Pop, Pop, Pop

Many times Maggie thought she heard gunshots when they were only fireworks, lit in the streets, far too long before and after the Fourth of July.  Did anyone lighting those dumb things even feel remotely patriotic, she wondered, or just playing at war or arson.  Real gunshots didn't go on for as long.  Real gunshots didn't seem to echo as much.  Pop, pop, pop.  Triplets.  One, two, three.  One broke the glass.  Two cracked a mirror.  Three killed a baby.

Homeless Homeowners

It is possible to own a home and be homeless.  We're about to do it!  Here's how:

We do not have enough money to get a decent mortgage for a decent house.  We were also too poor to carry cash to a city tax auction and compete with contractors and "investors" for dregs.  We are, however, clever enough to dig into the system and buy a city tax auction house outside of the auction so we could prepare and get a personal loan to pay for it.  We are also persistent enough to make it work!  However...

The city said the house was in "normal" condition.  It is not.  The city said they had NO inspection reports, they said they did NOT go inside, and they could not tell us anything about the property.  We can tell them that there is no plumbing, no heat, no doorknobs, a roof that needs complete replacement, and a back porch that is dragging off the back of the house.  We have also found out that the only reason the home was boarded over was because of neighbors begging for it--for years.  Lesson learned: the city knew the condition of the house, they let it get worse, and they had the nerve to ask for any money for it.

We love our house!  We spent all our first months, from September to December, cleaning out the garbage, attempting to get contractors to give us estimates, and bringing over boxes of our stuff we won't need right away.  We tried to apply for the grant that would get us just about everything we'd need to fix the house and live in it, but you have to live in the house to get the grant.  ?!?  After a HUGE struggle, we got special house insurance for a house that was being fixed up that was cancelled after a month because they said the house needs to be fixed up and we need to live in it.  ?!?

So we're now renting our apartment, paying for a personal loan, and paying taxes on our house.  We haven't been to the house in over a week because temperatures are less than 10 degrees, and, as you may remember, we have no heat.  The struggles of low-income people to make it out of their low-income living conditions is real.  Really real.  Because what happens when we can't afford to rent?  We use up all the money we've managed to save for fixing our house.  We can't move in if we can't fix it.  We can't get a home equity loan or house insurance or a grant until we live in it.  What do we do?

The plan: visit the department that manages the grants and tell them we're about to become homeless homeowners unless they put us on the grant waiting list (yes, there's still waiting!)  We look to rent a scary-cheap apartment in the same city as our house.  We wait until the temperatures go to above freezing, go back, keep cleaning, keep moving, try to fix more windows, try to remediate the basement ourselves, and maybe even try to dismantle the back porch ourselves.  In the meantime, keep plugging along, trying to increase our income.

Homeless with a home.  In 10 degree weather (lows below zero.  Fahrenheit, in case you were wondering.)  How does it happen?  People like us struggle to get up.  How will we make it work?  Through ingenuity and persistence, like we've always done.

Pageant Question 22: If you won the lottery for ten million dollars, what would you do with it?

Niagara Falls, New York is a natural wonder surrounded by a slum.  The city used to be a jewel brilliant enough to match the dramatic setting, but no longer.  After the closing of many companies and selfish mismanaging by mobsters, people moved out.  Homes and buildings and general infrastructure aged without repair.  Out of town businessmen own properties, but hold them empty and crumbling, possibly for tax deductions, but also because they're asking ridiculous amounts of money for them.  The City of Niagara Falls has been left to rot.  Most people remaining, either living in the city or running it, are struggling.  City managers recently called for a meeting, asking for ways to bring Niagara Falls back from the brink of poverty and despair.  I firmly believe the answer lies in two areas: helping those who are living in the city to stabilize their homes, and getting faster turnover of empty properties into new owners' hands.

Tops and bottoms: the two most important parts of any building.  Neglect the roof, and you ruin the structure.  Neglect the foundation, and you ruin the structure.  These are also the two most expensive parts of a house to repair.  In a city like Niagara Falls, most of the housing is well past the point where they have needed new roofs, repaired gutters, stabilized foundations and improved drainage.  Most of the homeowners cannot afford such repairs and, therefore, let the homes deteriorate past repair.  My proposal would start a "Tops and Bottoms" homeowner grant to make these repairs before more properties are destroyed.  Another path to property destruction is when a property is in the hands of the city itself.

The City of Niagara Falls allows properties under its ownership to crumble.  Their negligence has allowed thieves to vandalize properties and to steal basic house systems, making the homes unaffordable.  Their negligence has allowed roof and foundation problems to slide for years making demolition the only option for many properties.  I believe that unfocused solutions and lack of foresight on the part of the city government has exacerbated Niagara Falls' problems.

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Imagine a city where more than half its population has left within the past forty years.  The people who remain cannot afford the upkeep of their houses, nor do they even wish to keep them at all.  If a family still lingers in the city, they will dump their home at the first chance.  A house, for example, in the middle of what had been a thriving part of the city, was dumped for $12,000--more than $50,000 less than assessed value, which was already tens of thousands less than what it should have been.  The house was snapped up by professional landlords and stuffed with tenants, including a family of ten in an illegal apartment in the attic.  The attic burned.  The house emptied.  Although it was salvageable, who wanted to invest in a partly burned home on a street where anyone could easily purchase crack?  Windows were broken and the house was pillaged of materials.  Eventually, the grand, 3,500 square foot house, built in the 1800s, was torn down.  A weedy lot remains.

Now, put a natural wonder nearby.  So nearby that in the quiet of the night, from that weedy lot, you can hear the thundering waters of nature, cascading over a mighty cataract.  Welcome to Niagara Falls, New York.