Home, Sweet, Foreclosed Home

Associated Press story out of Cleveland says the homeless are taking advantage of the foreclosure crisis by moving into the hastily abandoned houses in residential areas — which is better than your average empty home, since many of them still have electricity and running water. Says one ex-con-turned-squatter quoted in the piece, if nothing else the houses sure are “convenient.”

Local tie? Quoted in the story is Larry James, president and CEO for Dallas Central Ministries, who says, in short, Sure, this isn’t particularly surprising news. As in: “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.” Looks like there’s a really nice place on Mockingbird. –Robert Wilonsky