Welcome the new American homeless

[Fluoxetine]

Santa Barbara boasts a classic laidback California lifestyle, with uncongested beaches, wholesome cafes and charming Spanish-style architecture.
Of course there's a hefty price tag: nestled between the gentle Santa Ynez mountains and the inviting Pacific Ocean are multi-million dollar homes.
But in this sun-washed haven of wealth, many live far from the American dream.
In a car park across the street from luxury mansions, the evening brings a strange sight.
A few cars arrive and take up spaces in different corners. In each car, a woman, perhaps a few pets, bags of possessions and bedding.
Across the street from homes with bedrooms to spare, these are Santa Barbara's car sleepers.
Homeless within the last year, they are a direct consequence of America's housing market collapse.



"There's going to be lots of homeless individuals who are middle-class, there can't be anything but. We're in an awful mess economically. I don't think we've seen half of what's going to happen in this country."
This new phenomenon of middle-class homelessness is hard to quantify, but New Beginnings, an organisation that runs the car park sleeping scheme in Santa Barbara, says they accommodate some 55 people in a dozen parking lots.

"It's hard to keep things clean," says Paige. "It's hard to feel complete and whole."
Originally from Florida, the family used to own a four-bedroom house with a pool. But when Craig's business failed, they lost it.
Undeterred, the family embarked on a dream to drive across America and make a new start in California. But unable to find full-time work, and unable to afford rent, as Craig puts it "we got stuck".
He says it was like a holiday at first but now it is much harder

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7585696.stm


It must be really bad for this to happen.

[la tortuga]

A lot of the people who have found problems with the housing market in California have relocated to Texas, many to San Antonio. The California drivers around here drive me absolutely nuts!

It's a bad situation over there, though, and I hope they find places to move where they can afford to house their families. Not in San Antonio, though. It's too crowded as it is and we're going to go into economic crisis with the Toyota plant, which was supposed to offer a huge number of jobs to our city, had to close down and change operations from making trucks to smaller vehicles. It's absolutely insane.

[Snapdragon]

Good thing there's none of that Nanny State safety net stuff. Got to let the marketplace work it's magic.

People who want homes can get homes; the rest are just loafers.

[Fluoxetine]

Judging by the US no vote, there will be more loafers than house owners.

[SSanf]

People who want homes can get homes; the rest are just loafers.What!!

Wow!

That was a joke, right?

[gypsytrails]

I have heard recently, and I cannot remember which state is doing this...that there is a city that is designating parking sites for overnight homeless folks who live in their cars...and there are agencies that are helping them at night... this is so that parking lots are safe for the homeless who cannot get into shelters...

It is pretty sad when folks , middle class families have to resort to living out of their cars in order to survive....what ever happened to multi- generations sharing a house together ???

I have thought about some times living out of a van during the summer months to save money on rent, but that would be by choice...like camping...

[Shanti]

I have heard recently, and I cannot remember which state is doing this...that there is a city that is designating parking sites for overnight homeless folks who live in their cars...and there are agencies that are helping them at night... this is so that parking lots are safe for the homeless who cannot get into shelters...

It is pretty sad when folks , middle class families have to resort to living out of their cars in order to survive....what ever happened to multi- generations sharing a house together ???

I have thought about some times living out of a van during the summer months to save money on rent, but that would be by choice...like camping...
There are a lot of families doing that now!!
But for some its not an option due to to small of a house, being on a rent, ordnances that only allow so many people per square footage, and so on.
Not every one has a family member that has room for everyone else.

I have no room for anyone as we are already squeezed in a 840sq.ft. place
(thats our entire place, living room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathroom). Our place is small and we have 4 living in it now.
We couldn't squeeze another family in here.
Our ordinances would allow it either. Our septic would be to small. Our well would be inadequate since its just a point well.

[cyndianna]

It's pretty bad living in your car. I did just that for a few months about sixteen years ago. It was scarey, and not fun sneaking into work (yes I had a job) early to get cleaned up. The situation resolved when I gave up, took my last paycheck, and moved to a more prosperous state.
I'm sure in some ways this time in my life made me a much stronger person.

[gypsytrails]

Where I am living , we are sharing a very small house and we could not really in comfort level have another person here either...except in emergency for a night or two have someone sleep on the couch.

I know of folks ( friends ) who do not have family members and so they get together to share a house to make it easier....

It is really hard in this economy to have a house on your own, either owning one or renting...I know that I cannot afford to rent a place of my own so am sharing with a friend who owns....

I know of places that run community houses such as the Catholic Worker Communities ( and alot of them are multi - faith not just catholic) who take in folks that do not have family or others to help....

It is really hard when you are a struggling family trying to make ends meet...here is hoping we find ways to support one another in communities to help out each other.

[watersprite]

Good thing there's none of that Nanny State safety net stuff. Got to let the marketplace work it's magic.

People who want homes can get homes; the rest are just loafers.

Well, That was telling, wasn't it?
It would be a GREAT idea if the mansion people tossed out their illegal help and hired some of these people and put them in the newly emptied servant's quarters. But it would be presumptuous of me to say these folks want to work to feed their kids. At lease until they can find or train for different work. I think they would. They would have to have well behaved children, though.

We are so lucky that our house is paid for!

[Fluoxetine]

Around 1984 we had the UK on the verge of civil war. Miners against the police. Social progress versus the right to work. In the end social progress won and many thousands were laid off. London and the south east became rich with the prosperity of the selling off of pits and land. The south became rich.

In the north of England it was a different matter. Unemployment was large. Miners who were told they had a job for life were now looking for work. Their £300 per week age is not akin to £1,000 in today's money. They had nothing. No prospect of finding work as they were skilled miners. So they began to retrain as other types of workers. But with major unemployment jobs were hard to come by. Not many people working and if you are over 40 you may as well give up. All the work went to the younger people. How hard is it to work a till and say "do you want fries with that?" every 2 minutes. Basically Thatcher created a vacuum that saw the north, north east, north west basically hate Thatcher for what she did. During that time houses were priced out of families pockets. Entire towns began to fall to and below the poverty line. It became dire. Then in 1988 the bubble burst. The north began to really suffer. Towns began to decay due to lack of interest. Homes became vacant. Crime began to rise.

During that time I found the food become unaffordable on what I was getting. I could not afford coal for winter. Hot water was scarce. I had to go on a training scheme to get extra money. Either that or end up like the homeless discussed in this thread.

Now it is happening again. But now we have gas fires and combi boilers. Hot water and central heating to make the house warm for winter. Double glazed windows and doors to keep the heat in. No more do I have to wake up in a cold and damp room where fungus lives on the inside of a window where frost is on the inside.

What I have now is what they do not have. I worry still aobut winter, getting in extra food and so on, but they are living in a way that makes them live out with no home and no fixed abode. This is worrying as no one should live like this. Why has this happened? Will it stop? Will this happen to you in a few months? This is what you need to ask yourself and not look upon it as a story, look upon it as a warning. You never know when you may end up having to live like this one day.

[omar]

The homless problem is nation wide. But it was created by 10 years of easy credit to people who could not afford the big house & bought it any way.. Then they lost there job & house. Some of these people have low paying jobs but can not afford the high rent. So whole families are sleeping in cars & vans. They was given loans on houses with no or low down payments, no calateral & alot of the bank loan officers NEW these people could not keep up the payments. Banker greed!

[SSanf]

I just went to Wal-Mart to get more supplies in. I filled up on gas and it was really cheap, about $3 a gallon. Nice!

However, I saw three men at different places along the road with signs saying they were homeless and needed work. The last time I went I saw no one with such signs begging for help.

It is hard to know if they are sincere or if a team of professional beggars just got into town. They all looked very dirty and down trodden. It is scary.

I stocked up a lot.

[watersprite]

See, that's where I have a problem. Are we so under educated that we will believe these bankers and buy something we cannot afford? Bad business to put out paper on a house you know the people cannot afford, then demand the people bail you out for it. It's just stupid.
The market is dropped because NOBODY trusts anymore. But from the get-go in this country, people have not trusted bankers and "businessmen."

[Teresa]

Here in Charlotte NC, we have seen almost double the amount of homeless women and children than in years past. Our homeless shelters have had to ask Churches to help provide a warm and safe place for these families right now. It is sad and I can say that many are in the same boat one pay check away from the streets. Everything is so expensive, it is hard to save any money. I personally can not afford insurance right now and I am searching for a job that has insurance here as a benefit because I need it.