Hiding away in a tranquil sun-kissed corner of Florida — the dream of many retired Americans — has become a nightmare for some amid the global economic downturn.
The threat of a foreclosure notice being served for unpaid dues and the ensuing homelessness has become a real prospect for thousands.
In the Miami area foreclosures have more than doubled last year. Dade Country figures show that some 26,691 families lost their homes in 2007 versus 56,656 last year.
The Florida panhandle, home to the US’ largest population of retirees, has become a center of financial panic.
“The banks and the mortgage companies just don’t care about us,” 71-year-old Betty Kellogs said. “I think that there’s a lot of the preying on the elderly.”
“I’m just trying to hold my head above water,” she said before stating she could not bear to follow other homeless who live in their cars.
Kellogs, who is recovering from breast cancer and still in poor health, has a house in Sarasota, a short distance from Fort Myers — one the of the areas with the largest number of foreclosures in the US. It was a venue chosen by US President Barack Obama to deliver a speech early last month plugging his economic stimulus plan. Part of that package was a US$75 billion fund to help reduce mortgage payments for those who are struggling to make payments. But Kellogs hold outs little hope that she can be helped.
“The president just can’t help everybody who needs a house, and he will need years to do that. We elderly folks don’t have years. I know that I don’t have years,” she said.
The over 65’s make up nearly 20 percent of the Florida’s 18 million inhabitants.
Many rich business owners from the US’ colder northern states own second and holiday homes, which they visit during the winter months. That is not the case for 77-year-old Terry Quackenbash, a resident of Osprey, also in the Fort Myers area.
He was given a foreclosure notice last year and expects to be out of his home by June.
But Quackenbush is more concerned about the fate of the drug and alcohol addicts who live in the house, which serves as a help center.
“If I get thrown out, I’m really concerned about the people living here,” he said. “Two of them were living in the woods close to here when they came to me for help and I’m afraid that they will have to go back into the woods to live.”
As Miami’s homeless population has swelled, pressure has grown on support groups.
“Because of the foreclosure situation we had increased six times our protection programs for people affected in different ways,” said David Raymond, director of Homeless Trust in Miami Dade. “Our calls from people facing eviction went from about 1,000 calls last year to 4,000 calls this year. So we got four times more people who are looking for help to pay the rent so they can stay out of the homeless system and off the street.”
Felipe Arruabarrena, a 68-year-old Cuban, lives in a homeless shelter in Miami.
“I don’t have an apartment, now they are helping me find something I can afford with my reduced income,” he said.
Carolina Lombardi a senior housing attorney at Legal Services for Greater Miami said there were multiple reasons for the number of old people that are now looking for help.
“Unfortunately many of the older citizens did not understand the terms of the loans that they took out, did not understand that they were adjustable, that they were negative amortization, that the amount on payment did not include the payment for taxes and insurance,” she said.
“Some of the elderly were tricked into finding mortgages that they could have never qualified,” she said, pointing to predatory lending by some brokers.
Valerie Williams, an older Jamaican who took up US nationality in 1994, said she built a house in Tampa but is on the verge of loosing it through foreclosure.
“Truthfully, this has shot my confidence. [I] always believed that if you worked hard, you could earn a house in this country,” she said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique