Regardless of the cultural context, having a place to live is a basic need and dignity of the human being. Among the many cruxes of poverty, living on the streets is undoubtedly the most painful and desperate end.
In the winter of 2023, in order to host the APEC summit, San Francisco in the United States has carried out a large-scale renovation of the cityscape, and the homeless people sleeping on the streets have also been "vacated" on a large scale. Some watched as their belongings were dumped onto trucks along with tents, because it wasn't long before dignitaries in formal suits would set foot on the land to discuss the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and international relations, and the homeless were clearly the worst of the world.
Poverty and wealth will always play out at the same time. The financial crisis 15 years ago led to the flow of millions of foreclosure homes to the market. Many homebuyers who have entered the middle class with loans have returned to their original class overnight, and they are waiting for not only the eviction of their landlords, but also the arrogant and indifferent gazes from their neighbors.
Even in the richest country in the world, there are still many poor people struggling to survive and to have a place to live. They are dismissed, they are misunderstood, and the fate of poverty circulates like blood between parents and children.
one
Homeless
Arlene loves her home in Old Town Milwaukee. Although the apartment is a bit shabby, it at least protects her and her two children from the wind and snow outside the door.
Snow is fair. Rust, dust, ruins. All traces of the city's decay and decay have been temporarily buried by snow. Milwaukee is located next to the Great Lakes in North America, with railroads and ports, and is a typical American industrial city. Before the bosses moved their factories to Asia in the '80s, good jobs were everywhere. Now Milwaukee has transformed. At least that's what the politicians say. The huge factory turned into Wal-Mart. People's wages have been falling, and unemployment has climbed to double digits at one point.
The poor people of the old town have become Xi to the rapid knocking of the door in the morning. If the door is not opened in time, two armed sheriffs will break down the door. They will first produce a judge-approved eviction order to declare to the tenants of the house that they cannot continue to live here. Then a group of moving company workers would flood into the house, remove the guests' personal belongings from the house, remove the old locks on the door, and replace them with new ones.
Similar evictions are staged about 2.5 million times a year in the United States.
Police come to evict tenants at Frontline PBS
It won't be long before Arlene's family will be living on the streets like this. Her landlord applied to the court for an eviction order, and the two confronted each other in court. The judge asked Arlene if she was behind on rent. "Yes. Arlene replied. From this moment on, it is impossible to change the fate of her being swept away.
Arlene is unemployed, suffers from chronic depression and has to raise two children on her own. She lives on social welfare benefits, but 88 percent of the $628 goes on rent.
Since 1997, welfare benefits across the U.S. have stagnated, but average rents have been consistent. All it takes is a pandemic, a fine for an absence from work, or a car breakdown to repair that can leave a tenant like Arlene behind in rent.
Arlene's sister died a while ago, and Arlene took out half of the month's allowance and gave it to the morgue and the other half to the landlord. The landlord sympathized with Arlene and was willing to wait for her to pay off the rent arrears in the next two months. However, Arlene forgot to meet with the social worker regularly during the period of dealing with the aftermath, which led to a significant reduction in the benefits she received in the second month.
The landlord was unwilling to wait and issued an eviction order. Arlene still wanted to struggle a little more and try to reach an out-of-court settlement with the landlord. She only wished she hadn't left another record of evictions.
With just one eviction, there's a good chance that a tenant's personal life will begin to crumble. Eviction records and rent arrears records are registered on file for other landlords to review. As a result, they always have to move to communities where they live in more deplorable conditions. These neighborhoods are home to outcasts and outcasts, and are hotbeds of drugs, violence, and sexual crimes.
The children also had to transfer schools. Arlene's youngest son made her very uneasy. She feared that he would become just as Xi and violent as his unreliable biological father. Children who relocate for a long time and transfer frequently are always prone to "problems", which is the advice of most teachers.
Arlene had four unreliable men in her life. The first was her biological father. He had Arlene's mother conceive a child before she was a teenager and then disappeared without a trace. She spent her childhood on her mother's money and, unsurprisingly, dropped out of high school to become a nanny. This was followed by three other men: an employer when he was a nanny, a waiter he met at a movie theater, and a car mechanic. Arlene and all three men have had children, but have only been married to a maintenance worker. The marriage didn't go far.
These are old things.
Arlene's last eviction took place last winter, and all of her belongings were piled up by porters on the side of the road: a few mattresses, an old-fashioned television, a copy of Don't Be Afraid of Discipline, a glass dining table with a lace tablecloth, her potted fake flowers, cut meat from the fridge, a shower curtain and her youngest son's asthma nebulizer.
She moved into a homeless shelter with her two children. There are 120 beds, almost no personal space, and theft and fights are common. But everybody calls it a "hotel" because then parents can lie to their children, "We're going to a hotel tonight," which sounds much better than living on the streets.
After being evicted, residents were forced to temporarily leave their personal belongings outside the Frontline PBS
Arlene could have lived a life without wandering. At that time, she was 19 years old and had rented a **subsidized apartment for only $137 a month. She was glad that she finally had her own room and no longer had to obey her mother's discipline. But she's clearly not that mature. A friend invited Arlene to share a house, and she moved out, saying goodbye to the good days of having a rental subsidy.
There are two main housing subsidy programs in the United States: Section 8 housing voucher and public housing. As long as you apply for one of them, the tenant only needs to pay 30% of his monthly income as rent, and the rest is covered by **. This means that tenants don't have to worry about being evicted all the time, and can live a stable life that is not wealthy.
It is not difficult to sign up for these grants, but the number of places is limited, and only a quarter of the grant applicants are granted, and applicants often have to wait years to receive the grant.
Once, Arlene walked into the lobby of the Milwaukee Housing Authority to ask for a list of people in line to apply for rental subsidies. The lady behind the office told her that four years ago, there were already 3,500 families in Milwaukee waiting in line for housing subsidies. Arlene had no choice but to die.
II. II. II
Poor people are not allowed to move in
A good community means everything – better job opportunities, a safer place to live, and better educational resources.
Attending schools in safer and more educated neighborhoods increases the likelihood that children will complete school, go to college, and find a well-paid job, and correspondingly less likely to become pregnant, addicted to drugs, and commit crime. Young people no longer need to repeat the mistakes of their parents. It is no exaggeration to say that the zip code of the residence is the fate of the family.
By the time she learned that the section8 housing allowance had finally taken her turn, Harris and her seven children were still homeless. They live in a minivan and sleep in shelters at night.
Harris and her children live in a van at Frontline PBS
Harris has been waiting for this for years. She used housing subsidies as a life-changing ticket to rent a house in a good neighborhood — a good job — and then send her children to a good school.
The housing grant must be used within 90 days of the approval of the application, otherwise it will expire. Harris has been working on this for quite some time. Dozens of days have passed, and she has made hundreds of apartment complexes, but no landlord is willing to accept this black single mother with a housing subsidy.
Landlords are not very welcoming to housing subsidy holders. Because once these tenants move in, they will "provoke" the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Public Housing Authority. Inspectors come to the house every one to two years to "critically" check whether the construction of the house meets the standards. Most landlords are struggling to cope with this scrutiny and simply turn out all housing subsidy holders.
There are real estate developers who are presiding over the development of an apartment in one of Dallas's best neighborhoods. In the plan, some of the apartments will be rented freely in the rental market, and the other part of the rooms will be reserved for low-income people and housing subsidy holders.
Apartment under construction Frontline PBS
This is a good public welfare project that can help many tenants like Harris, who are not popular in the private rental market. But the residents of the community raised a fierce ** for the construction of this real estate project. The city even held a public hearing for this, which was attended by hundreds of local residents. They were furious and tried to prove that the construction of the project was illegal.
Residents oppose the project on a variety of grounds. Some residents are worried that the increase in occupants will lead to traffic congestionSome residents worry that the schools in their neighborhoods will be overcrowded, while others simply don't want too many low-income families in their neighborhoods.
Most of the people who hold section8 housing subsidies are generally single mothers or some people who are struggling to make ends meet, rather than. People from the same class as me. ”
Most of the residents who attended the hearing were reminded of a violent incident that occurred in the neighborhood two years ago. It was a calm afternoon, and a group of black teenagers were throwing a pool party in a friend's yard, and they were partying over the slightly louder party sounds. A local resident yelled at the blacks, "Go back to your subsidized housing!."”
Things eventually got out of hand. I can't tell who made the first move. All one remembers is the siren that shattered the neighborhood with their whistling sirens, police officers with batons chasing people out of control in the clashes, and black youths still in swimsuits and trunks being pushed to the ground by the police. They groaned in pain.
This community could not have calmed down anymore.
The subsidised apartment, which is considered a "thorn in the side" by locals, was completed, but that doesn't mean that low-income people can easily integrate into the community. In the noble communities where the middle class lives, these subsidized poor people have more challenges to deal with, not limited to the arrogant, prejudiced gaze.
Giles, a black single mother, like Harris, waited six years for a housing subsidy. She immediately got a job on the north side of the city, which is home to a high-quality community. Although she has not yet found a house, she still drives her car every day, "trekking" from the southern end of the city to the northern end, and turning back and forth between the old and the new.
After receiving the subsidy, Giles thought her life would be more stable, and she hoped to have access to better job opportunities by moving to Frontline PBS
The vision was in sight, but no landlord wanted to rent it to this single black mom with a housing subsidy.
Three months passed, and she had to return her subsidy eligibility, quit her job, and moved to her ex-husband's house with her children. She cried about the discrimination and cold eyes she had encountered in search of a house.
They think we're lazy, worthless, and struggling to make ends meet. Even though we don't make that much money, we love our children all the same, work just as hard, and even harder than they do. ”
Three
The landlord's golden hen
People once thought that this would be an era when every family had a house to live in.
From 1997 to 2006, home prices in the U.S. rose by 124, but at the same time, Americans' homeownership rate climbed to 692%, which is the highest point in the last 30 years.
Banks are also incredibly generous, and they give mortgages to almost everyone. Many low- and middle-income groups are also invited to the bank's business hall, and the clerk respectfully handles the mortgage for them. They thus owned their own house, as if the American dream was fulfilled.
Bankers call this "subprime loan" and it is designed to lend to people with poor credit ratings who are unable to borrow from normal sources. The overly optimistic property market has led them to think that this is a good business.
But in 2008, when the financial crisis came, these people with mortgages went bankrupt overnight, lost their jobs, and were forced to move out of their homes and into the rental market with a record of dishonesty.
Evicted tenants move mattresses out of their rental Frontline PBS
A former secondary school teacher, Shelena is now a professional landlord with 36 properties. Her real estate business began with the subprime mortgage crisis, when tens of thousands of American citizens went bankrupt in the economic crisis and a large number of low-cost foreclosure homes flowed into the market. Sherrena took the opportunity to buy a lot of property in the slums of Old Town Milwaukee.
From an investment perspective, the dilapidated houses in the slums and the high crime rates in the neighborhoods are not suitable for the daily living of a middle-class like Shelena, nor do they have any room for value-added. But Sherrena doesn't see it that way: "The slums are a good place. There's my golden hen. ”
Slum housing is nearly two-thirds cheaper than in middle-class neighborhoods, but the difference in monthly rent is less than $200, and there is less to pay for mortgage and property taxes. Xie Rena can earn about $20,000 a month from rent, and after paying off her own mortgage of 8,005, she can also net more than $10,000.
Houses in the slums are not to be rented. Many low-income people with eviction records are unable to find a home in a better neighborhood and have resorted to landlords like Sherona who do not strictly control their eviction records and end up renting in slums with poor conditions in order to keep them out of the streets.
These tenants are also the weakest ones who are easily manipulated by landlords, they dare not complain too much about the dilapidated house environment, and many of the furniture is barely used as long as it is not completely damaged. For landlords, this saves them a lot of money on repairs.
The expulsion is a one-time rebirth. Selena remembers hesitating for days when she first applied for deportation, nervously reviewing various legal texts. Now she is much more proficient, and she will not hesitate to file an eviction petition with the court whenever there is a sign that the tenant is not sustainable. When a tenant tries to trouble her, she can also respond with a polite and tough tone. She also had a gun in the car.
An evicted resident is packing personal belongings for Frontline PBS
But for others, tenants who are behind on their rent can completely cut off their cash flow.
During the pandemic, the CDC issued an eviction ban. While the ban is in effect, the landlord can't evict the guest for any reason.
Many low-income people struggling at the poverty line have benefited, while some small landlords with few property purchases have become homeless.
Rocaster is a veteran and her tenant has been owed a year's rent in the amount of $2$30,000. She and her daughter have suffered tremendous hardship during the pandemic and have almost spent all their savings. Although she owns 3 properties for rent, she is still homeless.
Rocaster said she just wanted to get back to her house, but the ban made it impossible to evict the tenants who were behind on their rent.
Carla is one of the tenants who rent her house and has a daughter and a son with autism. In front of the TV camera, she reached the pillar in front of the door of the house, and her hands were clenched in front of her chest. She spoke quickly, but firmly. She said she wouldn't leave.
Carla showed the TV reporter her request for rent relief. The documents show that her application has been approved. **A portion of the rent will be repaid on Carla's behalf, and the money will be paid directly to the account of the landlord, Rocaster. But the fact is that Rocaster did not receive a rental subsidy from **.
After the epidemic ended, this dilemma has not been resolved. With the lifting of eviction bans in the states, a new eviction crisis erupted. Eviction rates have skyrocketed, and a large number of debt-ridden tenants have been evicted by their landlords.
Most of these evicted tenants face homelessness, but landlords still confront them in court, asking the judge to record the rent arrears and the cost of carrying out the eviction. "Put a long line to catch a big fish", the landlords plan to gamble.
The judge hears the eviction petition in court at Frontline PBS
They always fantasize about having such a few tenants. They were swept away by themselves, and then at some point they came to their senses. They will find a good job, they will gradually have some savings, they will apply for a loan to go to school, and they may even succeed in turning over after years of hard work and buying a house of their own – just like the American Dream describes.
When the time comes, landlords will be able to demand that these "turned-over" tenants repay their debts with interest. The cumulative annual interest rate of the money judgment is as high as 12%, which is more profitable than **.
But Selena has not caught this "big fish" yet. For most of her tenants, they end up in more dilapidated houses, shelters or the streets when they are swept away. Owing an extra debt will only make them more numb to a desperate life. Saving a little money doesn't improve much.
Poverty is a track with no end in sight, and once you set foot on it, it will slide uncontrollably. No one can say exactly how today's loss fell on them, and whether that ** era really came.
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