Fire!!

Yesterday evening, just after dinner, I heard what sounded like three explosions.  I could tell it wasn't fireworks going off - the sound was different. Shortly after, the air in our neighborhood was filled with the sounds of sirens.  A few minutes later, when Charly and I left our home to start on our nightly walk, we saw black smoke rising from the north. Our next door neighbor was on his roof.  We asked him what was wrong. He told us that some apartments, about half a mile away and still under construction, were on fire.  My husband and I decided to change our usual walking route and go see what was up. When we got to where the apartments were located, this is what we saw:

It ended up being a 5-alarm fire and burned for about six hours - from about 6 p.m. until after midnight. High winds blew and scattered burning embers nearby and up to 3/4 of a miles away, starting small fires on other homes and structures. A number of homes and a large apartment complex across the street were evacuated. Quite a few people who attend our church, as well as the missionaries, who live in the apartment complex across the street, were quickly evacuated with only the clothes on their backs.  

The blessing is that this fire, which news reports are calling the biggest fire in the history of our city, resulted in only a few minor injuries to first responders.  While some secondary fires were started by blowing embers, those fires were quickly put out and no structures outside of the complex where the fire started were destroyed.

Here are some pictures of the aftermath, which I took when Charly and I went for our walk this evening:

 Complete devastation where a several 3 story apartment structure stood.

 Another view of the devastation. There were eight buildings in the complex, now only one is still standing.

 More charred and twisted rubble.

Some metal pieces melted int he flames. The building in the background is part of the Gilbert City Town Hall complex. It was not hurt in the fire.

 This is the clubhouse of the apartment complex across the street.

 The roof of this structure caught on fire when winds blew the flames across the street.

This charred palm tree is more than 1/2 mile from the original fire.  It caught fire from burning embers.

These ashes are from the burned palm tree shown in the picture above. The fire burned hot and fast and embers were carried quite a ways by the wind. There are still ashes on the ground throughout the neighborhood.

I am grateful that the fire is out and our neighborhood is safe once more, but last night was one Saturday night that people around here will not forget for a long, long time.

Evicted - Poverty and Profit in the American City - Book Review

My husband and I have had the goal, for several years now, of buying a second home as rental property.  Because of this, I was interested to read the book Evicted - Poverty and Profit in the American City, when I saw it offered as a review choice of Blogging for Books.   This fascinating book follows the poverty- stricken tenants of two landlords in some of the poorest inner-city neighborhoods of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.   

America’s poorest citizens are paying more than half of their income on often substandard and even dangerous housing and eviction has become a common event.  This book gives a close-up and personal look at those on both side of the housing crisis for the poor as well as the laws and public policy that have unwittingly made the problem worse.

The book follows eight individuals and families who, for various reasons, are living on the edge of society including a single mother trying to feed and raise two sons on the $20 a month she has left after paying rent; a gentle nurse whose life goes downhill when he becomes addicted first to pain killers and then heroin; a man with no legs who tries to work his way out of debt and look after a neighborhood full of boys that no one else seems to care about and a young mentally ill woman who opens her rundown home to a neighbor in need.  Home may be “where the heart is” but for these people it is also squalid, dangerous and over-priced. Their fates lie in the hands of two inner-city entrepreneur landlords who can be empathetic and compassionate but are more often impatient, uncaring and quick  to evict tenants who fall behind on rent.

This book is more than just the sad story of poverty stricken individuals and families who have made poor decisions and now can’t seem to get their lives back on track. This is the story of an entire segment of our American population who appear to be totally without hope or understanding of how to make their situation better.  Additionally, the old conservative, American virtues of hard-work and thrift, don’t seem to have any impact on these people.  They are stuck in an endless “catch-22” from which very few escape. Take for example, the story of a young single mother of three, who had a full-time job at a restaurant. The young woman was making her rent and even putting a bit aside in the hopes of going to school and becoming a nurse.  Then as the economy turned down in the mid-2000s, the woman’s work hours were cut from five days a week to one.  Fearing eviction from her squalid, run-down, over-priced apartment and desperate for money to pay her rent and buy new shoes for her son, she goes along with a friend and cousin who rob a store.  When she is caught, she is given the toughest sentence the judge can hand down. When she gets out of prison, the felony conviction will make it nearly impossible to find a job and a decent place to live.  Without the hope of an income and the security of a safe and healthy place to live, this woman, and many other like her are destined to become homeless and desperate again.  

The book points out, that at least in Milwaukee, government rent assistance programs have little impact on the poor.  Statics for 1991-2013, cited in the book, show that only about eleven percent of “renter households reporting a housing cost burden in excess of 100 percent of family income receive rent assistance, which may be ongoing or a single occasion.  Only five percent received assistance with paying for utilities.  Further, fifty-one percent of poor renting families were spending at least half of their income on housing costs and one-quarter were spending over 70 percent" (343-344).

One would think that rents in the the mostly inner-city areas where the very poor reside would be considerably less than more affluent areas of the city, yet rents in the poor areas are often as much or more than in more desirable places.  Ironically, government rent subsidies have allowed landlords to push the limit on rents.  The landlord also explains that rents are high because many of their low-income tenants tend to damage or destroy property, yet, in the stories in the books, the landlords fail again and again to correct dangerous, unsanitary and unhealthy conditions in their properties. Often the tenants will try to exert leverage by not paying rent until problems are fixed, but this plays into the landlord’s hands by allowing them to tack on late fees that put the poor tenants further and further behind and ultimately lead, in most cases, to the tenant being evicted.

Eviction takes a toll on the human spirit.  Those with eviction records have about double the rate of clinical depression and even suicides.  Losing a home and possessions often leads to job loss.  Children of eviction experience school moves and interruptions in their education that many never recover from.  An eviction record often leads to denial of government housing and food assistance, increased material hardship from loss of possessions, increased debt, relocation to worse housing in more dangerous neighborhoods, decline in health and homelessness.

The book profiles two women who meet in a homeless shelter after they have been evicted. The two, both single mothers, decided to become roommates and pool their resources in the hopes of being about to afford a better place in a better neighborhood. After looking at, applying for and then being rejected by landlords of 89 apartments, one landlord decides to give the women a chance.  The apartment is big and clean and in a better part of town than they have ever lived in.  For a few weeks, the women cannot believe their good fortune at living in such a nice place, but then a son of one of the women gets in trouble at school.  He kicks a teacher and then runs home. After the incident is reported and the police come to the apartment, the landlord gives the women a notice of eviction, thrusting them into homelessness again within a matter of weeks.  Having the police come to an apartment, no matter what the reason, almost ensure eviction.  Because of this, domestic violence, drug dealing and other crimes go on unchecked because renters don’t dare call the police.

The book points out that “the annual income of the landlord of perhaps the worst trailer park in the fourth-poorest city in America is thirty times that of his tenants working full-time for minimum wage and 55 times the annual income of his tenants receiving welfare or social security” (308).  Desmond explains that the failure previous public initiatives to provide housing for the poor, such as the massive public housing projects of the 1950s and 1960s, lead to the current system which relies private landlords in a largely self-regulating private housing market.  Landlords often know how to profit from the ironies and inefficiencies in the current system.  Some landlords look to rent solely in the inner-city where they can buy properties cheap and rent them high and provide minimal maintenance.  If one tenant doesn’t pay, simply evict them because there is always another person or family in desperate need of a place to live. As the author explains, there is a lot of money to be made off the poor.  The ‘hood is good [for business].” (306).

This isn’t to say that all landlord are always heartless, cruel and exploitative.  In Desmond’s book, he tells of landlords that sometimes buy good and Christmas gifts for down-on-their-luck tenants.  Some turn a blind eye when one evicted tenant with no place to go, moves in with another tenant in the same complex.  Landlords are business people who provide needed housing, but also have to provide a enough of a working margin to provide income for themselves and their families, however, when push comes to shove, it is the landlord who has the knowledge and means to manipulate the system in their favor.

In the epilogue of his book, Desmond explains that “the home is the center of life.  It is a refuge from the grind of work, the pressure of school and the menace of the streets” (291).  Home is where our civic life begins, where we plant our roots and learn to work together for a common good.  America is touted as the place where one can better him or herself, but  that is really possible only where there is a stable home, yet so many in our society, like those profiled in this book, find themselves in a place where stability in housing seems like an impossible dream.

This book does provide an important and illuminating look into the housing crisis faced by many in our society.  This used to be a problem unique to the very poor of our inner cities, but as the economic downturn of 2008-2009 proved, more and more middle class families now know what it is like to be evicted.  This excellent book allows the reader to look at this problem through the eyes of those who live it, and wonder if it might really be that “there but for the grace of God, go I.”  It was a worthwhile read for me, both as a potential landlord, and as the citizen of a free society that promises “liberty and justice for all.”

I give this book four out of five stars. **** I received this book free of charge from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Five favorites from the past two weeks

The past two weeks have been full and busy with lots of ups and downs, but looking back, I have a tremendous amount to be grateful for so here goes...

1. Good news! Yesterday, there was good news about my grandson (shown here in a recent photo with his baby sister) A complete and extensive scan of his entire body showed no more tumors! That is the great news we are hoping for.

He will still need several weeks of radiation and several months of chemo to insure that the tumor in his brain does not return, so the battle will continue and get more intense for a while, but we have hope that Thomas, with God's help, the skill  of good doctors, and the love and support of family and friends, can beat this stupid cancer!

2. Time with the Maryland grandchildren was another of my favorite things during the past few weeks! Of course, the reason I went to Maryland is not a happy one (my grandson's illness), but it did bring me a lot of happiness to spend time with my four grandchildren who live there. We went to "STEM Night" at the oldest's elementary school.  That was fun.

  

We played outside...

...and I got to know my "grand dog" Pearl, who is truly the nicest dog and best pet I know.

We played video games and took naps...

...fed Clifford the Big Red Dog,

practiced the violin,

did homework,

 baked cookies and cupcakes,

and played LOTS of "Princess Barbies." I am so grateful I was able to quickly go when I was needed and be a full-time grandma for a while.

3. Another grandchild's special day is yet another of my favorite things about the last two weeks. Last weekend, after I got back from Maryland,  Charly and I flew up to Utah to attend a very special family event - the baptism of this eight-year-old grand daughter - shown hear dressed all in white with her dad who baptized her.

My daughter and her husband have a beautiful family - four sweet and lively children who we love to be with.

It was an awesome family event.

Because we were in Utah for the whole weekend, we had time to visit some special places like the new Provo City Center Temple.

It was fun to spend time just with my daughter...

...and do some special things like visiting this retro drug store for authentic malts just like they used to make them. They were delicious and we had a lot of fun.

Our son-in-law's parents were also in town for the weekend and we enjoyed visiting with them. They are very nice people.

It was lots of fun to play with the kids.  One of our favorite activities was playing "scripture charades."  I was amazed at how well my grandchildren knew scripture stories and how well they could act them out.

Mostly, it was just fun to be with our daughter and her husband and their delightful children.

We are sure proud of this sweet family.

4. More pictures from Mexico!  In the middle of all the traveling, these unexpected pictures of Elder Jones and some of his friends in Mexico made their way to me, courtesy of a young woman he met and taught there.

 It is always good to see him looking so well and happy, surrounded by friends. 

He is growing and maturing into a very handsome young man, with a noble spirit and a good heart.

5. This beautiful sunrise took place the morning we found out about our grandson's brain tumor. Looking back, it seems like so long ago that I took this picture, and yet it reminds me of the simple gifts God gives us each and every day, even during challenging times.

Linking again this week with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for

Update on my grandson

To all those who have sent kind messages and prayers in behalf of my grandson and family, I thank you.  Here is the latest that we know about my grandson, Thomas.

Thomas had surgery on Friday, April 1, to remove a tumor from the back of his brain

His surgeons believe that they were able to get the entire tumor, which is excellent news.

He came through the surgery with flying colors and is recovering from it nicely.

Thomas is home now and enjoying some special fun outings with his family before he begins further treatment which will most likely be some combination of radiation and chemo therapy.

I was able to go to Maryland for a week to help my daughter and her family during this time of crisis. I loved becoming reacquainted with my nine and almost three-year-old grand daughters who I haven't seen for a while.

We did a lot of fun things and I think we had a pretty good time together. 

I stayed at my daughter's home, took my oldest grand daughter to school, and tried to keep a somewhat normal routine going for the girls, so that mom and dad could be with Thomas.

The baby stayed with mom and dad at the hospital most of the time, but I did get to spend some time getting to know our family's newest member, who was born just this past January.

Even though the situation with Thomas is not good, I am grateful that I was able to go help out and spend time with my grandchildren.  I enjoyed being with them, and was glad to go and do what I could to help.

Please continue to keep Thomas in your thoughts and prayers.  He is a fighter, but has a major battle ahead of him.