While housing hunting last week, we toured 2 houses that were kind of sobering. Each seemed normal from the outside but when we came in - it became apparent that they were single family homes turned into boarding houses for people making very little income. The basements were a death trap with multiple rooms in each that had been cobbled together with no escape route if there were a fire. These are the types of living arrangements that the undocumented guys end up getting if they get out of the shelter and into "housing". I'm not sure why but I had envisioned that they were renting a room in a place with other men but not this. Moldy basements. Tiny rooms. No way out.

I've been kind of depressed since seeing those if only for fear of what could happen in a fire. And the thought that all of those people will soon be displaced as well - I'm assuming they were each foreclosures or a landlord selling despite the fact that there are renters living in their homes.