Subprime victims could end up homeless

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES, March 22, (Reuters) - Emily Love was sleeping in her car in Marina Del Rey, California, last week when two youths began bashing her windshield with a grocery cart.

A week later, the 61-year-old is back in the car because she, like many homeless people, has no place to go, even though sleeping in a vehicle is illegal in the Los Angeles area.

And homeless advocates expect more people to hole up in their cars as they lose homes due to the current subprime mortgage crisis.

"The subprime meltdown is the kind of situation that pushes people into cars. It's a very common story," said Ruth Hollman, executive director of Self-Help And Recovery Exchange (SHARE!), a non-profit that helps homeless people in Los Angeles.

Advocates hope Los Angeles will adopt programs now in place in cities like Eugene, Oregon, and Santa Barbara, California, that enable people to live in cars while receiving services they need to get back on track.

"It's an old saying in the social services world that most people are one to six paychecks away from being homeless. But if you can't make your mortgage, it's more like a month or two. It's really fragile out there, particularly with the subprime situation," said William Wise, a spokesman for relief agency St. Vincent de Paul of Eugene, which works with the city to find overnight parking spots for homeless people.

Without such spots, people forced to sleep in their cars fear being towed and ticketed by police, as well as being attacked by thugs and facing public scorn and complaints.

After her car was attacked, Love, who has a master's degree and once worked as a legal secretary and teacher, sat staring at the shattered glass. "I don't like to talk to the cops because they don't like people sleeping in their cars," she said, from her car crammed with all her possessions, including two cats.

"I think the economic realities of what is going on, in California especially, will lead people to this alternative," said Gary Linker of New Beginnings Counseling Center of Santa Barbara, which helped open up lots overnight for the homeless.

TEMPORARILY HOMELESS

According to government figures, there are about 754,000 homeless people in the United States, which is about 300,000 more than the available beds in shelters and transitional housing. Most of the homeless are not "chronic", but victims of hard times due to job loss, divorce or unusual situations like the subprime crisis.

Many of the temporarily homeless fall further into a hole because they try to keep it quiet and do not seek help.

Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, said he strongly opposes programs sanctioning living in cars rather than permanent solutions.

"It's a national tragedy that we would be resorting to plans that sanction people living in their cars. It doesn't measure up to the promise of America," said Mangano.