Foreclosure Crisis Shrinking the Middle-Class of America

The foreclosure crisis and the accompanying recession leading to unemployment have seen the shrinking of the middle-class in America. Reporters hunting around came upon the Burger family – Tracy and Elizabeth with their son Dylan aged eight.

The couple had earned together once about $100,000 per year but the downturn of the economy saw their middle-class standard of living vanish.Tracy became unemployed after losing his job in a sales firm dealing with audiovisual systems.

They could not pay their rent and in the early part of 2009 were thrown out of their apartment. They shifted to a motel and then went on to live in a garage that had been converted into cramped living quarters in the house of the mother of Eliza bethin Los Angeles.

Elizabeth was previously a medical assistant. Within six weeks her unemployment benefit will be terminated. She is anxiously watching the outcome of the Congress debate on extension of these benefits together with payroll cuts for 160 million people.

Fifteen year old Justin Santiago of Central Florida took it in his stride when his three siblings, younger than him, landed up with their parents in a shelter in down town Orlando in September last.

Since 2008 his family with no work worth the name has been hopping around from the home of one friend or relation to another searching for employment in the hope of gaining stability. Justin was beyond the stage of getting shocked; he has become immune and ready to accept anything.

Timothy Santiago and his wife Theresa have been married for sixteen years. They provided for the family by taking on various jobs and earned at best $20,000 a year. But the work tap began to run dry.

The family moved on to Florida hoping for cheaper living. But they came upon worse luck. Finally they ended up with Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida shelter. Justin is in the 8th grade. His family’s reversal will stop his dreams about a career from becoming a reality. He wanted to enter into production of video games and then become a success story in the Internet world.

Professor Emily Bassuk of National Centre on Family Homelessness (Harvard Medical School) said that health related problems and poor performance in school usually accompany homeless children. She said, “These kids don’t have any opportunities.

If you look at some of the educational variables, they’re doing really poorly. And they’re kids who can do okay. They just don’t have appropriate support”. She added that on every front this group of youngsters is extremely vulnerable.