The New (Suburban) Homeless: How Foreclosures and the Great Recession Have Impacted American Families

In the Denver suburbs, as in much of the U.S., the Great Recession has turned formerly financially stable families into the new homeless—and left many living in budget hotels where they pay for their rooms by the week. They call themselves “the weeklies,” and senior writer Monica Potts chronicles their experiences in the latest issue of The American Prospect.

Potts writes that “a defining characteristic of what it means to be middle-class is now out of reach for a group of people, who less than a decade ago, would not have called themselves anything else.” Her article explores what happens to families after they lose their homes to foreclosure and details their struggles with the predatory practices of the financial sector and the inadequacies of the government’s response.

Join us for a discussion of the article and its policy implications.

On Twitter? Follow @AssetsNAF and use #theweeklies to start the conversation online. 

The event will be live streaming on this webpage for those who are unable to attend in person.

Participants

Monica Potts
Senior Writer, The American Prospect
Author, “The Weeklies“

Janis Bowdler 

Economic Policy Director, National Council of La Raza

Reid Cramer 

Director, Asset Building Program, New America Foundation