Homeless but not hopeless-Thanksgiving marks a tough time for a man who lives out of his pickup...

[babylonsister]

Homeless but not hopeless
Thanksgiving marks a tough time for a man who lives out of his pickup truck.

By Les Gapay
November 27, 2008


I always sort of dread Thanksgiving, and not just because I am alone or because no one invites me to dinner. For me, the holiday marks the start of cold weather, and I know it will soon be uncomfortable to sleep outdoors.

For the last 6 1/2 years, since the previous recession caused my writing and public relations business to tank, I have been living in the back of my 1998 Toyota Tacoma pickup, which now has 369,000 miles on it.

For three seasons a year, I tend to stay in Southern California. Every summer, when it gets too hot here, I head for Montana, where I once lived. I try to follow the good weather, which is easy to do until winter. Recently, I've been staying out by the Salton Sea, where temperatures have been in the 80s during the day and about 55 at night. In weather like that, I can just use my sleeping bag as a cover.

A few years ago, when I was still making a little money, I used to camp at a developed campground with toilets, tables and fire rings, but now that I am subsisting mostly on Social Security, I can't afford it. Now I stay at a primitive campground at the water's edge. It has outhouses instead of flush toilets, but I have come to like its solitude and lack of pavement. In the morning, I can watch cranes and pelicans by the thousands.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gapay27-2008nov27,0,1207396.story

[NMDemDist2]

1. humans are so adaptive

we can get used to almost anything.

I lived like that for a few years, it's amazing how you start to appreciate the simplest things when your mind isn't cluttered with "stuff"

[Joe Chi Minh]

2. Sad to read, but also uplifting. The human spirit is something. And so is God.

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. He never hears from his adult daughters...how sad.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. Here's article about him from 2003 with picture

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2003-09-21-homelessman_x.htm



I had no income at all in 2002 and have lived off savings, premature IRA withdrawals, credit cards and then food stamps. I wasn't eligible for unemployment compensation because I was self-employed. I didn't qualify for subsidized housing because I didn't have a steady income. I fell through the cracks of California welfare programs because they are aimed at families with children at home. To save money, I dropped my health insurance two years ago and reduced my vehicle insurance last year to the state minimum. I cook out at campgrounds or eat cheap meals at fast-food places to keep my expenses down. Most of the time I have been in California, but during the winter I camped some along the Colorado River in Arizona and also near Phoenix. This summer I headed north to what I thought would be cooler climes of Montana, but have been in a heat wave. My situation is finally starting to look up. This spring and summer my corporate freelance work picked up, with several small jobs. It's not enough to rent an apartment or room, but I have hope that the work will continue to increase as the economy rebounds, and my plight will end soon.


5 years later and he's still homeless

[babylonsister]

5. Sad. Thanks for looking this info up. I hope he gets a lot more writing gigs. nt