Ironic - Foreclosures Providing Homes for Homeless

I opened my local paper this morning and saw a huge feature on a city close to my heart but hundreds of miles away…Cleveland.  It seems America’s floreclosure crisis has created a uniqe situation for the homeless in Cleveland and other cities in the U.S.

 Apparently on any given night the homeless are outnumbered in some cities by vacant houses, according to the Toronto Star.

Brian Davis, director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless tells the Star:

Many homeless people see the foreclosure crisis as an opportunity to find low-cost housing (free!) with some privacy.

Of course there are huge safety issues here…floors can cave in, drug dealers set up shop in some, and likely a host of other structural and social dangers lay wait for the unsuspecting squatter.

The Star reports that there are 3.5 million homeless people in the United States in any given year.  There are 444,000 Americans who are homeless on any given night.  Last year there were 2.2 million U.S. foreclosures.

Sombering stats.