Mom forced to live in car with dogs

SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- Barbara Harvey climbs into the back of her small Honda sport utility vehicle and snuggles with her two golden retrievers, her head nestled on a pillow propped against the driver's seat.

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Harvey was forced into homelessness earlier this year after being laid off. She said that three-quarters of her income went to paying rent in Santa Barbara, where the median house in the scenic, oceanfront city costs more than $1 million. She lost her condo two months ago and had little savings as backup.

"It went to hell in a handbasket," she said. "I didn't think this would happen to me. It's just something that I don't think that people think is going to happen to them is what it amounts to. It happens very quickly, too."

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There are 12 parking lots across Santa Barbara that have been set up to accommodate the growing middle-class homelessness. These lots are believed to be part of the first program of its kind in the United States, according to organizers.

The lots open at 7 p.m. and close at 7 a.m. and are run by New Beginnings Counseling Center, a homeless outreach organization.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/19/homeless.mom/index.html

:cry:

citizens living in their cars while we spend $2 billion a week on a felonious war.

She can't leave the dogs in the car! Oh my God, we have become such a horrendous society to let this happen to our own! May God help her, as it seems clear our own government will not...

Bless you Barbara and your beloved dogs. Stay safe.

It's reminiscent of the Mark Twain line, "the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco".

When I lived there, the homeless used to camp out near the old train station. One homeless man even gave 'The Moreton Bay fig tree' as his address when he tried to register to vote. I'm glad to see the city is setting aside space for the homeless. First a parking lot, then add a public restroom facility to the parking lot........then maybe some tables with a gazebo type cover.....maybe then put walls up on the gazebos...... and maybe then put a door on the gazebo and give the homeless person a key. Yes, that could work.

More likely they will get cold.

We are from SB, MIL is still there. For the most part they have been very compassionate with the many homeless people.

Once we rented an apartment on De la Vina, and about two days after we moved in a homeless guy showed up looking for his stuff. He'd been camping out while it was vacant, and he left the most pathetic little stash of possessions behind. :-(

I hope they remember when they get back on their feet that there are a hell of a lot more out there that don't have even the advantages they have (white, formerly middle class, no mental or substance abuse issues etc)

how far we have fallen :(

I live a reasonably lower middle class life now, and live completely within my means, i.e. I have zero consumer debt. Despite a nice professional academic position, I still live more-or-less pay check to pay check. I've got maybe a couple of month's grace, and I'm lucky to have that. I'm tenured, and can reasonably expect to keep my job unless something pretty terrible happens.

But one day I'll retire-- not too long from now, either, maybe ten years or so. I'll draw a state pension, but my income will decline by about half, I estimate. I'll probably have to relinquish my shelter. At least I'm thinking about it now, trying to figure out how best to cope. The last camping trip will be a necessarily long one, I think.

This is going to be happening to more and more of us.

Sadly, I HAVE no spare room.........but if I did you could trade for cooking and help around the house.......

(I know you can cook, lol)

I'm gonna be dirt poor, too. Maybe when I sell my practice and retire I will have just enough to buy a little piece of land and put a teeny weeny little Thoreau cabin on it. But mostly I will have to make do or do without.

A professional degree is no longer insurance against the descent into hell.

...call the cops! :rofl:

Good on ya', kestrel! :hug:

In 6th grade I entertained the notion of becoming an entomologist - never managed to get over the basic ICK factor of certain bugs, however.......and maggots are one of the few things that can make me scream.

my plan is to A). never stop working or, B). die before I can no longer work.

BushCo would see me as a good little consum...er, "American".

...but as I get older I'm having to confront the reality that unless I die of a massive heart attack at my desk one day, time will ultimately rob me of my ability to work. I'm in my mid-fifties and already I simply cannot work as hard as I could when I was a younger man. I'm arguably SMARTER, and certainly have more to offer in other ways, but plan A probably isn't realistic, and nature might very well not cooperate with plan B.