A third of the homeless people in America are over 50 and I’m one of them

Also, when you see the US press - including Vox - talk about how low unemployment is, bear in mind that she doesn't count as unemployed. When the fact checkers point at Trump's claims about unemployment and say they're lies, they're treating people like her who're forced into early retirement they can't afford because the jobs have gone away as success stories in the fight for full employment and insisting it's stupid to think otherwise. Even before she officially retired, she probably didn't count because she was still freelancing.

A sad read. It is provocative that one of the richest countries in the world can treat its unfortunate citizens in such a manner. But I guess that is what happens when you build a whole country on the myth that the life you get is completely your own choice. It is very odd how many American you read who state I don&#x27;t need health insurance because I make sure I live healthy.<p>That is about as intelligent as saying I don&#x27;t need a seatbelt in my car because I drive safely. Many people utter words like that too.<p>Perhaps it is simply something people want to believe in. They don&#x27;t want to believe they can be the next victim. They want to believe everything is under control and they are master of their own faith. If you realize how much is out of your control it would be all too depressing to know how screwed you are going to be if you developed serious health problems, getting into serious accidents etc in the US. There is little safety-net to fall back on.<p>I have a good job today, but I have period mental problems. I do worry about what would happen if I suddenly couldn&#x27;t hack it anymore. What do you do when you got small children to provide for and you get screwed up in the head? Fortunately I know that because I live in Norway and not the US, there are limits to how far I can fall. I will never end up on the streets with my kids. They will still be able to go to good schools, and university whatever happens to me. That takes some stress away.<p>I can not begin to imagine what it is like struggling in America and knowing that if you can&#x27;t work, your whole life is over and the future of your children.<p>It is surprising why American&#x27;s don&#x27;t want a proper welfare system. People buy insurance for their car and house. They buy health insurance. I pay higher taxes than Americans but I view that as the cost of having airtight insurance against the mishaps of life.

I live in a Van. Mid 30s junior software developer who&#x27;s kinda regretting taking the CS path at this late age.<p>However, that as it may be, it&#x27;s really not that bad. I shower at a gym at I&#x27;m rarely home anyways, usually doing things so I really just need a place to sleep which I don&#x27;t feel paying 800 a month is worth.<p>The only issue is authorized places to park. There&#x27;s a lot of us vehicle dwellers there&#x27;s a whole sub-reddit &#x2F;r&#x2F;vandwellers devoted to it.<p>I think it&#x27;s an growing problem and solution to massive housing shortages that are just going to get worse.<p>How big of a deal is it to have parking lots for &#x27;liveaboards&#x27;?<p>You can obviously have applications to weed out troublemakers like any other apartment complex.<p>This might be a very interesting sort of start up.

I know it&#x27;s nitpicking, but eyeballing the chart at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.census.gov&#x2F;popclock&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.census.gov&#x2F;popclock&#x2F;</a>.<p>&gt; <i>A third of the homeless people in America are over 50</i><p>So is the case for the <i>entire</i> population of America, it would seem.

She needs to talk to a social worker because she is not claiming all her senior benefits. First the minimal SSI is 733, a bit above her regular SS check. Second, she automatically qualifies for almost free medicaid.<p>Plus when you qualify for either of these its easier to get other poverty benefits like food stamps, housing assistance and a free cell phone.<p>Sometimes people go into victim-pity mode and dont claim everything available.

Yes, this is a horrible situation that she is in, and it&#x27;s extremely sad. However, Social Security is not meant to be lived on; it&#x27;s meant to simply be a supplement to a retirement that the individual was saving up for their entire working life. Let this simply be a lesson to put money away for retirement, as people have successfully done for centuries.

&lt; I divorced my husband,<p>In my county, the number one (by far) reason people are homeless is because of divorce.<p>Marriage is a commitment and the second biggest choice one (usually) has to make.

&gt; CeliaSue Hecht’s writing work has been featured in more than 40 local and national newspapers and magazines, on her dog travel blog, in newsletters, and in five romantic travel guides. She has traveled around the world and has written and led seminars and workshops in the US and Europe. Her travels have included about 245 cities. She can be contacted by email at prmatchmaker@yahoo.com or on her website celiasue.com.<p>I&#x27;m a little confused. Her blog and personal site make it seem like it&#x27;s more of a lifestyle choice than a victim of circumstance. Perhaps both?<p>Anyway, I don&#x27;t think social security was designed to be a complete retirement plan. I agree with the author about some laws discriminating those without permanent lodging (e.g. many places it&#x27;s illegal to sleep in your car), but I hope that able and intelligent people take responsibility for their own retirement.

I&#x27;m working on a piece about living in my truck. I live in a major metro area (not a top five most expensive however), as a software developer making over six figures.<p>It&#x27;s impossible to find rent for under $900&#x2F;month. My anger boiled over when someone wanted $975&#x2F;month for a 6 month lease for a 350 square foot &quot;studio&quot; that has no kitchen.<p>Yet, supposedly there are 18 million vacant homes in the United States [1].<p>It&#x27;s time to put together an Airbnb for these vacant units that provide the new transients of America with affordable and safe places to stay. Interested in helping, or just want to have a conversation about this topic, check out my profile.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fred.stlouisfed.org&#x2F;series&#x2F;EVACANTUSQ176N" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;fred.stlouisfed.org&#x2F;series&#x2F;EVACANTUSQ176N</a><p>Additional info from the Census: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.census.gov&#x2F;housing&#x2F;hvs&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.census.gov&#x2F;housing&#x2F;hvs&#x2F;index.html</a>

According to Wikipedia[0], a third (~32%) of the people in the US are over 50, so without reading the article this is roughly what you should expect.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Demography_of_the_United_States" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Demography_of_the_United_State...</a>

Alright, these situations are sad, and sometimes unavoidable due to what is essentially &quot;bad luck&quot;. I can&#x27;t imagine being caught in the vicious cycle.<p>But I do take issue with:<p>&gt;<i>The housing crash and its chilling effect on mortgage lending have hit the poor the hardest...Homeowners are being replacing by renters, as the American dream of owning your own property is becoming increasingly a luxury for the rich and upper middle class.</i><p>Why should &quot;the poor&quot; have access to mortgages? Lending to poor people (NINJA loans, predatory loans) was a root cause of the housing collapse. Do people really think giving the poor mortgages is any kind of solution?<p>It&#x27;s a pretty common refrain on HackerNews that the &quot;banksters&quot; and (mostly, in reality) shady mortgage brokers took advantage of people by providing them with loans they couldn&#x27;t afford. But, other times, this is seen as a good idea?

I&#x27;ve been personally thinking what I would do if I were in such a situation. If I had to purely rely on govt funds and found it very hard to get by. I can&#x27;t imagine.<p>I can see why so many people want trump. He feeds on the anger at how broken this country is.

Most of these threads end up with dry platitudes about living carefully or demonizing homeless people as mentally imbalanced or irresponsible.<p>There is no concept of victim or adverse circumstances and zero sense of the collective. It is denial. For other countries poverty is a problem to be solved, for the US it&#x27;s identity, something everyone wants to wish away.<p>The first modern dystopia will be here, the idealogy of selfishness, greed, wealth and narcissism may benefit some individuals but leaves no space for a community to form and a culture that is not only bereft of empathy but positively despises it.

A quick search on Apartment Finder for a random city like Albuquerque, NM shows apartments for under $300 per month. She is receiving $672 per month in Social Security. It seems to me she can afford housing.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.apartmentfinder.com&#x2F;New-Mexico&#x2F;Albuquerque-Apartments&#x2F;q&#x2F;?xr=600&amp;sr=2" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.apartmentfinder.com&#x2F;New-Mexico&#x2F;Albuquerque-Apartm...</a>

Sad read and hope to never see anyone close to me have to go through this, but; why stay in a city? It must be cheaper to live in some town far from cities? At least here you would not only be able to live of your the money she has in a village and no one would bother you if you sleep in your car outside a village. Not sure how that is in the US but i would imagine it makes a difference outside cities.<p>And then ofcourse; how many close friends do you have; i have many friends and family who would all just rent a house for me. Or let me stay at theirs. Not one but well i could think of at least 20 people who would not hesitate; am i lucky or did she just connect with very few people?

This was very sad to read. I was wondering why - given the fact that she has a car - she doesn&#x27;t drive for Lyft or Uber. Maybe it is because her car is filled with her living stuff, or hygiene reasons. These are assumptions that might not be true. Let&#x27;s assume that she is able to meet the qualifications of a driver. Would Uber and Lyft block her application because she doesn&#x27;t have a home? I wonder if this is something the Ubers &#x2F; Lyfts can do - employing homeless drivers - to help people get back on their feet.

Quick question, is the illegal car sleep law universal or are there subtleties ? I can understand cities wanting to have quiet streets at night and avoid people ending up in cars after parties etc, but for a homeless person there should be a special case.

A situation like that is almost unimaginable. Sounds like a potential idea for a startup&#x2F;app though. If the author got together with another homeless person they could probably get an apartment between them.

That is why my priority is to have a home of my own, so at the end it won&#x27;t matter if I&#x27;m broke, I&#x27;ll still have a roof over my head.

We will have our safety net eventually. The pendulum of hopefully slowly swinging to the left. Until then, folks like her are fucked.

Ah, another resident of a homogeneous country with 13% of the population of California with vast amounts of oil is telling everyone else how their country should be organized. It&#x27;s like the only son of a rich lawyer telling his college buddy, from the worker&#x27;s family of seven: &quot;why do you still drive that 2002 Accord, clearly my brand new BMW M5 is much better! It&#x27;s surprising you poor people don&#x27;t want a proper car&quot;

45% of USA is uninhabited :)

&gt; CeliaSue Hecht’s writing work has been featured in more than 40 local and national newspapers and magazines, on her dog travel blog, in newsletters, and in five romantic travel guides. She has traveled around the world and has written and led seminars and workshops in the US and Europe. Her travels have included about 245 cities. She can be contacted by email at prmatchmaker@yahoo.com or on her website celiasue.com.<p>I&#x27;m a little confused. Her blog and personal site make it seem like it&#x27;s more of a lifestyle choice than a victim of circumstance. Perhaps both?<p>Anyway, I don&#x27;t think social security was designed to be a complete retirement plan. I agree with the author about some laws discriminating those without permanent lodging (e.g. many places it&#x27;s illegal to sleep in your car), but I hope that able and intelligent people take responsibility for their own retirement.