Need some help with a problem

[bakpakr]

Not sure if this is the right place for this. If it isn't please move or delete as needed.

Ok I have a neighbor (friend) who is 51 years old and due to financial concerns. The parents own the home with a mortgage. Well today the home was sold at a tax sale for 4k.

I was visiting when one of the bidders showed up prior to the sale. He informed the parents that they should stop paying the mortgage and tell the high bidder to pound sand and they are not moving. They are in their 80's and he told them it will take years for the high bidder to get them removed from the home. Not sure how true this all is but does not sound right. This is in PA by the way.

Now to my friends problem. Like I said he is 51 single male and not disabled no drug or alcohol abuse. Honorably discharged vet. Has no car, can't afford one.

He has a job but is actively looking for a better job. He works 6 hours a week at his present job. Brings home $200 a month net. I have driven him to many places to apply. He uses my phone number as a contact and so far no calls for interviews. This has been going on for over a year.

Went to all the homeless shelters as he is about to lose his home due to the tax sale. All are either full or only take females or families. Contacted county vet rep. No help there as he is not a vet of a conflict and has no substance or health issues. Went to hud they have a two year waiting list.

Also he applied for medical assistance and food stamps and has been turned down twice, now get this. I saw the denial letter myself and this blows me away. He was turned down because he does not make enough money. I called and was informed that there is a minimum that you must make to qualify for benefits. Also he was turned down for cash assistance because he does not have minor children and he is not female.

As it stands he will be homeless and no way to get help as there is none.

I have exhausted all my ideas and hope that someone here has ideas. i would let him move in with me but we don't have room for him.

[HopeHoops]

1. If you can afford it, offer the highest bidder $10K (100% ROI) and let the neighbors stay.

[bakpakr]

2. I wish I could.

I thought of that but I do not have the funds to do it.

[HopeHoops]

5. Yeah. Same here. I've got to put family first, but if I had the spare cash I'd do things like that.

Seriously, how much money can you possibly spend in your lifetime? Bill Gates could buy a new luxury car every hour of every day for the rest of his life and not make a dent in his overall wealth, but at least he's using a lot of it for good causes. Rmoney just feeds money to the Mormon church and CALLS it "charity" (for the tax deduction, I'm sure). Frankly, the palaces a church erects to "worship" God say a lot about the denomination in question. If the money's going to produce Disney Land castles instead of helping the needy, how can they justify calling it a "church"? How can they claim to follow the teachings of Jesus or any other prophet?

Even when I was in really bad shape financially, K-Mart had a clearance sale on quilted flannel shirts (nice ones) for $3-$5 each!!! I bought all of the largest sizes and took them down to the men's homeless shelter in Harrisburg. It was a big hit for me at the time, but I'm sure they were worth a fortune to those who received them. Sometimes there's just the right thing to do (like the Disney "Alladin" movie where he gives the loaf of bread he just stole to a hungry child).

Think about how many blankets, shirts like I bought, pillows, sleeping bags, FOOD, and housing that rMoney could buy for the homeless without noticing a dent in his accounts. When you hit the point where there's no such thing as enough money for yourself, can you really still claim to be human?

[librechik]

3. This is the only response to Mitt's lie about people needing help--no, there is no free lunch

and anybody who thinks getting welfare or any other kind of help in this country is an easy con that anybody can get into and then not be removed--

THEY ARE LYING OR CRAZY> THE US IS NOT A WELFARE STATE

at least not for ordinary citizens. Maybe your friend can incorporate and aske for a govt loan to expand.

I'm joking, but I am really sorry to hear about your friend's problem.

My advice is get him a social worker somehow, they know programs and assistance that you and I are unaware of. Find them at the local social security office, or occupational rehabilitation office (those are state programs)

. Charities like the Salvation Army and Catholic Relief and so on often have social workers who could counsel your friend and maybe come up with a solution. There are some programs at the unemployment office (Work INitiative something) that help get workers back into the workplace.

My brother is homeless (j he lives in an RV in my back yard now, and for whatever reasons (he's no longer a substance abuser, but has no teeth, no work clothes and no recent experience, so unemployable) I don't know what to do with him either.

[HopeHoops]

6. Frankly, for many of those disgusting 47%-ers, there's no lunch at all.

I doubt rMoney has ever met a homeless person under any circumstances. I have. I've met a lot of them. I've bought food for a lot of them. When I was 16 or 17, I'd just gotten a footlong from a sub shop and was on my way back to the office. The look on this man's face still haunts me. I handed the bag to him and he split the sub with three other guys. It wasn't much, but it at least kept them going for the afternoon.

None of them said anything, not even "thank you", but you could see it in their faces. They needed it more than I did. That was in DC on 14th St. in '79 or '80, forget - near K Street. At the time, 14th was a red-light district, but K Street was already owned by the lobbyists (who probably frequented 14th for specific reasons). I was working at my dad's office as a grunt making minimum wage ($3.something/hr tops) and that sub was probably about an hour's worth of work. It was worth it. It's a tradition I've maintained. Face it, food isn't all that expensive.

And I can honestly say that not one person in that condition was homeless by choice or because they were lazy. A few were homeless because they were whacked out crazy or wasted on who knows what, but most are just trying to stay alive and find a place to take a shit. That's not a world he can possibly comprehend anymore than I can comprehend being able to hand out $100 bills at random like dropping a penny and not picking it up. I leave the penny for a kid to find (highlight of my day when I was five). rMoney would never hand out the $100 bills, but he certainly could - and I bet he picks up the penny.

[librechik]

7. sadly true-- many times I have met unmistakably starving people and given them all my cash

even though I'm nowhere near rich. People who have no sympathy or empathy for the poor homeless and struggling ought to be plucked out of the human race and sent to live with the bottom feeders.

[HopeHoops]

8. I'm not religious, but I've read the Bible (a couple of versions) and Jesus would agree with you.

But if he came back today, FOX would brand him as a long-haired weirdo hippie freak tree-hugging liberal socialist Nazi Democrat lazy free-loading gay anti-gun pro-abortion terrorist Muslim vegetarian fist-bumping illegal immigrant anchor baby anti-business tax and spend Welfare cheat who deserves to be crucified for not voting for Republicans. And that would just be their FIRST report.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

4. Welcome to DU

And just thought I would add my Best Wishes to your friend and neighbor (a shame 4K can buy a guys home out from under him. Wonder what sort of loss the mortage bank is taking.)