Sunday, June 1, 2014

Abandoned Homes and the Homeless: Is there a solution?


Those old mansions sitting empty on a hillside in the ritzy, glitzy side of Los Angeles, the crumpled down homes where families once laughed and played, and the strange behavior of people with too much money once fascinated me to no end. Just imagine what it would be like to have enough money to buy one of those homes and refurbish it. It is still a fascinating topic to me, but for different reasons these days.

The fascination recently changed to amazement that there are so many vacant homes that are falling apart for lack of care, yet a sea of people call the streets their homes. I am not the first one to ask the question and probably won’t be the last, but I have to ask anyway. Why are there so many homeless people when there are so many vacant homes?

Major City Homeless Rate:

Detroit- 20,000 homeless people in 2013
Los Angeles- 57,737 homeless people in 2013
New York- Approximately 64,000 people homeless in 2013
Baltimore- 2638 people homeless in 2013
Nashville- 3,000 to 4,000 people homeless in 2013
Houston- 8,768 people homeless as of 2012

Major City Abandoned Homes Rate:

Detroit- An estimated 78,000 homes were left abandoned and decaying in 2013
Los Angeles- No information currently available
New York- No solid number available, but it is reported there are more than enough abandoned homes that it would completely eradicate homelessness in the city.
Baltimore- More than 16,000 homes were left abandoned and decaying as of 2011
Nashville- No information currently available
Houston- Hundreds of homes are reported abandoned and decaying in 2014, but a solid number is not available.

Then there are the “what a waste” mansions that seem to spring up all over the ritzy sides of Los Angeles. Here are a few and oh the things that could be done with these buildings, if the rich neighbors didn’t put up such a fuss about social barriers.

Before and after photo of bedroom in abandoned Minnelli Mansion

Minnelli Mansion- Liza Minnelli’s father died and his widow was living in the house. Liza wanted to sell the house but the step-mother didn’t want to move. A compromise was finally reached after a lot of hoo-ha and the step-mother stayed until she died. The house was sold prior to her death, but the new owners have not moved to repair the property or to move in.

Long ago emptied swimming pool at the abandoned Nicolosi Estate

Nicolosi Estate- A mansion that housed people such as Johnny Weissmuller, John Phillips, Mackenzie Phillips, and Mick Jagger now sits empty and rotting on one of the nicest streets in Bel Air. It is unclear why the house has not been refurbished, though there was a fire there some time back. It is also unclear why it has not been sold. It has been deemed a historic property and cannot be torn down. So, what happens now? Apparently nothing because it continues to deteriorate as we speak.

Los Feliz House abandoned since 1959

Perelson Home in Los Feliz- The strangest of strange stories. Perelson hits his daughter in the head with a hammer and the daughter runs to a neighbor’s house. Meantime, Perelson bashes his wife in the head with a hammer, killing her and then kills himself. Two younger children remained safe. The house was auctioned off the following year with all the family’s belongings inside. The couple who purchased the house left it sitting on the hillside and only used it for storage. When they died, their son took ownership and it remains in the same unkempt condition, although he does feed the cats every now and again. The neighbors have taken care of what they could over the years. The house is not for sale.

Runyon Canyon Mansion remains unfinished

Runyon Canyon Park Mansion- There’s nothing quite like a huge mansion where construction stops dead in the middle. That’s what happened with this mansion and it doesn’t look like anyone wants to bother with completion. It’s in a good location with fantastic views of the city. It has been the victim of gang related activity and many rumors have spread that the land is haunted. Wouldn’t everyone like to be so rich that they could just begin to build properties and then leave them abandoned long before it is completed?

Are the abandoned properties a good solution for the homeless? That is possible. There are plenty of solutions to the abandoned buildings including razing them and selling the property and putting the money back into the tax coffers, selling for a dollar to people who can afford to refurbish them, and razing them and leaving the empty lot empty. There are so many possibilities and yet little seems to ultimately be done about it. Other solutions, by some include squatting or refurbishing to house homeless people.

Is it a good idea to squat? It is probably not a good recommendation, though many people attempt to do it. The biggest problem with that is that someone does own the property and they can ignore it if they choose to. Squatting means that you have to break into the home or building and that is against the law, in case you haven’t noticed. In short, you could end up in jail for it.

These two problems could easily be solved, but it would take a lot of effort from the communities and from people in general. Each person would have to start caring about others enough to say that they don’t want anyone living on the street no matter what the circumstance is. The homeless would have to take a stand on behalf of themselves and be willing to accept responsibility in order to make it work. Business people would have to be willing to hire people who have found themselves in a homeless situation so that those people would have hope of making a better life for themselves.

It doesn’t call for a ‘spread the wealth’ mentality. People who earn their money have the right to spend it in any way they choose and they are not obligated to help anyone with anything, ever. Maybe that’s why people with so much money they can’t possibly spend it all have gotten so rich to start with. Who knows? I choose to believe that most people with a lot of money are willing to help others in one fashion or another and it is the few who simply toss money out the window because they can.

And so this ends my day of homeless blogs.