Foreclosures are leading to setting up of shanty towns in many cities across USA

August 10th, 2009 | Tags: Foreclosure Crisis

foreclosed-shanty

In 2005 Fresno had been ranked by Brookings Institution as the top city in poverty count. Today the virus has spread, thanks to foreclosure and in many cities people are putting up shanties prompting by the need to survive. Encampments are mushrooming all through the West from the industrial centres of California, Ontario to the embattled casino district of Reno to the upbeat suburbs of Washington State.

In developing countries these settlements sans basic facilities would have been dubbed slums but in America it has the tag of being tent cities. It indicates that these are temporary eyesores. The media is all too anxious to point out that USA is on the brink of the second Great Depression. The shanty towns or tent cities are the direct results of foreclosures and job losses.

Although undoubtedly there is a link but even before the busting of the housing boom, even before the nose diving of the stock market these pockets are unlikely to vanish when and if prosperity makes a comeback. The last few decades of speculation in real estate and harsh social policies have cut off thousands from the mainstream flow. The current network of shelters for the homeless is antiquated and unable to cope with the onrush caused by changed circumstances.

This has led to the burgeoning of a parallel nation with thousands being part of it only in Fresno. As the economy falters more will join the wild gang of dispossessed. Larry Haynes of Mercy House that deals with the problem of the homeless in Southern California said, “The chickens are coming home to roost. What this speaks of is an absolute crisis of affordability and accessibility.”

Framed by bleached industrial constructions and rusted water towers, Taco Flat looks like the stage set of any bygone era. These rough shelters are without electricity, sewage systems not to speak of the luxuries of cable lines. It is in stark contrast to a country that has feted everything new and young.

Living in a tent city is educative in the sense that one goes back in time and adapts to the chaos of socio-economic disorder. It is something like the squatter’s camp of the Gold Rush era. Above all there is the ever-alive threat of being relocated and starting from scratch again – finding discarded cartons, boxes, tins and jerry cans.