Are Tent Cities Obama's Answer to the Housing Crisis?

 

August 3, 2009 (LPAC)—They may not be made of tar paper any more, but in cities across the country, the modern equivalent of Hoovervilles are springing up everywhere. Homeless and unemployed, with nowhere else to go, more and more people are ending up in tent cities, from Providence, R.I., to Seattle, Washington. Local authorities either tolerate them, try to resettle these homeless into apartments, or simply evict them, but, there's no question the problem will get worse as the economy further disintegrates.

* A tent city with about 40 residents has set up on state-owned land under a bridge in East Providence, R.I. The camp had originally been set up across the river in Providence about four months ago and then moved because it was threatened by a construction project. John Freitas, the camp's leader, blasted R.I. Governor Donald Carcieri (R), who has said he won't allocate any state land for the homeless, despite the obvious fact that there isn't enough shelter space for them.

* A tent city in Champaign, Ill., lost a zoning appeal and will have to seek an alternate location. About 15 people were living behind a local Catholic Worker House.

* In Washington State, the state supreme court ruled that the city of Woodinville should have given a hearing to those who would erect a tent city for the homeless at a local church. A homeless advocacy group had planned a tent encampment for 60 to 100 people, and the city responded by imposing a moratorium on temporary use permits in the area.

* In New York City, dozens of activists built a tent city on property owned by JPMorgan Chase in East Harlem, to protest the lack of housing for the poor.

* In Fresno, Calif., local officials say they have resettled most of the 150 residents of a tent city that they closed on Thursday. Now they are moving to close two more with federal stimulus money.

* In Las Vegas, police are breaking up a tent city that housed 300 people at one point, but is now down to about 50. Supposedly, some of those no longer living there have successfully relocated, but no one can get a tally of how many people got what kind of help.

* Last but not least, we should mention the small tent city in that "rich suburb," Leesburg, Virginia.