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.

[FITZ]

Now might be a good time to compete with illegal aliens for jobs. They're actually doing pretty well because they work for cash and don't pay taxes. Sometimes they get $30 an hour but that's usually for piling up bales of hay for someone ---they find real cheap places to live and they often are carrying around several hundreds of dollars and have zero debt.

[clamper1797]

Minimum rent at a dive trailer park in Silly valley (where the jobs are ... remember) is around $500. Where exactly are they going to get the money. Remember that low paying employers are not AT ALL likely to hire an ex-Silicon Valley person because they are to qualified and the're to old. Of course they could move to Barstow and work at some low paying job and throw away a lifetime career. Is that what you are suggesting ??? After all we do have all those foreign engineers that can (and have) take(n) the jobs

[potlatch]

What about the part where they're paying $800 to park in an RV park? </>

Well, it was a long story, and something stuck in my mind about 'a friend' allowing them to park behind his business, guess I forgot about the $800.00 part. Although, that's probabily not 'high' in California, where a small home can cost one million!

[Rockpile]

Bump for post 104.

The Free Traitor gang which was so active and virulent here on FR seem to have gotten quieter in the last year. I hope some of them are sleeping in cardboard boxes now.

[clamper1797]

Thanks ... I BARELY kept my house ... my lady is a pharmacist so she was able to help. I was (and am again) the major bread winner so she couldn't make the whole mortgage but we had family and friends come to our aid.

We were a couple of the lucky ones ... though we lost all of our saving in the market crash this summer. The 401K lost all but 10% of it's value. We tried to sell the house but no buyers. BUT I am back to work designing analog circuits (lots of math) but took a 20% pay cut. Hey ... it's a job

[FITZ]

No you're right, they're parked behind some business. I guess they'd better find some kind of job real quick ---maybe Walmart's hiring, being a greeter wouldn't be so bad. You just have to smile and try not to smash the carts into the customers.

[potlatch]

Glad you're working, many aren't. My brother's a pharmacist in Houston.

[clamper1797]

Thanks .... it was a rough summer. I thought I was retired in January ... had way in 6 figures in the market ... all but the house paid off ... then the crash ....I did try to get a job starting in Feb when I realized that rough times might be ahead ... little did I know how bad things would get.

[potlatch]

LOL, I made the mistake of going to Walmart yesterday, a Saturday!! Never again!!

[clamper1797]

Barstow

[UnBlinkingEye]

I read many arrogant posters on this thread who think those hitech workers that have lost everything deserve their fate.

Let me suggest to them that what goes around comes around.

Perhaps your day will come.

Think about this: your company goes bankrupt, this means no pay, no COBRA, no reference. Your industry imports foreign workers and ships work overseas. You search for jobs with no response, your six figure household income becomes $1900 of unemployment and the wife's $1000 dollar a month income while your expenses remain at nearly $6,000 a month.

Soon the house is foreclosed, the $45,000 car is reposessed and unemployment benefits are exhausted. The family self esteem is gone and the tension is horrible.

A tinderbox awaiting a spark.

[speekinout]

This article reads like fiction. "Clark" and "Carole" sound like what journalists euphemistically refer to as "composites" also known as people they made up to make the story better.

Of course, you're right. There are so many things wrong with this story that it isn't at all credible. The first thing is why are they staying in SV? The job market there has always been a roller coaster, and I know. I've been in and out of there 3 times in my career (out now). Someone who can earn $150,000 there can find a job elsewhere (ok, maybe only for $75,000 in fly-over country, but the rent would be far less).
And if they have a drivable RV, why aren't they moving on and looking for work elsewhere? Do they really prefer to moan and collect hand-outs?

I have no empathy for anyone who won't accept reality and move on. The jobless rate in this country is still <6%. It might be really high in areas like SV, but that just means that it's time to go elsewhere, and maybe someday move back.

[potlatch]

Yea, it's a scary time right now! We are retired and living comfortably, but we are from the era where you bought one thing at a time till it was paid for, then bought the next thing!

We also saved, but have lost money in stocks. You hate to sell when it's down, but what happens when another attack or war with Iraq comes!?

[clamper1797]

AMEN brother ... AND that day just might be just around the corner ....

[FITZ]

the $45,000 car is reposessed

I've never bought a car for more than $3500 so why would I lose sleep over that? I pay cash so they can't get repossessed. That's someone's choice to buy a car that expensive.

[pyx]

Lest this sound like another dot-com karmic payback -- arrogant young millionaires learn the hard way about the "new" economy -- it's not.

Clark worked long hours for some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley and pulled down as much as $150,000 a year, depending on the client and size of the job. One ad campaign for a software firm was so successful it earned nearly $30 million for the agency for which Clark worked.

By spring, 1999, Clark was vice president of marketing for a sizable dot- com. That fall, a search engine startup came courting. They offered a bigger salary, better benefits and, of course, future stock options. Clark jumped, and the two Cs believed they would realize their dream of buying a house in the Bay Area.

After a few months, the bottom started to fall out.

It appears the author lied.

[potlatch]

Wonder if they're doing well now.

The engineers? Guess it depends on what kind, my other brother is a Chemical Engineer with Amaoco, and doing well. I say 'other' because I responded earlier about my brother the Pharmacist. Now, if somebody brings up law inforcement, my third brother is a Police Chief!! LOL.