After losing homes, families move into tents

by Barbara Mathieson | July 12, 2009 at 10:26 am
183 views | 40 Recommendations | 5 comments

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The Bubble Report: Economic Collapse Tent Cities and Obama's Green Shoots of Prosperity

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The Bubble Report: Economic Collapse Tent Cities and Obama's Green Shoots of Prosperity

This story breaks my heart. I cannot believe that this is happening in the United States in the 21st century. Since my husband and I are unemployed, I know we are just one disaster away from being transient, too. I cannot call myself homeless, ever.

By Jennifer Brooks • and Shelley Mays • July 12, 2009

It's a sweltering summer afternoon, and the children are hot and miserable in the tent that's been their home since they lost their house last month.

"You feel about as small as you can as a man, trying to take care of your family and watching your children have to go through something like this," said Troy Renault, 39, a homebuilder and father of five boys who lost his job, then his home, when the recession hit the construction industry.

Home these days is a cluster of tents covered by a blue tarp in a back corner of the Timberline Campground in Lebanon. Surrounding them are the tents, campers and recreational vehicles of other families in similar straits, living full time in campgrounds because they can no longer afford to live anywhere else.

No one knows how many people are living in campgrounds in Middle Tennessee. But visit any area campground and it's easy to pick out the permanent residents among the vacationers.

Look for the decks built on to campers with scrap lumber, and gardens planted next to campfire pits. Look for the air-conditioning units hooked up to tents. Look for the children boarding school buses at the front gates, and parents closing up the camper before they head off to work.

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sara star

It is a sad reality we don't want to face. It will only get worse. US corporations outsourcing to China started the downward style, Hurrah Walmart... China owns America!

Other link: http://my.nowpublic.com/world/economic-casualties-pile-tent-cities

1
Rory Cripps

sara star: right on the money! The question is, how and why did the American people allow it to happen?

1
Paschen

It is a disgrace for a country such as the US for letting this happen.

1
sara star

There are too busy "saving" other nations, to look in their own yard.

Anyone like the Bubble Report?

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First Flagged at 11:44 AM, Jul 12, 2009 by sara star
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