Linking Homeless People to People-less Housing?

In the December 2nd issue of the Boston Globe there was an intriguing article that caught my attention. In Miami there is a homeless advocate who has started helping homeless individuals and families locate empty foreclosed homes in which they can squat. In case you're unfamiilar with the practice, squatting is when one illegally stays in an empty or abandoned property.

As the article states, Florida is one of the hardest-hit areas in the foreclosure crisis. In general, I like the way this advocate, Max Rameau, is thinking. There are units out there that could house people experiencing homelessness. The problem is that what he's doing is illegal. Right now there haven't been any actions to stop him - either by police or the property owners. That's not to say things won't change. One challenge that many experiencing homelessness face is encountering relatively minor criminal charges, mostly related to basic subsistence. Folks tend to run into trouble for vagrancy, other nuisance charges, or theft of food. It's easy to imagine facing some sort of trouble if you're living on the street or tring to find someplace new to sleep each night. These things add up, of course, and ultimately people can find themselves in bigger trouble and with a criminal record. Once someone has a CORI (see earlier posts on speakunited.org) it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain employment and permanent housing.

So, while I like that this man is thinking outside the box, in the long run these people are still homeless and at-risk for all sort of problems. What we really need are civic-minded buyers for all these foreclosed properties. If buyers can purchase homes for a deep discount, that lower purchase price can be treated as a subsidy for affordability. The operating costs are immediately lower for an affordable housing project starts off with lower debt. It's complicated, for sure, but I want to know where those civic-minded buyers are! This crisis affords us with an unprecedented opportunity that we must not let slip by.