Your Economy (No Politics)

[mr40]

But many van/truck dwellers want to be stealth and not draw attention to their "home".

How the Mortgage Crisis Forced Thousands of Americans to Live in Their Vans

Hidden Homeless – Day in the life of a homeless family
Donna Pinaula and her kids have been homeless in Vancouver since 2012. They have stayed with family, in shelters and in a tent. In this video, The Columbian followed Donna and her kids through a typical day.

This homeless family with 6 children lives in a small hotel near St Louis

Nov 26, 2008
Mark has an amazing story! He was a banker now living in a park homeless.
At first, Mark didn't want to talk on camera. We chatted for a bit and as I started to walk away he asked for a business card. He wanted to know what the video would be used for, how it would be used, and what organizations I was connected to. I assured him this project was completely independent and my only agenda was to tell the homeless story with real people telling real stories unedited and uncensored. Mark is extremely intelligent and articulate. His story really wrecked me because I could identify with so much of it. This is a great story.

Scooter lost the house he lived in for 27 years and has now lives in a van homeless.

Michelle lives in a RV with her kids in a church parking lot near Eugene, Oregon.

Rodger is 83 years-old and lives in van near Seattle. He says it's not that bad. He doesn't have to pay rent, and that leaves him with enough money to get a good meal or go to a movie. Rodger says that if he was paying $700 or $800 a months rent, he would not have enough money leftover to pay his car insurance or to simply have any quality of life.
Rodger says he hasn't given much effort to getting off the streets, but when I asked him if he could afford an apartment would he get off the streets...Rodger responded he would.

Ray is homeless living in a tent. He walks miles each day for food and water.

His government assistance check is not enough to cover housing, never mind his other costs of living. He struggles every day to stay safe and survive these deplorable and unsanitary living conditions.

If you think this sounds like a third-world country, you're not too far off. During my two days visiting Sacramento's infamous tent cities, I could not shake the feeling that I had somehow transported to Kenya or Southern Sudan, where people walk for days just to get water and the living conditions are paltry. It boggles my mind that people are forced to live like this in the richest country in the world.

Ray is intelligent and articulate. There is a slight audio glitch in this video, but Ray's narrative of what has happened in Sacramento and how he survives homelessness is so insightful I had to post it. In this video, Ray says that the location of their tent city is safe. But when I visited just the following day, everyone was told to move or be arrested.
May 29, 2009