I don't have any, it is big problem where I live and the city wants the church to help but is giving them a hard time. I don't know the solution.

Ok.
What about the new ones who, have and are going to lose jobs and homes? The ones who, just last month, unemployment ran out and the Sheriff evicted them. The numbers grow daily? Do they chose to be there?

I'm not usually political but,

North of Texarkana I have seen acres and acres of FIMA trailers rusting away, as far as the eye can see... it is funny to think that we pay taxes on this stuff while it sits and rots; yet our Government, whom we elected into office, continue to push around people in tents.

Those tent cities also have their own economy of sorts, it wouldn't take much to integrate these people back into society, well those that choose to anyway...

No, not that population.

have a designated land for them...IMO

That to. There is a lot of BLM Range in the Southwest and close to schools and town. I know of some in Golden Valley, Az. that is located just behind a school.

In Los Angeles Project housing has been getting phased out more and more. What there is is going to have their rent doubling on them soon and they just got the notices.


Lets look at this through the eyes of economics as taught in College...

IN THEORY!!!! Mind you...

With a greater abundance of homelessness means a boon to rental property owners. Greater demand on a finite supply and what do you get? Higher prices of course! Unfortunately the rates are inflated above many people's means. Who owns the property in a default? Banks...

Who sets the price ultimately (knowing full well that the buyer supposedly sets the price in the "Ideal" world)? Banks...

Based on demand and back in the late 90's who came up with all these nifty ways? Banks...

What motivated them?

Credit laden but motivated buyers...

Also keep in mind that in reality prices tend to go up but rarely do they get forced down. The snowball is getting bigger with populations bilked of huge amounts of money after being duped into thinking that some of the magnificent loans they were getting didn't come with additional expenses that started biting into them, Homeowner insurance required for those who buy on credit, and property taxes.

Add job loss and lack of fall back plans or relevant skills and add illegal migrant workers stealing a lot of work and tax revenues in their own way and unscrupulous businesses that hire them compounds the problem further.

Cities are going to have to address the issues along with county support but also keep in mind people will take this as a "free ticket to ride" and abuse it some how. Homeless camps also tend to become garbage filled and trashed unless through some unforeseen circumstance the people still try to retain some shred of dignity and police themselves and try to keep it clean. I think Ontario Canada actually has one of the smartest ways of managing the problem, prove you were a resident and not a transient or move along. Some larger city parks could serve as emergency temporary housing for homeless but then the cities need to be more proactive towards displaced families and not so "Difficult" about doing their job for the communities they are supposed to be serving. Also religious organizations that ram God down peoples' throat as part of their help and "outreach" alienate themselves from the ones who just need help, not salvation a la mod`e!

Employment services need to integrate with the city to organize a real solution to at least temporarily get people working again and get them into rental housing that is affordable in some real sense of the word. Also people moving into a city to take advantage of these programs need to be turned away. If they come and have a job that is one thing but to have nothing but a "pocket full of hope" does not fly at least with me. Things are not good here.

It is going to take money and resources that cities do not have right now. Someone needs to organize some privately funded effort to coordinate the resources of the city and get past its bureaucracy as well as state resources to make it happen if it is going to happen at all. There is no one thing that needs to be addressed. There is a lot about human nature that will work against any system.

Maybe the banks need to pay up some of their horrendous profits to assist in dealing with the problem they created.

BUT remember, THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS. They are profiting from this misery, trust me on that one thing at least.

willing2,

I am back. So, what is it that needs to be solved? I would ask you to state the problem precisely though.

I went and fell asleep watching TV.
OK,
We have hundreds of of Fema Trailers.
There is BLM Land that is sitting vacant.
Could owners of land, lets say, 10 acres and more, apply to that stimulus to develop, put in *water, septic, *power and park refurbished FEMA trailers on lots? Then lease to the homeless family. They could pay, if they have income, on a sliding scale and the rest be HUD subsidized.
*Water, Community well water.
*Power, Community power, wind or solar, depending what would work there. The only costs for electricity would be to maintain and upkeep the system. The only reason to connect to an outside source would be if the community source fell a little short or was down for repair.

Any more ideas?

I could have sworn that Governator Arnie and Mayor Kevin Johnson of Sacremento got to gether and opened a "camp" for these people on the State Fairgrounds.

Let me see if I can find the info on it.

I listed that one in the first post.
Sacramento.
Just after Oprah did her thing there, they shut it down. Arnie got his publicity and Sacramento got rid of da' bums.

SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – The mayor of California's state capital unveiled plans on Thursday to shut down a sprawling "tent city" of the homeless that has drawn worldwide media attention as a symbol of U.S. economic decline.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson promised to first make alternative shelter space available for the estimated 150 men and women who inhabit the squalid encampment near the American River, at the edge of the city's downtown.

Johnson, who toured the area with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger a day earlier, said he hoped to have the ramshackle settlement cleared of tents and debris in the next two to three weeks.

"We want to move as quickly as we can," he told a news conference, insisting the city was determined to treat the tent dwellers with compassion.

"They are people out there. We have to do whatever we can do," he said. "We as a city are not going to shy away from it. We're going to tackle it head-on."

Advocates for the homeless applauded the mayor's action. Municipal authorities in Sacramento have been debating the fate of the tent city for weeks.

Sacramento has one of the highest mortgage foreclosure rates in the United States, and the homeless total in the city and surrounding county is estimated to have jumped nearly 10 percent last year to nearly 2,700. About half are believed to be living outdoors, according to a local survey.

The tent city site, near an almond-processing plant beside a railroad freight line, made global headlines after it was featured last month on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Local shelter organizers helped fuel media excitement by suggesting the tent city mushroomed with the arrival of newly homeless men and women, formerly from the middle class and forced by sudden economic hardship to take up residence in tents along the river. One activist for the homeless estimated that 10 percent of the tent inhabitants fit that profile.

A closer examination of the site, including interviews with camp residents and police officers who patrol the area, turned up little if any evidence that true "recession refugees" were living among the chronically homeless there.

Tent city residents and police say the camp had existed for at least a year and had expanded after several smaller clusters of homeless settlements were shut down.

Johnson said his plan included enlarging existing shelters, opening a short-term tented shelter area at a fairground, and creating "permanent housing opportunities" for an additional 40 homeless individuals.

He said city officials would meet individually with each of the tent dwellers to discuss options, and a special task force would finish devising a long-term strategy for all the city's known homeless.

The plan, which will be financed from various public funds, will be submitted to the City Council for approval next week.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090320/ts_nm/us_usa_homeless;_ylt=A0wNcxMG.8JJxUcAaQdZ.3QA

Possible, but if it was my private property in question, I would say No Way. You ain't gambling on my land. You want to rent it from me? Fine.
Huge deposit please, first.

However, that is just my opinion, there surely are landowners who would like to threat the gamblers as if they were victims.

Oh my...

So then if you lost your job because the OWNER of the company you worked for played at stupid games...

does that make you stupid?

A lot of the people that find themselves homeless are so because of the mistakes of someone else.

BY ALL MEANS punish them for the stupidity of others.

There's a boat load of folks only a paycheck or unemployment check away from homelessness.
Sure, some made poor decisions, they still need to be netted before they become street weary.
Anyone that is, except those who had the title CEO.