VOA标准英语2011--Program to Help US Homeless Helps Neighb

Program to Help US Homeless Helps Neighbors

Due to a bad economy and high unemployment, millions of American families were unable to repay the loans they took out to buy homes. Lenders then took back, or foreclosed, the homes. The nation's biggest banks and mortgage lenders now own more than 872,000 homes. But reselling them to recover the loan money is difficult in a slow housing market, so many foreclosed properties have been sitting vacant, hurting the value of neighboring houses. Social service agencies and charitable groups are using government money to help homeless families find a place to stay, and helping¹ neighborhoods avoid a blight² of empty homes.
It's spaghetti night at the Blomgren home, and the family is just sitting down to supper.
Brad and Sonya Blomgren, their four children, three dogs and a cat have been living in a modest tract³ house since losing their own home to foreclosure last August.
The family's troubles began two years ago when the economy started to slow and Brad lost his construction job. Then his health failed, and a series of surgeries kept him sidelined for months. The last straw came when a trusted employee stole Brad's truck and all his carpentry tools.
With supper over and the kids headed upstairs to do homework, Brad and Sonya sit down to talk about losing their home. One of Brad's deepest regrets is that he was away when a sheriff's deputy served the eviction⁴ papers. His teenage daughter answered the door.
"So when I came back, I find her on the floor just in tears," said Brad. "Of course, she didn't tell the younger children. And she told me about how he had come up and, you know, gave us notice that we had to move. I was heartbroken that she happened to be the one that was home at the time."
The family had been in denial, hoping the bank would offer a last minute reprieve⁵, so the eviction notice caught them off-guard, without plans about what to do next.
"We loaded up the U-Haul [trailer] with having no place to go," Brad said. "That was just one of those times when you're just like ‘OK, Lord. We're in your hands. What do we do? Where do we go?'"
The Blomgrens are not the only ones affected⁶. Sonya worries about the neighbors they left behind.
"It was also hard on some good friends that my kids went to school with in the neighborhood," she said. [They asked,] ‘Where are Momma and Daddy B going?' and ‘We can't just pop in their house anymore?' and that kind of thing. So, that's hard."
A community advocacy group called The Journey Home came to the family's rescue, settling them in this three-bedroom house.
Murfreesboro, a city of 100,000, has long had a significant homeless population, but Journey Home Director Steve Foster sees the face of that population changing.
"Between 1,600 and 2,400 folks experienced homelessness over the last 12-month period of time," he said. "We have seen a significant change in that the segment of the population, that is parents-with-children, has grown significantly.
The Blomgrens are paying a small monthly fee to The Journey Home in place of rent, but it is well below market value. Foster explains that half of what they pay is held in a savings⁷ account, to be returned to the family later for use as a down payment on a place of their own.
"As they grow in their income and employment... things get more stabilized⁹, then we do things like get the utilities in their own name," he said. "Therefore, when they move out of our property onto the next, they already have that foundation."
Rebuilding a stable foundation is key, and not just for the Blomgrens. The home they're living in was a foreclosed property that sat empty for about a year. The Journey Home acquired it through a federal grant called the Neighborhood Stabilization¹⁰ Program or NSP. Grant recipients¹¹ can use NSP funds to tear down vacant homes if they wish, but most have chosen to either repair and resell the properties to low-income families, or use them to house the homeless as the Murfreesboro charity chose to do.
"Living next door to a foreclosed upon property can have an almost viral effect on the neighborhood, dragging down the values of the surrounding properties," said Brian Sullivan, a spokesperson for U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department, which administers the program.
"The purpose is to stabilize⁸ neighborhoods that have really experienced the hardest problems with the foreclosure crisis," he said. "The first round of funding, nearly four billion dollars, is out the door. It is fully¹² obligated by communities and they're putting those funds to work right now."
The Blomgrens know how lucky they were to find shelter for themselves, much less a place that would allow them to keep their pets. Brad says the Journey Home staff were understanding of their concerns, both large and small.
"They were so gracious. They always treated us like we were precious," he said. "They always treated us like we were important. They never talked down to us. They never judged us."
Scott Foster says the property his agency put the Blomgrens in is more than just a house - it's a second chance.
"You know, it's some of the best days that we have when we get to move a family in to a nice place to live," he said. "That helps them to understand good things are around the corner if they continue to work hard."
The Obama administration has an additional three billion Neighborhood Stabilization Program dollars to spend in the coming months, but there isn't likely to be more. In the current political climate of cost cutting, housing advocates say they do not expect Congress to approve additional funds.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 blight   

n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残

参考例句：

• The apple crop was wiped out by blight.枯萎病使苹果全无收成。
• There is a blight on all his efforts.他的一切努力都遭到挫折。

3 tract   

n.传单，小册子，大片(土地或森林)

参考例句：

• He owns a large tract of forest.他拥有一大片森林。
• He wrote a tract on this subject.他曾对此写了一篇短文。

4 eviction   

n.租地等的收回

参考例句：

• The family have won a temporary reprieve from eviction.这个家庭暂时免于被逐出。
• He claimed damages for unlawful eviction.他要求对非法驱逐作出赔偿。

5 reprieve   

n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解

参考例句：

• He was saved from the gallows by a lastminute reprieve.最后一刻的缓刑令把他从绞架上解救了下来。
• The railway line, due for closure, has been granted a six-month reprieve.本应停运的铁路线获准多运行6 个月。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

7 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

8 stabilize   

vt.（使）稳定，使稳固，使稳定平衡；vi.稳定

参考例句：

• They are eager to stabilize currencies.他们急于稳定货币。
• His blood pressure tended to stabilize.他的血压趋向稳定。

9 stabilized   

v.（使）稳定， （使）稳固( stabilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The patient's condition stabilized. 患者的病情稳定下来。
• His blood pressure has stabilized. 他的血压已经稳定下来了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 Stabilization   

稳定化

参考例句：

• The position of barycentre on plane directly impacts the stabilization and manipulation of plane. 飞机重心位置直接影响飞机的稳定和操纵特性。
• With the higher olefins, stabilization of the energetic intermediates occurs more easily. 在较高的烯烃情况下，高能的中间物稳定作用更易出现。

11 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。