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'."
She’s 67 and collecting SS. All states have subsidized Senior housing:
True but most in the state of California have waiting lists 5 yrs long. I know because I looked for my mother. A city of over 300k and there are only a couple of subsidized senior apartments in town and the lists are verrrrrrry long.
It's the whole dam* state - I sold my house in CA in 1974 for $30,000. The same house - now over 30 years older, now sells for over $500,000.
People rent with strangers - 'renting' the dining room, the living room, etc...for $1,500+ a month EACH. Get it?
Unless you move far away - which would require either many thousands in moving expenses, a job lined up and first/last/deposit on a place - or leaving all your belongings except what you could carry...and still needing the set up money and a job lined up = you can find yourself in this bind.
Easy to sit back and judge, tho'
Myself, I left CA nearly 30 years ago and never looked back.
Did you read the story?
Mansion prices “force” me to sleep in a house.
ROTFLMAO!!
Actually, not a bad idea.
A person could save up "move to hell out of CA" money by living in a vehicle for a time - and if on SS, as this gal is, could save up enough to buy a spot of land in a friendlier state, continue to live in the vehicle along with a tent for more room in warm weather - save up more, get a good second hand trailer - and be better off than with a mortgage anyway...
Let me guess. You don't live in CA...
They left out the part that Bush is making them eat dog food to survive.
Let's see. You're suggesting this senior citizen lady who also works part time (if she worked full time, they'd take it out of her SS - so that wouldn't benefit her any) and move away from her home area where it's the inflated/insane prices of real estate that overcame people, and go get a job in the oil fields of Oklahoma.
Please tell me you're not a counselor of any sort...
What part of California do you live in?
A small apartment?
People are c0-renting at 1,500 a month each in houses with one 'renting' each of the bedrooms, one 'renting' the living room, one the dining room -
I'm guessing you don't live in CA?
Commuting around the D.C. beltway would drive me half crazy. Doing it at $4.00/gal would finish the drive.
Don’t know how folks do it.
“The weather does suck,though. Today 58 degrees and rainy.”
Its all a matter of perspective.
Most people in the world would fight tooth and nail to live in a town in Pennsylvania and have a roof over their heads and food to eat.
Ah, yea!
It depends on where in California.
You can get an apartment in Santa Barbara for 750. Its small and no animals but it can be done.
She can room with her daughter split the rent.
The woman chose to live in Santa Barbara.
She needs to be a grown up and solver her problems.
Southern California, just south of Santa Barbara.
Sorry, but if I were paying 75% of my income on rent, I’d look for another town to live in.
This lady should have known her situation couldn’t sustain itself forever.
WTF? Even in NYC, I never paid more that 30% of my take home pay on rent.
No,I don't,but I do live in another high price area...suburban Boston.And around here there are many areas where it's hard to find a decent single family house for less that a million.But if you drive twenty minutes or so from some of these areas a decent single family can be had for less than half of that.
So perhaps if she had traveled 30 miles east of Santa Barbara (away from high priced ocean front towns)she could have paid 40% (or less) of her income for a decent apartment.
But not being familiar with that *particular* area I certainly could be wrong.
I drive from Fairfax to Bethesda. It sucks at these prices.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.