it aint looking good in the usa

Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:33 pm » by **Icarus1**

America's homeless resort to tent cities
Panorama's Hilary Andersson comes face to face with the reality of poverty in America and finds that, for some, the last resort has become life in a tented encampment.

Just off the side of a motorway on the fringes of the picturesque town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a mismatched collection of 30 tents tucked in the woods has become home - home to those who are either unemployed, or whose wages are so low that they can no longer afford to pay rent.

Conditions are unhygienic. There are no toilets and electricity is only available in the one communal tent where the campers huddle around a wood stove for warmth in the heart of winter.

Ice weighs down the roofs of tents, and rain regularly drips onto the sleeping campers' faces as they sleep.

Tent cities have sprung up in and around at least 55 American cities - they represent the bleak reality of America's poverty crisis.

Black mould

According to census data, 47 million Americans now live below the poverty line - the most in half a century - fuelled by several years of high unemployment.

One of the largest tented camps is in Florida and is now home to around 300 people. Others have sprung up in New Jersey and Portland.

Find out more
Hilary Andersson presents Panorama: Poor America
BBC One, Monday, 13 February at 8.30pm
Then available in the UK on the
In the Ann Arbor camp, Alana Gehringer, 23, has had a hacking cough for the last four months.

"The black mould - it was on our pillows, it was on our blankets, we were literally rubbing our faces in it sleeping every night," she said of wintering in a tent.

The camp is run by the residents themselves, with the help of a local charity group. Calls have come in from the hospital emergency room, the local police and the local homeless shelter to see if they can send in more.

"Last night, for example, we got a call saying they had six that couldn't make it into the shelter and... they were hoping that we could place them... So we usually get calls, around nine or 10 a night," said Brian Durance, a camp organiser.

Michigan's Republican-controlled state government has been locked into a programme of severe budget cuts in an attempt to balance its books.

The cuts have included benefits for many of the state's poorest residents.

Between the cuts and the economic conditions pinching, there is increased pressure on homeless shelters.

Michigan's Lieutenant Governor, Brian Calley, was asked about the reality of public agencies in his state suggesting the homeless live in tents.

"That is absolutely not acceptable, and we have to take steps and policies in order to make sure that those people have the skills they need to be independent, and it won't happen overnight," he said.

Depression-type poverty

There are an estimated 5,000 people living in the dozens of camps that have sprung up across America.

The largest camp, Pinella's Hope in central Florida - a region better known for the glamour of Disneyworld - is made up of neat rows of tents spread out across a 13-acre plot.

The Catholic charity that runs it has made laundry available, as well as computers and phones.

Many of the camps are organised and hold regular meetings to divide up camp chores and agree on community rules. They have become semi-permanent homes for some residents, who see little prospect of getting jobs soon.

These tent cities - and this level of poverty - are images that many Americans associate with the Great Depression.

Unemployment in America today has not reached the astronomical levels of the 1930s, but barring a short spike in 1982, it has not been this high since the Depression era.

There are now 13 million unemployed Americans, which is three million more than when President Barack Obama was first elected.

The stark reality is that many of them are people who very recently lived comfortable middle-class lives.

For them, the economic downturn came too fast and many have been forced to trade their middle-class homes for lives in shelters, motels and at the far extreme, tented encampments.

Panorama: Poor America, BBC One, Monday, 13 February at 20:30 GMT then available in the UK on the

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/panora ... 694094.stm

Published: 2012/02/13 00:54:11 GMT

© BBC 2012

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front ... 694094.stm

Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:41 pm » by **Domdabears**

Maybe they just really like camping.

Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:44 pm » by **Icarus1**

id say some of them would dom, but not all , i remember seeing a documentary about people living in sewers or storm drains in vegas a year or two ago , have you ever seen it?

Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:47 pm » by **Domdabears**

I was just joking.

No I haven't seen it.

Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:51 pm » by **dlslith**

icarus1 wrote:id say some of them would dom, but not all , i remember seeing a documentary about people living in sewers or storm drains in vegas a year or two ago , have you ever seen it?

I've seen a few documentaries like this. Not just segregated to the US though. It's all over the world and getting worse

Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:54 pm » by **Icarus1**

i know its not just an american problem my friend , but the one i seen about vegas was fascinating, it was full of people who thought they would strike it rich but the dream turned out different

Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:03 pm » by **Eldorado**

Here in Vermont the issue is the same, but worse in some areas......

The Mayor has informed the police to stop harassing the campers/homeless.....then there was a serious issue with the police going behind the mayor's back and they were slashing tents as they found them in the woods....have been doing it for years here......

So one night a couple of campers were by the fire.......one went to take a leak, to return to find a single cop harassing the other guys at the camp.............he was able to pull his gun out from the holster without him noticing him coming....he held him at gunpoint......ordered them to strip, handcuff himself around the nearest tree.....they beat the shit outta the cop and rammed his night stick up his ass........it was in the newspaper and eneryone was really cheering even though he was fucked up.....

So guess they have some other camps set up to help out in some areas....how so very white of them.

Here they have recieved a huge fund they got from the federal govt. under the Housing and Urban Development Fund....but they used it all for the creation of their downtown image.....all Urban Design...no Housing.....damn shame that all of these cities are gentrifying the urban areas without any consideration of the people living in those areas.....sickening...

But good to hear the camps are making waves.........fuck the impersonators in the "Occupy" movements....they had the nerve to tell homeless people they weren't welcome in the city to protest as citizens. They are really the one percent...their all just bitching because they got suckered into school loans, and now they are owned by the banks....wit no skills coming outts the dorms....FOOLS...shoulda woken up a little earlier....

Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:04 pm » by **dlslith**

I know sir, I've seen it. It is truly heartbreaking

Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:15 pm » by **Rydher**

I can only speak of my local area but the vast majority of people that have now fallen on hard times have no one to blame but themselves. I know many people that bought houses that were 600k and they were making 40-45k a year. Then there are those that already had houses that took the equity out of their homes when the market skyrocketed and bought boats, cars, and lived like fucking rock stars.

Then when they couldn't pay the mortgage on their house anymore, they lived there for years (some still are in their houses rent free 2 years later) without paying a dime. Instead of saving that cash they still tried to live the rock star lifestyle. Some of them even got roommates (because work was slow or they wouldn't take job and lived off unemployment) and charged those roommates rent. More free money they pissed away.

Speaking to friends and family in Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina, Cali, and Washington - that above description isn't isolated. People lived well beyond their means. Buckled to pressure of everyone else doing it and didn't want to be embarrassed by looking poor. Now they are clawing to try and keep up that image, making it worse and worse for themselves.

Mon Feb 13, 2012 2:29 pm » by **dlslith**

rydher wrote:I can only speak of my local area but the vast majority of people that have now fallen on hard times have no one to blame but themselves. I know many people that bought houses that were 600k and they were making 40-45k a year. Then there are those that already had houses that took the equity out of their homes when the market skyrocketed and bought boats, cars, and lived like fucking rock stars.

Then when they couldn't pay the mortgage on their house anymore, they lived there for years (some still are in their houses rent free 2 years later) without paying a dime. Instead of saving that cash they still tried to live the rock star lifestyle. Some of them even got roommates (because work was slow or they wouldn't take job and lived off unemployment) and charged those roommates rent. More free money they pissed away.

Speaking to friends and family in Jersey, Georgia, North Carolina, Cali, and Washington - that above description isn't isolated. People lived well beyond their means. Buckled to pressure of everyone else doing it and didn't want to be embarrassed by looking poor. Now they are clawing to try and keep up that image, making it worse and worse for themselves.

Good point. And then there's us folks who are just struggling to get by and always have, and then get hammered with more taxes to make it near next to impossible to make ends meet. I'm too old to work two jobs to just get by