'I didn't think I'd stay homeless for that long ...'

[rpannier]

A few months after losing her administrative job in the summer of 2008, 23-year-old Brianna Karp got rid of her furniture, a beloved piano, and most of her books so she could move back in with her parents. When that didn't work out, she moved into an old trailer a relative had left her, settling into an informal homeless community in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Brea, Calif. By the summer of 2009, she was living without electricity, regular showers, home-cooked food, and most basic conveniences.

snip

What happened? I lost my job in 2008. I kept up my rent payments with temp work, which lasted for a couple of months, and I had a few thousand in savings. But I was basically living from paycheck to paycheck. I moved in with my parents, and that was not a good idea. I had to get out. I'm not connected to my parents any more. I ended up living in a trailer in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I had inherited it from a relative who committed suicide earlier that year. I have a couple of close friends, but they were all living with their parents or with roommates and wouldn't have been able to put me up. You think you have that to fall back on, but not really.

snip

What's a rough sleeper? People who sleep outside, on benches or sidewalks.

snip

What do you feel people should know about the homeless? There's a stereotype that they're lazy, dirty, mentally ill, or there because they want to be. It's a hard life. You can't be lazy and be homeless. You have to do so much just to survive, to get by from day to day. You don't always have transportation, money, or food. You have to worry about where it comes from. Yet get tired easily, and depressed more easily. It's not like you say, I don't feel like working any more so I'm going to go sleep on a park bench.

link:
http://money.msn.com/family-money/latest.aspx?post=8e6b71c6-8ab8-43be-a1ec-abd5de3a8feb>1=33038&ocid=xnetr3-1

[Initech]

1. That Wal-Mart is literally a block from where I work.

Wow, I had no idea that's what that RV city was for... crazy shit. I tell ya one day we need to rise up against our Wall St. overlords, and I hope that day comes soon.

[rpannier]

6. From the article

You're not living in the Wal-Mart parking lot any more, are you?
Wal-Mart started towing people. I was at a temp job one day and I came back to find my home was gone. The general manager at the store had told us all, "You can stay as long as you need to," but somebody from the corporate office came to visit, and they had everybody towed. It took me a month to get my trailer back.

[Schema Thing]

2. Brianna post on a discussion board I frequent. Her parents shun

her because she is "disfellowshipped" from the Jehovah's Witness religion.


Evil, evil cult.

[laylah]

3. Despicable!

Bless her heart. This should NOT be happening...this should not be ALLOWED to happen! :cry:

[xmas74]

4. In my local paper today

the front page is about the only homeless shelter in town shutting down and evicting everyone-yesterday.

They didn't make it known to the community until after it happened.

[Aristus]

5. I work at a medical clinic that serves the homeless population.

The sheer number of things that go against the common stereotype of the homeless would shock anyone.

As long as there are homeless in need of medical care, I'll be there for them.

One of my patients today presented with signs & symptoms of breast cancer.

Today sucked so hard... :-(