"what happens to junk left behind in foreclosed homes?"

[madrchsod]

a very interesting and disturbing video of what people leave behind....

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/02/kcet-trashout-squad.html

and this video from sept of last year


http://kcet.org/socal/2008/09/foreclosure-alley.html


from boing boing

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/25/what-happens-to-junk.html

[MADem]

1. I got halfway through the first video and just had to stop. How terrible.

Pictures, birth certificates, computers?

Good grief, if someone could even catalogue and sell that stuff, someone could benefit from it. Give it to a homeless shelter, let them use it or resell it to help with operating costs.

[YvonneCa]

4. Exactly. I guess they tried to coordinate...

...with charities, but it sounds like there really wasn't a plan...it didn't work. There are just SO many foreclosures around here.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. The trashout owner explained - they tried to coordinate with charities but the trucks don't arrive

on time and when they do arrive leave stuff they don't want behind. And it's too much stuff for the workers to take home.

I'm wondering why someone would leave birth certificates and new computers. ??? If they were heading to an apartment or to stay with relatives they could take them, I'd think. Even their kids' clothes were left behind. ???????

[YvonneCa]

2. Trashout companies...

...here in S. California. :(

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. MUST WATCH! Amazing.

[Kittycat]

5. Not sure where it was headed, but a guy with a dumpster was at my neighbors foreclosed home

the other day. He was carefully setting things that looked like they could be saved in the back end. The people left some toys out back - which was a real shame. I don't think they wanted any of us see them packing up - they had the uhaul there EARLY on a Sunday morning, too. Anyway - the guy with the dumpster was also loading kitchen barstools, lamps, wall hangings. I was surprised by all the stuff left behind. He was there for the entire day, a few days after the prior owners moved out. Now there are signs posted all over, no tresspassing, etc. There are other houses further down the block that have been or are currently in foreclosure, as well as throughout the entire neighborhood. All noted by their disconnect notices and warning signs posted.

[AlCzervik]

8. when the one next to me got cleared out the people hired to do it actually

asked me if i wanted any of the furniture that was left. I said no of course. The people were renters and the owner didn't pay the mortgage but kept their rent money, they were tossed out a week before Christmas a year ago.

[DainBramaged]

14. And that is EXACTLY what happened to me last June

After renting a house for over three years, but I at least had two weeks notice to get my shit in storage and get an apartment. I threw out tons of stuff I had accumulated, furniture I would not be able to fit in my apartment (a beautiful huge expensive leather couch which is STILL locked inside the house because I could not get a mover or enough people together on short notice to move the really big stuff, like my refrigerator).:cry:

The landlord stuffed the money in his pocket, bought a house in Texas, and let the bank take the one I was in without giving me ANY warning.Luckily, my neighbor worked at town hall and gave me notice the sheriff was coming SOON to evict me. And the worst part was that the prick didn't tell the bank I lived there. My rent was $1100 + utilities, and his mortgage was $1420 a month INCLUDING the property taxes and insurance, and the mortgage company wouldn't even talk to me about assuming the mortgage, they wanted the debt settled in full. I also lost my month and a half security. No recourse in Texas, none.

On top of that, I had to give up my dog and one of my cats. My dog died two weeks after I moved here, my cat a couple of days later (it's in my journal).

Some day I will see justice.

[AlCzervik]

15. i'm so sorry, renters getting screwed over has been almost ignored by the media.

The people next to me were very nice and i was shocked to see them leaving, she was in tears and the 3 of them had to move in with her mom who lived in a one bedroom. They got everything out that they had room for but they didn't have the money for storage, i held onto a small kitchen set for them and they came and got last January but everything else got pitched.

the same thing has happened twicw on my street, renters piad but the owner kept the cash and walked away.

[juno jones]

16. God, I'm sorry.

Losing your pets is the worst thing. And it makes you "about as evil as an eskimo boy can be", to quote Zappa.

I wish justice for you and for everyone else.

This place sucks.

[Kittycat]

18. That is horrible :(

[Why Syzygy]

6. More irresponsible banker's actions. nt

[libodem]

7. That's heartbreaking

I couldn't watch very long. Our own personal war zone. America collects on it's karma. Bet we've created much the same situations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[psychmommy]

10. i used to do this with my dad.

it was hard dirty work. one house was infested with fleas-that was the worst, we had to pull up the carpet. eeewww. i found some cool stuff though.

[Warpy]

11. Harper's had an article about that a couple of months ago

by someone whose job it is to sort through what people leave behind after they're evicted, what won't fit into their car or their new apartment.

Apparently it's a good job to create burnout.

It ended with the neighbors picking through their former neighbor's abandoned property, left at the curbside for the trash men.

The foreclosed houses provide a kind of soup of family photographs, toys, broken dishes, and furniture that was too big to move, all left behind as people have been forced to move on. Even houses that weren't trashed on the way out were often let go for some time, cleaning seeming less important when you knew the dream was over and you'd be out in a couple of months, not knowing if you'd be able to find something in time or if you'd lose everything you had.

I know I wouldn't be able to sift through the stuff to sort salable items form the detritus. It would just be too heartbreaking.

[Historic NY]

12. usually the land fill as its unclaimed.

[msongs]

13. mmm, yard sale? "owners" could have called charities before they left....

regardless of the cause of the residents leaving there are many things that could be done - like a yard sale to at least get the owners/renters some cash for their stuff. Like the guy said, nobody is given 10 minutes notice to pack and split, they know well in advance.

the trashout crowd could put stuff on the curb free except some doo gooders would sue them probably.

having spent many years cleaning and painting houses for my dad I've seen more than a few houses trashed by the occupants who left valuable stuff behind, personal things as well. But we always followed the legal procedures required before disposing of someone else's personal belongings.

Msongs

[DainBramaged]

17. How much is well in advance to take care of years of accumulated belongings?

You think you have the answer to everything don't you? Try finding out in two weeks like I did and still keep your job.