CLEVELAND — The nation's foreclosure crisis has led to a painful irony for homeless people: On any given night they are outnumbered in some cities by vacant houses. Some street people are taking advantage of the opportunity by becoming squatters.
Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up and dilapidated houses abandoned because of rundown conditions: Sometimes the heat, lights and water are still working.
"That's what you call convenient," said James Bertan, 41, an ex-convict and self-described "bando," or someone who lives in abandoned houses.
Picked up from Huffington Post: Some Homeless Squat in Foreclosed Houses
Looks like many of the quotes came from original post NE Ohio Coalition for Homeless: http://www.neoch.org
It is the opinion of the editors of this blog and Northwest Indiana Real Estate and Porter County Politics, that the key to the foreclosure problem is revving back up the real estate market. The key to the housing affordability problem is allowing a free market back to work, not letting the government start taking over. The key to the homeless problem is actually more likely a combination of better mental health care (combines with drug interdiction) and super-care centers for homeless/jobs/mental health.
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