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California's hidden homeless: Teachers, chefs, nurses and other middle class workers living in cars
Daily Mail ^ | December 26, 2017 | Emily Crane

Posted on 12/29/2017 7:38:13 PM PST by lowbridge

The rising cost of rent and housing in California is forcing residents into alternative accommodation with middle class workers taking up residence in their cars and RVs by the side of the road to make ends meet.

Hundreds of people, including nurses and chefs, are sleeping in parking lots in affluent areas like Santa Barbara as they make the most of the only homes they can afford.

Marva Ericson, who works as a nursing assistant, has been sleeping in her Kia for the past three months. She wakes up before dawn each day, showers at the local YMCA and dresses in her hospital scrubs to head to work.

'I wake up and I say, 'Thank you God for keeping me safe last night, and thank you for the Safe Parking program',' the 48-year-old told the LA Times.  

Like Ericson, most of the people sleeping rough in their cars are part of the area's Safe Parking program, which is run by the New Beginnings Counseling Center and aims to provide a secure area for the homeless to sleep in their vehicles. 

The program has roughly 150 clients and 40 per cent of those are working but they just can't afford an apartment with the rising cost of housing.   

About 35 per cent of those in the program are seniors and about 30 per cent are disabled. The majority are living out of their small cars with only 25 per cent sleeping in RVs. 

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: homeless
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To: lowbridge

Interesting that only in the Last 12 months did this occur.

Rush said in the eighties that homelessness only shows up during Republicans.


41 posted on 12/29/2017 10:26:02 PM PST by Dryman (Define Natural Born Citizen)
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To: JustTheTruth

And supplying housing for illegal immigrants with state funding. Not only do house prices go up due to lack of supply, but you get taxed up the wazoo to help pay for their housing, not yours.


42 posted on 12/29/2017 10:33:21 PM PST by American in Israel (A wise man's heart directs him to the right, but the foolish mans heart directs him toward the left.)
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To: lowbridge; All

I was out around San Jose in the spring. I was shocked and amazed at the Thousands of Rv’s and campers parked along every roadside that people were living in, especially around Gilroy, Watsonville, and Salinas.


43 posted on 12/29/2017 11:16:21 PM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: lowbridge

If California really cares, it would build more parking lots for people to sleep in.


44 posted on 12/29/2017 11:21:34 PM PST by Cowboy Bob
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To: Cowboy Bob

If California really cares, it would build more parking lots for people to sleep in.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Or at least give them ‘gas chits’ so they can keep their ‘home’ warm or cool, dependent on the situation.

Again, amazing how ‘they’ resurface again, must have all vacationed in the Riviera for the last 8 years...


45 posted on 12/29/2017 11:41:30 PM PST by xrmusn ((6/98)""In todays world:::WE, THE USofA are Rudyard Kiplings 'Tommy'")
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To: Cowboy Bob

Corner of Valley Circle Blvd & Victory Blvd I was at a Chevron gas station at around 7pm tonight and as I turned in I had to go around a parked pickup truck that was in the direct way of the pump. I looked over as I passed and all I saw were 2 feet in shoes pressed up against the driver side window. The truck was not neatly parked but several feet away from a wall and in the line that leads to the pump.
Someone was asleep in the truck.

The homeless, in RV’s and trucks, cars, tents are further up in Chatsworth, CA near where I live.

At the building I am in the owners had to trim away the bushes in front as homeless... bums would crawl in and sleep day or night.


46 posted on 12/29/2017 11:58:24 PM PST by minnesota_bound
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To: JustTheTruth

“When idiot Liberals make housing excessively expensive through restricted development, high taxes and over-regulation, this is what they get: a shortage. So predictable and stupid.”

It’s a twofor. Not only will they blame Trump, but they will use it to justify government financed and controlled housing under various euphemisms—the hot ones today are “affordable housing” and “workforce housing.”


47 posted on 12/30/2017 12:19:56 AM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: ModelBreaker
the hot ones today are “affordable housing” and “workforce housing.”

First Collector: At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute.
Ebenezer: Are there no prisons?
First Collector: Plenty of prisons.
Ebenezer: And the union workhouses - are they still in operation?

What is old is new again.

What's next, paying poor people in company scrip only redeemable at company stores?

-PJ

48 posted on 12/30/2017 12:55:26 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
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To: ROCKLOBSTER

Have a cousin who used to work for state of Massachusetts
Had to frequently travel around the state

He had a van which carpeted interior, put in mattress

Would collect per diem expenses and sleep in van when weather was warm


49 posted on 12/30/2017 2:18:21 AM PST by njslim
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To: bigbob

Great. And you do not mind homeless cars parked in front of your house. Put up a welcome sign. Bring them breakfast.


50 posted on 12/30/2017 2:50:46 AM PST by TheNext
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist

Welfare mommas get free housing and do not work. Employers must compete and hire more homeless.


51 posted on 12/30/2017 2:56:47 AM PST by TheNext
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To: Rainier1789

Unless the fire rolls with you heh.


52 posted on 12/30/2017 3:55:18 AM PST by Bulwyf
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To: lowbridge

And yet there’s no problem for illegals to get housing....doing those “meanial” jobs Americans don’t want to do!!!


53 posted on 12/30/2017 4:37:12 AM PST by ontap
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To: ontap

That is because Americans won’t accept the “new normal” - 10 people in a two-bedroom apartment, no personal vehicles...

This is probably the last generation of Americans that will even own a car in which they can sleep; some future generations will have leased (rented) “mobile home” cars, but they’ll never hold the titles to them.


54 posted on 12/30/2017 5:22:34 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: kearnyirish2

You have a problem with the living situation Comrade Zhivago?


55 posted on 12/30/2017 5:26:57 AM PST by Dr. Ursus
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To: Dr. Ursus

You’re right; before my attitude is noted, let me say we really have no use for all this space, and everyone should share in the fruits of my labor!


56 posted on 12/30/2017 5:39:19 AM PST by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: shanover
How far California and America has fallen.

Apparently you are implying that Hussein Obama's fundamental changing of America is at fault.

/sarc

57 posted on 12/30/2017 5:59:10 AM PST by politicianslie (Lying to Americans is easy-Presstitutes repeat what they are told to say and they say it 24/7)
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To: njslim
He had a van which carpeted interior, put in mattress

Would collect per diem expenses and sleep in van when weather was warm

Anyone can significantly lower their work expenses and easily make money off per diem if they have to routinely travel.

TOUR of a Professional Photographer Living and Working in a Van

58 posted on 12/30/2017 6:40:44 AM PST by politicianslie (Lying to Americans is easy-Presstitutes repeat what they are told to say and they say it 24/7)
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To: bigbob

A used Chevy Express van with the V6 would make a hell of a camper (apartment). They’re Yuge!

I don’t know why anybody would want a “tiny house”...when a van can move itself, heat itself, and even be your ride to work.


59 posted on 12/30/2017 7:51:39 AM PST by ROCKLOBSTER (RATs, RINOs...same thing)
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To: ClearCase_guy

For some one with a handle of ClearCase_guy you make one heck of a murky comparison.


60 posted on 12/30/2017 11:06:24 AM PST by Mastador1 (I'll take a bad dog over a good politician any day!)
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