posted by jandajoy

Sorry, I don't understand. This happens all over the world. Should we be perturbed 'cos it's happening in the US.


Welcome to the world.

This living condition does exist worldwide, but nothing compares to the broad percentage of the population of homelessness in the US....and in these times will only increase 10 fold.

Originally Posted by Milkman

Tent cities are nothing new to America.

Even before the bust, I was always surprised by how many Trailer parks there are in America, outside the main cities.

These lifestyles are reflected by the vacancy of familial and social extentions...

Originally Posted by theudonshawn

Bushvilles? What about Obamavilles, or BO Blankets (NY Times)...

I understand you're response to the two posts above, udonshawn.

These tent cities are not about George W. Bush.

They are not about Obama - he's bee in office 7 weeks.


It's not about the President. And it won't be, no matter what happens.

Originally Posted by theudonshawn

What about Obamavilles

84% of americans (cited repeatedly on this forum) know that obama inherited this economic crisis.

Originally Posted by theudonshawn

Was Hoover more like Bush or more like Obama?

bush.

like FDR, it's going to take a long time for obama to pull the country out of the ditch his predecessor recklessly put it into.

Lucky bastards, I was planning a camping trip this weekend but it's too cold (21c)

Originally Posted by raycarey

84% of americans (cited repeatedly on this forum) know that obama inherited this economic crisis.

subprime mortgage crisis? Was that Bush? I'm confused...

Comrade Obama inherited the crises... Yes, I agree 100% But, doling out money for free by the metric shitload to people who ran businesses into the ground and are still millionaires is not the answer.

Comrade Bush is an Oxygen thief, who is breathing good O2 that a much more useful person could be using. He is also guilty of being a money wasting imperialist bastard... and by no means is he actually conservative.

Comrade Clinton (one of the country's smartest presidents btw, on the same list as Wilson) is not by himself responsible for the subprime crises, but a house for everybody's American Dream is sort of a socialist lefty agenda item...

Nothing right wing about bullying banks into giving predatory loans to people who #1 don't need them and #2 can't afford them and #3 are perhaps not smart enough to see that they are being manipulated by populist leaders who only claim to have their best interests at heart.

Who is really guilty here? Lackluster sheep for presidents aren't going to help us.... and that's all we'll ever get.... because that's what it takes to get to that post.... tons of ass kissing and favor promising.

Originally Posted by theudonshawn

Originally Posted by raycarey

84% of americans (cited repeatedly on this forum) know that obama inherited this economic crisis.

subprime mortgage crisis? Was that Bush? I'm confused...

Comrade Obama inherited the crises... Yes, I agree 100% But, doling out money for free by the metric shitload to people who ran businesses into the ground and are still millionaires is not the answer.

Comrade Bush is an Oxygen thief, who is breathing good O2 that a much more useful person could be using. He is also guilty of being a money wasting imperialist bastard... and by no means is he actually conservative.

Comrade Clinton (one of the country's smartest presidents btw, on the same list as Wilson) is not by himself responsible for the subprime crises, but a house for everybody's American Dream is sort of a socialist lefty agenda item...

Nothing right wing about bullying banks into giving predatory loans to people who #1 don't need them and #2 can't afford them and #3 are perhaps not smart enough to see that they are being manipulated by populist leaders who only claim to have their best interests at heart.

Who is really guilty here? Lackluster sheep for presidents aren't going to help us.... and that's all we'll ever get.... because that's what it takes to get to that post.... tons of ass kissing and favor promising.

Good points, udon Shawn,

I still think people are putting too much emphasis on the POTUS.

Yes, a President is a part of it.

But there are many pieces to this puzzle:

Congressman & women. Senators. De-regulation. Bankers. CDOs. Subprime. Goverment policies to "get as many people to own a home as possible." The American Dream.

Borrow too much. Spend too much for consumer products. HELOCS (home equity lines of credit). Home equity loans. Speculation. Flipping.

Culture.

Greed.

Myopia - lacking the ability to look ahead.


Presidents are one piece of a very big puzzle. Still responsible, but not as much as people assume them to be.

Originally Posted by theudonshawn

Nothing right wing about bullying banks into giving predatory loans to people who #1 don't need them and #2 can't afford them and #3 are perhaps not smart enough to see that they are being manipulated by populist leaders who only claim to have their best interests at heart.

Eeh!

That is soooo right wing, it is ridiculous for you to even question it? Whom do you think were getting the profits from those sub prime mortgages?

Socialists?

No! Big banks, who are usually owned by the establishment aka conservative old money.

I cant believe that Americans, working class Americans, that is, have been so brainwashed, that they think that any programme that does not benefit the rich is socialism or communism.

Any western country outside of the US, takes care of their young, old and vulnerable.

That isn't communism.

It is a civil and caring community.

Originally Posted by Lily

civil and caring community.

Doesn't work in the USA, Lil.

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Doesn't work in the USA, Lil.

Yeah, I know that, but why?

This is the country full of God fearing (he is on our side) idiots, who have no charity for normal people.

I have just been through a life threatening illness in Australia. I had all the treatment and when I was too sick to get myself to the hospital for my next round, was transported in a car supplied by my government and all this at no cost to me at all.

If that is communism, hey! I will embrace it.

Of course it isn't. It is just looking after your own people.

Originally Posted by Lily

It is just looking after your own people.

you kind of miss my point.... I'll try to articulate it better... (I sort of agree with you for once... and just a little bit...

thesis: The more centralized power becomes in the US, the smaller the voices of the citizenry become.

The United States is a big place. The constitution specifically gives a very limited amount of power to the Federal government in respect to the individual rights of the states and the rights of the people. According to the Constitution if the specific issue in question is not stated in the constitution as being under federal jurisdiction, than it is reserved to the States or the people (amendments 9 and 10 in our bill or rights... the most sacred document in the US).

My point is that it is not the federal government's job to micro-manage the several states, townships or the citizenry. The more centralized (power consolidated in the federal gvt) our country becomes, the fewer civil liberties we have and the less American we are. These power hungry (all of them) Washington politicians do not have the answers to everyday American problems. The more they get involved, the less American we become, not to mention the more they piss on the constitution and the bill of rights. The powers of the states and the citizens are being diminished in America: the key principle of decentralization that makes us relatively unique in the world is being threatened by the power hungry, sadist/paternalistic self-interested bastards who want to change the United States into one great big state and subjugate the masses.

The opposite of Democracy is not Communism or right wing Fascism.. the opposite of Democracy is Totalitarianism of any sort.... and I look at the federal government getting more and more powerful and the people getting more and more dependent on national government and less on state government and their own virtu... and I don't like it. I think Comrade Obama cares about the poor as much as El Duce Bush, Comrade Clinton and the other Constitution haters...

I want people to get taken care of. I want people to be able to go to doctors and get a good education. I want people to have pensions and form labor unions and if they so desire, change the whole of the United States into something else. But it should come from the people (bottom up democratic), not the Federal Gvt (top down totalitarian).

That's my perspective...

^^ What a crock, Lily. Ya, you are a blood-sucking socialist that thinks hard-working entrepreneurs should pay your way through life because they made it and you did not and you were too fekin lazy to do it yourself. LOSER.

Originally Posted by Lily

I have just been through a life threatening illness in Australia. I had all the treatment and when I was too sick to get myself to the hospital for my next round, was transported in a car supplied by my government and all this at no cost to me at all. If that is communism, hey! I will embrace it.

Hey Jet. That is available to all people in my country, rich or poor. I am actually neither.

I am kind of in the middle. If that makes me a bloodsucking socialist, well be it.

You, on the other hand are a narrow minded, brainwashed idiot.

Outside of North America, socialism is not a dirty word. You wouldn't be aware of that of course.

Originally Posted by theudonshawn

I want people to get taken care of. I want people to be able to go to doctors and get a good education. I want people to have pensions and form labor unions and if they so desire, change the whole of the United States into something else. But it should come from the people (bottom up democratic), not the Federal Gvt (top down totalitarian).

You are of a like mind to me......................................but, ...............Americans seem to be so brainwashed about labour reforms and workers rights and a fair and affordable health care system, that is seems that it is impossible for it to come from the workers themselves. It has become such a tabooo (take JEts post from above for example). Loser? because I am using what my country supplies to me? What I have paid for with my taxes?

I don't really believe that America can get over that, socialism, communism thing (a legacy of their dread of communism during the cold war) and provide any kind of caring community for their people.

Jet seems to think that I am sponging on my country by getting free health care for life threatening illness and I am not sure if she thinks that by getting free treatment (available to all) I am a loser or because i had a life threatening illness.

I thought that Canada also had free health care. Not so?

What I have paid for with my taxes?

Exactly, maybe some people think the taxes are to benefit the bureaucracy, not the people.