Many
people are complaining about folks who are homeless; living directly
on the street or in tents pitched in public spaces. The reasons for
the homelessness and the solutions are also complained about, if
discussed at all.
The
cost of living indoors started to skyrocket in the 1980s, and that
problem will only be addressed by providing sufficient quantities of
seriously affordable housing. The cost and vulnerability of home
loans can only be mitigated by re-instituting, and enforcing, fair
and equitable regulations for mortgages.
There
have always been homeless folks, a few who refuse housing assistance
because they believe they are living the life they prefer, The
current increase in homelessness started in the 1980s when most of
the regulatory environment for home mortgages, that was the
Glass-Steagall Act, was repealed. Another reason for an increase in
homeless folks was the abandonment of the government housing for
folks with debilitating disabilities; many of the institutions
involved were found to be seriously deficient and were closed rather
than improved.
The
business of home loans was taken from the reliable, boring domain of
the Savings and Loan financial institutions and given to the
financial services industries that are, "Wall Street." That
was the key to a meteoric rise in the cost of living indoors;
maximized profits replaced affordable home ownership as the primary
goal of home loans (mortgages).
The
situation was made ready for worse gaming/gambling with home loans
when the last of Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999; made the,
"Great Recession," almost inevitable. The, "banksters,"
originating and trading in mortgages began to include those whose
financial institutions specialized in investments that promised
greater returns; involved greater, much greater, risk. These riskier,
gaming/gambling, investment instruments had not previously been
allowed to be mingled with consumer loans; primarily mortgages.
Elizabeth
Warren, one of the architects of the Consumer Finance Protection
Bureau, has (once again) proposed solutions. You can try to place the
blame on a state's governor, but that's not where the problem
originates, nor is it where the problem will be resolved.
See
also: United Way ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed).
