In a rare, candid display of sincerity, the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, was caught saying, “For the poor, the cost of the crisis could be lifelong.” (Associated Press, Oct. 12)
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That same day, nearly 3,000 miles away, in the working-class neighborhood of Van Nuys, Calif., the cost of the capitalist economic meltdown manifested itself in the faces of hundreds of families patiently waiting for some kind of relief. They stood in line seeking assistance at a one-day clinic on how to avert foreclosures put together by a community advocacy group, ACORN.
“The tranquility of our community is being shattered by this crisis,” Alicia Sanchez told Liberation newspaper. “People are losing their jobs. My hours at work are being cut making it hard for us to pay our bills. We are scared,” she continued.
Sanchez, a Spanish-speaking worker who drove with her young children from Pomona, a city 30 miles east of Los Angeles, was visibly shaken by the prospect of losing her home. Her teenage daughter, who tagged along as the family’s interpreter, interjected, “Just on our street alone, seven houses are being foreclosed.”
For a two-year period ending with the third quarter of 2008, foreclosures reached record levels in four regions that were surveyed: Los Angeles, Miami, New York City and Seattle. All of them posted a significant increase in distressed properties: foreclosures were up in Los Angeles by 196 percent; in Miami by 58 percent; in New York City by 60 percent; and in Seattle by 100 percent. (“Foreclosure Report, Q3 2008,” PropertyShark.com)
From April to June, Los Angeles lost 14,505 homes to foreclosure—a 196 percent increase from the same quarter in 2007, and an almost 400 percent increase from 2006.
Homebuyers lured into homelessness
The effects of capitalist overproduction have been particularly devastating in the bedroom communities of Palmdale and Lancaster, located in the high desert of greater Los Angeles County, where more than 65,000 workers commute an average of 60 miles a day. During the peak of the housing boom, families lured by the chance to have a piece of the mythical “American Dream” have found themselves waking up to very real nightmares.
A great number of homebuyers there entered into real estate contracts with teaser interest rates and balloon amortization plans. They soon found themselves with increasing monthly mortgage payments for properties that are now valued at much less than the original purchase price.
Coupled with a 120 percent increase in travel expenses from October 2007 to mid 2008, mostly due to gasoline price spikes, thousands of families from the Palmdale-Lancaster area simply walked away from their homes. Now, one in every 45 homes in Palmdale is in foreclosure. In neighboring Lancaster, it is one in 46. (PropertyShark.com)
Nationwide, this scenario is repeated over and over again. One bellwether for an economic crisis of this magnitude is the increasing rate of homelessness. According to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless, 61 percent of organizations within their network experienced a dramatic increase in homelessness since the mortgage crisis began a year ago. (MSNBC, April 18)
Compounding the problem is the inability or unwillingness of local and national government agencies to cope with the problem. Judging from the government inaction in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the working class cannot expect much.
In the midst of this capitalist crisis, many displaced families are ending up in encampments that have quickly sprung up all over the country. Advocacy groups have reported encampments or “tent cities” in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Fresno, San Bernardino, San Diego, Las Vegas, Portland, Seattle, Chattanooga, Columbus, and even posh Santa Barbara on the California coast. With nowhere else to turn, people are sleeping in cars and vans in city-owned parking lots. (AP, Sept. 18)
The specter of homelessness was very much in the minds of the people waiting in line in Van Nuys that Saturday afternoon.
Who will fight alongside workers?
Activists with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, including this Liberation writer, spoke with the working-class people waiting for assistance. We posed this question to many: “After the presidential elections in November, do you think that the current situation working people are facing today will change?”
Luisa, a San Pedro resident , summed up the sentiment of everyone there that day. She quickly responded with a tint of sarcasm: “Well, we put Arnold [Schwarzenegger, California’s governor] in Sacramento because of all those promises, and he abandoned us. Politicians are all the same. These candidates will just use us to get themselves elected, then what? It’s always nothing for people like us.”
Luisa and so many others were heartened to receive literature about the PSL’s La Riva/Puryear presidential campaign. When told that the PSL demands and is fighting for an immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions, and the right to decent housing for all, Luisa said: “This is what I need; this is what we need. There has to be a way to make things better for everyone.”
