Yes, the newly created middle class homeless, living in their RV's. Even journalists from other countries are noting it - but they are invisible to the american media.

Car sleepers' the new US homeless

By Rajesh Mirchandani
BBC News, Santa Barbara

Barbara Harvey sleeps in her car
Car sleepers are on the rise in California which has been hit hard by the housing crisis

Santa Barbara boasts a classic laidback California lifestyle, with uncongested beaches, wholesome cafes and charming Spanish-style architecture.

Of course there's a hefty price tag: nestled between the gentle Santa Ynez mountains and the inviting Pacific Ocean are multi-million dollar homes.

But in this sun-washed haven of wealth, many live far from the American dream.

In a car park across the street from luxury mansions, the evening brings a strange sight.

A few cars arrive and take up spaces in different corners. In each car, a woman, perhaps a few pets, bags of possessions and bedding.

Across the street from homes with bedrooms to spare, these are Santa Barbara's car sleepers.

Homeless within the last year, they are a direct consequence of America's housing market collapse.

In this woman-only parking lot, Bonnee, who gives only her first name, wears a smart blue dress and has a business-like demeanour.

'4x4 homes'

A year ago, she was making a healthy living as, ironically, a real estate agent. But when people stopped buying houses, her commission-based income dried up, and, like many clients, she too was unable to pay her mortgage.
Bonnee, one of Santa Barbara's car sleepers
Bonnee still works in the real estate business

Soon she found herself with nowhere to live but her 4x4.

Piles of blankets are in the back of the vehicle. Personal documents are stuffed into seat pockets. Books litter the back seat. A make-up bag and gym membership card (she washes at the gym) are in the front. With her constantly, are photos of her former life.

She can't quite believe her situation.

"My God, America's heart is bleeding," she tells me.

Tears fill her eyes.

"I know it'll get better. But it feels sad. I really fought hard."

A medium-sized 4x4 pulls into the parking lot and 66-year-old Barbara Harvey gets out.

She opens the back door and two large Golden Retrievers jump out.

Barbara begins her nightly routine. She moves a few bags from the boot to the front seat and takes out pyjamas and a carton of yoghurt (her dinner). She then arranges blankets in the back of the car.

It's not an American dream , it's an American nightmare
Nancy Kapp
Outreach worker for car sleepers

Barbara used to work in housing finance - this is the double whammy of the housing collapse where many who worked in the sector lost their jobs and their homes.

But since April, she and her dogs, Ranger and Phoebe, have spent every night in her car. It's cramped, but she says if they sleep diagonally they can all fit.

New trend?

The car park lets the car sleepers enter from 7pm, local public toilets close at dusk.

As a result, Barbara says she doesn't drink any liquids after she arrives. In the mornings, she showers at a friend's house.

Dressed in clean, comfortable clothes and wearing sunglasses, she is far removed from the stereotypical image of homelessness.

"I don't think I fit into anybody's image," she says.

"There's going to be lots of homeless individuals who are middle-class, there can't be anything but. We're in an awful mess economically. I don't think we've seen half of what's going to happen in this country."

It's hard to keep things clean. It's hard to feel complete and whole
Paige Miller

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.

She identifies it as a new breed of homeless emerging in America.

'American nightmare'

"Being poor is like this cancer, and now this cancer is filtering up to the middle-class," she says. "I don't care how strong you are, it's a breakdown of the human psyche when you start to lose everything you have."

"These people have worked their whole lives to have a house and now it's crumbling and it's in ashes and how devastating is that?" she says.

"It's not an American dream, it's an American nightmare."

California house prices fell by 30% in the year to May. Few parts of America have been hit as hard.

But national housing groups say they have seen a rise in homelessness across the US since the foreclosure crisis began last year.
Miller family
The Miller family feel "cramped" in their small mobile home

In another car park in Santa Barbara, Craig Miller, his wife Paige and their two children say they feel cramped in the small mobile home where they have been living for several months.

"It's hard to keep things clean," says Paige. "It's hard to feel complete and whole."

Originally from Florida, the family used to own a four-bedroom house with a pool. But when Craig's business failed, they lost it.

Undeterred, the family embarked on a dream to drive across America and make a new start in California. But unable to find full-time work, and unable to afford rent, as Craig puts it "we got stuck".

He says it was like a holiday at first but now it is much harder.

"Getting money for food, it's not something we've had to think about before," says Craig.

"We're definitely looking forward to getting out and getting a place. And we're working hard at getting there. This is just the journey, it's not the destination.'

As darkness falls on Santa Barbara, the car sleepers settle in for the night.

They'll have to be up early: they are not allowed to stay in the car parks beyond 7am. Some work, others spend their days driving from one spot to another.

When evening comes around again, they return to their car park homes.

In comparison to other countries, and indeed America's own long-term homeless, they are still fortunate.

But as America's economic crisis deepens, could there soon be more of them?

BBC NEWS | Americas | 'Car sleepers' the new US homeless

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

People living in cars is nothing new but it will increase and it IS a nightmare. At least they have a car park. In other places the cops keep hassling people who sleep in their cars so they have to keep moving, which I think is cruel when they are parked on a public street in an out-of-the-way place and not bothering anyone.

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Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

Correct, they are not new and do this by choice.

Does the left think that if they eliminate their freedom of choice to sleep in cars will eliminate the practice?

I thought we were a country that encouraged individual freedoms? and who is the all knowing, pseudo-intelligent idiot who is making that judgement that sleeping in cars is not an acceptable practice?

Not all of them.The woman in the OP has the choice of sleeping in her car or on the street - not much of a choice. She's not some bum, but a person who has fallen on hard times.

No.

The police in many regions. But that question is a straw man. It is not acceptable for innocent people to lose everything because of poor decisions made by the financiers. We are going to see more and more of this and it is WRONG that the citizens of this country are being reduced to this state while the people who caused the financial mess live high on the hog and will continue to do so if the bailout plan Paulson wrote gets passed.

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Walter Mondale: "George Bush doesn't have the manhood to apologize." George Bush: "Well, on the manhood thing, I'll put mine up against his any time."

To quote Anatole France:

The law forbids both rich and poor alike from sleeping under bridges and begging for bread.

Then why not use some shelter or go to some governmnet agency.. certainly there is a choice.

So where was it said that people who sleep in their cars lost all of their money because the Democrat's destroyed the mortgage industry? Well, if that is the case, why not just give them back their homes and let the taxpayer pay for their losses.. afterall, that is what they are going to do anyway?

How about Raines, Johnson, and Gorelick give back the millions that they stole from Fannie mae AND Dodd and Obama give back the hundreds of thousands of dollars that they received simply because they were Democrats..?

HUH?

So, are you saying that the Democrat formed welfare state in the US is a failure?

OK, lets repeal the whole thing and start over...

I don't know...why don't you research that and get back with us. What government agency would you like them to go? Personally, I think it's admirable that these people are doing what they can with what they have rather than running to the government.

The democrats destroyed the mortgage industry? I thought the mortgage industry self destructed. Nothing I've read has said that the government forced them to use predatory lending techniques like sub-prime mortgages.

The Feds forced them to lend to people who were high risk and now those same government officials are running around the country covering their *** by condemning the lenders for predatory practices. Naturally, most of the public believes them because Americans are stupid and ignorant. It's really quite amusing.

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Carolina Politics Online

Sam

Policies of which were passed under a Republican controlled Congress.

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Carolina Politics Online

Sam