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Homeless Finding Shelter In Foreclosed Houses

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By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, The Associated Press

Published: February 18, 2008

CLEVELAND - The nation's foreclosure crisis has led to a painful irony for homeless people: On any given night they are outnumbered in some cities by vacant houses. Some street people are taking advantage of the opportunity by becoming squatters.
Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up and dilapidated houses abandoned because of rundown conditions: Sometimes the heat, lights and water still work.

"That's what you call convenient," said James Bertan, 41, an ex-convict and "bando," or someone who lives in abandoned houses.

While no one keeps numbers of below-the-radar homeless finding shelter in properties left vacant by foreclosure, homeless advocates agree houses - even with utilities cut off - would be inviting to some. There are risks for squatters, including fires from using candles and confrontations with drug dealers, prostitutes, copper thieves or police.

"Many homeless people see the foreclosure crisis as an opportunity to find low-cost housing FREE! with some privacy," Brian Davis, Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless director, said in a summary of a census of homeless sleeping outside in downtown Cleveland.

In Texas, Larry James, president and chief executive officer of Central Dallas Ministries, said he isn't surprised the homeless might take advantage of vacant homes in residential neighborhoods beyond the reach of his downtown agency.

"There are some campgrounds and creek beds and such where people would be tempted to walk across the street or climb out of the creek bed and sneak into a vacant house," he said.

Bertan, who doesn't like shelters because of the rules, said he has been homeless or in prison for drugs and other charges for the past nine years. He has noticed the increased availability of boarded-up homes amid the foreclosure crisis.

He said that a "fresh building," one recently foreclosed, offered the best prospects to squatters.

"You can be pretty comfortable for a little bit until it gets burned out," he said as he made rounds of the annual "stand down" in which the homeless in Cleveland were offered medical checkups, haircuts, a hot meal and self-help information.

Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, hasn't seen evidence of increased homeless moving into foreclosed homes but isn't surprised.

He said anecdotal evidence - candles burning in boarded-up homes, a squatter killed by a fire set to keep warm - shows the determination of the homeless to find shelter.

Davis said that Cleveland's high foreclosure rate and the downtown shelters' proximity to residential neighborhoods has given the city a lead role in the phenomenon.

Many cities roust homeless from vacant homes, which more typically are used by drug dealers or prostitutes than a homeless person looking for a place to sleep, Stoops said.

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