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A Gloomy, Devastating Walk Down Recession Road

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: February 22, 2009

You would like to think that things are not as bad as they seem. Unless you are holed up somewhere in the swamps off the Tamiami Trail and your old rabbit-ears TV has stopped working, that's not so easy to do.

The conversation these days goes in one direction along recession road and continues until everyone finally admits nobody really knows what's lurking down that rocky trail and the discussion breaks up with everyone shaking their heads.

Everyone is being affected. I had lunch last week with a lawyer and a retired doctor, which sounds like a one-liner, but the first topic of conversation was how bad each one's world is. The lawyer talked about layoffs in his company's firm, one of the largest in the country.

The doctor, who has been retired for almost a dozen years, has decided to get back into his practice. My contribution was that down at the Type and Gripe factory we all have to take some unpaid furlough time.

Back in the office I opened up my e-mail and began going through the messages. Your letters were pretty heavy. For the past couple of weeks I have been writing about health care, so your thoughts have been serious enough.

But it's more than that. Now your letters are more about the struggles of daily life, of rising prices and couples taking care of kids for a longer time and older parents unable to care for themselves.

Here's just one of those letters. There are others very much like it.

"I have been a faithful reader of your column for 10 years. I don't know if you can help me or know someone who can. My husband and I have five children and we are on the verge of losing our home.

"Three years ago my father-in law was diagnosed with cancer and he came to live with us. We took care of him financially and physically. My husband lost his job in the process of taking his dad back and forth to the hospital so much. He has been working part-time since I was recently able to find a job and go back to work full-time.

"However, we got behind in all our bills," she continued. "We have a private lender for our mortgage and he is unwilling to work with us. Last year he charged us so much interest and paid almost nothing on our principle. ... We filed bankruptcy but the payments were much higher than our regular mortgage payment we couldn't keep up.

"We went through HUD and they tried to help us but couldn't force our lender to do anything with our loan because he is not a federally backed institution. We asked if he would put the past due at the end of the loan but he wanted $15,000 upfront to do something. We asked if he would take the taxes and insurance out of payments to lower them but he again refused.

"We live in a simple neighborhood and have lived in this house for 10 years. We love it here and if we moved our children would be as devastated as us. Besides, with what we have been through we couldn't buy another house or even rent one. We have a hearing before a judge coming up and I am sure he will set the sale date. Please, if you know someone who could help, but please don't post my name because ... I don't want to risk losing my job."

There's no discussion of who might be at fault here, if anyone, just the fact that these are increasingly difficult times for all of us.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, for more of Steve Otto's musings.

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