Where will we hide the homeless?

There is a proposal in Hawaii to ship the state's growing homeless population to the mainland.

As the economy continues suffer and jobs remain scarce, homeless people are showing up in places usually reserved for tourists. Some state officials believe it would be more prudent to spend $300 on a one-way plane ticket for each homeless person than to pay $35,000 a year to shelter and feed them. Furthermore, the state has concerns that the sight of homeless people roaming plush beaches will hurt tourism, which overwhelmingly supports Hawaii's economy.

Welcome to the future of America, where homeless people are no longer confined to inner-city soup kitchens and out-of-sight trash dumpsters. The homeless will be everywhere and will include educated people who were living in 3-bedroom suburban homes for most of their lives. The new homeless will look different. They'll be your grandparents and former colleagues. They will be well spoken and mentally coherent. Many will be young adults who couldn't navigate their way into a failing job market despite possessing multiple college degrees. They won't be content to freeze in a back alley in a decaying Detroit neighborhood. They will migrate to places where they can survive in the elements.

Where will we ship these people?

As distasteful as it might be for some folks to picture the new homeless camped out in the parking lot of Whole Foods in suburbia, it's going to happen because of our inability to extricate ourselves from the economic mess we're in. Some people won't even acknowledge how severe the unemployment problem has become. The Rush Limbaughs of the world think there are plenty of good jobs for anyone willing to work.

While those who are still sailing along, bathing in a kind of blissful ignorance, tend to not think about these things, I am here to tell you that current and former middle class people can't continue to drain their savings forever without ending up on the streets. They need jobs. They need to restore their nest eggs.

Tourist areas, tidy suburbs and other places that are usually shielded from society's ills will be inundated by a new wave of homelessness in the next decade if the employment situation doesn't improve dramatically in the next year or two.

Read more about Hawaii's proposal.

Another shattered American dream

ABC's Nightline aired a story titled "Families in Foreclosure" last night. Glad to see the mainstream media reporting more stories like this, but wish they wouldn't wait until 11:30 p.m. to do so. This stuff needs to be in prime time and on every front page of every newspaper, which maybe will force people, particularly government leaders, to wake up.

You can watch the video here: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/

A Mason, Ohio couple and their young daughter, son and family dog are featured in the piece. They didn't lose their home because they bought too big of a house, drove new cars or were shopaholics drowning in credit card debt. This isn't a story about some slimy mortgage company that conned them into something they couldn't afford. They lost their home because of a perfect storm that is becoming all too common.

Neighbors were in tears watching the family pack their belongings. Apparently, these were modest, well-liked folks. No country clubbers or CEOs with golden parachutes in this humble neighborhood.

Tears flowed again when the parents walked the young girl to her bus stop for a final time. I don't know how parents explain these things to children.

The husband, a veteran, hurt his back badly while on the job at a warehouse. While on disability leave, his firm merged with another company. That created downsizing and layoffs. He lost his job. Meanwhile, his wife has Crohn's Disease, which has hospitalized her 19 times in 20 years. Her medical bills began piling up and the couple was evicted from their modest $115,000 townhouse. The show documents their last few days in their home.

Fortunately, the couple was able to move in with a family member. But you could tell that losing their home was nonetheless painful and tragic. Another of those life scars we all accumulate at sometime or another. Still, they did have shelter in the aftermath. Could have been worse.

One has to wonder where others, without family members to take them in, will go when they lose their jobs, savings and homes.

Once again, another American family, through no fault of their own, has fallen victim to corporate downsizing, unmanageable medical bills and just bad luck. These tales are increasing at an alarming rate, hitting closer and closer to home, and are eating away at the core values that made this country strong.

As a journalist and quasi blogger, I consider what is happening now as the biggest story of our generation, yet it still doesn't get the play it should. Judging from my own declining blog traffic, it appears people just want to stick their heads in the sand about the economy, unemployment and the domino effect of it all.

Meanwhile, the president is continuing his globetrotting ways and the deficit is getting bigger by the second, which potentially means if we ever get out of this recession, rampant inflation will follow. Most economists believe taxes are going to have to go sky high in future in order to pay for all the government spending going on now. Interest rates on mortgages and car loans could return to the upper teens, where they were in the late 1970s and early 80s.

There are growing reports that those who crossed the border to come here in recent years for work are going back to Mexico to find jobs. More astonishingly, those in Mexico are now sending what little money they have to help out relatives in America who have fallen upon hard times.

From Mason, Ohio to Southern California to the shores of Florida, the situation is the same. And when I see stories like the one last night, I wonder what the future holds for my own daughter. She is well educated and hard working, yet I don't know if that's enough anymore.

For folks my age in similar predicaments, time is our biggest enemy. I hear the clock ticking every minute of every day.

I think the American dream is being rewritten with each story like the one in Mason, Ohio. I don't know what the final chapter will read like, but I know the cast of characters is growing more than most people realize.

Seeking the skinny on Florida

What's going on in Florida? Every time I explore the possibility of moving back to The Sunshine State, I learn of something new that squashes my enthusiasm.

Northern Virginia isn't a cheap place to live. And we're currently existing on one income since my layoff last year. This is suppose to be an area with a fair number of jobs, but I have found it very difficult to get a foot in the door in any industry related to what I did as a newspaper editor for 29 years. I've tried public relations firms, college communications departments and a host of specialty publications in an around D.C. Still, no viable offers that would allow us to continue to live in this pricey part of country for very long.

In the past, when the going got tough, I got going - to Florida - as I mentioned in prior posts. The sun, warmth and adventure of living near the Florida Keys and Miami was just what the doctor ordered early in my adult life. My brand-new townhouse in Homestead, Fla., cost a grand total of $39,000, so the mortgage was affordable, even with a skimpy paycheck.

But now, more than 25 years later, Florida doesn't seem so inviting. While the recession has dropped the price of housing, many of the homes for sale have been gutted by previous owners who were foreclosed upon. And there are a ton of foreclosure properties there, many of which are in a state of disrepair. Condo fees are through the roof because there are fewer occupied units to share the overall costs. Single-family homes are falling apart...at least the ones I could afford.

In addition, there is flood insurance to contend with. And in some areas, hurricane insurance (which is separate from flood and homeowner's insurance) would cost more than the monthly mortgage payment.

Renting isn't a great option either. Rents aren't that much cheaper than here, at least not in the bigger cities.

When I lived in Florida, alligators were mostly confined to the Everglades. Now they're showing up in supermarket parking lots and in people's kitchens on a regular basis throughout the state.

But the one thing that never changes in Florida is the crime rate. Gosh, even in relatively small towns like Lakeland, the crime stats are overwhelming compared to where I live in Loudoun County, Va.

Many folks on online forums say that moving to Florida without a job these days is death sentence. This is amazing since Florida had always been a place where you could go with a few hundred bucks in your wallet and eventually get a job, apartment and begin to build a modest life. Apparently, this is no longer the case and could land you on a park bench or homeless shelter in a hurry, particularly at my age.

Tampa, the area of the state I would like to live in, seems to have a fair number of jobs on web sites like Craigslist.com. Of course, with CList, you never know how many of those listings are actually legitimate. I have applied to a lot of jobs in Florida in the last year and not one has responded in a positive or informative manner. Most don't reply at all. I have also contacted real estate agents who never return my calls or answer my e-mails. Very strange. Florida is still attached to the mainland last time I checked on Google Earth.

Still, the lure of sunshine and warmth is mighty strong, especially when it appears that finding a decent-paying job in Northern Virginia isn't as easy as I thought it would be while another winter approaches. I like it here in the Commonwealth - went to college in the southern part of the state and worked at three different newspapers here - but am getting the feeling certain forces are telling me it's time to leave. Where to go is the big question right now. We like our native New York but can't afford the area around NYC. We enjoy states like North Carolina and Georgia but have been unable to find jobs there. We've heard that it's difficult to find work if you're applying from out of state. If that is the case, then we need to pick an area and try our best to find something once there. A risky proposition in this recession.

You can buy a short-sale house in Florida for the price of the average car in Loudoun County. (We have an inordinate number of BMWs, Caddies, Jaguars, etc. here.) I want to move to a place where I am relatively certain I won't be homeless by age 60. But without jobs, I am not so certain the low-cost of housing would be much of an advantage in Florida. It's great that Florida doesn't have a state income tax, but you have to have an income in order for that to be a plus.

I'd love to hear from anyone who might stumble upon this blog and who is living in Florida. Contact me if you care to share the real story about the current state of the state. Perhaps the picture I am getting is skewed by distance and online forums which tend to be overly negative. If there still are opportunities in Florida, I'd appreciate hearing about them.

Thoughts on a Saturday morning

I suspect that Saturday is the best day of the week for the unemployed. It's a day in which one can feel less freakish. Most of the world isn't working. There are cars in driveways and apartment parking lots during the daytime. There are fewer people walking around in suits or business-casual garb. No company ID badges on display in coffee shops or at the gas pumps. It's easier to slip into denial on Saturdays. Easier to escape. Reminders of reality lose a bit of their sharp edge.

However, all is not perfect for the unemployed on Saturdays. My wife and I don't do the things we did pre-layoff. No long drives that eat up gasoline. No fancy restaurants. No splurging at the mall or buying drinks for friends. We get our DVD rentals from Red Box ($1.00 per night). No more strolling through Blockbuster. No more checking out the new releases in Best Buy. These small sacrifices now will hopefully prevent us from taking up residence under a highway overpass in the future.

Unemployment not only impacts jobless folks, it impacts spouses, friends, businesses and the economy in general. That is why it is so important for our political leaders to focus on getting people back to work. Until unemployment rates are lowered, the economy will never fully recover. I also suspect that crime will get worse and homelessness, particularly among folks my age, will increase. And if anyone thinks they are immune to these problems because they live in more affluent areas like Northern Virginia or Southern California, think again.

If I was the news director for NBC Nightly News, I would make the unemployment situation a regular part of each evening's newscast in order to pressure politicians into helping businesses create jobs -- real jobs, not just contrived highway repair projects or gushy government positions. Instead, we get Michael Jackson updates every night. Does Brian Williams have a clue as to the fact that the unemployment problem is far worse than the statistics show? Are major network news anchors so out of touch with reality and so rich that they have lost all sense of priorities and news judgment?

I try to turn my brain off to these issues on Saturdays. Today I am going to play music with friends and take a walk with my spouse. Unemployment is somehow making me fatter, so I have to walk more often. Tomorrow we'll go to the farmer's market. Sundays aren't quite as good as Saturdays, only because for many years I worked on Sundays.

I still haven't gotten use to being home on Sundays. There is a different stride to Sundays. Folks slow down. By evening, many people are prepping themselves for another work week. Some get the Monday morning blues on Sunday night. I feel the pressure of another week beginning, but for far different reasons now.

My cat, Jebbles, wants me to stop blogging now and take him out in the backyard. Another Saturday ritual that's good for the soul. His priorities are to hunt down a bird or chase a butterfly. He never catches anything. I admire his never giving up, though. He boils life down to the simplest of pleasures and tasks. Probably a lesson in there for many of us to learn from.