Down & Out In Silicon Valley - Like striking it rich, being 'almost homeless' can happen to anyone

sfgate.com/San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Sunday, October 13, 2002 | Stephanie Salter, Insight Staff Writer

[American Preservative]

Many middle-class people joke about being "one paycheck away from the street." This is the story of a couple who've slammed hard into that reality.

Over the past 18 months, they've gone from his six-figure salary and life in a tony townhouse apartment complex in Silicon Valley to collecting aluminum cans and sleeping in a 28-foot-long recreational vehicle in a parking lot behind the husband's old office building. Once distracted by VCRs and mega- cable, they now watch local television on an old black-and-white set, stand in line at a public food bank for groceries and do their laundry with a garden hose.

[clamper1797]

I think you are right. The only thing missing from this story is a "blame Bush" angle.

I am CLOSE friends with 8 couple who are going thru this ... everyone of them ... including myself blames Klintoon for this ...

[clamper1797]

BTW ... on a sad note ... one of these couple just did lose everything they had ... in the Morgan Hill fire. He had been laid off from National Semiconductor for 7 months.
Our group passed the hat for him and raised $2500

[aruanan]

Down & Out In Silicon Valley - Like striking it rich, being 'almost homeless' can happen to anyone

Hmmm, except for such mindless activities as playing the lottery and happening to have a rich relative die and leave one a pile of swag, I was under the impression that "striking it rich" usually involved quite a bit of hard work.

[nanny]

[did they care about the factory workers and garment workers who were losing their jobs and homes before them? Didn't they laugh and say they should learn computer programming to get a job? Lots of people foreclosed on their homes in the 90s but they weren't the upscale types so it didn't matter.]

While I do have compassion for the folks suffering now, I remember when the computer types were being quite superior and saying we needed to get rid of the manufacturing jobs and everyone should go into computers. We didn't need to manufacture anything, we would export technology. The ones I knew had very little sympathy for the factory workers.

Now we have little or no manufacturing, it looks as if we have a lot less of the technolgy industry and a boat load of illegals to support. Sounds like a recipe for a economic boom to me!

[nanny]

[did they care about the factory workers and garment workers who were losing their jobs and homes before them? Didn't they laugh and say they should learn computer programming to get a job? Lots of people foreclosed on their homes in the 90s but they weren't the upscale types so it didn't matter.]

While I do have compassion for the folks suffering now, I remember when the computer types were being quite superior and saying we needed to get rid of the manufacturing jobs and everyone should go into computers. We didn't need to manufacture anything, we would export technology. The ones I knew had very little sympathy for the factory workers.

Now we have little or no manufacturing, it looks as if we have a lot less of the technolgy industry and a boat load of illegals to support. Sounds like a recipe for a economic boom to me!

[vikingchick]

I'm usually too mesmerized by the tire marks on the concrete highway divider to notice statues. LOL. I know exactly what you're talking about.

[clamper1797]

I hear that the "Cats" is a gay bar anyway ....

[balrog666]

You are probably right BUT there are people out here that have gone thru the lay offs and the very real possiblity of losing all they ever have worked for ... I know cause I'm one of them. Granted though I would have kept the big screen ... it would have looked good under the bridge

Yes, but this article vandalizes (I would prefer a harsher word, but.. ) their plight for the sake of a stupid, manipulative story. I was in the Seattle area in 60's when the aerospace boom went bust at Boeing and in Michigan in the 70's when the steel and carmaking industries hit bottom. People bitched about management in public and the unions in private, but, in the end, they either got off their asses and did something useful with their lives or they wallowed in their own little pity parties until the money ran out and then went on TV for handouts - no, don't change your stupid, wasteful, extravagant lifestyle buddy, just wait for Uncle Sugar to bail you out with my tax money that I perfer to use supporting my family, my relatives, or my friends who might just really need it.

In the end, people who don't plan for the future, deserve what everything get. My message to them is, to quote Bruce Willis, "Welcome to the party, pal!"

[vikingchick]

LOL. Probably named for the musical.

[CIB-173RDABN]

”Clark worked long hours for some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley and pulled down as much as $150,000 a year, …”

---

Clamper, like you I live and work in the Bay area. When I came to this area in 1985 I could not find a home I could afford and ended up near Modesto. I did the daily commute over the Altamont every day.

I have never earned any where near $150,000 dollars a year (more like a third of that). But I am financially better off then this couple. How could this be?

First I was not paying $2500 a month for rent. I made a decision I would rather pay part of my equity on the house in travel time. Second, we kept our living expenses low. Third we paid off all our credit cards years ago and finally we put all our extra money in the bank.

When I got out of the Army in 1967 I was a high school drop out and no skills. I too worked my way through college. My first career ended when I realized that it was so seasonal that while I could make good money while working, work was intermittent. I changed fields. The second career path I chose I discovered after five years was one I really was not suited for. And so I changed careers again, and started from scratch. Fortunately this one took, and if the good Lord is willing and the creek doesn’t rise it will be my last one. But if it isn’t, I will find another one, and start over (I know it is tough, and by the way I am older then you are).

I think the mistake this couple made was not believing that the job would ever come to an end. Me, I think every paycheck may be the last one, and asked myself am I ready.

Good luck in your job search, I hope you find what you are looking for.

[Hot Tabasco]

Layoffs and job losses are a part of life here in S.E. Michigan. Welcome to the real world!

I'd love to see the parking lot of the San Mateo County Unemployment office.

All the folks I've known over the years at the plant where I've worked who have been laid off both short term and indefinitely have never, ever considered food lines.......

FWIW, the computer tech industry over the past decade and a half has spawned a workforce of gypsies, individuals changing jobs at the drop of a hat in favor of the next employer willing to up the ante.

Unfortunately, if it doesn't have anything to do with computers then they don't have anything to offer to anyone. God help them if they have to resort to manual labor.....

I suspect what many of these silicon valley folks will do is file for bankruptsy rather than sell and move across country for another job......

[SauronOfMordor]

-- According to the California Employment Development Department, 1,012,600 people were working in Santa Clara County at the end of 2000, which meant a lean 1.3 percent unemployment rate. Last month, the numbers had dropped to 927, 500 and a 7.6 percent jobless rate -- the highest in the state for an urban county.

The rumbling you hear in the distance are the fractures in the foundation of the banking system.

What created the stratospheric real estate prices in the Bay Area were all those high-paying tech jobs, and the people who wanted to live near them.

What happens to real estate prices when there's nothing to induce buyers to really want to live there?

What happens to banks when they have lots of mortgages in default, and they can't find new buyers for the houses willing to buy for the outstanding mortgage?

[clamper1797]

But I am financially better off then this couple. How could this be

You said it yourself ... you are older ... and probably bought your house when it was cheap and commuted from Modesto BEFORE the traffic became intolerable. You also did not have to live thru the great high tech depression. I am working ... and I like my job ... BTW I do Altamont every day too.

[potlatch]

In Austin and Boston the livings cost ARE pretty much the same.

Did you go to Austin or to "Round Rock" where Dell is located? My son-in-law is in Real-Estate in Round Rock and business has been VERY good the last number of years.

Young people have been buying 2 and 3 hundred thousand dollar or more homes and living extravagantly.[sp?] Then in the last year many were layed off and are now losing their homes. I don't find this story so unbelievable. These people's friends and 'contacts' [chances of finding another job] were there. Most of us prefer the 'familiar', instead of going out into the unknown.

[clamper1797]

I worked for Motorola for last 4 years ... till the lay off. Been to oak Hill many times ... I checked out houses by Lake Travis ... they were about the same price as out here for comparable housing.

I sure like the County Line on 2222 ... great ribs and a Shiner

[clamper1797]

Bankruptcy DOES NOT help with a mortgage or foreclosure. If you are not working the bank gets the house and you can still lose any equity. My brother is a officer of the court in Santa Clara county. His job is to sell those homes. He does NOT like it and has many very sad stories

[foreverfree]

bump

[potlatch]

I sure like the County Line on 2222 ... great ribs and a Shiner

I'll have to ask my daughter about that - sounds good the next time we visit them!!. They have a boat on Lake Travis now -- enjoying the 'good life', hope it lasts for them! [ and hope things are going good for you now.]

[FITZ]

I don't find this story so unbelievable.

What about the part where they're paying $800 to park in an RV park? Maybe they just make foolish decisions but since their RV runs, they can move it to a dive trailer park and pay $200 or less and if they're not working they don't have to worry about a long commute.

[clamper1797]

God help them if they have to resort to manual labor

I have friends who have ....