Sunday, November 15, 2009

Are You Homeless Or Houseless? Second Degree Burns.

Again it was nearly 60 deg. on the screen porch at 6.00 AM this morning, so the cats has a quiet time watching sunrise in there.

Ray and I did our bookkeeping, then raked and burned some more pine needles that were in the front and side yards. We re-installed two of the vinyl panels on the screen porch ready for winter. Those two panels were behind shelves of plants, so they had not been taken down completely, and just had to have their screen molding strips stapled over the edges of the vinyl. The two on the southwest corner still have to put up when it seems that the really cold weather is imminent.

This afternoon an email was sent to me about the way the veterans are treated, and that lead to articles about the homeless. I don't mean RV Fulltimers who, by choice, live a home on wheels, with no house to go back to. I mean the derelict homeless. There is a big difference. That is why I have often wanted to correct Fulltimers who say that they are homeless, they are not, they are just houseless. They usually have very beautiful homes on wheels, some costing more that a stix and brix house!
Here are three quotes from newspapers about the homeless situation:

1) ""The Detroit News reported Friday that house foreclosures are up 19% over the previous month, a gut kick aided in part by rising unemployment and an inadequate federal response to the continued crisis. If you're like me and tend to yawn a bit when you hear percentages, I strained a bit and did the numbers: this is now 8 consecutive months of 300,000 foreclosures per, so let's see now-- 8 times 300,000-ish is about, oh, nearly 2.5 million homes lost. There are now over 2 million people who watched representatives of government bailout bank take away their homes.
This wasn't supposed to happen. The day after President Obama signed into law the Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February, he gave a speech at a high school in Arizona in which he outlined his ambitious plan that promised to significantly reduce foreclosures. His promise for this plan was that it would "give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild. It will prevent the worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on the economy." What we now know is that the financial sector was cushioned from the worst of the crisis while everyday homeowners, soon to be over 3 million this year alone, continue to suffer."
So homelessness is on the rise with the foreclosures""

2) "Nearly 61 per cent of local and state homeless organisations say they have witnessed an increase in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, the Washington DC-based National Coalition for the Homeless study says.
And the problem has intensified since the report was produced in April, along with rising repossessions, soaring energy and food prices and job losses, the group says.
"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition, said.
"The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."

3) ""Saturday, October 24, 2009
Homelessness on the rise in California - 20 Oct 09
"Unemployment is well above the national average and homelessness is on the rise in what's known as America's Golden State.
Continuing our series of dispatches on the hard times that have hit the US state of California, Rob Reynolds reports from the city of Fresno, where a homeless community is being forced to fend for itself."""

I know that a lot of these folks became homeless through mis-management of their funds. Credit was their enemy. They got into trouble with mortgages on houses and cars, that they couldn't afford, and running up credit card debt like there is no tomorrow. Unfortunately this is where they are today. Tent cities!

But people do stupid things without thinking about the consequences.
I got a call that a neighbor had lit a cigarette near her oxygen mask, and now has second degree burns on her face.
That compares with the stupidity of buying a house that you cannot afford, and will lose if suddenly your pay checks are cut off, as far as I am concerned.
Why can't people be happy with a not-so-fancy house and car, and save the difference so that they have a nest egg to make the payments should anything happen? Surely the Jones aren't that important, they can't take it with them.
Then a lot of the homeless are veterans who have come home with disabilities and cannot work, or others who cannot hold down a job due to drug addiction, mental health, etc.
So, please Fulltimers, please don't call yourselves homeless!

"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Chuck Clark

"For every action there is an equal and opposite government program. "- Bob Wells

MaeMae, Claudia's little dog, came to stay for three days.

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