Here are excerpts from a 1983 article from Spokane, WA entitled “The Landed Poor: A New Class Emerges”
“‘It used to be we were seeing mainly people who were working, but had mismanaged their finances,’ says Breen. ‘Now it’s more a case of people simply not having enough money to pay. A lot of them are fairly average, middle-class people whose financial situation has taken a turn for the worse.’
For example, Yvonne Kinney and Charles Vejvoda have only $649 left to pay on their $40,000 home but are six months behind in payments.
They have bills, mostly medical, totaling nearly $15,000. They are both unemployed and living on food stamps with their three children and Kinney’s mother.
Technically, they could sell their home, pay their bills and have money left. But then they’d have to rent at five to 10 times their current monthly payment of $69.”
