Greece falling apart

The swelling numbers of “new poor” using Athens shelters and soup kitchens — up as much as 25 percent since the crisis began in earnest in 2010, according to nonprofit groups and city officials — speak to the effects of the economic medicine being imposed on Greece and other troubled economies in Europe. In a country where homelessness was largely limited for generations by a culture of close family ties, officials say the roughly 1,000 beds available in Athens shelters are now fully occupied, with weeks-long waiting lists for newcomers.

Most of them are economic refugees like Leon Hannen, 64, a fluent English speaker and a maker of sacred icons for the Greek Orthodox faithful. When Greece’s economy went from bad to worse in 2011, squeezing wallets, religious shops rapidly stopped purchasing his wares. He said he went from a monthly income of roughly $2,600 as recently as 2009 to about $260 a month by last summer.WA Post

Sounds a lot like California