'Car sleepers' the new US homeless

[phantom power]

This new phenomenon of middle-class homelessness is hard to quantify, but New Beginnings, an organisation that runs the car park sleeping scheme in Santa Barbara, says they accommodate some 55 people in a dozen parking lots.

Outreach worker Nancy Kapp, once homeless herself, says there is a waiting list for car park spaces and she is getting more and more calls each day from people about to lose their homes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7585696.stm

[maxsolomon]

1. i've seen this in Seattle for 15 years.

not particularly news in the PNW.

[phantom power]

2. I assume the real news is how many of them there are going to be soon.

[dweller]

3. maybe it's time for a Teardrop resurgence...

popular during the Depression.

build your own: http://www.tomswenson.com/teardrop/index.shtml

dp

[Warpy]

6. Oh, NEAT.

I'll bet if I eliminated the plywood skin, I could make one light enough for my Korean econobox to tow.

I lived in my car for a while in the 60s. It sucked. There is nothing worse than that grubby feeling you get after even a few days without access to a shower. Sink baths in restrooms just don't help all that much.

[Fovea]

8. When faced with that problem in the mid seventies

I slept/showered and ate in vacant apartments in a large apt complex where I did maintenance work.

[54anickel]

4. I had to do that for a while back in the 80's. Slept in my van, moving between the local community

college parking lot and a nearby wayside for about a month. Instructors and students used to show up early and jog the trails adjacent to the college and then use the showers in the gym and head for class. I would just wake up extra early, move the van and join them. No one caught on, there weren't cruisers checking the lots back then. I was a student there, recently divorced, had lost my job and gave up my apartment for one that was a lot cheaper but not available yet. At least I knew there'd be an end to my dilemma. Racked up a lot of credit card debt just on living expenses for about a year back then but was finally able to land a decent paying, full-time job.

I was climbing up out of my bad days and had lots of hopes, dreams and aspirations to look forward to. These poor souls were there and had it yanked out from onder them. So damned sad. :cry:

[juno jones]

5. In the 80's, I lived for 6 months in Berkeley CA in my van.

My roommate had moved suddenly and I was in no finacial shape to find another apt immediately even tho I was working full time (bad old ays of $3.30 min wage). I discovered, much to my surprise that it was not illegal to sleep on the street, but it WAS illegal to sleep in my car.

[codjh9]

7. God. You should post this in General Discussion so more will read it. n/t

[Delphinus]

9. This is so sad.

I am at a loss for words.