California's tent city

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has opened up a make-shift tent city for the homeless that sprang up in the capital city of Sacramento. The current tent city will be shut down and its residents allowed to stay at the state fairgrounds.

Schwarzenegger said he ordered the state facility known as Cal-Expo to be used for three months to serve the 125 tent city residents, some of them displaced by the economic recession. The encampment may be shut down within a month. The move comes after the Sacramento City Council last night agreed to spend $880,000 to expand homeless programs.

Some of the residents have been displaced as a result of the housing market collapse. Those who are displaced for that reason have been unable to ride out the market in high interest mortgages.

Times are difficult when tent camps are top news. We have to wonder how to cut state spending and prevent such mortgage disasters again without letting our democratic society fall into socialism.