Every day, you hear somebody new getting laid off.
I'm sorry, does that make it happen?
They don't know if they'll have a job tomorrow.
Tonight on 48 Hours...
Has anybody found a job this week?
They thought the good times would last forever.
And just get better and better.
They were wrong.
I've lost a million dollars.
That's everything I have.
Dan Beerman lived in the fast lane.
Called some very good times over eight or nine years.
Now he's on the unemployment line.
That's embarrassing.
That made the termless getting into the house.
It's like the American dream.
Barbara and David Hunter trusted their bank.
They made the deal sound so rosy.
And wished they hadn't.
We can't collect the loan.
We're gonna foreclose the house.
And 265 I have.
I should eat my baby.
Mary Ann Coon saw her dream house going...
And 270,000 dollars where?
Going...
It's tough.
Gone.
Sold.
Today we're going to file a vent for bankruptcy.
The new faces of recession.
Will I be one of those homeless people?
Who's next?
Each and every one of us is this far away from being out in the cold.
Good evening and welcome to 48 hours.
We'll have the latest news from the Gulf right at the end of this broadcast.
But tonight we're focusing on a headline from the home front.
One that affects every American.
The recession.
The nation's top economic policy maker, Alan Greenspan, says that if the war drags on past mid-April...
The economy will be dragged down even deeper.
But many Americans are hurting already.
The people you are about to meet were living their American dream.
A dream that now is turning to dust.
This is the first house that we owned.
Mary Ann Coons and her husband Lauren bought this house in Manchester, Massachusetts three years ago.
It was on a nice, quiet, dead-end street and it just needed some love.
They paid $300,000 for the house and spent an additional $100,000 in renovations.
Every tree out there you see out there, we put in. We put in.
That was before the nation, the state of Massachusetts and the Coons family ran head-on into hard times.
We're going to be conducting the foreclosure auction sale agreement here in a moment.
My husband's in construction.
Obviously that's fallen out, the bond's fallen out on that.
And I was in advertising and I got laid off a year ago.
Terms of sale. This is the first mortgage being foreclosed.
Paul Saperstein is one of the top auctioneers in Massachusetts.
So are all these ads are yours?
Yeah.
All these ads too?
Yeah.
Here's a home, here's a single family. Single family.
Hard times have been good times for the auction business.
You're busy, I mean look at your desk.
I've been in business for 30 some odd years.
I've never been this bad, okay, basically where the economy is.
Ladies and gentlemen, are there any additional questions?
Today Paul Saperstein will sell Mary Ann Coons' house on the auction block to the highest bidder.
If we purchase it, are we responsible if they aren't out?
You are responsible to remove any occupants on the property if being sold as is.
Did you feel bad?
Of course you feel bad. When somebody's living in a house, hey, would you feel bad?
Alright ladies and gentlemen, hearing no additional questions, then we will commence with the bidding.
And how much am I bidding ladies and gentlemen? How much for it?
It's odd, I mean we're talking to you in this very nice house and out on the front lawn, as we speak, they're auctioning it.
I know.
They're auctioning my baby.
Is that how you feel about this place?
Yeah.
$247,500. I have a bid of $247,500.
Why are you here now watching?
Right now it's still my house. Maybe a few more seconds but it's still my house.
$250,000 I have.
We put the blue brass bar in, make a little red bar.
$260,000 to you sir. $260,000 I have.
Dining room. Double doors didn't used to be here. And the stairway went up. We're blocked up here to go upstairs to the second apartment.
I have a bid of $260,000.
$262,000.
And $265,000 sir. And $265,000 I have.
Our home is an extension of our being. We lived here. This is a very lived in house.
Remember the market will come back. Alright? It goes up and it goes down. We're in a cycle.
$271,000.
$273,000.
$271,000.
I could never put someone through how I feel right now.
How do you feel right now?
Well, um...
It's tough.
You scared?
No. I'll go on. And this house will go on. And there will be other houses I know.
You know, but um... It's not easy to give something away as supposed to have been taken away.
$275,000 I have. And $280,000. I have a bid of $275,000. Once...
In spite of Paul Saperstein's best efforts...
Mr. D, you're satisfied sir? And sir, you're satisfied?
No one bid high enough to satisfy the bank. So the bank bought the house.
So, $275,000.
For $25,000 less than Marianne and Lauren Coons paid three years ago.
It is way overpriced.
The couple that's in there got themselves into a bit of trouble. And I'm sorry to be here doing this, but...
I'm not willing to bail them out for something that they did back in 1988 that they shouldn't have done.
It's not the end of the world. I still have my arms and my legs. And I still have my husband.
But no house.
No houses can be replaced.
Are you going to play it?
Dan Beerman is an entrepreneur. He built his own electronics company from nothing...
And turned it into a $3.5 million a year business.
Don't lose.
He had a big salary and a big house and a big future.
I was the president of the company.
You came here right at the beginning of the so-called Massachusetts miracle.
We'll just call it some very good times over eight or nine years.
Then the economy went soft and Dan Beerman went under.
I've been out of work at least since June.
When he needed money to save his business, he put his house up his collateral.
He took out a second and a third mortgage. Before it was over, he lost his business.
And now he's losing his house.
There's $125,000 in equity in this home that we put down. That's gone.
There's $100,000 I had invested in a property in Florida. That's gone.
$100,000 in the bank, gone. I know that in real money I've lost a million dollars over the past year.
In real money. And that's it. That's everything I had.
So twice a month, Dan Beerman comes here.
What's it like walking into the unemployment office when you used to be the president of the company?
There are a lot of other things I'd like to be doing other than doing this. It's embarrassing.
Every week in Massachusetts, more than 3,000 people lose their jobs and wind up here at the unemployment office.
But during these hard times, it's not just the construction workers and factory workers who are suffering.
This time, the fastest growing group of unemployed, at least here in Massachusetts, are well-educated, well-to-do white-collar workers, people just like Dan Beerman.
How much does unemployment pay here in Massachusetts?
I believe it's $285 and then $25. What is it? What is it? $285 plus $25 per dependents?
$50 per child. $25 per child. $25 per child.
So about $325, $330 a week?
This is about the, this is what we used to spend on dinner.
Are you surprised to see?
Definitely.
You see somebody like this here?
Sure, you see people coming in here dressed like this. What's this guy doing here?
Hello?
Home.
The Beermans say these days they live on unemployment insurance, plus some extra money they manage to put away.
Here you go.
Well, we sold one of our oriental rugs. We had a Jeep, Cherokee. And so we've been selling a lot of things around the house to live and to survive.
Second thought, spend it all in one place.
But it's not just money and things Chris and Dan have lost.
Some of the friends that we've known, they don't want to really associate thinking that it's contagious and it might affect them.
Like a disease.
Exactly.
This used to be my place.
Dan Beerman had eight plants in three states and 90 people on his payroll, fixing and rebuilding VCRs and TVs and stereos.
It all happened very quickly.
Oh, it all happened very, very quickly. In a matter of months.
I had to risk the house. Clear and simple. And as an entrepreneur, that's what I was prepared to do.
Which is it, you buying or renting?
Renting.
Today, Dan and Chris and the kids are looking for a place to live.
I just cringe inside. I don't know why I see something like this. I mean, I just, it's like...
Did you ever think this would happen to you?
No, absolutely not. We were doing so well. You just think that it's going to continue on and just get better and better.
I'm not awfully excited about this place. I mean...
What now? What's the translation of I'm not awfully excited about this place?
I think it's kind of a dump.
Whatever it is, it's a far cry from this house, the house they used to own.
The bank has repossessed it, sold it at auction.
That's going to fold up real nicely.
They don't have to pay the mortgage anymore, but they do have to get out.
Everything's in a little bit of a mess right now until we figure out where we're going, how we're going to pack this stuff.
The beer men, like so many other Americans, rode the 80s for all they were worth.
And now, they are the new faces of these hard times. Out of work, out of money, but not ready, not yet anyway, to give up the last remnants of the good life.
Why does a guy who's lost everything and is on the unemployment line need a Mercedes Benz?
It is a lease, and I don't own it. And because we lost a million dollars, it doesn't mean that I go broke.
In two seconds, that I'm going to not dress properly, get rid of this, drive a Hugo, live in a shack.
It's just that I don't see a lot of guys on the unemployment line driving Mercedes.
You don't see a lot of guys on the unemployment line that were presidents of corporations that lost millions of dollars either.
Every day, Dan Beerman reads the WAN ads, and he sends out his resume. So far, about 200 resumes.
Well, you're sending out the resumes, and I'm looking at the responses. While your credentials are very good, we have no positions available.
I'm in receipt of your letter. Unfortunately, we don't have any positions available.
I mean, this is like that country in Western song. If you didn't have bad luck, you'd have no luck at all.
What's the future for Dan Beerman and his family?
Right at the moment, it looks bleak.
Are you optimistic that you'll find a job soon?
No. No, I'm not. I haven't given up. I haven't lost hope. And I'm sure tomorrow's another day. But right now, no, I don't have hope.
It wasn't supposed to end this way. When Roger and Dee Fraschette opened their store eight years ago, it looked like it never would.
Dee and I stood outside.
Right outside that window there.
We looked in through it. It was all two-by-fours.
No one was in the building at the time. And we held hands out there, and we prayed. And things just mushroomed and rolled along.
It was like riding the crest of a wave.
We just knew, we knew, we knew that this is what we were supposed to do.
This pile's a yes.
But along with those high hopes came an even higher overhead.
We began to realize our business was continually expanding. The customer were asking us for different product lines. And we simply couldn't fit it in one unit.
So we talked about it and prayed about it a little bit more.
By 85, we had three units here. And business was great.
Every nickel that came into the business, we simply just put back into the business.
It always asked for money. It was like raising a child. And it's still asking for money. We just can't feed it anymore.
Not doing too well, am I?
No, no, not doing good at all at this point.
It was like fighting Goliath. You're trying to pay a $10,000 bill and you're getting $500 in receivables every other week.
When did you get the first sign of trouble ahead?
If you remember, I think it was October 19th of 1987 when that horrible day in the stock market came.
I believe I remember that day.
$19.90. I like that kind.
When that came, it set into motion a domino effect.
No checks, huh? No checks.
Our builders, the people you deal with are very tight on cash.
Hi, good morning. Roger Frichette. How you doing?
They can't pay you.
Good looking guy there?
You can't pay your vendors.
Relative to that small balance he has.
It's something that you can't control.
One down. It's a psychological thing in this area.
Hi, Roger Frichette. You don't have anything in your checking account either, huh?
People just get up in the morning and say, well, what negative thing is going to happen to me today?
I'm sure of that.
They don't know if they'll have a job tomorrow, so they're certainly not going to go out and spend $600, $800 or $1,000 for flow covering.
Signs of the economic times.
Things get tough.
Consumers get cautious.
Spend less, move less, worry more.
In business.
But not all the signs are ominous.
Good to see you.
A small business on the move.
Would you like these, Friday?
Owned by shoemaker, Gene Dumais.
That's my first official customer of the day.
I think I'm going to do great here.
And I think there's going to be all kinds of people walking. I think I'm going to do much more better business here.
There's a bus stop right there.
How about this place? How much did it cost you?
I think the original asset price was in the hundred thousand.
How's the new store?
Then I guess it went down to like eighty thousand and sixty thousand.
I know I paid 25, five.
Sounds like you got a pretty good buy.
I did.
Well, I'm in a recession business anyways.
My business just rides and stays normal when things are good.
Right now in this recession that we're in, if people can find you, I'm going to do the business.
You understand what I'm saying?
Yeah, they're going to get shoes repaired rather than buy them.
You can really tell the financial shape that people are in by looking at the shoes they bring in, isn't that right?
Yep. I would say when they wear them down too, too much and beyond, sometimes I just can't fix them, is that they don't have the money to fix them.
I see a lot of that right now.
I'll bet you do, yeah.
Oh yeah, that looks really nice. I like that.
Invoice 2659.
Okay, so we're going to cross that one off, right?
Done and all, this is a depression. This is not a recession.
People are unemployed. Nobody's buying anything.
You've got electricians going off. You've got carpenters being laid off.
You've got hairdressers shutting down their stores.
Maybe we just don't want to face what's happening. I don't know.
You put a lot of time and you put a lot of love into a business.
And I can't believe I'm doing this.
It's like a loss. It's like a death.
What do we do now?
But, you know, we'll carry on.
We shut it down, Dee.
Okay.
We just are very thankful to God for the opportunities he's given us, the nice people we've met, the learning that we've had.
Love you.
And we're going to press on.
And we'll live happily ever after.
He's got his hand on us and he's got other plans.
You seem to have a very good business sense. How did you pick it up?
Well, I've been around a while and I've seen people go down and under.
And I know no matter what, I'm going to make something here.
Your mind's going to put it right up underneath that one.
That was the first two when I made my partner started.
These are the two for my new show.
They're going to feel good.
And they'll be there probably by the time I retire.
I think I'm going to do great here.
Have a nice day, though.
Everybody has dreams. Everyone does.
I just go in here and go up to four.
I thought this was a real healthy one to have.
We took a chance and the chance didn't go our way. That's all.
472.
It wasn't that long ago that Kevin and Lisa Robinson were going to have it all.
They were building their dream home.
Today, they're going for broke, barely making it in a two-room trailer.
We're still having a hard time getting used to it.
That was a dream. It's kind of hard to lose a dream.
You all done?
All done?
She cried every night when she went to bed because she knew it wasn't her room.
Hi, baby.
What?
I'm a child who always wanted to own my own home.
What do you got? Huh?
My friends were all buying sports cars and I was investing money into my home.
I thought I had a bigger investment than they did,
but now they have their sports cars and I don't have my home.
But at least I have a place to stay.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
What's happening today?
Today, we're going to file for bankruptcy so we can get everybody to ease up on us,
as far as all the bills we owe.
Basically, starting over.
You want my dues?
Starting over at age 23, at a time when many have barely begun.
How old were you when you actually went out on your own as a contractor and built houses?
Well, the first house I went out to build on my own, I was 18.
A carpenter turned contractor, Kevin's business took off with the booming real estate market.
Isn't that unusual for someone your age to be able to borrow that kind of money to build these houses?
Can you give mommy the other shoe?
Did you have any trouble at that time borrowing money?
No, it didn't.
Times were good. It was like it was never going to end.
It was real good money.
I might have made $7,000 in a matter of 10 days.
If you could have kept up doing that, there was no stopping anybody from becoming a millionaire.
Come on, Munchkin.
But it just didn't work out that way.
Mom!
You know, there just isn't enough work out there to keep busy enough to maintain a house that's got $1,100 a month mortgage.
No!
This is our home. This was our home.
You know who you are? Huh? You know who you are?
Somebody look at this house and would see an unfinished house. What do you see?
I just see like dreams and dreams and dreams, you know, I see all kinds of creativity.
Matt.
The stairs, huh? Go up to your old drum?
You did this first?
Yeah, we did this first for Victoria.
We made a project out of it. We actually had a really fun time, you know, working on everything.
And that's what we had to look forward to each time.
Yeah, it's going to happen.
We'll just do another one, right?
Don't worry about it.
These days, this is one of the few places in Massachusetts where business is booming.
It's the Federal Bankruptcy Court in Boston.
Kevin Robinson's case is one of 98 on the docket today.
Right hand, you swear the information given this proceeding will be the truth.
Bankruptcy filings have increased tremendously.
Are you presently employed?
Attorney Leonard Yulian.
And there are more and more people who you would never think of filing bankruptcy.
I have no further questions.
Kevin Robinson?
Have a seat.
Someone like Kevin Robinson, if he had saved money, might not have been in bankruptcy court today.
I was a self-employed carpenter.
Well, except that Kevin Robinson, as a youngster, thought he was saving money by building his own house.
And I suppose we can't be too hard on someone of that young age when we have people who are in the know,
many well-known names who are on the verge of bankruptcy themselves.
Okay, I have no further questions.
His timing was bad.
All right, good luck.
How are you?
What a deal, I get to win nothing.
How much money do you two have left right now?
About $33.
That's all you have left?
No.
No.
$30.
$36.
I want the other three.
You're laughing about this stuff.
Yeah, I gotta make a joke of it or I'll be crying.
You know, we all assume we're gonna do better than our parents.
Do you still feel that way?
I did better.
Just didn't hold on to it, that's all.
My biggest dream was to put my name out in the front of my house and say,
Kevin Robinson built this, you know.
I'll do it again.
I'll put it back together again.
It's just time to give up and no time to go on.
I'm trying to make it easier on myself and my family.
So much for this dream.
I guess we'll have to move on to our next one.
I'm Norm Hyatt.
I have a PhD in chemistry.
I have an MBA.
I have an MBA and a bachelor's.
I have an MBA in accounting.
They're white collar workers with prestigious degrees.
I have a PhD in cell and developmental biology.
I'm a physicist.
I have a PhD.
And prestigious resumes.
I've been recently working in reentry physics area, optical signature phenomenology.
But their talent and skills are not the only things they have in common.
Has anybody found a job this week?
All of these educated white collar workers with prestigious resumes are also unemployed.
I've got a little more than 30 years of experience, almost all of which in the computer industry.
Three years with IBM and 26 years with Honeywell.
25 plus years in the scientific biomedical health care.
They meet every week here at the Faith Lutheran Church in one of Massachusetts wealthiest communities, Andover.
Come right over here.
There's another list where you can sign in if you like.
The group is called WIN.
Wednesday is networking day.
And their goal is to find a way out of the recession.
The purpose of our programs is to share, to share our needs, to share the support that we have, and to share the networking possibility.
It's pretty interesting out there though.
I mean, most of the ads that I see are for sales and marketing people at least.
For tens of thousands of white collar workers who used to earn big salaries, part times are here.
They're all dressed up with no place to go.
But all I'm looking for is an interview and I can't even get an interview.
We spoke to a small group of them.
It wasn't up to me to be laid off.
It's not up to me that the economy is as bad as it is.
Mary, who worked in the computer industry, has been out the longest, 13 months.
I have a master's degree in instructional technology.
I have a B.S. in education.
We all grew up believing that if you got a good education and you got a good job, at least you had security.
None of you has security.
Everybody has that college degree and a lot of people have those masters.
And then what else? A Ph.D. It doesn't matter.
There is no security. It's not out there.
Hi, I'm Hank Doolin. I've been in the electronics business.
The last 16 years in the electronics district.
What are you worried about most?
I worry about not finding a job.
Bottom line is I worry about the financial strain of the house, the car payments, which everyone always has.
I've got my eldest son is a senior in high school, ready to go on to college.
How am I going to do it?
I'm terrified. I have no savings account.
My little down payment on my condo was my savings.
I have had to use my two gold cards for cash to buy groceries.
They're both to the hilt. I've got student loans. I'm still paying off Columbia University.
That cost a lot.
And what is it that scares you the most?
Will I be one of those homeless people?
Will I live in a cardboard box?
But you know, I think a lot of people watching this are going to say, boy, that sounds so silly.
I mean, a Columbia graduate sitting next to a guy who did postdoctoral work at Harvard and MIT,
a man here sitting with a very nice suit, you know, come on, you're not going to be homeless.
But the mortgage company doesn't give a flip about my Columbia degree. They just want their money.
But you're making your mortgage payments?
I haven't paid it this month. It was June 1st. If I send in a check, it will bounce.
I have bounced my condo fee three times and then managed to cover it.
I've heard that they can't start foreclosure proceedings for three months.
So I could perhaps live where I am for three months without paying my mortgage.
Good morning. My name is John Aplen. I'm also from Wakefield.
I've spent over 20 years in various areas of administrative management.
The biggest fear and the greatest concern is the potential longevity of the situation.
A month, two months, six months, almost any of us in this room can handle that without a great deal of sacrifice.
But the one-year, two-year thought is very threatening.
I think that the most important thing is look at us. We're educated, we're bright, whatever, and we can't get a job.
Have suitcase, we'll travel anywhere on the East Coast and anywhere if necessary.
We'll relocate anywhere in the world and anywhere in the United States.
This is a reflection of today's economy, of our nation today. I think it is frightening.
I've got a little more than 30 years of experience.
I've spent about 12 years in education.
Yes, I have an MBA in management information systems and I'm a CPA.
I have over 20 years experience.
Like I said, they made the deal sound so rosy.
The pitch was buy the home now, worry about the loan later.
I mean, to a couple that's expecting their first child and they're just living in a one-bedroom apartment,
the thought of moving into their own house, it was something that we just couldn't pass up.
It was like the American dream.
It was 1987 and it was anything goes in real estate.
It didn't matter that Barbara and David Hunter couldn't afford to buy a house.
Did you have trouble getting the mortgage?
No. It was kind of handy to us on a silver platter.
We got no documentation mortgage, so they didn't have to verify our income at all.
It says that the monthly income was $4,666. What was it, roughly?
That's not true.
No. I'd say it was probably about $3,000.
So it's about 40 or 50 percent above what you really made.
Right.
But it's against the law to do that.
Yeah, but...
To lie about your income.
Yeah, but they had told us that it was all right.
You know what I mean? They kind of let us through the whole thing.
We knew it was illegal. Not necessarily illegal, but not proper practice.
We knew it was improper practice.
Fishing?
Yeah. But that wasn't our main concern. Our main concern was getting into the house.
Were you surprised that it was so easy?
Yeah. We basically came in with $500 down.
For this house?
Yeah.
The developer had to have more than $500 to turn this house over.
Well, there was a $27,000 down payment.
Did you have to make that?
No. We signed a second mortgage with the developers.
Wait a minute. You say you had a second mortgage on this house before you had the first mortgage?
Right. These papers are all gibberish to me.
Yeah. This is the secret second mortgage.
The hunters remember everyone was eager to sell them something.
The developer wanted to sell them the house, never mind that they couldn't afford it.
The bank, ComFed Savings and Loan, wanted to sell them a mortgage, never mind that they never should have qualified.
Do you think the bank knew?
Oh, yeah. She knew about it.
What did she do?
I think she just kind of, you know...
Looked the other way.
Yeah. Pretended like she wasn't hearing it, you know.
Like so many other savings and loans, ComFed spent the 1980s making bad loans while its executives piled up huge commissions.
The estimate is they made about $200 million in bad loans.
And now, like so many savings and loans, ComFed is bankrupt and under the control of the federal government.
Many of its most aggressive loan officers have now been indicted on charges of bank fraud.
Their defense has been everyone was doing it.
We talked to a young couple in New Bedford that bought their house through ComFed,
violating two laws in the course of applying for this mortgage, and it went right through.
Does that surprise you?
It doesn't surprise me anymore.
Jack Zeller ran the bank for the last six months before the government takeover.
He started the investigation.
There was gross negligence. There was self-dealing, meaning doing loans in order to make money personally.
There was falsification of documents.
There was hiding of information about second mortgages.
How many loans did they doctor to make them look better than they really were?
I can say that we've reported somewhere around 90 instances.
Are you saying that only 90 loans were fraudulent?
No, no, no. There are many, many more than that.
Give me a ballpark figure on how many fraudulent loans there are.
I don't know. Certainly well up into the hundreds.
There are many, many others that haven't been detected at all.
Do you fire people? You fire a lot of people.
How many?
Sixty loan officers, now former loan officers.
The cleanup has just begun.
We'll be sold to public auction in January 10th, 19th.
The ComFed Savings Bank.
We'll be sold to public auction.
For the purpose of foreclosing its mortgage, for breach of conditions.
ComFed, once the largest SNL in Massachusetts, is now paying the price for reckless growth
at the rate of more than 100 foreclosure auctions each month.
For the purpose of foreclosing the same.
The taxpayers bill for settling all ComFed's bad debts, probably $200-300 million,
a tiny fraction of the estimated $130 billion nationwide SNL bailout.
Is anybody else here that would like to qualify to bid?
The Hunter's Foreclosure Auction is scheduled for next month,
so they're getting ready to move in with David's mother.
Hey, what's the lesson in all of this?
Well, we stepped out of our league, for one.
You know, I went in with my eyes closed, and that's my fault.
You know, I can't blame anyone for that.
We were just excited about being able to get home.
We just felt that it was something that we had to try.
More coffee, huh?
You're all set over there, right?
Okay, sir, what can I get you?
Eggs over with ham.
Over easy?
Welcome to Jack's Verde.
Chelmsford is a typical suburban community.
There's a real sense of pride in the town.
There you go.
This is where everyone comes and discusses the issues,
and gives their opinion, whether it's worth much or not.
50, 60, 70, 1170, sir.
Have a goodie, huh? Bye-bye, honey.
At Jack's famous diner in Chelmsford, Massachusetts,
people are talking economics over breakfast.
There's talk about additional layoffs at Wang,
another 1,000 employees over at the GE plant in Lynn being affected.
So it's still bad news out there, and it's going to continue.
A downturn in local high-tech industry has compounded
a national recession in this town.
People are scared, people are nervous about what it all means
and when it's going to stop.
It means fewer tax dollars.
Town manager Bernie Lynch is fighting to stay out of the red.
We have to make layoffs and we have to make cuts.
At this point, we've laid off three policemen
over the last couple of years,
but we'll probably be looking at another three to six policemen.
Being out of work, I've had more time on my hands,
so this is where I've been spending most of my time.
In November, Dan Houston was one of three police officers
who lost their jobs on the Chelmsford Police Department.
Every day I hear somebody new getting laid off.
Today, Dan Houston prepares for what could be
one of the most important nights in his life.
I feel confident. I think some positive will happen tonight.
Town manager's office may help you.
A proposal before a special town meeting would take money
from the town's sewer fund to rehire the officers.
Dan's an unfortunate result of the slowdown in revenue.
When you don't have the money, you have to make the tough call,
and the tough call here was he had to be laid off.
Chelmsford's going through a very difficult period
of adjusting to the recession.
We didn't believe that the high-tech industry
could slow down or move out.
But it did, leaving nearly 40% of the town's commercial space
vacant. Some buildings have never been occupied.
I was an assembly technician for General Electric.
Things were getting worse and worse for the high-tech,
so I figured maybe I'd better look for another career elsewhere.
Dan and Joan Houston moved into this house in October.
A month later, Dan was laid off.
That's them. That's my shirt.
Mine is the badge.
You think you'll ever wear it again? What do you think?
Well, I hope so. I hope so.
I've got a lot of shirts I still got to wear out.
Hello.
Hi, guys. Hi. Good.
You have to make the tough decisions in order to balance out.
It will be a very long night for many people.
How goes it? All right.
There's a lot of emotion there, but it's very emotional
when you talk about public safety.
One way or the other, I think we're going to have the support to get the money.
I think so, too.
And that's really my job, is I go into town meeting tonight,
just to explain that there are no options.
We'll see you inside. Hopefully we can get you something.
I hope so. I hope so.
I hope so.
Now we're into this meeting, the townspeople have voted
not to take money from the sewer fund to hire back the three policemen.
Now they're searching through every part of the budget,
every nook and cranny, looking for some kind of extra money
that could hire those policemen.
The proposal, take money from the snow removal fund.
It's up to this amendment here now, I think.
If this doesn't pass, then it's not going to happen tonight.
Those opposed? No.
Those opposed, defeated.
Well, Dan, it's over.
It must be pretty disappointing.
I'm very disappointed.
I guess now I know where I stand.
They didn't answer your call. No, they didn't.
You put his life in the line, two and a half years. How could they give him?
We're just going to have to take it day by day, see what happens.
I think the town wants to know.
This is the pits.
We could have afforded to hire somebody.
I can't see the pit.
I guess the toys don't want to go.
They keep turning themselves on.
Guys, let's move. We've got to beat that snowstorm.
After more than 30 years in Massachusetts,
Marianne and her husband Tom are finally packing it in.
I'm just a little concerned with these glasses.
We've had hard times. We've had good times.
But you never think that you're going to be that close
that you don't have a home anymore.
That you're looking in your wallet, there's no milk in the refrigerator,
and you don't have the money.
And you say, what happened?
What happened is that Tom went bankrupt, like so many other builders in the state.
I'm going to give you cash for the difference.
Now, before all their money runs out, they're moving out to Florida.
You never want to think that more than 15 seconds that you run out the starter.
And they're part of a trend.
According to this rental company, for every two trucks coming into the area,
there are three leaving.
I'm glad to get away, to get out of New England.
Just the way things have been going.
It just, I'm looking to start all over, let's put it that way.
And then you miss all of my friends at school.
Hey, but you can make new friends down there.
You make friends easy.
I know.
This is where Marianne grew up, got married.
This is the high school.
Raised her family.
This is the school that Stephen goes to.
Come on in.
Where's Tom?
He's busy packing the truck.
I can't.
You ready to go?
No.
It's okay.
It's not.
I know.
But she's leaving behind more than just friends and memories.
This is my oldest.
This is Patrick.
And this is Stephen, the middle child.
Stephen and Patrick, her sons from a previous marriage, are staying to finish school.
We were hoping that we were going to be able to put this off until Stephen graduated.
But we just couldn't.
It's that bad.
They'll move in with their father.
It's got to be for me to leave the kids.
Because I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to.
Never.
I always felt that the kids would leave.
They would make the life changes.
They would leave the nest.
I never thought that I was going to have to pick up the nest, take them out of it, and move it away.
I just never thought that would happen.
Do you want to take us outside?
You want to go outside?
Do you think you relaxed a little too much in the 80s thinking, you know, it's a great boom and New England's always going to go this well?
It was great to have that income coming in and more money than you ever have.
You get a little crazy.
You buy things that you probably never would have thought of buying before.
You get carried away.
Sure.
New cars, jewelry, fur coats.
You'll love them.
I'm selling my fur coats.
I won't need them in Florida.
Do you think you'll ever have three fur coats again?
Never.
Good luck with them.
Thank you.
I know you'll enjoy them.
Thank you.
The sound of TV and the stereo.
This is a huge TV.
I know it.
Big TV.
Well, big dreams.
Each and every one of us is this far away from being out in the cold.
Lose your job.
And if you can't find another one, where do you go?
What do you do?
Stuff is going out.
Yep.
Who has this been hardest on?
Too much snow.
Won't find this in Florida.
He was hit hardest because he takes it all on himself.
I have to tell him over and over and over, it's the economy.
You didn't fail.
You did everything you could.
I need sand.
He's really hurting.
He really feels bad.
He probably feels that he's let all of us down.
But he hasn't.
But in his eyes, I think he thinks that.
I think it's harder on her.
Everything was for the kids.
Everything she had was for the kids.
To leave him behind, that's probably the hardest for her.
Is that?
I'm sorry.
This had to happen.
Give me a hug.
Come here.
I'm going to miss you so much.
Have fun in Florida, okay?
Be good to Mommy, all right?
Please come home real soon.
I will.
Either way, you'll look at it, you've all lost.
But we've got to start over.
We're healthy and we can do it.
Florida, Florida!
The weather now for you is going to be partly cloudy and breezy
with a high temperature near 80 degrees this afternoon.
The wind out of the east...
So what do you think?
A first trip to the pool, feel warm?
Three weeks later, Tom has a construction job.
I'm pleased.
I won't go back to Massachusetts then.
And the family, a new apartment.
I want them to be happy.
I want the choice that we had to make as pleasant for them as possible.
Happy swimming.
Thank you.
A sunny assessment this week from the White House.
President Bush's top economic adviser saying the recession will be brief and mild.
On the diplomatic front in the Gulf War tonight,
the U.N. Security Council voted to hold its first closed session in 16 years tomorrow
to debate whether the allies have exceeded their U.N. mandate in attacking Iraq.
And this word from California, actor Chris Hedges,
actor Kirk Douglas was injured late today when the helicopter in which he was riding
collided with a stunt plane in Santa Paula.
Kirk Douglas suffered some broken bones.
The two people on board the stunt plane were killed.
Stay with CBS News for America Tonight after your late local news.
I'm Dan Rather.
That's 48 hours for this week.
We'll be back two weeks from tonight at a special time,
10 Eastern and Pacific, 9 Central and Mountain,
with the extraordinary story of one woman's brave struggle.
Oh!
I think I'm sick.
She is trapped in a baffling maze of multiple personalities.
Who is this?
More than 200 in all.
It's like I've been in Asia, not knowing who you are.
There is only one way out.
She has to walk through the memories. We love her.
No!
A harrowing journey into the horrors of her own past.
Help me!
The battle for Marsha, two weeks from tonight.
Help me!
It's a three-day weekend of classic CBS entertainment.
Saturday, join the original cast for the All in the Family special.
Sunday, Carol Burnett brings out the stars for the very best of Ed Sullivan.
And Monday, Mary Tyler Moore and the gang return for her 20th anniversary reunion.
It all begins Saturday on CBS.
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And to purchase a VHS cassette of today's broadcast, call 1-800-338-4847.
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