Posted on 05/22/2008 7:48:19 AM PDT by blam
House prices force Americans to sleep in cars
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 12:58AM BST 22/05/2008
Increasing numbers of women and elderly people are taking advantage of a scheme in one of America's wealthiest cities that enables the homeless to sleep safely in their cars at night.
Organisers of the programme say they are seeing ever more unlikely people living out of their cars in the exclusive beachfront city of Santa Barbara, where the average house costs more than $1 million(£500,000). Many hold down part-time jobs while bedding down for the night in their vehicles.
Barbara Harvey, who worked as a loan processor, told CNN she had little choice but to live in her car after losing both her job and her apartment. She had been spending more than 75 percent of her income on rent.
Now she lives in her Honda SUV with her two golden retrievers, sleeping in one of the two women-only car park refuges run by New Beginnings Counselling Centre, a community outreach organisation.
"It went to hell in a handbasket," the 67-year-old told CNN. "I didn't think this would happen to me. It's just something that I don't think that people think is going to happen to them is what it amounts to. It happens very quickly, too."
New Beginnings runs 15 car parks in the affluent city where the homeless can park at night. The lots are owned by churches, non-profit organisations, city and county authorities and open from 7pm when staff have left for the day to 7am. Two are women-only. The programme is thought to be the only one of its kind in the nation.
Nancy Kapp, New Beginnings car park coordinator, said she was seeing increasing demand for the programme due to the economic downturn. "The way the economy is going, it's just amazing the people that are becoming homeless. It's hit the middle class," she told CNN.
Gary Linker, executive director of New Beginnings, said the majority of people taking advantage of the programme remained those "who have struggled with homelessness for a number of years and have always been part of an underclass."
Nevertheless, one third of users hold down part-time jobs, he said, including Mrs Harvey, who earns eight dollars an hour and also collects social security payments. Another woman staying in the gated car park each night works as a city council car park attendant, he added.
But part-time work was not enough to enable the homeless to afford accommodation in the exclusive enclave, Mr Linker said. "People who have viable jobs who don't make enough money to get by live in their vehicles. Santa Barbara is a little unusual in that respect as this is a very expensive town to live in."
He said it was unlikely the city would see an influx of people rendered homeless because of the foreclosure crisis. "Santa Barbara is a very affluent community and people who come here to live are not that hand-to-mouth nor that speculative." But he predicted the situation could be different in less wealthy areas and said New Beginnings had been inundated with calls from local authorities in other states keen to start similar programmes.
Mrs Harvey, a mother of three adult children, said her situation had upset her 19-year-old daughter, who moved in with friends to avoid becoming homeless.
"Sometimes she'll cry and she'll call and say, 'Mom, I just can't stand it that you are living in a car'," Mrs Harvey told CNN. "I'll say, 'You know what? This is OK for right now because I'm safe, I'm healthy, the dogs are doing OK and I have a job and things will get better'."
The Europeans have a pretty inaccurate view of America. How many people have you seen living in cars? Not too many where I live. Can’t say I’ve seen any, in fact.
“There are parts of this country where Ms. Harvey could support herself and have a roof over her head for this amount.”
This is the problem. The same applies to people who live in hurricane-plagued areas. “Its our right to live where we want —— and its your responsibility to take care of me!”
As Mark Levin, Andrew Wilkow or Mike Church (I forget which) say, freedom comes with responsibility. If she wants to live in Santa Barbara, she should bear the costs.
End of story.
Whatever happened to “saving for a rainy day”? Living beyond your means is really stupid...believing that government will take care of you is not true no matter how many politicians tell you that......
Right. SS probably $1000+/mth, PT job, let’s say 20 hours a week= another $640 a month.
Interesting that she keeps the dogs, but the 19 yr. old moved in with someone else to “avoid being homeless.” Wonder if the 19 yr. old pays rent?
A loan processor could get a job working on foreclosure paper work in a town with lower rents.
I’m tired of sob stories of people who should have more sense. Get out of SB and find a job..Oklahoma has got low unemployment and lots of oil field jobs. Low housing costs. You just have to reform and vote GOP. I know that will be tough for her after all the Rats have done for her.
"Force"??? Sounds like this was a choice for the person in this article. Of course the MSM can make up anything they want.
The Telegraph isn't a tabloid.It is,I believe,the second most widely read paper in the UK and is a broadsheet.Very well respected....like the Times of London and very much unlike the Daily Mail and The Sun (both tabloids).
Uh...67, three ADULT children???
Yep. Alot of people would like to believe that this is just a problem for idiots.
However, there are alot of young couples and people who saw house prices going up and up and tried to get in while they could afford it.
Now a large portion of their income goes to the mortgage, and gas and food continue to rise.
Maybe others don’t, but I feel for them and I don’t think it’s always due to stupidity when people fall on hard times.
She could probably afford this $400k place in a western suburb of Cleveland. What? Too cold in the winter. Tough
http://realtyone.realliving.com/Property/Details.aspx?PropID=9708191
Or this cheapo for $235k.
http://realtyone.realliving.com/Property/Details.aspx?PropID=8670162
Or this slum for $165k.
http://realtyone.realliving.com/Property/Details.aspx?PropID=9619890
Bring some skills and you CAN find a job. And you can build snowmen in the winter.
And, one of the most conservative in the UK.
1. Don’t live in Santa Barbara is it really expensive there.
2. Why aren’t your children taking you in.
3. Get rid of the dogs so you can get a small apartment.
4. Move it is expensive in Santa Barbara you putz.
No, they are critically neccesary for managing the helpless subjects.
Just as North Korea has convinced its property that life is worth elsewhere, their "well-reared" little journalists scour the Globe desperatley for stories like this, written by their little Socialist counterparts elsewhere.
Otherwise, their nasty and vicious government would get what it deserves.
Discrimination against men.
Probably because of the dogs.
and it takes 6 weeks to get a Doctor appointment. (Dentistry is unheard of)
I was in S. Cal last week, and it is the most amazing place. San Diego, OC, and LA all have absolutely beautiful place, so much to do, great weather and beaches. If not for the price tag and the sad state of affairs out there I would move there in a minute. I can see how so many people stay despite the problems.
Did you see the article, yesterday about the Democrat Congress woman from Sacramento, who let her house go into foreclosure?
She signed a no down payment, no payments for two years mortgage agreement, then when the paymets were due to start, she walked away, owing more than she borrowed.
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