Homeless due to payments to self-storage facilities

[Liberal_in_LA]

On my first read of this story I thought "what the heck"?

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/07/15/homeless_strain_to_keep_a_roof_over_their_stuff/

By Ric Kahn, Globe Staff | July 15, 2007

Anthony Humphrey works two jobs. Still, he sleeps without a pillow on the floor of a homeless drop-in center downtown.

He can't afford an apartment, he says, because his bills devour his income.

One of his big-ticket items is the dough he regularly hands over to a self-storage facility to let him squirrel away his girlfriend's stuff -- clothing and kitchen wares.

The cost of housing those holdings is $119.95 a month.

His girlfriend, Linda, he says, lives in a studio apartment on Huntington Avenue, too small to fit all her valuables -- including Humphrey, he adds.

(Snip Snip)

Increasingly, advocates for the homeless are citing these dollar-draining storage fees -- on top of well-known issues such as mental illness, substance abuse, unemployment and low-paying jobs, and the high cost of housing -- as a major impediment to men and women getting off the street.

"People tend to see homelessness as a single, homogeneous, simple problem," says Dr. George Sigel , program director of the South Boston Behavioral Health Program , run by Tufts-New England Medical Center . "There are a lot of factors once you've fallen into the pit that seem to keep you there. Storage fees seem to be a factor that just make it harder for people to get out."

Sigel knows a middle-age woman, formerly homeless, who was ambushed by the bottom line. When she finally did the math, she was shocked to realize that in paying $150 a month over four years from her disability check to store the furniture and clothing from a life she once had, she had shelled out over $7,000. That would have been enough, she figured, to move into her own place and out of an antiseptic group home more quickly than she did.

[Mojorabbit]

1. I had a homeless man

who slept in my shed off and on for two years. It is a big shed. I kept bedding in there for him. He kept his things in storage. He was convinced he would someday have that apartment again and have the life he had had before. I guess everyone needs some kind of hope to keep going.

[liberaldemocrat7]

12. In Bush's America this happens.

Let me see.

He works two jobs. Check.

He helps his girlfriend. Check.

He lives in a homeless drop in shelter for sleeping.

I can see this refutes the nasty republican anecdotes that most say that the homeless appear lazy and don't want to work.

This calls for an even more increase in the minimum wage to $10 an hour.

I had a Democrat send me email saying that she didn't support increasing the minimum wage to $10 an hour because she wanted people to exercise personal responsibility and not rely on the government for a $10 an hour minimum wage. Shame.

[pitohui]

2. the man is not homeless due to paying $120 a month for storage for his items

sheesh, he probably couldn't get a rental these days for four times that price

is he to give up his stuff too before society decides he deserves shelter?

[EFerrari]

3. I struggled to pay the storage fees for all of Doug's stuff

for about two years. I don't really know how I managed but it was everything -- his scripts, his files, his whole career was in there when they sold our house out from under us and his mental health went very far south. So, during the whole time he was homeless, at least his work was safe.

That was pretty scary.

[TahitiNut]

4. It's NOT unusual for personal property to cost over $200,000 - at replacement value.

In 1990, I had a fire in my condominium that was controlled before it broke through the walls or roof but after it destroyed much of what was in my "home office" (a 3rd bedroom on the second floor) and smoke-damaged (beyond reclamation) my clothing, linens, mattresses & box springs and other items on the 2nd floor of my condo. With the assistance of 6 good friends, I inventoried EVERYTHING - based on remnants - that was trashed. With a replacement value rider on my HOI, I was compensated to the limit of $125,000 when I identified the replacement cost (at retail/discount stores in the area) of almost every single item on a 30-page (or longer) listing. One person. Not rich. No collectibles to speak of. 1990.

Try it some time. It's a real wake-up call.

People just don't come close to realizing what it'd cost to replace their personal property. No, we can't sell it for shit ... but replacing it costs an arm and a leg.

When folks cut their expenses to the bare bone, they face the incredible hurdle of some day rebuilding their lives ... and that includes personal property. If they had to not only get back on their feet but again shoulder the expenses of clothing, linens, toiletries, bedding, etc. ... it's a killer.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. True but I known people to keep their extra furniture in those places for years.

Better sell the crap and buy more when needed.

Your example refers to all the bits and pieces of a life. My friends have downsized to smaller places and put the extra furniture in storage. I think that's just a waste of money.

[eridani]

5. You aren't supposed to live in them, but--

--quite a few homeless people do. They can register as voters at such addresses in some states.

[liberalhistorian]

6. WTF kind of girlfriend/SO lets her/his SO

sleep in a homeless shelter while she/he has an apartment she could share? I don't give a shit how small the studio apartment is, it's still better than a goddamn homeless shelter. WTF is WRONG with her? And why is HE paying HER storage fees when SHE'S the one with an apt.?

[Liberal_in_LA]

10. Thanks U! Might thought also. What kind of person leeches off a homeless man

when they have an apartment?

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Seriously messed up

[Hippo_Tron]

7. Still don't see why he couldn't crash on his girlfriend's floor for the time being

If he's paying to store her stuff I'd think that she would let him.

[Selatius]

8. I think his girlfriend Linda could at least offer much more help to this poor man.

Good grief. I've seen small studio apartments, but there's no excuse that a person can't sleep on the floor of the place.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

9. I'd like to see the statistics for these self storage places...

...on what percentage of the time the value of the contents being stored is exceeded by the storage fees for all rentals that go beyond 6 months.

I'd bet it would be over 50% of the time.

[Marrah_G]

13. This story stinks

Seriously, the man is sleeping in homeless shelter because he is paying for storage (120 buck a month) for his GF's stuff? Why doesn't he sleep at her studio apt? The story makes no logical sense.

[NNN0LHI]

15. Shoot, I caught myself paying 60 bucks a month to store stuff that wasn't worth 60 bucks

That went on almost a year before I came to my senses.

Don