The Case of the Homeless University Professor

Reporter Michael Phillips of the Wall Street Journal told of a shack in Arizona owned by an unemployed woman that had not worked in 13 years. Her shack was valued at $130,000 two years ago by a crooked appraiser then mortgaged by a shyster broker who received $10,000 in fees and took no loan risk.

When Phillips tracked his story, the loan had processed through Wells Fargo to HSBC and from there it was packed into a mortgage-backed security, rated Triple-A by Moody's and S&P, and sold to, among others, the Oklahoma Teachers pension plan and PIMCO. Two years later, following a foreclosure, that shack sold for $18,000. Current owners of the loan hope to recoup maybe 10 cents on the dollar.

The Wall Street Journal concluded their story of this two-bedroom, one-bath shack on West Hopi Street was the story of the year for the great financial panic when so many Americans lost their homes and/or found themselves painfully in debt. That story--told in 576 square feet--helped explain how a series of bad decisions added up to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

It also describes the dilemma of the young nurse and police-officer husband I once knew when they purchased their first home. Fifteen years later his unfaithfulness led to a divorce in which she kept the house “he wanted in spite of its flaws.” She later lost it, after re-mortgaging it and finding she was in debt to the mortgaging bank several times the price she and her ex paid originally.  

When she did discover the number of times the paper-work for her home transferred from one bank to another and was but one of a series of re-sales; she also discovered how each transfer of paper brought a financial cut. She learned her mortgage had inflated until she was hopelessly mired in a debt impossible to pay. So, she cut her losses, walked away, and moved into a modest rental—broke and broken by the system.

As an older home owner with a home paid-in-full, I have watched people all about me trapped and destroyed by financial predators and unregulated financial investors. The tragedy yet snowballs, continuing to grow as it gathers momentum and size. In case you missed it, ABC reported an online AP  story describing Ellen Tara James-Penney, lecturer at San Jose State University. She has been sleeping in her car now for about ten years, since losing her housing as an undergraduate at the same school where she now teaches four English courses while earning $28,000 a year and living in her old Volvo.

"I've basically been homeless since 2007, and I'm really tired," she said. "Really tired."

She actually launched her working career in the high tech industry, prior to being laid off during the tech meltdown of the early 2000s. Like others who couldn't find work, she invested in college but accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in student debt along the way. This 54-year-old University Professor now grades papers and prepares lesson plans in her car. Included in her few possessions is a pair of grandmother's fancy stiletto pumps, which offer hope that "it's not going to be like this forever."

While I spent my working life being the pastor of several churches, I had ample opportunity to observe such stories play out in real life. It really isn’t hard to find such stories among those that Jesus told, like the farmer that owned a farm with full barns and no room to store more. What did he do? Jesus said he tore his barns down and built even bigger barns to fill full.

Luke twelve records this story where Jesus pointedly suggests that although the hero had “much goods laid up for many years: and could live with “ease” and “eat, drink, and be merry…” he was a “fool” …  because ”So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Is it too far afield to conclude that this San Jose State University teacher illustrates the selfishly and sinful side of American capitalism whose economic policies and political structures support those who have the capital tear down what they already have and build BIGGER AND BETTER while disregarding, downgrading, and discounting those who do not have the means.

Is it too much to conclude such predators are immoral and rotten at their core as we read current news stories reporting 168,000 homeless Americans live on the streets--in their cars--in California, Oregon, and Washington alone. Since this mass of people includes people like this State University Professor, I can only conclude these “homeless” are not all jobless, or welfare recycles, or even ethnics or emigrants.

If I am a somewhat gregarious social being that cares considerably about my community of humanity, must I be labeled as a perverse political adversary that must be atheistic or Communistic (aka Socialist) or a warped liberal? Is it totally wrong for me to believe this is a moral disaster and that American politics holds perverted, twisted, and warped values?

Perhaps the Construction Industry and their Wall Street counterpart could help our President BUILD A BETTER AMERICA sooner than later by building more modestly priced homes for Americans whose billfolds are not as fat and profitable as those who buy bigger and better luxury homes. Perhaps those luxury upgrades need to be put on the back burner until homeless and others can catch up just a little.

From Warner’s World

– suggesting we begin with 168,000 homeless living on West Coast streets, like downtown LA where Pastor Eric passes out food, clothing, phone calls, love, and “Jackets for Jesus” – in the shadows of out-the-roof housing costs and industrial profits running full tilt ...  walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com