I hate beating around the bush, so I want to get to the point. A financial crisis is coming and it’s going to be a big one. It’s also going to hit those that can least afford it. It’s going to result in massive amounts of foreclosures. It’s going to result in countless cases of elderly persons being displaced from their homes. The worst part is, it’s absolutely avoidable but I don’t believe any legislator would ever have the courage to float a bill to save the pending disaster.
My last 24 hours made it clear to me what’s on the way. I was at a meeting last night in a 55 and over condominium that is about 40 years old. Elderly unit owners were complaining that the pipes are getting old, there are occasional leaks, and they sometimes have to come out of pocket a few hundred bucks in order to clean up the mess in their unit and/or repair that broken pipe. They are complaining about bills for a few hundred bucks and find it difficult to pay them because their sole income is social security.
To state the obvious, there is no reserve account. There never will be. Generally, senior citizens don’t believe in reserving funds for repairs that may be necessary a decade or two from now because they believe they won’t be here anyway. So, year after year goes by, decade after decade goes by and there is never a reserve fund to fall back on should a major repair become necessary. As I write this column, the season’s first storm is forming in the Gulf, and it’s still May. We all know what just one storm can do to the community’s finances. Even if we are lucky to escape this year, next year and the next five
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