Posted on 05/20/2008 7:43:18 AM PDT by Moose4
SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- Barbara Harvey climbs into the back of her small Honda sport utility vehicle and snuggles with her two golden retrievers, her head nestled on a pillow propped against the driver's seat.
A former loan processor, the 67-year-old mother of three grown children said she never thought she'd spend her golden years sleeping in her car in a parking lot.
"This is my bed, my dogs," she said. "This is my life in this car right now."
Harvey was forced into homelessness earlier this year after being laid off. She said that three-quarters of her income went to paying rent in Santa Barbara, where the median house in the scenic, oceanfront city costs more than $1 million. She lost her condo two months ago and had little savings as backup.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
You know, if she wrote down the address somewhere, I could use my nav system and probably find it for her.
Of course, what they MEAN is, she spent all her money, probably re-mortgaged her living space so she could take expensive trips she couldn't really afford, and when it came time to pay for her excess she had no money to do so, and when she lost her job (which may have been trying to convince others to live beyond their means), she had no plan of action, so now she lives in a car that probably cost more than my parents paid for their first house.
She’s 67 years old, has a 19-year-old daughter, and apparently her other children all fled the country rather than take care of her in her old age.
She apparently saved nothing for retirement, if she was married her husband didn’t plan for retirement, or else she had a lousy divorce lawyer.
And even though she has no job (just a part-time position), AND she has a car that could drive her to ANY parking lot in the country, AND she has social security, she refuses to move out of the most expensive place in the country.
And don’t forget, she seems to have owned a condo at one point, and at 67 should have owned it free and clear — and most places don’t make poor elderly pay property tax, so she should have been set for life.
It says she was a loan officer, so normally she is one of the people the left BLAME for people who overspent and took out bad loans they couldn’t afford. It seems she may have abused herself in this case.
She has social security, and with an $8 an hour job, it can’t be any specialized skill. She’s 67, and intelligent enough to have been a loan officer, she could get a greeter job at WalMart.
Well, I see the general lack of compassion in play.
Seems the lady is making an attempt. Wonder what some would do if the shoe was on the other foot.
“Her 19-year-old daughter moved in with friends to avoid being homeless. Her other children live overseas, and she didn’t want to tell them about her living status.
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Even if her children offered to help, she said, she wouldn’t accept it. “They know me well enough to know that I will get through this. ...”
“My daughter especially is very unhappy. Sometimes she’ll cry and she’ll call and say, ‘Mom, I just can’t stand it that you are living in a car,’ “ Harvey said. “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.’ “
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