Friday, September 19, 2008

Tent Cities

Homelessness is a bewildering problem for most of us; and yet it also makes perfect sense in some ways. For instance, homeless rates seem to rise at times when rents go up, which seems fairly obvious. Add to rising rents, and a boom in foreclosures, a decline in good jobs and you wind up with the sort of tent cities you now see springing up across the United States.

"Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007..."
So, the tent cities might move on when the economy improves... whenever that happens. But I wonder if the answer wouldn't just be to establish no-rent apartments instead of having a myriad of different services provided by these cities. It would certainly be cheaper and it doesn't look like the tent cities are moving on any time soon. Unless someone calls the cops.

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