For more hard-pressed Americans, a campsite is home

// added September 02, 2009 // 9 comments //
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more from News:

http://features.csmonitor.com/economyrebuild/2009/08/31/for-more-hard...

"As cities from Sacramento, Calif., to Tampa, Fla., debate the merits of tent cities to house newly homeless people (many of them young families), this recession is starting to yield scenes that evoke the Great Depression, especially at places like Timberline Campground in Lebanon, Tenn.

Living in well-worn campers and tent compounds overstretched with 20-foot-long tarps, 85 percent of residents here are permanent, a good chunk of them "economic refugees." It’s an increasingly familiar scene across the country as campgrounds, RV parks, national parks, and city-owned pockets become inundated with permanent campers, and as entire tent cities spring up and expand, with some hinting at permanence by voting on village bylaws.

"It’s not quite Hoovervilles, but it’s getting there," says Leonard Heumann, a housing policy professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, referencing the massive tent cities and shantytowns erected during the Great Depression. ...

The National Alliance to Prevent Homelessness (NAPH) estimates that this recession will create 1.5 million new homeless – nearly double the current number. Half of those people will exist outside the shelter system – in cars, tents, campers, or sleeping bags under highway overpasses." - Patrik Jonsson


Full article in the link.


Looks more and more like the great depression. I think soon, the hardest hit small towns will be turning into the old west ghost towns.
  1. groups:
    News,   News_Featured
  2. tags:
    Economic Crisis,  Homeless,  Homelessness,  Camping,  1 more

9 comments // For more hard-pressed Americans, a campsite is home

  • hunzedog
  • biggranny
    • 0
      biggranny  

    • maeveeo,its not that simple. although i hardily agree with your sentiments,it won't work. tent cities are being created by victims of failed bush policies and obama is swimming in shit. by the grace of god go i. have a little compassion as you put on that condom

    • 5 months ago
  • Maeveeo
    • 0
      Maeveeo  

    • Well i mean like really think about this i mean like people have sex only to have more kids with no JOBS , then expect the goverment to do something about it , like now
      instead of doing whats right by not having kids getting schooled to do something that makes money but NO !
      they want to complain about how many kids they have , Make ah kid Make Ah JOB easy right ? then go do something about it & get ah life ! or else you live like this ! see what sex without thinking will get ya the poorhouse ! YEAH I SAID IT NOW WHAT ! See it's really sad because you can't turn back so you suffer !

    • 5 months ago
  • bailey78
  • S3th
    • 0
      S3th  

    • No worries...Once it gets too bad, they'll offer up free room and board at the unused military bases, and FEMA camps.

    • 5 months ago
  • extblues
    • 0
      extblues  
    • S3th:

      People have been using abandon military bases for either permanent or semi-permanent housing for quite awhile. Slab City, formerly Marine Barracks Camp Dunlap (...and made pseudo-famous by the film adaptation of Into The Wild), is only one example. I'm sure there are plenty of others that are less well known, but no less viable or organized as independent communities.

      Slabcity.org is a great site to get more information.

      As for the FEMA sites, there is plenty of evidence the government might want to use them for something else...

      (BTW, a great documentary about "alternative living" is "Off The Grid: Life On The Mesa", which you can see for free at Snagfilms.com)

    • 5 months ago
  • S3th
  • extblues
    • 0
      extblues  

    • Wow. Great article.

      The irony here is that if the government tries to help these people someone will cry "socialism" and trash the entire idea (...or water it down so badly it won't help anyone in the end).

      I doubt if this phenomenon is confined to commercial campgrounds and RV parks. I wonder how many folks decide to plant their lives on land that no one either wants or cares about, without the inherent benefits of an electrical hook-up, running water, or Wi-Fi (...or, for that matter, the monthly "service fee" for a slip of land)?

      Anyone up for a re-imagined debate over squatters rights for the twenty-first century?

    • 5 months ago
  • MilchMann
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