Posted on 08/30/2017 10:09:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A professor teaching at San Jose State University who can’t afford a place to live in the South Bay tells KPIX 5 she is spending most nights sleeping in her car.
Ellen Tara James-Penney is adjunct professor at San Jose State.
She teaches four classes of English 1-A and has both a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
That has not kept her from becoming another member of San Jose’s homeless population.
“With what I make at San Jose State, I can’t pay $2,000 a month rent. Can’t do it,” said James-Penney.
Her take home pay is about $2,500 a month. Her usual routine is nearly constant motion.
After classes she parks in library or Walmart parking lots where she grades papers.
“I sit there until it gets dark. Then I sneak into a neighborhood, park there, then go to sleep,” explained James-Penney.
She says when people find out they are shocked.
“Because there is a stereotype, and that stereotype is drug addict, alcoholic, lazy,” said James-Penney. “I just asked my students, and that’s what they answered.”
Glen Peterson works with the San Jose branch of the Christian nonprofit organization CityTeam. He calls it the changing face of homelessness.
“Not everybody is in a position to have jobs that pay them enough to keep up,” said Peterson.
When CityTeam first started helping the homeless 60 years ago, clients tended to be mostly men with those stereotypical addictions.
That is not the case anymore.
“People in this situation are now right alongside us,” said Peterson. “They could be in the next cubicle or teaching your children. It’s a tremendous challenge for us.”
James-Penney used to be an admin in high tech, but was laid off in the dot-com bust and was forced to live on her savings.
She went back to school and paid tuition with student loans.
“I’m $143,000 in debt. And I’m in my 50s. But I pay that loan back every month,” said James-Penney. “That is mandatory for me. But that chunk I pay also affects how much I can afford in rent.”
She also supporting her husband — who is unemployed — and their two dogs.
“I fight to stay positive in my thinking. Doing my job, caring about my students. But it wears on me,” she said.
She keeps her car neat and her belongings are minimal to avoid being detected.
But deep inside her roof rack cargo carrier is a cast-iron frying pan she doesn’t use, at least for now.
“Just like my mom and my grandma used to have,” said James-Penney. “I hold on to this because it’s the hope that someday I’ll have a home again.”
Try a roommate
Fixed.
Many people live on less than $30K a year with health ins. Need more money get a second job.
Tell hubby to get a job
“I’m $143,000 in debt. “
Perhaps that was a bad idea as well
Later
““They don’t want to work at the wages I am willing to pay””
I can not say that is not the case. However, if it is the case, why did they accept the job in first place?
The mechanic is charging $125/hr for his time. You would suppose that the extra throughput would more than pay for a decent helper wage. Many years ago at my first job there were three college lads who were farm boys from a distant rural county, the same county where the lumber company can’t keep employees now. They were amazing workers, who, in their spare time made extra money fixing other student’s cars or building lofts in the dorms. On break one night I asked them about their work ethic. This sparked a wonderful explosion of conversation between them. The consensus was that everything they did for money was much easier than what they did at home for no pay AND, they got to work in air conditioning. Neither the mechanic or the lumber yard has air conditioning. I suspect that today’s latchkey kids never get the opportunity to develop a sweaty work ethic. This is interesting since the one common physical characteristic I have noted from the temporary help at the lumber yard is a very nice gym build. Gyms, are air conditioned.
The best gift you can give your kids is to tell them that unless they are going into a field, like a hard science to skip college and live without the debt.
A friend of mine said the other day that he wanted his kid to have the college experience. I asked if that experience was worth $100,000 in debt. Crickets.
I have two in college right now. One is taking classes at an online school that is very affordable for her. The other is studying engineering. He’s already got a job that offers education reimbursement. He’s got a few loans and is into us for about $30,000, which he will pay back.
I’m not living paycheck to paycheck, but I also don’t have nearly enough money to pay for a full college education for four kids.
Sounds like she is filling in when needed to cover classes, doesn’t sound like she is full-time. My ex sister-in-law did that for several years, but she did it after she retired from being a full-time professor. My SIL owns two homes, that she bought on her own nothing to do with her marriage to my brother which ended decades ago. There has to be more to this story, the woman should have a better job than she does.
I don’t believe we know “the rest of the story”. Either this person is an absolute idiot and/or she is married to one. No money...crappy job...three dogs. How meth? Is there any meth?
No, please don’t come to Texas. We don’t need any more liberal wackos.
Surely she must already be showering at the university gym?
If she’s an adjunct, though, she might not be paid by the university but rather her other employer (I’m not saying that’s the case here).
Didn't have to read any further than that. Need more info on that!
“I’m $143,000 in debt. And I’m in my 50s.”
And there you have the real problem. I don’t want to see anyone homeless, but if you’re in your late 40s or 50s and decide to go back to university for a relatively useless Master’s degree and are stupid enough to not have saved up to get that degree but instead go something like $150,000 in debt then your homelessness is a result of your choices.
I know how expensive it is to live there, but she is making the decisions to be where she is and I have to think part of this is to get attention. Taking that much debt on is stupid for a 20 something, even more stupid at her age. Her next foolishness is not looking for a less expensive place to live and work. Surely her work experience would get her a decent job in a much less expensive place.
I never knew much about San Jose State except that coworkers insisted they would never, ever hire a San Jose State grad under any circumstances. I had taken it for snobbishness, but an article like this really makes me question the quality of their educational staff.
The dirty secret at many universities is that a lot of the teaching is done by “adjuncts”. Not tenure track and paid very little. Cannon fodder.
I see that she can afford cigarettes. At almost $8 per pack in California, if she and her husband both smoke, they could save almost $500 per month by quitting. Getting rid of the dogs would also help in shaving expenses and making the couple more attractive to landlords. Finally, if her husband got any type of job, even at minimum wage, they would have enough to get a rental. She is trying to play the victim card but it seems that their poor decisions contributed greatly to their situation.
yes, and where did that massive debt come from? Did she acquired massive student debt because she enrolled in college very late in life? That would seem a very poor investment. It’s hard enough for a 20something to try to pay back student loans, but the expected payoff for a 40 or 50 year old makes it a bad investment.
She needs to tell the hubby to “take his fast car and keep on driving.”
That would seem a very poor investment.
—
Exactly.
In recent years, we’ve seen people demand that we forgive their student debts. They make bad investment choices so then it should become our problem?
There was a young lawyer all over the internet a few years ago that owed $80,000+ in student debt and thought it should be forgiven. Should it be my problem if there weren’t good jobs for him from the start of his career? If he would have asked me before incurring all that debt, I would have told him that the world doesn’t need another lawyer.
This lawyer wanted us to pay for his law school. I wonder if he would be willing to share with everyone the winning of a major lawsuit? My guess is that it would be his money then.
People need to learn from their choices and we shouldn’t incur the expenses from their bad choices.
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