Car Sleepers - The Middle-Class Homeless

Parent Cafe
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<p>I imagine we can expect to see more stories like this for awhile. </p>

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<p>[BBC</a> NEWS | Americas | ‘Car sleepers’ the new US homeless](<a href=“http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7585696.stm]BBC”>BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Car sleepers' the new US homeless)</p>

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<p>I lived in CA during the late 80’s. Coming from the northeast I was taken by the fact that most modest homes seemed to have an expensive car(s) in the driveway. I soon learned that it was the culture to extract the seemingly constant appreciation of home value through home equity loans to finance such things. For most during the hey-days, which lasted a long time, it was a yearly event.</p>

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<p>I wouldn’t call someone who is homeless middle class- we have had car campers in our neighborhood for years- no extra bedrooms though.
[BALLARD</a> HOMES FOR ALL COALITION: CAR CAMP PROJECT - Sustainable Ballard](<a href=“http://sustainableballard.org/wiki/index.php?title=BALLARD_HOMES_FOR_ALL_COALITION:_CAR_CAMP_PROJECT]BALLARD”>http://sustainableballard.org/wiki/index.php?title=BALLARD_HOMES_FOR_ALL_COALITION:_CAR_CAMP_PROJECT)
I wish we were able to put a little more effort into helping people * before* they become homeless.</p>

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<p>I know that owning a home is the great American dream, but many of us have parents who were the first generation in their family to achieve this. People used to be happy with an apartment, a job, a chance to go to school, and good health. Somewhere along the way (was it television?) everyone came to believe that they had to be middle class in order to be happy (actually worse, they began to feel they were entitled to it). Homelessness is unacceptable, but so is the notion that people who are not related to you should help you to keep a house. </p>

<p>There are people in this world who are poor in a way that no American is poor. Even the poor in this country don’t really know poor. With a planet full of people in need, who do we help first? I guess the answer is our own people, but what a task. We were already failing at supporting the homeless population, and now its size is exploding.</p>

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<p>*Homelessness is unacceptable, but so is the notion that people who are not related to you should help you to keep a house. *</p>

<p>It does benefit me, that my neighbors can " keep a house".
If they can’t make their payments, they can’t afford maintainance, the house falls into disrepair and it is auctioned off and the land sold to build condos.
We were very lucky ourselves, that the house with whom we shared a back fence and had been a rental after the owners downsized, was bought by a young couple who put hundreds of thousands into it to renovate it to it’s former glory, instead of putting possibly 8 units on the same piece of property.</p>

<p>I agree the homeless population is exploding. I am taking a class in another county & often I had found that quite a few classmates live in Seattle so we can carpool. But in my current class, only one student lives in Seattle ( besides me) and after her rent doubled, she found herself without enough resources and has been taking turns staying with friends. ( she is really too old to sleep on the street) I admit- not what I had in mind, when I looked to carpool.</p>

<p>There are people in this world who are poor in a way that no American is poor
Yes I agree, if you are talking about access to paved roads and running water. In Kyirenkum, they have neither. However, the people are loving and friendly and share what they have.</p>

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<p>In this country we tend to parade and glorify wealth and excess in such a way that people cannot easily escape the trap of materialism. That’s by no means an excuse, but marketers have it down to a science. It’s nearly impossible not to be constantly confronted with materialism, even from a very young age. Consumerism is programmed into people in such a way that contentment with less is difficult. I think this contributes to the number of people who make devastating financial decisions.</p>

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<p>“People used to be happy with an apartment, a job, a chance to go to school, and good health. Somewhere along the way (was it television?) everyone came to believe that they had to be middle class in order to be happy (actually worse, they began to feel they were entitled to it).”</p>

<p>A lot of it* is *TV, I think, Spidygirl. Look at the old Honeymooners show. If I had to live Alice’s life, I’d jump out the window. But TV was content to show that their lives were lived in that one tiny, ill furnished apartment. And they weren’t depicting poverty, just working class Americans. Look at the *I Love Lucy *New York apartment. Two bedrooms, I assume one bath, a living room and eat-in kitchen, no dining room. And that was the apartment of a big time band leader. I’m sure it was pretty accurate, given NY prices, but no way would TV depict that as a “nice” apartment now. </p>

<p>Fast forward a few decades and look at the *Full House *house…one of the lovely San Francisco homes that would have cost millions. Fast forward another decade plus, and Hannah Montana’s single parent household lives in a house on the beach in Malibu.</p>

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<p>Check out the video on cnn.com of the house McCain has for sale, with a wine tasting room.</p>

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<p>That was an interesting post, Missypie.</p>

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<p>At the risk of sounding competitive- our house is older than my parents ( theirs was new ours was 82 yrs old when we bought it)
We live in the city- increased density- the neighbors driveway is 3 ft from our house- my parents had more than 10K sq ft lot- ours is half that.</p>

<p>I realize we are not everyone- we didn’t have charge cards for a long time after a period of unemployment we were forced to use our cards for medical expenses and groceries- but still we expected our income to at least keep pace with inflation & rising costs.
It hasn’t.</p>

<p>There are however areas where I find it all but impossible to go backwards.
Some produce I can’t even eat unless it is organic because I am sensitive to the pesticides. ( not a placebo- I used to think I was allergic to things like bananas and carrots, until I had organic)
My parents cut dairy costs by mixing powdered milk with regular and since H had a dairyman for a dad, I couldn’t even think about that.
( & as a kid, that made milk completely unplatable so that I didn’t drink it at all- which possibly was the cause of my weird cravings- I would chew on paint & leaves)</p>

<p>The differences in what is portrayed in media is interesting. The brady bunch had a large but fairly typical tract house. Bob Newhart lived in a tiny apt in (?) Chicago.
And then came * Dallas* ;)</p>

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<p>And Dynasty. And Falcon Crest.</p>

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<p>Maybe it’s because I’m a real estate lawyer, but I’m pretty obsessed with noticing where the family lives on TV shows and movies and what it would actually cost to live there. I long for the days when Mary Tyler Moore slept on that pullout couch for lo those many years.</p>

<p>And don’t get me started on hotels. Unless the point to show how “trashy” people live (e.g. the motel room in My Name is Earl), every hotel room is a suite. A large $1000+ a night suite.</p>

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<p>TV and the movies are part of the problem - no one seems to work, unless it is in a gorgeous downtown office. TV people arrive home looking like they just left (perfect clothes and perfect hair). </p>

<p>Somewhere along the way the concepts of working hard and saving have been replaced with borrowing and letting someone else or the government pay.</p>

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<p>The Disney Channel TV shows and movies are some of the worst offenders. The homes of the “struggling working class” characters are always nicer than my home.</p>

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<p>Several posters have referred to the “exploding” homeless population. Cite, please? I’m really interested.</p>

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<p>WashDad, this is a bit dated, but maybe a good place to start: </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nationalhomeless.org/housing/foreclosure_report.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nationalhomeless.org/housing/foreclosure_report.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Here’s a related article:</p>

<p>[ABC</a> News: New Faces Join Homeless Ranks](<a href=“New Faces Join Homeless Ranks - ABC News”>New Faces Join Homeless Ranks - ABC News)</p>

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<p>I find the TV show Medium to be very realistic, nevermind the fact that the main character, Alison talks with ghosts. The house looks like a normal smallish suburban AZ home with a messy kitchen, kids’ homework on the dining table, no flat screen TV, and the husband lost his high tech job at the end of the show’s last season, so the family had to rely on Alison’s measly pay to support their three girls. The family did get a “new” used car after their vamily vehicle got totalled.</p>

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<p>Jim Cramer lived in his car for a while, and look at him now!</p>

<p>" Cramer’s parents, who lived in a suburb of Philadelphia, wanted him to come home to straighten out his life. Instead, he began living in his car.</p>

<p>“You can live in your car much more easily when you’re a general assignment reporter covering homicide,” he said. “You’re kind of in your car all the time. I would take showers at friends’ houses. But after a while, I’d gone through all my friends. And that’s when I really had to hit the road. I was kind of embarrassed that I was such a moocher. People felt bad for me; but at a certain point, you know, they said, ‘Hey Jim, go get a life.'”</p>

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<p>But when you bought it, you could have bought a newer house much farther out that was bigger that the one you chose for being close in. Every good city neighborhood has had the same experience. Location vs. price. You haven’t lost by being in Ballard the last 25 years!!!</p>