1.2 million U.S. households lost to recession — ‘overcrowding’ up fivefold
As friends and families double up, ‘overcrowding’ is up fivefold
By John W. Schoen, Senior producer, www.msnbc.com
updated 6:53 a.m. PT, Thurs., April 8, 2010 Since Richard Brown lost his job to the recession and his Boston home to foreclosure a year ago, he’s been working short-term consulting assignments until he gets back on his feet. In the meantime, he’s been “couch surfing.” “I’ve lived with my brother, my cousin, my friend and my dad,” he said. “The IRS keeps calling me, asking me: ‘What’s your address?’ And I say, ‘What week is this?’” Armed with college degree and an MBA, Brown, 49, built a solid resume over three decades as a corporate controller for several Fortune 500 companies, including W.R. Grace and Wal-Mart, before launching his own global consulting business with clients in Europe and Mexico. But when the Panic of 2008 sent clients scrambling, he was unable to keep up with a jump in his mortgage payments and lost his home to foreclosure. Brown represents one of the more than 1.2 million households lost to the recession, according to a report issued this week by the Mortgage Bankers Association that looked at data between 2005 and 2008. That number doesn’t include information from 2009, when job losses and foreclosures continued to rise. So it’s likely that the full impact of the 8.4 million jobs lost and nearly three million homes foreclosed on since the recession began has taken an even bigger toll on the number of American households. “Given the depth of the downturn in 2009, and the ongoing weakness in the job market through the beginning of this year, this study gives no reason to expect that household formation has picked up at all,” said Gary Painter, a professor at the University of Southern California who conducted the study. …
Study: 1.2 million households lost to recession via The Oil Drum
W.R. Grace? They say karma is a bitch, I think I finally read some real evidence that this may indeed be true.
This is the company that poisoned thousands of people with their asbestos mine, and then denied it and refused to do a cleanup. Years of litigation and obfuscation and denial while the bodies piled up.
I'm sorry, but I have to laugh at this one. There are a LOT of people that would like to see the people behind this atrocity in jail (or worse). Losing one's house and job isn't pleasant, but neither is dying of asbestosis.