U.S. homelessness up 12% to highest reported level as rents soar and pandemic aid lapses

[TheBlackAdder]

4. My daughter returned from a 3-month lower 48 state National Park journey, sleeping mostly in her car or tent.

She was surprised at the vast number of people who were living in their cars. She befriended many on her stays and they were long-term automobile sleepers, a year or more. She said that in the Mid-West and West, it is more prevalent than in the Northeast. Many of the major stores allow people to sleep in their cars in remote sections of their lots. Quite a few of the stores even provided lighting and security, you just needed to check-in with store management to get permission. While this worried me, she said the people looked out after one another.

She wanted to stay at campsites for many of her days, but some of the locations wanted as much money as a hotel room to stay. When she went to Southern Florida, the camp sites were over $140 a day and they were fully booked. Florida has some laws about sleeping in cars, mainly 3 hours max, but each county had different laws.