Foreclosed Properties: Homes for the Homeless?

by Shannon Moriarty · 2008-12-03 20:36:00 UTC
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What do you get when you have an increasing homeless population and thousands of foreclosed and abandoned properties?

The answer? Squatters.

Take Cleveland, for example. There are three times as many abandoned houses as homeless people within the city limits. At night, when the shelters are full, thousands of houses sit unoccupied.

Or are they?

Homeless advocates in Cleveland have noticed a "dramatic decline" in the number of homeless people living on the streets. While they do not know for certain just how many squatters have taken to vacant houses, it's clear that this is becoming a trend.

And why shouldn't it? Across the country, organizations are looking at the scores of vacant houses and the rising homeless population and connecting the dots. Joel John Roberts, who writes over at LA's Homeless Blog, picked up on this story today:

Why not match these people who are home-less, with homes that are people-less? The banks need someone to protect their homes, since vacant properties attract criminal elements. And people need temporary places to stay.

An anti-poverty group in Miami, for example, is moving homeless people into foreclosed properties, even going so far as to provide furniture, cleaning, and gardening supplies. In Atlanta, some property owners (i.e. speculators) are paying homeless people to live in abandoned houses to prevent crime, vandalism, and overall blight until they can rehab the property.

Certainly, this is not a long-term solution. But as shelters continue to be stretched by increasing demand, doesn't it make sense for people to stay in a structure instead of on the streets?

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
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