On the contrary, that statement is an over simplification. Wages and a working woman have taken away from what it takes to maintain a home. Single peopke in the US are living in dumps for the most part because they're always working.
so you basically dont care about your dwelling? You wouldnt try to fix issues with it? this is whats wrong with the world, that same attitude carries over to your work ethic and your life. You're that type of person to not help someone in distress because it has nothing to do with you, you expect someone else to fix your car when it breaks because you refuse to learn anything, you want everything handed to you. I couldn't imagine you people in a survival situation where you had to fend for yourself, oh wait imagine that...something similar to what were watching.
This was very enlightening as well as informative. I became disabled and unable to work earlier this year - I am waiting for approval for SSDI (6 month process if there are no obstacles). I have used all of my savings and cashed out two retirement funds. This is my last month being able to afford my current apartment of 15 years. I have already started packing, put some belongings in storage before I'm on the streets next month. Section 8 housing has a wait list of 12 years currently. Yeah, each homeless person has a story - not all are drug addicts or bums. Welcome to America.
Im disabled, sleeping in my truck. There are other countries where you can live, im thinking of buying a rural piece of land that I can pitch a tent on.
I worked in construction most of my life and in 2016 I had knee replacement. Never really fully recovered so I can’t go back to construction. I’ve been struggling since and now am waiting to get SSD. They turned me down a few times already but luckily I got an apartment from the city. I’m still to old to work and to young to retire
I'm disabled and on SSI. I own a small house, and live on my own. It's possible if you don't spend $ on unnecessary things. I don't spend money on nice clothes, wifi, cable, getting hair done, bars, drugs, restaurants, nothing. I cook cheap meals at home. I keep the heat down low, and one light at night. A roof over my head is more important.
Keep in mind that during the 80’s people were encouraged to save due to the interest rates. Right now there’s very little incentive to save because those who are saving are watching those who are reckless taking it in. I’ve been trying to save for a home and it’s been discouraging to watch prices continue to not budge because there’s people willing to get into a mortgage where they’re paying 40% of their income. It’s insane.
Consider investing in stocks especially during a recession . While recessions can be tough, they can also offer good chances to buy low and sell high in the markets if you're cautious. Just remember, this is not financial advice, but it's a good time to think about buying stocks since having cash on hand isn't always the best option.
You're right! With the help of an experienced coach, I made some changes in my investments. I started with $321k, and now I have more than $750k by investing in stocks, ETFs, and bonds. I think housing prices won't go down much until there are more houses available.
"Izella Annette Anderson" is the licensed advisor I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment
Thank you for making this video. I made the mistake of suggesting we needed more affordable housing in my area in Texas. The comments were harsh, aggressive and frightening to my safety. I realized quickly how selfish people are. It made me sad.
people are scared alot of people really need there property its maybe there only asset and i think thats what may cause people to ask that way plus ignorance. i think we all could be a little more understanding of one another's situation. at the end of the day the only one who can judge is god.
@P A Actually the few that are “aggressively” homeless arrive here in California because the weather is quite favorable. Others come to seek work in the tech industry then fail and end up on the street. There are plenty of older people that were squeezed out over time, others that had “sure fire” plans or had relatives that made promises (or seemed to be making promises)… but came up empty-handed. The notion they “all” came here to abuse the system is mere selfishness and deserves to be discounted. Dreams of a good life, of opportunity are the norm… not this rhetoric about “free stuff”. There are homeless professionals with degrees that HAD GOOD JOBS until executives chose automation (or foreign labor) to benefit stockholders. Or a simple shift to a new “plan” made all their work mean nothing. I’ve heard a 1,000 variations on what I reference directly and indirectly from homeless folks… but hardly any claim your irksome “plan” as their own. Nobody in this video was a representative of what you claim. Think before you state your assumptions.
Thank you for the compassionate view into the houseless situation in America. Im from Hawaii and it’s horrific to see native Hawaiians priced out of their own land - It’s Millionaire, Billionaire playground here.
Gentrification has caused the same effect all over the world. People working in factories could buy a property in the 70’s . Now kids have years of college studies plus degrees and can’t afford to buy a home in a good area.
There are more native Hawaiians living outside Hawaii than in it. I know many are in the PNW and Nevada. They have to leave in order to afford space to raise families without working 3 jobs. Family is very important to them, including extended family. So it’s hard to be separated from the land and the people. The time may come that the only natives you see when you visit will be the “reenactors ” - the native entertainment. After visiting friends there, I started studying the language and reading about the history and culture. We could learn so much from them.
@@mimi1o8 Gentrification is a destructive force wherever it happens. It's sometimes a slow insidious process that people do not see coming until it's too late. Displacement of those with lesser means, degeneration and loss of basic public services like police and maintenance do to tax breaks and loopholes and destruction of industrial based workforce because of real estate speculation. Explosion of homelessness and drug addiction that most people forget is directly tied into the process.
I loved how the gal at the Home Depot encampment explained that it's not only druggies who are homeless. I've been homeless and was blessed to have a car to sleep in. I was working 37 hours a week and couldn't save up for "first last and deposit." It's not fun, but you take it day by day and are purposeful with your finances.
OMG, I just realised why I'm a hoarder. It's from when I was homeless as a teen. Wow. My prayers are with everyone who sleeps rough, I hope you're safe tonight.
Me too. I keep/kept a lot of stuff JUST IN CASE. Freedom came when I realized that if I really need something, it will appear, manifest, or somehow be provided.
I've never been homeless but collect stuff, a counsellor at one time I take after my mother's family who survived the depression, my dads family were well of during that time.
I can understand because I'm homeless living in VA. And me and my kids are living out of my van. But I'm still working it's very hard so I'm sending them away to school. And know I have to try and save up to get an RV. I just tried, and I'm just praying 🙏🏿 for all us homeless people all over the world that you all for making these videos.
Bless You! You Will Get The RV. Your kids will be safe and always love you and respect the hardships you have gone through for them. Just keep going and remember... *I love when they count us out* *this is us and we're blessed*
How are things going for you now? Did you get your RV? Praying for you sister, as a single mom who struggles to pay for just the bare necessities, I feel what you are going through. ❤🙏
You are not the norm. Billiones of dollars are being spent to sustain drunks and drug addicts who do not care about the situation they are in. They choose to be homeless. These have become the face of homelessness today.
I adore the lady with the home depot house! Brilliantly stated, not all of us who are homeless are because of drugs, LOTS of us are earning good money at full-time jobs yet cannot afford even basic housing.
AND it's already very clear in the USA that it's going to get WORSE before it starts to get better. And what will make it "better"?? Changes that take TIME, and we simply DO NOT HAVE THE TIME. Ouch. Glad I'm where I am, but one false move and I'm out th edoor.
We are having the exact same problem in Australia. This is definitely not unique to the US. In Australia the issue is rapidly rising interest rates ( mortgage rates have increased from 1.9% to a current 6.5% and are due to rise again), too many Airbnbs v long term rentals, rents are sky-rocketing because of the interest rates, a number of large house building companies have gone bust, there are no limits on the number of investments properties a person can own, and the visa backlog from Covid has meant 4 times the amount of people coming in at once that can't be housed adequately. This is happening all over the world.
@@triarb5790 Its the post-industrial game of musical chairs (houses) as declining wealth in concentrated into hands of fewer and fewer. Meanwhile China has literal cities of vacant housing.
The "broad spectrum" of homelessness needs to be emphasized at every opportunity. People don't believe I've been homeless off and on for ten years. They say I "don't look homeless." Well, what exactly does homeless look like? Thank you for this important video. You tell the story so well.
Exactly this, this particular video takes a close up look at those who are "choosing to be homeless", now sure they talk about some of the other types of homelessness, the guy in Bolinas talks about the drug users, the RV guy near the beach talks about how in the South of Mission area it's a different breed, etc. But it really doesn't highlight them. But to your point, unfortunately when a city tries a "broad spectrum" cure it simply doesn't work and it ends up costing a lot more money and takes resources away from people who do really need it.
@@Mike__B Are you implying that I don't really need affordable housing? Please tell me you don't think I've been living in the chaos of two different worlds by choice.
@@MyCleverHandle I didn't imply any such thing, and if you think I did I apologize for it coming across like that. I'm simply stating that there isn't one solution that can fix all homelessness, because the people living paycheck to paycheck who can't afford high rents have different issues than those shooting up on the street which is different than those "crazy" people which is different than some person who simply wants to save all their money and not give it to a landlord. So when cities simply throw their money at one solution it doesn't fix it all... And don't get me started on affordable housing and how a city really doesn't do as much as they can to make it so.
when real estate values go up significantly every year and wages only go up significantly every 10 years , then wages and salaries will never catch up to real estate and rental values and that is what i believe is happening today .
The lady that built the home from Home Depot cast offs is so resourceful. She could teach lessons on how to make it in life to so many people. She reminds me of my Grandma who truly could make a treasure out of trash.
After hearing so many stories you start to grade these people on a big curve. She's way better than most,she could work & make it somewhere. What if we all just stopped working, paying taxes & just became resourceful taking from Home Depot. How long do you think the country would last without middle class tax payers?
@@MonteBellweather Oh something that they would put in a land fill and pollute the environment...After all all these companies would pay the excess for there thrash. I believe if I was a co and someone was emptying my thrash for free..I give myself a raise
I had to leave my home in California after ending up homeless. I now have my own property and live off grid living my best life in the mountains of NC. Sad I had to leave home but I knew I had to get out of there to survive and thrive.
@Alex Mercedes thanks! To start, you must be willing to part with most all possessions try to get your stuff down to fitting in your car and maybe a roof top bag. I asked a friend to hold on to a few sporting equipment items I didn't want to part with and then shipped it later. It all comes back around. I was given the same table from my Lutheran church that I had donated back in Cali which was a pretty cool sign from the Lord. ❤️
@@mojorising1 Yes, I have always "traveled light." De-cluttering is my middle name and an ongoing propensity. It's part of the reason I'm so fascinated and excited about the tiny living movement. Unfortunately, I don't currently own a vehicle...more of that lightening my load thing. I'm thinking that my first step will have to be buying a vehicle -- a challenging task given my limited income.
I grew up in the ‘70s in a single-parent household. My sister and I fended for ourselves while my mother worked lunchtimes and evenings at a local restaurant. Poverty breeds anxiety and fear in ways that stick to the bone for the rest of your life. I can completely relate to what everyone in this video is going through, so much so that I find it hard to watch. It brings up all of that insecurity I felt and continue to feel, even though those days are now long behind me.
It's that feeling of always waiting for something bad to happen, especially when everything seems good, of never feeling safe & able to 100% relax. The subconscious hyper vigilance watching for threats makes it hard to ever feel truly happy for longer than a few moments. IMO anyway
It also can (poverty) be a lesson in appreciation in our spoiled American society. You can look back and be proud of your accomplishments. We were a single family household (6) and NO child support OR hands on support. We had each other. 35 years later..we still do. You have to let the past go. It will slip into your memory once in awhile but don't let it ruin your world. 😘
My parents both worked and we had a roof and money but were completely abandoned otherwise. There’s a lot of emotionally neglected children who basically had a MLK the stuff you need, but no parents. If you think it’s better to have more money, it’s not. I know a lot of poor kids who had way better upbringing. Money doesn’t mean shit. Seriously, why do poor people insist on living in expensive areas and then think that more money is the only answer. It’s often not.
As a native Californian born and raised, that has visited 22 countries I can tell you that where you are is the furthest thing from paradise. In fact, it is the exact hell hole I prayed to God to get me out of. And he did.
As a former Rehab, Sub- Acute Nurse my heart goes to our homeless folks. Homelessness comes from many reasons. So don't stereotype them. Some came from divorce, injuries (permanent, long term, acute etc) , poverty, mental health (depression, addiction, Schizophrenia, etc), low income, low credit scores, rent is just too high, and many other reasons. They all equally need our help, understanding, and emphaty.
Agreed. I work in a hospital with patients who require 1:1 staff observation. It's not just the mentally ill who suffer homelessness. I have plenty of veterans, drug and alcohol addicts and people who have given up hope and have either tried to harm themselves, or are actively contemplating it.
It seems to me that previously the stereotype of the homeless person was more along the lines of someone with drug, alcohol or mental health issues. Now that's still often the case but I think it's shifting more and more to some of the other things you mentioned, such as low credit scores or too high rent, and is becoming more of a reflection of problems with society more broadly rather than the individual experiencing homelessness - though help, understanding and empathy is needed in either case. I hope we can all band together and rise up against the insidious social and economic forces that are ravaging the lower and middle class and driving more and more people into homelessness.
I was a single mom to 3 sons. I always suffered anxiety how to take care of my boys. I worked fulltime at a company, and took partime waitress jobs so my boys could have school clothes, and Christmas. I'm now 71 and still work. I have decent social security and a small pension, but prices have caused me that same anxiety I felt when younger. There's not enough money to live in America. I live in a small mobile home. I understand how many of us can end up homeless. My problem with many of the homeless encampments is the filth. I don't understand why people wouldn't have the personal pride to keep their small area neat. I'm sorry if this offends people, but there's no reason to live in trash.
The mental issues that cause a lot of people who find themselves homeless, also cause them to be apathetic about their living conditions. Living in the elements with pretty much no infostructure and on property where you have no ownership and could get run off of at any time, is corrosive to motivation. And it doesn't take long for unsanitary conditions to develop.
When a person (any person) has no idea how maintain a clean camping area, that's where most of the problems begin. When I was homeless and attempted to live in several encampments, (when the shelters were full), I was amazed and shocked by how little most people know about the first rule of camping and basic sanitation practices to avoid diseases such as scabies and dysentery. So many of them just didn't care because they were exhausted by the sheer overload of having to survive in a world of fear and uncertainty. Many would do things in hopes to get arrested so they would have a place to sleep and free meals. School doesn't prepare people for homelessness and most of society could care less to help a person they deem as unsavory or unworthy of help. Even the helping hand agencies would chastise many of us if we refused to pray and accept Jesus as our lord and savior. I think this is where the MAJOR disconnect is in so many Cities in America. As for the trash, where does a person dump their trash? No businesses allow a person access to their locked dumpsters and residential neighborhoods are usually too far away from the encampments. When I attempted to put trash in bags, those bags were promptly dumped out and taken for use of protecting personal belongings from the elements. Plastic is almost like gold in a camp because it can be the difference between life and death if a person gets wet and suffers hypothermia. When I never understood was the people who would poop and pee right next to the tent where they slept, then wonder why they were all getting sick. I lasted less than 5 days and decided to take my chances living under abandoned buildings. My number 1 rule was to leave nothing...not even a cigarette butt. This is how people get noticed. The trash gives their location away and other people follow in hopes of stealing from them or saving their souls. Hope something I shared sheds some light on the issue at hand!
@Sherry Dee You wrote some very cogent comments, and it made me think about things, though not homeless yet, I may soon be as I am spending money recklessly due to mental illness I know, thinking once I am broke, I will kill myself (totally selfish as if I am going to kill myself, do it now so I can leave money to charity.) But I wanted to ask you about your cynicism of religion, right now with my mental health struggles, churches seem the most empathetic, probably because I was brainwashed growing up. I had grown up raised a Christian, yet for many reasons left the church (God needs more praise than Donald Trump) but turned to it when I needed it. One reason why I am also cynical, is a man I knew from 50 years ago with whom I reconnected with, calls me daily to check up on me, he wants me to convert to Christianity. I found out through our long talks that he lives in a chaste, celibate marriage that he refuses to leave because he feels a divorce is sinful, if he married again, it would be adultery. I guess due to his kindness and compassion I am falling in love with him (should end the conversations as that's unhealthy) he always says if we are meant to be we can be together after death for eternity, talk about turning off a person on religion. What is the main reason for your antipathy (I feel due to comments you made) towards religion? The main reason I feel is the fairy tale aspect that there is some omniscient genie being that magically will grant our wishes or not (there is always the refrain that God might not answer our wishes giving them an excuse if HE doesn't) vs. the realistic pragmatism which is that it's our government services that helps us. I also feel that there is outdated advice in the bible that encourages hate toward marginalized communities. I should probably hear it from you before I drink the Kool Aid and succumb to their siren song in my despair. And you write very lucidly and intelligently so I don't feel you were mentally ill, an alcohol, drug abuser or at all unemployable, were there unexpected things like medical bills that caused you become homeless (I didn't say "may I ask" one can always ask but it is your prerogative to answer..) or like the tech worker where you live is so expensive that as a full time worker you can't afford the rent.
Many retirees moved to the Philippines because everything there is affordable. $1,000 is a lot and you can live comfortably. I bought a 2 bedroom house there in a subdivision for $20k. I can't imagine myself living here for a long time everything is expensive i wanna go home and live there since i also bought a farm land.
Great documentary! I left SF in 2001 because I couldn't afford to live there any more. I am astounded how much worse it's gotten since I left. One of the things I like most about your film is that you let the people tell their own story. I also like that you visited different sites.
The children who grow up this way are the ones who really tug on my heart. They should be playing with friends, not sitting in a car. Poor things. I hope parents can find their way through these tough times.
Agreed. No voice over or graphs, just people living thier lives who represent so many more stories and situations. This channel has the most neighborly storyteller in Kristen and her crew. Lucky to have them.
No, it’s not. It’s not balanced. If we, as a society, are going to solve the homelessness problem, we need to be honest. This video presents some of the causes of homelessness, but there are other root causes that need to be addressed.
@@hsmd4533 It is NOT the responsibility of Kirsten Dirksen to solve this! This is simply a documentary to show people what is going on in the Bay Area. Of course it doesn't cover EVERYTHING to do with homelessness, but it's not meant to. If you were familiar with her work, you would know that it is primarily about how people live; the extraordinary kinds of dwellings/abodes/shelters/houses/apts/flats/etc. people build. HOW PEOPLE LIVE. IF this were a documentary primarily about HOMELESSNESS, it would have to be at least 2 hours long and, as you say, cover an entire complexity of issues (you are ABSOLUTELY right about this!). However, I don't think that that was the goal of this piece. I STILL think it is beautifully done and I learnt a LOT. (I'm up in the Seattle area; similar situation here and I still learnt quite a bit). I think Kirsten (& co.) is one of the best documentary film makers: SHE DOESN'T GET IN THE WAY! ...but just asks a LOT of questions. I very much agree with you re. root causes... and if you know of other documentaries that address the issue, I would love to know!
I thoroughly enjoyed this. As a woman that’s been single most of my adult life and now almost 69 years old, I always have a fear of being homeless. We have to take care of our people. This could happen to anyone.
I am a teacher who was close to homeless in Florida with a master’s degree and 8 years of experience. Most teachers there had two jobs. I moved back to China where work pays me my rent + ~$300 for the part of the housing allowance I don’t use, and I make literally twice as much as I did in Florida. And since I left in 2017 the situation as everyone knows has worsened. Yet everyone I love can’t FATHOM why I don’t want to move back. Two years using check cashing places to survive was enough, thank you. There are better ways and places to live without struggle.
West coast of Ireland. Galway area. Free from the 'Monarchy'. Working on it. P.S... In case anyone hasn't noticed, we are becoming some kind of glorified Mumbai. Now sprinkle that with a touch of Weimar. 😬
This is my plan once I'm finished with grad/post grad. I have other reasons than financial for leaving the US. Things are only going to get worse in the US I fear. When overweening greed rules and has no care for anyone, not even themselves, only profits nothing good will ever come from it.
@@Network126 am two hours west of Toronto - am a young disabled senior on long term disability - have been in a studio apt for 26 yrs in a great neighbourhood where I can walk to get essentials - am still here only because of rent control AND my utilities are still included in the rent - should either of these change I will be homeless - best case scenario I’ll be back in a spare bedroom somewhere - worse case 🤦♀️🤷♀️ have always cooked for myself that’s not the problem - it’s the crazy cost of food - add to this it costs more to shop for one than for couple or family - each year I have less but I still have a home - both our countries need to properly address homelessness and home insecurity before it’s MORE of a crisis than it is 🇨🇦🙏
If she was smart she would move to any of the hundreds of smaller cities where you can still buy an older house for 50K, like Mobile Alabama. For that price even working at McDonalds is more than enough to afford it, and even pay it off in full. That's what my immigrant parents did. That's what humans have done from the beginning of time. You migrate to where life is affordable. These Americans want to live in the most expensive city, on part time wages. How is that smart?
@@Metal0sopher No it's not, because the minimum there is half what it is elsewhere. The overall sums are lower, but the percentages remain the same. You can't get a loan for a 50k house when you make $7.50 an hour; even with a down payment.
It's great that you put a face and story to the people living there. They aren't all drug addicts. They didn't all bring it on themselves and if they did, how do they get out of it, if they even want to? This one should be a documentary on PBS or one of the major networks. I love your explorations of what "home" means.
Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the vast majority aren't drug addicts and/or mentally unwell. Healthy people don't generally live like this. This video is great, but it's putting a bit of a happy face on a massive issue.
@@Adrift. it is true that there are a lot of homeless people who have drug and/or mental health problems, but a common theme that I see is a history of severe trauma. I see a lot of veterans with PTSD, survivors of abuse, and people who lost everything due to illness or lay offs. A surprising number have jobs, but either can't put the money together to rent a place or have an eviction on their record and therefore can't rent. It can take as long as 7 years to get rid of an eviction and be able to rent. Shelters aren't necessarily safe for a number of reasons. There are more well organized homeless encampment than you realize where the people work and they prohibit drug use. A lot of people with PTSD can't handle a lot of interaction with people. This is a complex problem not a simple problem.
I worked with and around homeless folks for 20 yrs. You are incorrect. The vast majority are mentally ill and/or drug addicts. And many many, if not the majority, come from elsewhere for the free drugs, needles, free camping, free shoplifting, etc.
@@canyonhaverfield2201 living in this city both back in the 70’s and the last 7 years, the only constant are the people who don’t want to face the reality of the wealth gap which continues to grow. So ‘the have’s’ ride the backs of the ‘have nots’… how? By exploiting their labor fighting a livable wage, while pushing rents up to grow their wealth. It’s easy to look down your nose at people who are trying to survive, but it’s also easy to look away when you feel uncomfortable seeing the real problem. If the gig economy didn’t exist, the wealthy of S.F. Would have to pay that living wage for services… so I’m here, I see the problems, and bagging on an “outsider” just shows who you are, not who they are…
Over here in Australia 🇦🇺 this homelessness problem has gone up too maybe 80% over what it was. Now we got people living in tents caravans (RV’s) on or near beaches in parks. Rents have increased 4 or 5 times what they were and it’s a real problem all over Aus now. My heart ❤️ goes out to everyone affected like this God bless.
I know the feeling, I'm in SE Queensland. My mom had to move in with me so she could afford rent for as long as possible before she has to go into a home. And now she can't even get down the stairs. Yet with prices at the moment we can't afford to rent somewhere more suited.
I studied in Australia for 8 years from my degree to PhD in Adelaide and Canberra, terrifyingly expensive for housing eve for rooming it's AU$900 per month. Problem i see is lack of low to medium cost housing, the rich, middle and low income fight for this same supply of landed housing while most apartments are too small for families and not suitable for share housing. I decided to return to my home country where I have bought a medium cost apartment near a MRT station and public hospital, the monthly mortgage is half of what I paid monthlty for my room in Canberra. Australia and US need more supply of affordable housing.
I drove from LA California to Vancouver BC last summer. Every major city we went through had a tremendous homeless population. LA, Portland, Seattle, even in Vancouver. I live in Riverside and work in Orange County. Every area has its neighborhoods of homeless. This is not just SF sadly. Many are choosing to be house less due to the high cost of housing and living expenses. I was homeless once in the early 80’s. Once there it’s hard to climb out. There for the grace of God…
"Even in Vancouvet" lol. Vancouver is the most insanely overpriced city in an insanely overpriced country (I'm Canadian - and live on Vancouver Island). It is bonkers here. And loads of homeless.
Thank you for this insight. I was "homeless" in Miami in the 90's for about a year and ended up in germany some 25 years ago. Seems living the live was easier back then. Really makes me appreciate my $ 600 mortage on a little house in a tiny village in germany. Folks complaining over here just have no idea.
Agree. I also lived in Germany for 8 years, and my pension that makes me seem poor/never could afford a home here, qualified me to be well-off over there. Money goes so much further because the government controls capitalism better. In the US it is every individual for themselves. It's a stupid way to live -so much unnecessary suffering. I was so much happier in Europe - they still value quality of life, and won't sell it out. In the US, quality of life has a big pricetag, along with everything else from cradle to grave.
Welcome to the real world people! As for myself, since I don't have kids, I'd rather start from scratch in another country than stay in my own country that treats me like this.
@@astrah982 this. We’re living through the economic collapse. There is a homelessness epidemic in every city in America damn near and coupled with inflation, things are totally untenable for most ppl.
"Even though we on these streets, you can still make it your home", love her spirit, hope this video helps her into some housing and to shed light on this global issue.
The only places experiencing that issue are the top-cities where all the money aka. High paying jobs are concentrated. More and more places are being abandoned, but obv in the countryside where no one wants to live. In Japan, Romania or Italy they'll give you rural places for free right now. And more will follow.
@Mysterio Anonymous just out of curiosity, do you live and work in a rural or densely populated area? If all the homeless people in cities were pushed out into the country, what will they all do for jobs? The reason people leave rural areas is due to lack of work opportunities. Affordable housing needs to be available in city areas as well.
@@thepeatbog the most desirable places in the world will always be scarce, and they'll never be cheap no matter how much you want it. build a million flats and they'll be occupied by high power, high earning educated transplants in no time. the only way poor people can live there is through discriminatory politics. i don't really care for either tbh.
@@thepeatbog So true. Still, of ANY age in history, THIS is a time when people CAN (and do) live outside the city and work online. And then, there are those who want to work the land. It feels to me as if what's missing is the organization.
Wow, you just told my story, I grew up on the west coast and slowly but surely I was pushed out because of lack of affordable housing. First I was pushed out of the city into rural areas then finally I had to leave the region and try again on the other side of the country. I spent 10+ homeless or on the verge of homelessness in "paradise" before i had to ask myself what am I willing to endure to live here. It broke my heart to have to leave my family, friends and the life I created. I worked hard but no matter how hard I worked it was never enough. Thank you for sharing our stories for the world to see.
@@ElectronicMusicUnderground I probably went to raves you played at. It used to be a good city to live in, so did the rural areas, then it became a playground for the rich and all the working class folks became their servants. For the last few years I lived out there I worked in a homeless shelter on a small island that had a capacity of 50, but every night we had 75 and more then half were trades people and folks that worked at the grocery store or restaurants. It was bleak. My wife and I had to give birth to our child in and 8X12 ft cabin that was converted from a chicken coop. We were paying $1200 a month for it and it had no indoor plumbing or access to a shower most of the year. Now I own a 2 bedroom house on 22 acres that we payed 1/ 15th of the price we would have payed out west. Detroit sounds like the perfect place for you being one of the birth places of electronic music.
@crassgop -- Ah, the old "let them eat cake" non-solution to the problem! Compounded by leaving the friends and family who could help her out in the first place because they still lived in the area. It would be great if everything had such a simple Pollyanna/Marie Antoinette solution. But moving someplace else requires a good chunk of money in the first place, unless you already know somebody else living in the new city, who is willing to support you while you look for a new job in the new city. And that's also assuming you have a vehicle to get there, or money to buy a bus or plane ticket. And not everybody can join the military as a conduit out of town. Some people were born with physical disabilities that exclude them from military service. Others might have autoimmune disorders or cancer or other medical problems that require ongoing medical treatment, and the military doesn't always want to take on the burden of continuing that needed care. A colleague of mine had a classmate who signed up with a branch of the military to pay for med school. Afterward, you owe the military one year for every year of school they paid for - and it can't be during residency, it has to be as a fully licensed physician. He developed an autoimmune disease during his residency, and the military no longer wanted him because the disease meant he would have to take medication every day, and they couldn't always guarantee it would be available if he was sent to another country in a wartime situation. So he ended up not having to serve after that because he was now excluded from service. But at least he now had an education and career, where he would not have to worry about being homeless, or about being priced out of his neighborhood. Everybody's circumstances are different
@crassgop -- you still completely missed the point of the Marie-Antoinette analogy. Telling people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps only works if they already have boots. Maybe that analogy will be clearer for you.
@crassgop -- Alrhough the original poster did eventually move all the way across Canada to find affordable housing, you were criticizing her for not doing it sooner. Which implies that she had the means to move across Canada sooner -- something that you don't know. Even people with jobs might not have enough spare cash on hand to pick up and move. It might take a while to save up for Via rail ticket, first and last months rent and a security deposit to be used in the new city, etc. Not to mention that even with the Internet, making it possible to start the job search before you move, it might take a while to line up a job in the new city. So you might need to save up more than just that first and last months rent, etc. You might need to save up many months' worth of living expenses before feeling confident in making such a big move. And she mentions not wanting to move away from family. That's a legitimate reason to stay someplace that might not be the most affordable. People are allowed to want to be around their family. Maybe it took her 10 years to be able to make that heartbreaking choice. So don't criticize people for not doing things on your timeline, especially someone who clearly did all the things she needed to do to get into a better living arrangement. Barbara Ehrenreich once wrote a book called _Nickeled and Dimed_, where she tried to live on just a minimum wage job. And she found it extremely difficult, skipped meals, had to find roommates, put up with harassment from her boss, and customers, working as a waitress, etc.. But people rightly criticized her for neglecting to recognize how many advantages she had going into that situation that many other people might not have: A college education, a CAR (a huge advantage) and the knowledge that she could end the experiment at a time and go back to her comfortable life. So, even though Ehrenreich was trying her best to portray how difficult it is to live on minimum wage, because she supported an increase in the minimum wage, even she didn't really experience how difficult it can be. You might be looking at the original poster's situation the same way that Barbara Ehrenreich was looking at minimum wage jobs. On one level, you sort of get it, but you don't necessarily know all of the things that made it take 10 years.
I live in Victoria, BC Canada. It is also paradise and our homeless population has also increased exponentially in the last 20 years for almost identical reasons. I'm born and raised here so very lucky to have had parents who had upper middle class careers and housing, and could help my brother and I purchase homes many years ago. I know how lucky we are though and my heart aches for the vast majority of people who just got lost in the world because of an accident of birth location. Thank you so much for an excellent documentary.
27:22 It was a pleasure working with you all those years ago Kirsten! Your storytelling is unmatched and continues hits home ❤ We quit vanlife after 6 years but will return one day to see the Golden Gate out of our windshield.
I grew up in SF in the 70s. Back then a family could afford a decent house with one income. I'd have to be a multi millionaire to afford my parents old house now. It is sad to see what has happened to the place in the 43 years since I've lived there.
@crassgop Did you live in S.F. in the 70? I did. I was not aware that the crime rate was bad. We could afford to live there on one salary! We loved living in S.F. It was a beautiful city.
@crassgop I did not state that there was no crime. Compared to other places that I have lived and my personal experiences, the crime was simply no worse. Your making assumptions about me does not change that. As a woman I am always aware of crime, especially crimes against women. I took public transportation or walked everywhere. I left S.F., because I could not afford the rising cost of rent.
It sounds like the government is actually the ones forcing people out of their homes. If the cost of living is rising without the cost of income, its called price gouging. Like one lady said in this video, getting 10,000 to come up with just to have first months rent + security deposit is impossible. Property owners and land lords need to be held accountable.
I also grew up in SF in the 70s. Back then the city was very different. I now live in So Cal and own my own home. I would never want to live in SF today. Nothing like it was back the day. I miss Winterland, The Northpoint Theater, Caesar's, Alioto 9 and Tito's Pizza. Those places are long gone and replaced with Starbucks and Chipotle. SF sucks!
From a certain point on I realized you were not just doing videos of tiny space. You've been documenting how people live. You bring to our awareness what's going on outside of our own home, people's needs, how they survive or thrive despite challenges. It's poetic when there's no spoken words. Thank you for bringing us together. May God bless the earth and His children.
In 1974 my cousin's parents bought a house in Newport Beach for $64,000. The value of that house has fluctuated over the years but is worth around $2.5 million dollars. Prior to moving to California they were looking at a house in the Palmer Woods neighborhood in Detroit for $40,000. The 70s was probably the last time the cost-of-living Coast-to-Coast was fairly balanced.
Crazy. I expected that when I adjusted for inflation 64k would be a million, but it's actually $393,818.09, which sounds just about reasonable for a middle-class house. Housing as an investment really is a cancer on our society.
@@drew8642 Yes, it is normal. Location and inflation rates primarily dictate that, among many other factors. This situation is normal around the globe. Ask any economist instead of watching these silly tear jerking documentaries that rely on emotional appeal.
@@johndong7524”normal” doesn’t mean healthy or optimal. We CAN change what’s normal. You seem to be very sheltered and to lack imagination and empathy. Try sleeping on the street for a while. I’ve been homeless and I’ll tell you, this reality exists for many regular folks. It’s not a propaganda film.
Kirsten, your documentaries are so spare, so honest, without agenda: TRUE documentaries. I thank you. I learnt so much watching this. I'm grateful to you for the stellar quality of your work.
Fantastic insight into the problem of housing and homelessness not just in America but around the world. The American property market model that has been replicated around the world is now a problem of pandemic proportions. A minority of people gathering vulgar amounts of wealth and power from the misery and suffering of many. Absolute tragedy. Thanks for filming and posting this documentary.
All over Europe there are places where You can get housing for almost nothing or for free if You're prepared to stay away from billionaires' playgrounds. Rural italian communes and cities do take abandoned premises and give these to willing restorers and future inhabitants for free, should they make clear they actually plan to become full time citizens and part of the communities. Same I hear from other places. As far as I would know, even in the U.S. and in Canada there are actual places where You can live very affluent with "normal" wages compared to the costs of living. Everybody and their uncles wanting to live in the Bay area or in Vancouver, L.A, Portland or Seattle is more of the problem I reckon. So, the problem obviously is concentration and an unwillingness to look for other ways to solve one's problems. I am with You when it comes to the vulgar amounts of money a ruthless minority steals and coerces from the majority, but You lose me the moment when You call the majority's willful taking part in that schemes "misery". People do have a lot of other possibilities than staying put and subordinate under the devilish games these billionaires and their bought politicians play against 'em.
This "model" predates modern America (or Europe) by thousands of years. The french revolution was actually the first time, where an impoverished population started to get rid of rich people (back then mostly nobility) on a large scale base. Back then, it was easy to spot them. They lived in their fancy castle and paid poor people to beat other poor people into submission. Now it is much more difficult to get a hold of them. They don't own people any more and they don't even own the properties. But they are shareholders of companies which own other companies which in turn own property. Or the companies which provide work opportunities. And by setting up a "family trust" in a place with favourable laws, they can avoid taxation and hide the power they wield. They no longer wield political power directly (as a ruler or member of the clergy) but finance political campaigns, hire politicians as consultants etc.
Your documentary should be viewed in middle schools and high schools classes around the US to give kids a better prospective on the American dream. Thank you
Beautiful documentary work here. This was such a thoughtful and interesting presentation. You treated your subjects with dignity, regardless of their quirks. Your nuanced view is appreciated. And your photography really captured the feeling of foggy, coastal northern California.
This video is very helpful in helping me understand the plight of the homeless. I was also intrigued by the division of those that don’t do drugs from those that do. What I also see is loss of community over time. The whole “friends” thing on an app is nothing compared to a real friend that will be there with hands on help when your spouse is ill or your truck is broken. I miss the friends that I saw regularly at school events cheering for the kids. We change and move away. Excellent video!
Community is something that gives support and friendship hopefully this is happening for those who can be in a place long enough to make good connections..❤
Love the lady who gave us the hot water for showers tour. I would offer her the unusedsecond floor of our house if she was not on the other side of the country. She’s thrifty, tidy, smart, resourceful and cheerful.
@@jennifermarie3158 Actually, there is not. I live in a pleasant little Connecticut town and region. But don’t misunderstand me, we do contribute as best we can by helping support shelters for abused women and their children, food banks, veteran’s programming and other volunteer work. So do my kids. It was this woman specifically that I thought as just wonderful. I’m sure you’ll agree that not all homeless people can acclimate to all alternative housing or do not require many different services in order to change the course of their lives. A great deal of addiction, mental health, and unwillingness exists along with cities just not putting funds into affordable, safe housing.
@@jennifermarie3158@jennifermarie3158 you didn't read Allison's words carefully. She wishes to extend her offer to that particular (emphasized) lady. Nothing more, nothing less.
With waiting list for section 8 being over a decade long and the working poor that don't have addiction, mental health or are just working people that do not earn enough money for housing there is always somebody. I am not knocking anything you do but the reality is that homelessness is never looked at for the people that have a financial issue. It is always correlated with the social ills of the lowest man on the homeless totem pole. @@AlisonProctor-fq4kt
Thank you for making this! My partner and I live in our van (planned) due to our seasonal job schedules. We have interacted with so many types after our years on the road and this video really helps to show our experience too. A few of us are here by choice and partial necessity, some of us are here by necessity and fewer are here due to addiction. It’s hard to convey the essence to those who don’t live it. I started grad school last year for architecture bc of this experience and hoping to help get some humane and considerate alternatives. Here’s to “[getting] into good trouble!”
In my early 20's I left behind a roughnecking job on oil rigs in -40 Alberta, grabbed a 60lb backpack, and hit the road. I traveled through the west coast of Canada and the US for nearly 2 years, and saw every form of homelessness. I hitched highways, hopped freight trains, slept in national forests and on city sidewalks. I spent nearly a year in and around San Francisco. I saw the darkness of the streets, but also the shimmer of beautiful people. Some of the realest human connections and character building experiences can be found in the hardest places. Over a decade later, and those times are still as vivid as ever. You can take the kid off the street, but you can't take the street off the kid, in most cases anyways. Thank you for shining a light on these situations, you are doing great work.
@P A Ups and downs, but miles from the turmoil I was in back then. I got off the road, started a carpentry apprenticeship, but a week after I graduated my first year my dad died, and I spent 5 years in the bottom of a bottle, 3 years sober now, but still feeling far from where I need to be.
@P A I am pretty resilient, I walk about 10km a day with my dog, but don't do any formal exercise currently. I was a pretty chubby kid growing up, most of my family is overweight. I weighed around 230lb out of high school, lost 40 of that in my first 2 months working on Great Lakes bulk cargo ships, then cut the rest on the rigs. I have maintained about 160 for a couple years now since getting off the booze, but could definitely benefit from a regular workout routine. Thanks for the encouragement!
@@ppumpkin3282 I began my trek by hiking a portion of the PCT to get across the border between US and Canada. It was 7000ft up in some places! You need quite the assortment of gear to tackle that. As I traveled, I gave things away, learned what I could live without, and ended up with an average of 45-50lbs, even with enough food and water for myself and a dog. Ultralight/expensive hiking gear made way for heavy/rugged military surplus. Turns out freight train travel is not too forgiving on nylons or polyesters, so rubberized canvas and durable workwear was eventually the way to go. I roamed 20-30km a day with a pack on, to take it off for a rest or at night was like a cheat code for gravity, I felt like I could jump to the moon at times!
Powerful people created this problem and have not been inclined to solve it for the past 40 years. It's horrible. I'm 64, still working on the west coast, thinking of leaving my friends and son to go live with a family member back east so that I don't have to work so hard. I've been on lists for over 50 affordable housing for years.
Carole, I worked for 50 years in California. At age 65 I made the choice to live the final chapter of my life in peace. I was on a wait list for 2 years (small community on the Oregon Coast). When I got the call that my housing was ready (affordable rate)I cried tears of joy. It was difficult to leave my family/friends, my home state. I exited California 2 years ago and will NEVER go back. My family comes here to visit, and they love the beaches, lakes, amazing beauty the Oregon Coast has to offer. I hope you live the final chapter in life in a place where you have peace of mind, relaxing and have time to smell the roses !
@crassgop I've lived in Florida, no thank you very much. I'll take winters over that any day, but I do know people who live there and like it somewhat. My solution for now is to get a 2nd job.
I took care of my elderly mother, with dementia, she was 87 yrs old when she passed but after her death I was left without a home since I lived with her in her 1 bedroom apartment in a senior citizen only complex. I didn't have a job/income since she was my "full time job" nor was I old enough to live there so I instantly became homeless. She left me as the beneficiary of a $2500 policy payout and combined with the sale of my car and help of my sister and friends I bought a van which I live in full time. I am currently disabled and now fighting with the aid of a lawyer to be put on disability. I live in my van on a friend's property in Arizona and it's soon going to be in the upper 90's F and I just hope and pray that my disability case will soon be accepted so I can go somewhere where it will be cooler. Luckily for me I had been watching RUclips vids on RV'ing and vanlifing for a number of years so I feel I'm way ahead of the game now as I knew what I needed and had an idea of what to do once I had the van. I don't see my living situation changing any time soon. This isn't the lift I choose for myself but it's the life I have and I have to survive the best way I know how.
Oh I'm in much the same situation. 65 years old and was taking care of my paralyzed husband for the last 10 years, until he passed away 5 months ago. He needed round-the-clock care which left no time for outside work, so like you I am now looking for a way to be employed. Fortunately I have a friend that I can stay with for the time being but we'll need to find a way to house myself. I've been looking at them I for a while now as it is likely the choice I will have to make at least for a while.
Same. Lost my housing when the people I rented a room from sold the house. I looked for a year and a half. Nothing available, affordable, safe neighborhood . Close to work ( Uber close) none of it. Also I don't believe in credit and haven't had an card in probably 35 yrs. This didn't help. People would rather see you in debt upto your eyeball just to put you further in debt. Anyway I bought an RV. Don't know how to drive and got chased around by the cops because it's against the law to have an RV in a residential area. I live in fear for a year. Coming back to the camper from work gave me anxiety because I was sure that it got towed with my dogs ,cat and ferret in it. Luckily the same people I rented the room from bought a piece of land upstate. I'm parked there now. I'm glad you have a friend to take you in. Stay strong, good luck with the disability determination and I hope you find housing. God bless.
We flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Once I finished the restoration of that house..it took most of our life savings because we lived in a 500 year flood zone. So, no flood insurance. Since then I’ve lost my attachment to material things. Watching my things floating around in water. I want a tiny home and a camper van. Travel some and come back to my tiny home. That’s my dream. I never want to be a slave to another house.
Great work. I’m in Boulder Colorado and we are experiencing this exact situation. I’ve never been homeless however a great friend of mine has lived full time in vehicles since 2001. It’s very difficult.
I moved in the USA in 2009 without any profession, with elementary English and with $3000 in my pocket. I never lived in a car, never was homeless and since 2013 my salary was above the national average in the USA. What did I do wrong?!😅
"How hard is it to correct after you've screwed up?" - this is such an insightful question. We shouldn't make it impossible for people to get back up on their feet, and yet it is.
The guy in the RV is so right. I have a home and I'm looking around and I have so many things I don't need to have. House paid off 2 cars are paid off but I don't have money in the bank. If there was a disaster storm or health emergency i could very well be in these situations. This is an eye opener.
If you have a paid off house and paid off cars, I'm guessing you have no mortgage or car loan payments and have pretty low property tax (assuming you bought a long time ago). So I'm curious why you would not have money saved up. I'm genuinely curious, not trying to be a dick or anything. I know that it's pretty hard to save up when people have high rent/mortgage, so I would think that without those, it would be easier to save for an emergency.
@@CarlosG2288 No idea, I see these comments a lot on RUclips but it makes no sense. If a person has no debts then how do they no cash? I assume they have not worked in a long time by choice or other reasons or spent their money on other things. No clue.
@@drscopeify Well, with two cars and a house you still have insurance costs, repairs, utilities, real estate taxes, food, health insurance (unless on Medicaid). Two cars probably means a partner and kids (?)
@@howard5992 I guess it depends on what part of the country, I am paying 1300 a month for my mortgage and that is far above what i spend on everything else combined but I get it if someone lives in New Jersey or Illinois and life is crazy expensive that might not mean much.
These stories really resonated with me. I worked as a software engineer in Sunnyvale, CA making over six figures but I willingly chose to live in my truck (with a camper shell) because I refused to spend over 50% of my salary on rent. I live in a different state now but I do miss the wild adventures, the mad scramble every night to find a quiet/safe spot to park and waking up to beach-front views.
Sure... when you're sitting on a six figure income, living in a truck would be considered 'fun' knowing you can bail out anytime you want if it doesn't work out for you. But for those who didn't choose to live in a car, it probably means a lot of tears being shed late nights when they're alone thinking how life turned out for them.
I *adore* my RV and my tents but I want to know where I am going to sleep...that "mad scramble" you loved so much is the only reason I don't want to go mobile full time...yet.
KIRSTEN.I HAVE BEEN A VAN / VEHICLE DWELLER MOST OF MY LIFE. AND AT 66 YRS OLD I LIVE IN A OLD BEAT UP 95. GMC G3500 1 TON VAN..YOUR DOCUMENTRY IS THE BEST MOST DOWN TO EATTH VID I HAVE SEEN. ❤❤ .KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK..MY SAYING IS "LIVE THE NOMAD LIFE.SIMPLE FREE AND GREEN"
Im so pleased all the people in the street camp are firm that no ppl doing drugs etc are in the camp..well done,show the community that not all ppl who need help are not gutter trash. Your home looks really well set up,good on you 👍
Speaks volumes about humans being resilient but also how lacking in empathy people with means are towards others. Dog eat dog mentality. There’s certainly a story here about how women persevere beyond inhumane treatment by men. The three women who raised kids in a car working as waitresses is heart wrenching. Women are saints!!
totally agree. just amazing info about some real folks without any crazy "left" preaching. we are all human and have basic needs, and deserve to be given a break when we need it. God bless those struggling to do this life, as well as those who choose it. Maybe the gub'ment can give you some money because your environmental footprint is so small....?! 😃
Once again, Kirsten, you've done a fine job of bringing together different voices from the margins in our society and showing not only how they live, but why they live the way they do. Thank you for this channel and the work you do. I've learned so much from your work over the many many years I've been following along and it's made my life better.
I lived in a minivan for two years. The only worries I had were to be hassled by the police and to have my van house broken into or stolen. There are times when I want to do it again, but the stress is a bit much.
I like that the issue of initial cost was brought up. There are a lot of people that can afford a small studio or apt, but can’t afford the absurd move in costs. 10k to move into a studio that’s 1800 a month doesn’t make sense.
A big problem is that so many renters destroy the places where they live, don't pay rent for months forcing evictions, etc. Landlords ask for as much as they legally can to cover their potential losses, which can easily be tens of thousands of dollars if you include lost rent, lawyers' fees, court costs, insurance deductibles, higher insurance premiums, etc. If we had some kind of mandatory national insurance network for renters, where they could pay some monthly amount toward premiums, but which would cover landlords in case of any of these events, I think it would be a huge help. Renters would pay premiums based on how much they have cost landlords in the past. So if they always paid their rent on time, kept the place clean, etc., their premiums would be very low. Those who have been evicted and/or destroyed places they lived in previously would have higher premiums. Landlords would be covered for their losses. If this were the case, landlords would feel secure in renting out places without charging security deposits, pet deposits, last month's rent, etc., because they know they would be covered for any losses, and the majority of premiums would be paid by those who cause the problems in the first place. If those people later become responsible renters, their records could be erased (say, after 7 years like bankruptcy) and they could go back to paying the lower premiums. I'm sure there are many details that would need to be worked out, but I think something along this line would be a win for landlords and renters alike.
There are so many commenters elsewhere in the discussion section of this video who don't seem to understand that the cost to move to a more affordable area, sometimes prevents people from moving at all. So much victim blaming going on.
This is a wonderful video and it shows there are so many people NOT on drugs or doing bad things when they find themselves homeless! I mean face it, this can happen to anybody. I got lucky and found a free lot in a gated community before the place blew up and now costs a small fortune to live there. We lived for over 10 years in a beat up 5th wheel and we recently sold that same lot for a sizeable amount of money(for us at least) and I an now a first time home owner!!!! We bought us a small home with 1/2 acre of land in a tiny rural town...... is it perfect? To us it is and we bought it with cash...... many people who have more money would probably laugh at our tiny house but having this stability means the world to us!!! I encourage people to never give up! Much love from Kansas!❤❤❤
My wife and I are blessed not to be homeless. We’ve both retired, have sufficient guaranteed retirement and are basically debt free. That doesn’t mean it could not all go south one day. Thanks for your video it has shown the living off the streets a better understanding. Thanks.
Год назад+5
Kirsten, this is your best work yet. Thank you for shining a compassionate light on a growing situation.
Really an incredible work. Excellent job, and I can attest to the authenticity , and really praise your motives for making this. You have my subscription.
I've been doing Vanlife for the past couple years and this is a very well done video...I work remote and am traveling around most of the time-thanks for sharing the various stories on the spectrum of "VanLife" and house/homelessness.
I was born in the area and have friends there as well. It's insane what the cost of living is now. The only way we are going to get out of this is to care about one another and work together to find solutions.
It seems this situation is world wide. Even in isolated western Australia people are being priced out of rental accomodation and rentals are scarce. More and more people particularly the elderly being left homeless. Situation bad and getting worse 😔
Great documentary. I found myself in a temporary homeless situation living in a tent in the woods for a few months. Even in that little span of time it changes your perspective on life and can be a humbling experience. I would've prefered that to sharing a tiny pod with 3 mates any day
He's so right about how his home owned him, how his life owned him...I never looked at it that way be4. God bless him for opening my eyes to that point
Pray for people on the streets whether in your heart or out loud with them. Love just melts human hearts and many people just break down in tears. To have anyone speak their name, to be heard and acknowledged, to pray openly for their needs. Wow, I was too chicken to do this at first, but getting better at it. Compassionate care through food services and other is very cool, but there is also the wounds of the heart that needs to heal as well. Encountering many wounded warriors out there!
It's so great to see the people who are not doing drugs and are just trying to have a place to live. It breaks the stigma that I have had that most people on the street are drug addicts or mentally ill. We need to see more beautiful small communities like these ones.
It’s cuz the city makes it hard to increase housing supply. Lack of housing supply, increased demand , drives prices up. I’m not talking “affordable” housing. Increase the Market rate housing. Can blame the NIMBYs and interest groups. They put controls over density, so this is what you get. Thank you for making this video.
But that always happens if there are a bunch of well-paying employers in a urban or suburban area. People who work there all want to live close, because many corporate jobs have long and busy work hours, and their decent salaries means prices sky rocket, and literally just a bed is 1000-plus a month (and many will take that over losing half their salary to rent, or a 2-4 hour commute day.) It is the natural economic result of having people with lots of money who “need” to live there for their well paying job. One solution…more remote work with those high paying jobs. I worked for a great company that had a policy of you can live wherever and just work from home, so long as you get your work done. That means everyone doesn’t have to outbid each other on homes within driving distance of one city.
Excellent explanations! This is the first program I’ve seen that clearly points out the reasons that we have such a terrible housing crisis. Most landlords require a minimum of first and last months rent, plus a security deposit and “application fee”. As the first woman in the video said, that can mean having to come up with like $7000-$10,000 just to move in, and then the next month’s rent 4 weeks later. I know homeowners with big, lovely homes who have monthly mortgage payments that are half the cost of the monthly rent for a studio apartment where I live (LA). This situation is just ridiculous.
Also, most landlords require proof of monthly income that is (at minimum) 3x the amount of the rent. That means that if you make less than $100,000 per year, you may never find a place to live.
@Julie Peterson not to mention that having kids AND pets is almost a death sentence for a renter. That was our problem. So we bought an RV. We live in a campground, its not terribly cheap, between the cost of the RV & the 1200/mo space, however its ours and we can keep the kids & the pets :-) and I guess it's cheaper than renting a 3br house for 6k/mo, but it's not a 3br house....equivalent to maybe a 1br apartment that would be 3k/mo.
$1200 for a bed, no storage, sleep with all your belongings, sharing a space & probably the 1 bathroom with a gang of people...insane. I live near the capital & I'm at $1300 for my own 1 bed with en suite & walk in closet & I don't share with anyone. I'm only about an hour & a half from SF & I can't believe anything could justify that level of a price difference.
I, for a second time in 3 years, decided to work in a local RV/Camp Ground. It’s part of a chain of campgrounds owned by a billion dollar company here on the East coast. Theses membership parks, sell memberships at likely 500% of their combined capacity. It’s where many of the Mid-section to East Coast homeless call home. “Homeless Campers” scurry from campsite to campsite with the 2 week in, 1 week out policy, until the season traditional campers start using their memberships and getting into a park is impossible. Homeless Campers include folks tossed out of their homes during the 2008 crash, retirees who say they cannot afford houses, veterans in limited incomes, and families who just can’t afford housing. I think a census needs to be taken on this group of people, and a story or two needs to be written.
in 2008, I naively believed we would NEVER allow the unhoused situation happen to anyone in America again. I sincerely thought that experience would be the awakening our nation needed bc it touched SOOOO many people. How did things get worse when so many people experienced 08?
I was born and raised in California and as a long term Southern California resident I am appalled at how expensive it is to be housed in California. It is completely ridiculous at how expensive everything is now. I don’t see how the next generation is going to get by. As soon as my wife and I retire, we are leaving California for a more affordable state to live in. 😕
Thanks Kristen that was such an enlightening documentary. I’m in the UK and having been to different parts of the US I have understood that what I see on the MSM is very different from the reality, but great to see all the charecters surviving. Great work . Thank you.
![LES MYTHOS SANTÉ DE NOS PARENTS [DÉBUNK]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/edxcu83fNh4/mqdefault.jpg)
“Half the stuff in the house is to take care of the house”… the house owned me. Couldn’t agree more.
On the contrary, that statement is an over simplification. Wages and a working woman have taken away from what it takes to maintain a home. Single peopke in the US are living in dumps for the most part because they're always working.
@@tpulling83 or just lack of culture to maintain their home...
I've always called it slavery. What I'd like to know though is who the hell IS paying all that rent. they only go up if someone pays.
so you basically dont care about your dwelling? You wouldnt try to fix issues with it? this is whats wrong with the world, that same attitude carries over to your work ethic and your life. You're that type of person to not help someone in distress because it has nothing to do with you, you expect someone else to fix your car when it breaks because you refuse to learn anything, you want everything handed to you. I couldn't imagine you people in a survival situation where you had to fend for yourself, oh wait imagine that...something similar to what were watching.
If you don't have the means to maintain the house, don't buy a house. Common sense?
This was very enlightening as well as informative.
I became disabled and unable to work earlier this year - I am waiting for approval for SSDI (6 month process if there are no obstacles). I have used all of my savings and cashed out two retirement funds. This is my last month being able to afford my current apartment of 15 years. I have already started packing, put some belongings in storage before I'm on the streets next month. Section 8 housing has a wait list of 12 years currently.
Yeah, each homeless person has a story - not all are drug addicts or bums.
Welcome to America.
Not all but I bet its way over 60%.
Im disabled, sleeping in my truck. There are other countries where you can live, im thinking of buying a rural piece of land that I can pitch a tent on.
I worked in construction most of my life and in 2016 I had knee replacement. Never really fully recovered so I can’t go back to construction. I’ve been struggling since and now am waiting to get SSD. They turned me down a few times already but luckily I got an apartment from the city.
I’m still to old to work and to young to retire
"hold fast" (1 Thess 5 :21 , the Bible)
I'm disabled and on SSI. I own a small house, and live on my own. It's possible if you don't spend $ on unnecessary things. I don't spend money on nice clothes, wifi, cable, getting hair done, bars, drugs, restaurants, nothing. I cook cheap meals at home. I keep the heat down low, and one light at night.
A roof over my head is more important.
Keep in mind that during the 80’s people were encouraged to save due to the interest rates. Right now there’s very little incentive to save because those who are saving are watching those who are reckless taking it in. I’ve been trying to save for a home and it’s been discouraging to watch prices continue to not budge because there’s people willing to get into a mortgage where they’re paying 40% of their income. It’s insane.
Consider investing in stocks especially during a recession . While recessions can be tough, they can also offer good chances to buy low and sell high in the markets if you're cautious. Just remember, this is not financial advice, but it's a good time to think about buying stocks since having cash on hand isn't always the best option.
You're right! With the help of an experienced coach, I made some changes in my investments. I started with $321k, and now I have more than $750k by investing in stocks, ETFs, and bonds. I think housing prices won't go down much until there are more houses available.
@@ThomasChai05Mind if I ask you to recommend this particular coach you using their service?
"Izella Annette Anderson" is the licensed advisor I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment
She appears to be well-educated and well-read. I ran a Google search for her name and came across her website; thank you for sharing.
Thank you for making this video. I made the mistake of suggesting we needed more affordable housing in my area in Texas. The comments were harsh, aggressive and frightening to my safety. I realized quickly how selfish people are. It made me sad.
people are scared alot of people really need there property its maybe there only asset and i think thats what may cause people to ask that way plus ignorance. i think we all could be a little more understanding of one another's situation. at the end of the day the only one who can judge is god.
Why Americans are so selfish individualists?
@@morningbear3794 Amen to that!
The saddest thing is affordable housing is becoming harder than ever to find everywhere. It's outrageous!
@P A Actually the few that are “aggressively” homeless arrive here in California because the weather is quite favorable. Others come to seek work in the tech industry then fail and end up on the street.
There are plenty of older people that were squeezed out over time, others that had “sure fire” plans or had relatives that made promises (or seemed to be making promises)… but came up empty-handed.
The notion they “all” came here to abuse the system is mere selfishness and deserves to be discounted. Dreams of a good life, of opportunity are the norm… not this rhetoric about “free stuff”.
There are homeless professionals with degrees that HAD GOOD JOBS until executives chose automation (or foreign labor) to benefit stockholders. Or a simple shift to a new “plan” made all their work mean nothing.
I’ve heard a 1,000 variations on what I reference directly and indirectly from homeless folks… but hardly any claim your irksome “plan” as their own. Nobody in this video was a representative of what you claim.
Think before you state your assumptions.
Thank you for the compassionate view into the houseless situation in America. Im from Hawaii and it’s horrific to see native Hawaiians priced out of their own land - It’s Millionaire, Billionaire playground here.
Gentrification has caused the same effect all over the world. People working in factories could buy a property in the 70’s . Now kids have years of college studies plus degrees and can’t afford to buy a home in a good area.
There are more native Hawaiians living outside Hawaii than in it. I know many are in the PNW and Nevada. They have to leave in order to afford space to raise families without working 3 jobs. Family is very important to them, including extended family. So it’s hard to be separated from the land and the people. The time may come that the only natives you see when you visit will be the “reenactors ” - the native entertainment.
After visiting friends there, I started studying the language and reading about the history and culture. We could learn so much from them.
@@mimi1o8 Gentrification is a destructive force wherever it happens. It's sometimes a slow insidious process that people do not see coming until it's too late. Displacement of those with lesser means, degeneration and loss of basic public services like police and maintenance do to tax breaks and loopholes and destruction of industrial based workforce because of real estate speculation. Explosion of homelessness and drug addiction that most people forget is directly tied into the process.
It's "leftism" playground there. Stop electing the same nonsense every time.
It is the same in North Yorkshire, UK.
I loved how the gal at the Home Depot encampment explained that it's not only druggies who are homeless. I've been homeless and was blessed to have a car to sleep in. I was working 37 hours a week and couldn't save up for "first last and deposit." It's not fun, but you take it day by day and are purposeful with your finances.
OMG, I just realised why I'm a hoarder. It's from when I was homeless as a teen. Wow. My prayers are with everyone who sleeps rough, I hope you're safe tonight.
In some ways hoarding is a form of wealth. I understand. Just try not to let it control YOU.
My home is paid off and my cars are paid off. I still dont feel any safer and I live in the middle of no where.
Me too. I keep/kept a lot of stuff JUST IN CASE. Freedom came when I realized that if I really need something, it will appear, manifest, or somehow be provided.
We're also told that we need all of this STUFF to be successful, be happy. Now I collect rocks and driftwood, and create beauty with nature.
I've never been homeless but collect stuff, a counsellor at one time I take after my mother's family who survived the depression, my dads family were well of during that time.
$1200 to live in a POD with 3 other people is INSANE 😮
Imagine the smell. I think I'd rather actually live in a tent.
but there's guys like this dude who are "allergic to spending more than 10% of my paycheck on shelter" who will pay so....
@@jennifermarie3158 LOL
I feel bad for him, and there’s no privacy or security for his things. Lockers should be provided.
The answer is to train and get a job so you can become a homeowner
I can understand because I'm homeless living in VA. And me and my kids are living out of my van. But I'm still working it's very hard so I'm sending them away to school. And know I have to try and save up to get an RV. I just tried, and I'm just praying 🙏🏿 for all us homeless people all over the world that you all for making these videos.
I sometimes get down on the homeless but in you're case I feel for you. Keep your chin up,you got this!
Bless You! You Will Get The RV. Your kids will be safe and always love you and respect the hardships you have gone through for them. Just keep going and remember...
*I love when they count us out*
*this is us and we're blessed*
How are things going for you now? Did you get your RV? Praying for you sister, as a single mom who struggles to pay for just the bare necessities, I feel what you are going through. ❤🙏
Consider a small box truck, stealth, of course. It’d give you and your kids more room.
You are not the norm. Billiones of dollars are being spent to sustain drunks and drug addicts who do not care about the situation they are in. They choose to be homeless. These have become the face of homelessness today.
I adore the lady with the home depot house! Brilliantly stated, not all of us who are homeless are because of drugs, LOTS of us are earning good money at full-time jobs yet cannot afford even basic housing.
It's a failure of Capitalism not the people who are homeless
AND it's already very clear in the USA that it's going to get WORSE before it starts to get better. And what will make it "better"?? Changes that take TIME, and we simply DO NOT HAVE THE TIME. Ouch. Glad I'm where I am, but one false move and I'm out th edoor.
@@louisliu5638 Most people don't realize that "There but by the grace of God..."
We are having the exact same problem in Australia. This is definitely not unique to the US. In Australia the issue is rapidly rising interest rates ( mortgage rates have increased from 1.9% to a current 6.5% and are due to rise again), too many Airbnbs v long term rentals, rents are sky-rocketing because of the interest rates, a number of large house building companies have gone bust, there are no limits on the number of investments properties a person can own, and the visa backlog from Covid has meant 4 times the amount of people coming in at once that can't be housed adequately.
This is happening all over the world.
@@triarb5790 Its the post-industrial game of musical chairs (houses) as declining wealth in concentrated into hands of fewer and fewer.
Meanwhile China has literal cities of vacant housing.
The "broad spectrum" of homelessness needs to be emphasized at every opportunity. People don't believe I've been homeless off and on for ten years. They say I "don't look homeless." Well, what exactly does homeless look like? Thank you for this important video. You tell the story so well.
Exactly this, this particular video takes a close up look at those who are "choosing to be homeless", now sure they talk about some of the other types of homelessness, the guy in Bolinas talks about the drug users, the RV guy near the beach talks about how in the South of Mission area it's a different breed, etc. But it really doesn't highlight them. But to your point, unfortunately when a city tries a "broad spectrum" cure it simply doesn't work and it ends up costing a lot more money and takes resources away from people who do really need it.
;
@@Mike__B Are you implying that I don't really need affordable housing? Please tell me you don't think I've been living in the chaos of two different worlds by choice.
@@MyCleverHandle I didn't imply any such thing, and if you think I did I apologize for it coming across like that. I'm simply stating that there isn't one solution that can fix all homelessness, because the people living paycheck to paycheck who can't afford high rents have different issues than those shooting up on the street which is different than those "crazy" people which is different than some person who simply wants to save all their money and not give it to a landlord. So when cities simply throw their money at one solution it doesn't fix it all...
And don't get me started on affordable housing and how a city really doesn't do as much as they can to make it so.
when real estate values go up significantly every year and wages only go up significantly every 10 years , then wages and salaries will never catch up to real estate and rental values and that is what i believe is happening today .
The lady that built the home from Home Depot cast offs is so resourceful. She could teach lessons on how to make it in life to so many people. She reminds me of my Grandma who truly could make a treasure out of trash.
"finding in the dumpster" really means stealing from Home Depot. FYI
That’s not living if u r working even with decent pay though.
After hearing so many stories you start to grade these people on a big curve. She's way better than most,she could work & make it somewhere. What if we all just stopped working, paying taxes & just became resourceful taking from Home Depot. How long do you think the country would last without middle class tax payers?
I built my own house, much of it with recycled materials.
I have to pay property taxes. I have to obey the law. I'm not a bum.
@@MonteBellweather Oh something that they would put in a land fill and pollute the environment...After all all these companies would pay the excess for there thrash. I believe if I was a co and someone was emptying my thrash for free..I give myself a raise
I had to leave my home in California after ending up homeless.
I now have my own property and live off grid living my best life in the mountains of NC.
Sad I had to leave home but I knew I had to get out of there to survive and thrive.
You are not alone! There are leaving California Facebook groups.
Congratulations. I'm still trying to figure out how to make that transition.
@Alex Mercedes thanks! To start, you must be willing to part with most all possessions try to get your stuff down to fitting in your car and maybe a roof top bag. I asked a friend to hold on to a few sporting equipment items I didn't want to part with and then shipped it later. It all comes back around. I was given the same table from my Lutheran church that I had donated back in Cali which was a pretty cool sign from the Lord. ❤️
@@mojorising1 Yes, I have always "traveled light." De-cluttering is my middle name and an ongoing propensity. It's part of the reason I'm so fascinated and excited about the tiny living movement. Unfortunately, I don't currently own a vehicle...more of that lightening my load thing. I'm thinking that my first step will have to be buying a vehicle -- a challenging task given my limited income.
Best wishes ❤️
I grew up in the ‘70s in a single-parent household. My sister and I fended for ourselves while my mother worked lunchtimes and evenings at a local restaurant. Poverty breeds anxiety and fear in ways that stick to the bone for the rest of your life. I can completely relate to what everyone in this video is going through, so much so that I find it hard to watch. It brings up all of that insecurity I felt and continue to feel, even though those days are now long behind me.
This absolutely resonates with me. Thank you for putting it into words.
It's that feeling of always waiting for something bad to happen, especially when everything seems good, of never feeling safe & able to 100% relax. The subconscious hyper vigilance watching for threats makes it hard to ever feel truly happy for longer than a few moments. IMO anyway
Poverty as a child never goes away. I get it.
It also can (poverty) be a lesson in appreciation in our spoiled American society. You can look back and be proud of your accomplishments. We were a single family household (6) and NO child support OR hands on support. We had each other. 35 years later..we still do. You have to let the past go. It will slip into your memory once in awhile but don't let it ruin your world. 😘
My parents both worked and we had a roof and money but were completely abandoned otherwise. There’s a lot of emotionally neglected children who basically had a MLK the stuff you need, but no parents. If you think it’s better to have more money, it’s not. I know a lot of poor kids who had way better upbringing. Money doesn’t mean shit. Seriously, why do poor people insist on living in expensive areas and then think that more money is the only answer. It’s often not.
As a native Californian born and raised, that has visited 22 countries I can tell you that where you are is the furthest thing from paradise. In fact, it is the exact hell hole I prayed to God to get me out of. And he did.
As a former Rehab, Sub- Acute Nurse my heart goes to our homeless folks. Homelessness comes from many reasons. So don't stereotype them. Some came from divorce, injuries (permanent, long term, acute etc) , poverty, mental health (depression, addiction, Schizophrenia, etc), low income, low credit scores, rent is just too high, and many other reasons. They all equally need our help, understanding, and emphaty.
Agreed. I work in a hospital with patients who require 1:1 staff observation. It's not just the mentally ill who suffer homelessness. I have plenty of veterans, drug and alcohol addicts and people who have given up hope and have either tried to harm themselves, or are actively contemplating it.
It seems to me that previously the stereotype of the homeless person was more along the lines of someone with drug, alcohol or mental health issues. Now that's still often the case but I think it's shifting more and more to some of the other things you mentioned, such as low credit scores or too high rent, and is becoming more of a reflection of problems with society more broadly rather than the individual experiencing homelessness - though help, understanding and empathy is needed in either case. I hope we can all band together and rise up against the insidious social and economic forces that are ravaging the lower and middle class and driving more and more people into homelessness.
This RUclips host is not stereotyping anyone. This is a great video.🎉
Yes LOW INCOME is it, even with degrees places don’t pay enough.
" With the measure you judge,with that measure you'll be judged.." ( Jesus Christ )
I was a single mom to 3 sons. I always suffered anxiety how to take care of my boys. I worked fulltime at a company, and took partime waitress jobs so my boys could have school clothes, and Christmas. I'm now 71 and still work. I have decent social security and a small pension, but prices have caused me that same anxiety I felt when younger. There's not enough money to live in America. I live in a small mobile home. I understand how many of us can end up homeless. My problem with many of the homeless encampments is the filth. I don't understand why people wouldn't have the personal pride to keep their small area neat. I'm sorry if this offends people, but there's no reason to live in trash.
The mental issues that cause a lot of people who find themselves homeless, also cause them to be apathetic about their living conditions. Living in the elements with pretty much no infostructure and on property where you have no ownership and could get run off of at any time, is corrosive to motivation. And it doesn't take long for unsanitary conditions to develop.
When a person (any person) has no idea how maintain a clean camping area, that's where most of the problems begin. When I was homeless and attempted to live in several encampments, (when the shelters were full), I was amazed and shocked by how little most people know about the first rule of camping and basic sanitation practices to avoid diseases such as scabies and dysentery.
So many of them just didn't care because they were exhausted by the sheer overload of having to survive in a world of fear and uncertainty. Many would do things in hopes to get arrested so they would have a place to sleep and free meals. School doesn't prepare people for homelessness and most of society could care less to help a person they deem as unsavory or unworthy of help. Even the helping hand agencies would chastise many of us if we refused to pray and accept Jesus as our lord and savior. I think this is where the MAJOR disconnect is in so many Cities in America.
As for the trash, where does a person dump their trash? No businesses allow a person access to their locked dumpsters and residential neighborhoods are usually too far away from the encampments. When I attempted to put trash in bags, those bags were promptly dumped out and taken for use of protecting personal belongings from the elements. Plastic is almost like gold in a camp because it can be the difference between life and death if a person gets wet and suffers hypothermia.
When I never understood was the people who would poop and pee right next to the tent where they slept, then wonder why they were all getting sick. I lasted less than 5 days and decided to take my chances living under abandoned buildings. My number 1 rule was to leave nothing...not even a cigarette butt. This is how people get noticed. The trash gives their location away and other people follow in hopes of stealing from them or saving their souls. Hope something I shared sheds some light on the issue at hand!
@Sherry Dee You wrote some very cogent comments, and it made me think about things, though not homeless yet, I may soon be as I am spending money recklessly due to mental illness I know, thinking once I am broke, I will kill myself (totally selfish as if I am going to kill myself, do it now so I can leave money to charity.) But I wanted to ask you about your cynicism of religion, right now with my mental health struggles, churches seem the most empathetic, probably because I was brainwashed growing up. I had grown up raised a Christian, yet for many reasons left the church (God needs more praise than Donald Trump) but turned to it when I needed it. One reason why I am also cynical, is a man I knew from 50 years ago with whom I reconnected with, calls me daily to check up on me, he wants me to convert to Christianity. I found out through our long talks that he lives in a chaste, celibate marriage that he refuses to leave because he feels a divorce is sinful, if he married again, it would be adultery. I guess due to his kindness and compassion I am falling in love with him (should end the conversations as that's unhealthy) he always says if we are meant to be we can be together after death for eternity, talk about turning off a person on religion.
What is the main reason for your antipathy (I feel due to comments you made) towards religion? The main reason I feel is the fairy tale aspect that there is some omniscient genie being that magically will grant our wishes or not (there is always the refrain that God might not answer our wishes giving them an excuse if HE doesn't) vs. the realistic pragmatism which is that it's our government services that helps us. I also feel that there is outdated advice in the bible that encourages hate toward marginalized communities. I should probably hear it from you before I drink the Kool Aid and succumb to their siren song in my despair. And you write very lucidly and intelligently so I don't feel you were mentally ill, an alcohol, drug abuser or at all unemployable, were there unexpected things like medical bills that caused you become homeless (I didn't say "may I ask" one can always ask but it is your prerogative to answer..) or like the tech worker where you live is so expensive that as a full time worker you can't afford the rent.
@@sherrydee7880 🎯👍
Many retirees moved to the Philippines because everything there is affordable. $1,000 is a lot and you can live comfortably. I bought a 2 bedroom house there in a subdivision for $20k. I can't imagine myself living here for a long time everything is expensive i wanna go home and live there since i also bought a farm land.
Great documentary! I left SF in 2001 because I couldn't afford to live there any more. I am astounded how much worse it's gotten since I left.
One of the things I like most about your film is that you let the people tell their own story. I also like that you visited different sites.
The children who grow up this way are the ones who really tug on my heart. They should be playing with friends, not sitting in a car. Poor things. I hope parents can find their way through these tough times.
Brilliant reporting, incorporating eloquent, educated interviews. Award worthy content!
Agreed. No voice over or graphs, just people living thier lives who represent so many more stories and situations. This channel has the most neighborly storyteller in Kristen and her crew. Lucky to have them.
AGREED!!!
Absolutely 💯
No, it’s not.
It’s not balanced.
If we, as a society, are going to solve the homelessness problem, we need to be honest. This video presents some of the causes of homelessness, but there are other root causes that need to be addressed.
@@hsmd4533 It is NOT the responsibility of Kirsten Dirksen to solve this! This is simply a documentary to show people what is going on in the Bay Area. Of course it doesn't cover EVERYTHING to do with homelessness, but it's not meant to. If you were familiar with her work, you would know that it is primarily about how people live; the extraordinary kinds of dwellings/abodes/shelters/houses/apts/flats/etc. people build. HOW PEOPLE LIVE. IF this were a documentary primarily about HOMELESSNESS, it would have to be at least 2 hours long and, as you say, cover an entire complexity of issues (you are ABSOLUTELY right about this!). However, I don't think that that was the goal of this piece. I STILL think it is beautifully done and I learnt a LOT. (I'm up in the Seattle area; similar situation here and I still learnt quite a bit).
I think Kirsten (& co.) is one of the best documentary film makers: SHE DOESN'T GET IN THE WAY! ...but just asks a LOT of questions.
I very much agree with you re. root causes... and if you know of other documentaries that address the issue, I would love to know!
This is some of the most moving and significant video-journalism I've seen in decades. And you're doing it without a studio. Well done and thank you.
I thoroughly enjoyed this. As a woman that’s been single most of my adult life and now almost 69 years old, I always have a fear of being homeless. We have to take care of our people. This could happen to anyone.
No it can't, earth girl. It literally can't happen to "anyone." Be a part of the solution rather than being a part of the problem.
@@blippacg what?? you think homelessness is not a potential for everyone?? Man oh man, your arrogance is off the charts.
Exactly right.
@@blippacg You sound like part of the problem
@@jennifermarie3158 Nuh uh…you do.
I am a teacher who was close to homeless in Florida with a master’s degree and 8 years of experience. Most teachers there had two jobs. I moved back to China where work pays me my rent + ~$300 for the part of the housing allowance I don’t use, and I make literally twice as much as I did in Florida. And since I left in 2017 the situation as everyone knows has worsened. Yet everyone I love can’t FATHOM why I don’t want to move back. Two years using check cashing places to survive was enough, thank you. There are better ways and places to live without struggle.
China will be the world power soon
Where?
West coast of Ireland. Galway area. Free from the 'Monarchy'.
Working on it.
P.S... In case anyone hasn't noticed, we are becoming some kind of glorified Mumbai. Now sprinkle that with a touch of Weimar. 😬
I hear florida is a nightmare for teachers. Crazy.
This is my plan once I'm finished with grad/post grad. I have other reasons than financial for leaving the US. Things are only going to get worse in the US I fear. When overweening greed rules and has no care for anyone, not even themselves, only profits nothing good will ever come from it.
That lady that repurposes Home Depot "garbage" is a sharp cookie!
Yep she could get a job but her choice is to build her own home on private property
@@teresabravo564 I work and contribute to society but I'm still homeless in an old Toyota Sienna minivan... Housing is simply unaffordable now.
@@Network126 am two hours west of Toronto - am a young disabled senior on long term disability - have been in a studio apt for 26 yrs in a great neighbourhood where I can walk to get essentials - am still here only because of rent control AND my utilities are still included in the rent - should either of these change I will be homeless - best case scenario I’ll be back in a spare bedroom somewhere - worse case 🤦♀️🤷♀️ have always cooked for myself that’s not the problem - it’s the crazy cost of food - add to this it costs more to shop for one than for couple or family - each year I have less but I still have a home - both our countries need to properly address homelessness and home insecurity before it’s MORE of a crisis than it is 🇨🇦🙏
If she was smart she would move to any of the hundreds of smaller cities where you can still buy an older house for 50K, like Mobile Alabama. For that price even working at McDonalds is more than enough to afford it, and even pay it off in full. That's what my immigrant parents did. That's what humans have done from the beginning of time. You migrate to where life is affordable. These Americans want to live in the most expensive city, on part time wages. How is that smart?
@@Metal0sopher No it's not, because the minimum there is half what it is elsewhere. The overall sums are lower, but the percentages remain the same.
You can't get a loan for a 50k house when you make $7.50 an hour; even with a down payment.
It's great that you put a face and story to the people living there. They aren't all drug addicts. They didn't all bring it on themselves and if they did, how do they get out of it, if they even want to? This one should be a documentary on PBS or one of the major networks. I love your explorations of what "home" means.
Let's not fool ourselves into thinking that the vast majority aren't drug addicts and/or mentally unwell. Healthy people don't generally live like this. This video is great, but it's putting a bit of a happy face on a massive issue.
@@Adrift. it is true that there are a lot of homeless people who have drug and/or mental health problems, but a common theme that I see is a history of severe trauma. I see a lot of veterans with PTSD, survivors of abuse, and people who lost everything due to illness or lay offs. A surprising number have jobs, but either can't put the money together to rent a place or have an eviction on their record and therefore can't rent. It can take as long as 7 years to get rid of an eviction and be able to rent. Shelters aren't necessarily safe for a number of reasons. There are more well organized homeless encampment than you realize where the people work and they prohibit drug use. A lot of people with PTSD can't handle a lot of interaction with people. This is a complex problem not a simple problem.
@@canyonhaverfield2201 All you've got is your own prejudice, you don't even care about the people forced into these situations.
I worked with and around homeless folks for 20 yrs. You are incorrect. The vast majority are mentally ill and/or drug addicts. And many many, if not the majority, come from elsewhere for the free drugs, needles, free camping, free shoplifting, etc.
@@canyonhaverfield2201 living in this city both back in the 70’s and the last 7 years, the only constant are the people who don’t want to face the reality of the wealth gap which continues to grow. So ‘the have’s’ ride the backs of the ‘have nots’… how? By exploiting their labor fighting a livable wage, while pushing rents up to grow their wealth. It’s easy to look down your nose at people who are trying to survive, but it’s also easy to look away when you feel uncomfortable seeing the real problem. If the gig economy didn’t exist, the wealthy of S.F. Would have to pay that living wage for services… so I’m here, I see the problems, and bagging on an “outsider” just shows who you are, not who they are…
Over here in Australia 🇦🇺 this homelessness problem has gone up too maybe 80% over what it was. Now we got people living in tents caravans (RV’s) on or near beaches in parks. Rents have increased 4 or 5 times what they were and it’s a real problem all over Aus now. My heart ❤️ goes out to everyone affected like this God bless.
I know the feeling, I'm in SE Queensland. My mom had to move in with me so she could afford rent for as long as possible before she has to go into a home. And now she can't even get down the stairs. Yet with prices at the moment we can't afford to rent somewhere more suited.
I studied in Australia for 8 years from my degree to PhD in Adelaide and Canberra, terrifyingly expensive for housing eve for rooming it's AU$900 per month. Problem i see is lack of low to medium cost housing, the rich, middle and low income fight for this same supply of landed housing while most apartments are too small for families and not suitable for share housing. I decided to return to my home country where I have bought a medium cost apartment near a MRT station and public hospital, the monthly mortgage is half of what I paid monthlty for my room in Canberra. Australia and US need more supply of affordable housing.
They only want the rich to survive. All over the world. Same here in usa.
Same in UK rents skyrocketed. Its really bad now
Its crazy. You need to live with family, its not affordable otherwise.
I drove from LA California to Vancouver BC last summer. Every major city we went through had a tremendous homeless population. LA, Portland, Seattle, even in Vancouver. I live in Riverside and work in Orange County. Every area has its neighborhoods of homeless. This is not just SF sadly. Many are choosing to be house less due to the high cost of housing and living expenses. I was homeless once in the early 80’s. Once there it’s hard to climb out. There for the grace of God…
"Even in Vancouvet" lol. Vancouver is the most insanely overpriced city in an insanely overpriced country (I'm Canadian - and live on Vancouver Island). It is bonkers here. And loads of homeless.
Thank you for this insight. I was "homeless" in Miami in the 90's for about a year and ended up in germany some 25 years ago.
Seems living the live was easier back then.
Really makes me appreciate my $ 600 mortage on a little house in a tiny village in germany. Folks complaining over here just have no idea.
Agree. I also lived in Germany for 8 years, and my pension that makes me seem poor/never could afford a home here, qualified me to be well-off over there. Money goes so much further because the government controls capitalism better. In the US it is every individual for themselves. It's a stupid way to live -so much unnecessary suffering. I was so much happier in Europe - they still value quality of life, and won't sell it out. In the US, quality of life has a big pricetag, along with everything else from cradle to grave.
@@a_new_life_41 Germany is in for very hard times now that they cut themselves off from the cheap energy that drove their industry
@@steinbauge4591 Harder times than what is coming for the US? I doubt it
@@TheCinefotografiando it was the basis for their industry - no society gets away with such a mistake
Mad respects to that homeless community for keeping it hard drug free.
Welcome to the real world people! As for myself, since I don't have kids, I'd rather start from scratch in another country than stay in my own country that treats me like this.
Getting into another country that is stable is very difficult
Good luck
If you get a large van that’s built out you can still live comfortably in your country
Normal people. Abnormal situations. Excellent reporting.
Simply adapting like humans do. A friend once told me; people are like cockroaches, they adapt to any conditions!
If there is ever an economic collapse, these are the kinds of people who will survive. Those of us who live comfortable lives won’t last.
This is the economic collapse, it's happened and getting worse. Low interest rates and hordes of people spending driving prices up.
Have always said most Americans couldn't last a week.
@@chuckschillingvideos I respect actual insects more than a human with that kind of attitude
This is the economic collapse and people who are comfortable will continue to be comfortable. People who've been on the edge get crushed
@@astrah982 this. We’re living through the economic collapse. There is a homelessness epidemic in every city in America damn near and coupled with inflation, things are totally untenable for most ppl.
Im so glad we have a home and 0 debt. Ive never been homeless. Im blessed and Im thankful. ❤❤❤❤
"Even though we on these streets, you can still make it your home", love her spirit, hope this video helps her into some housing and to shed light on this global issue.
The only places experiencing that issue are the top-cities where all the money aka. High paying jobs are concentrated. More and more places are being abandoned, but obv in the countryside where no one wants to live. In Japan, Romania or Italy they'll give you rural places for free right now. And more will follow.
@Mysterio Anonymous just out of curiosity, do you live and work in a rural or densely populated area?
If all the homeless people in cities were pushed out into the country, what will they all do for jobs? The reason people leave rural areas is due to lack of work opportunities.
Affordable housing needs to be available in city areas as well.
@@thepeatbog the most desirable places in the world will always be scarce, and they'll never be cheap no matter how much you want it. build a million flats and they'll be occupied by high power, high earning educated transplants in no time. the only way poor people can live there is through discriminatory politics. i don't really care for either tbh.
@@thepeatbog So true. Still, of ANY age in history, THIS is a time when people CAN (and do) live outside the city and work online. And then, there are those who want to work the land. It feels to me as if what's missing is the organization.
Wow, you just told my story, I grew up on the west coast and slowly but surely I was pushed out because of lack of affordable housing. First I was pushed out of the city into rural areas then finally I had to leave the region and try again on the other side of the country. I spent 10+ homeless or on the verge of homelessness in "paradise" before i had to ask myself what am I willing to endure to live here. It broke my heart to have to leave my family, friends and the life I created. I worked hard but no matter how hard I worked it was never enough. Thank you for sharing our stories for the world to see.
@@ElectronicMusicUnderground Originally from Vancouver and ended up in rural Nova Scotia. Best decision I ever made
@@ElectronicMusicUnderground I probably went to raves you played at. It used to be a good city to live in, so did the rural areas, then it became a playground for the rich and all the working class folks became their servants. For the last few years I lived out there I worked in a homeless shelter on a small island that had a capacity of 50, but every night we had 75 and more then half were trades people and folks that worked at the grocery store or restaurants. It was bleak. My wife and I had to give birth to our child in and 8X12 ft cabin that was converted from a chicken coop. We were paying $1200 a month for it and it had no indoor plumbing or access to a shower most of the year. Now I own a 2 bedroom house on 22 acres that we payed 1/ 15th of the price we would have payed out west. Detroit sounds like the perfect place for you being one of the birth places of electronic music.
@crassgop -- Ah, the old "let them eat cake" non-solution to the problem! Compounded by leaving the friends and family who could help her out in the first place because they still lived in the area.
It would be great if everything had such a simple Pollyanna/Marie Antoinette solution. But moving someplace else requires a good chunk of money in the first place, unless you already know somebody else living in the new city, who is willing to support you while you look for a new job in the new city. And that's also assuming you have a vehicle to get there, or money to buy a bus or plane ticket.
And not everybody can join the military as a conduit out of town. Some people were born with physical disabilities that exclude them from military service. Others might have autoimmune disorders or cancer or other medical problems that require ongoing medical treatment, and the military doesn't always want to take on the burden of continuing that needed care.
A colleague of mine had a classmate who signed up with a branch of the military to pay for med school. Afterward, you owe the military one year for every year of school they paid for - and it can't be during residency, it has to be as a fully licensed physician. He developed an autoimmune disease during his residency, and the military no longer wanted him because the disease meant he would have to take medication every day, and they couldn't always guarantee it would be available if he was sent to another country in a wartime situation. So he ended up not having to serve after that because he was now excluded from service. But at least he now had an education and career, where he would not have to worry about being homeless, or about being priced out of his neighborhood.
Everybody's circumstances are different
@crassgop -- you still completely missed the point of the Marie-Antoinette analogy. Telling people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps only works if they already have boots. Maybe that analogy will be clearer for you.
@crassgop -- Alrhough the original poster did eventually move all the way across Canada to find affordable housing, you were criticizing her for not doing it sooner. Which implies that she had the means to move across Canada sooner -- something that you don't know.
Even people with jobs might not have enough spare cash on hand to pick up and move. It might take a while to save up for Via rail ticket, first and last months rent and a security deposit to be used in the new city, etc.
Not to mention that even with the Internet, making it possible to start the job search before you move, it might take a while to line up a job in the new city. So you might need to save up more than just that first and last months rent, etc. You might need to save up many months' worth of living expenses before feeling confident in making such a big move.
And she mentions not wanting to move away from family. That's a legitimate reason to stay someplace that might not be the most affordable. People are allowed to want to be around their family. Maybe it took her 10 years to be able to make that heartbreaking choice.
So don't criticize people for not doing things on your timeline, especially someone who clearly did all the things she needed to do to get into a better living arrangement.
Barbara Ehrenreich once wrote a book called _Nickeled and Dimed_, where she tried to live on just a minimum wage job. And she found it extremely difficult, skipped meals, had to find roommates, put up with harassment from her boss, and customers, working as a waitress, etc.. But people rightly criticized her for neglecting to recognize how many advantages she had going into that situation that many other people might not have:
A college education, a CAR (a huge advantage) and the knowledge that she could end the experiment at a time and go back to her comfortable life.
So, even though Ehrenreich was trying her best to portray how difficult it is to live on minimum wage, because she supported an increase in the minimum wage, even she didn't really experience how difficult it can be.
You might be looking at the original poster's situation the same way that Barbara Ehrenreich was looking at minimum wage jobs. On one level, you sort of get it, but you don't necessarily know all of the things that made it take 10 years.
I live in Victoria, BC Canada. It is also paradise and our homeless population has also increased exponentially in the last 20 years for almost identical reasons. I'm born and raised here so very lucky to have had parents who had upper middle class careers and housing, and could help my brother and I purchase homes many years ago. I know how lucky we are though and my heart aches for the vast majority of people who just got lost in the world because of an accident of birth location. Thank you so much for an excellent documentary.
Watching this from Germany, what is shown here is simply incomprehensible.
That guy with the crazy laugh and the little dog is cool! He made a good point about the house owning him instead of the other way around
Loved that guys attitude and great laugh! He sure brightened my evening!
@crassgop Yes maintenance is a necessary expense. Simple economics.
@crassgop you did not understand the point....
27:22 It was a pleasure working with you all those years ago Kirsten! Your storytelling is unmatched and continues hits home ❤ We quit vanlife after 6 years but will return one day to see the Golden Gate out of our windshield.
I'm so glad that you found your way to a better situation for yourselves. You both have a lot of courage.❤
I grew up in SF in the 70s. Back then a family could afford a decent house with one income. I'd have to be a multi millionaire to afford my parents old house now. It is sad to see what has happened to the place in the 43 years since I've lived there.
@crassgop Did you live in S.F. in the 70? I did. I was not aware that the crime rate was bad. We could afford to live there on one salary! We loved living in S.F. It was a beautiful city.
@crassgop I did not state that there was no crime. Compared to other places that I have lived and my personal experiences, the crime was simply no worse. Your making assumptions about me does not change that. As a woman I am always aware of crime, especially crimes against women. I took public transportation or walked everywhere. I left S.F., because I could not afford the rising cost of rent.
It sounds like the government is actually the ones forcing people out of their homes. If the cost of living is rising without the cost of income, its called price gouging. Like one lady said in this video, getting 10,000 to come up with just to have first months rent + security deposit is impossible. Property owners and land lords need to be held accountable.
I also grew up in SF in the 70s. Back then the city was very different. I now live in So Cal and own my own home. I would never want to live in SF today. Nothing like it was back the day. I miss Winterland, The Northpoint Theater, Caesar's, Alioto 9 and Tito's Pizza. Those places are long gone and replaced with Starbucks and Chipotle. SF sucks!
@crassgop Worse than today??
From a certain point on I realized you were not just doing videos of tiny space. You've been documenting how people live. You bring to our awareness what's going on outside of our own home, people's needs, how they survive or thrive despite challenges. It's poetic when there's no spoken words. Thank you for bringing us together. May God bless the earth and His children.
This is my absolute favorite build ever. I have been watching van builds for years. This is the BEST! I can’t stop watching this. Plus Fleetwood Mac
In 1974 my cousin's parents bought a house in Newport Beach for $64,000. The value of that house has fluctuated over the years but is worth around $2.5 million dollars. Prior to moving to California they were looking at a house in the Palmer Woods neighborhood in Detroit for $40,000. The 70s was probably the last time the cost-of-living Coast-to-Coast was fairly balanced.
Crazy. I expected that when I adjusted for inflation 64k would be a million, but it's actually $393,818.09, which sounds just about reasonable for a middle-class house.
Housing as an investment really is a cancer on our society.
Think about it, is it normal and sane that only about 50 years have past and a
Modest house that was about 60,000 is now over a million dollars???
@@drew8642 Yes, it is normal. Location and inflation rates primarily dictate that, among many other factors. This situation is normal around the globe. Ask any economist instead of watching these silly tear jerking documentaries that rely on emotional appeal.
@@meijiishin5650regulated housing prices could have prevented so many social problems.
@@johndong7524”normal” doesn’t mean healthy or optimal. We CAN change what’s normal. You seem to be very sheltered and to lack imagination and empathy. Try sleeping on the street for a while. I’ve been homeless and I’ll tell you, this reality exists for many regular folks. It’s not a propaganda film.
Kirsten, your documentaries are so spare, so honest, without agenda: TRUE documentaries. I thank you. I learnt so much watching this. I'm grateful to you for the stellar quality of your work.
This lady is smart..she’s the person if ur homeless u want to guide u round this awful situation.
Fantastic insight into the problem of housing and homelessness not just in America but around the world. The American property market model that has been replicated around the world is now a problem of pandemic proportions. A minority of people gathering vulgar amounts of wealth and power from the misery and suffering of many. Absolute tragedy. Thanks for filming and posting this documentary.
All over Europe there are places where You can get housing for almost nothing or for free if You're prepared to stay away from billionaires' playgrounds. Rural italian communes and cities do take abandoned premises and give these to willing restorers and future inhabitants for free, should they make clear they actually plan to become full time citizens and part of the communities. Same I hear from other places. As far as I would know, even in the U.S. and in Canada there are actual places where You can live very affluent with "normal" wages compared to the costs of living. Everybody and their uncles wanting to live in the Bay area or in Vancouver, L.A, Portland or Seattle is more of the problem I reckon. So, the problem obviously is concentration and an unwillingness to look for other ways to solve one's problems. I am with You when it comes to the vulgar amounts of money a ruthless minority steals and coerces from the majority, but You lose me the moment when You call the majority's willful taking part in that schemes "misery". People do have a lot of other possibilities than staying put and subordinate under the devilish games these billionaires and their bought politicians play against 'em.
Choosing to live in a very expensive area when there are cheaper places doesn't mean you are a victim.
Stop blaming America for the world's problems.
This "model" predates modern America (or Europe) by thousands of years. The french revolution was actually the first time, where an impoverished population started to get rid of rich people (back then mostly nobility) on a large scale base. Back then, it was easy to spot them. They lived in their fancy castle and paid poor people to beat other poor people into submission. Now it is much more difficult to get a hold of them. They don't own people any more and they don't even own the properties. But they are shareholders of companies which own other companies which in turn own property. Or the companies which provide work opportunities. And by setting up a "family trust" in a place with favourable laws, they can avoid taxation and hide the power they wield. They no longer wield political power directly (as a ruler or member of the clergy) but finance political campaigns, hire politicians as consultants etc.
Well said
Your documentary should be viewed in middle schools and high schools classes around the US to give kids a better prospective on the American dream. Thank you
You can say that again....present day society is on a course of self destruction...
American dream???? Don't you mean nightmare?
100 percent.
Beautiful documentary work here. This was such a thoughtful and interesting presentation. You treated your subjects with dignity, regardless of their quirks. Your nuanced view is appreciated. And your photography really captured the feeling of foggy, coastal northern California.
I love the raw and pure nature of this video. These are hard conversations to have but so necessary. Thank you for bringing awareness to these issues!
😆😆
This video is very helpful in helping me understand the plight of the homeless. I was also intrigued by the division of those that don’t do drugs from those that do. What I also see is loss of community over time. The whole “friends” thing on an app is nothing compared to a real friend that will be there with hands on help when your spouse is ill or your truck is broken. I miss the friends that I saw regularly at school events cheering for the kids. We change and move away.
Excellent video!
Community is something that gives support and friendship hopefully this is happening for those who can be in a place long enough to make good connections..❤
High quality , non sensationalism , respectful and down to earth explanation of how dystopian society became...
Love the lady who gave us the hot water for showers tour. I would offer her the unusedsecond floor of our house if she was not on the other side of the country. She’s thrifty, tidy, smart, resourceful and cheerful.
I guarantee you there is someone near you who is barely getting by who would benefit from that offer, if you want to walk the walk
@@jennifermarie3158 Actually, there is not. I live in a pleasant little Connecticut town and region. But don’t misunderstand me, we do contribute as best we can by helping support shelters for abused women and their children, food banks, veteran’s programming and other volunteer work. So do my kids. It was this woman specifically that I thought as just wonderful. I’m sure you’ll agree that not all homeless people can acclimate to all alternative housing or do not require many different services in order to change the course of their lives. A great deal of addiction, mental health, and unwillingness exists along with cities just not putting funds into affordable, safe housing.
@@jennifermarie3158@jennifermarie3158 you didn't read Allison's words carefully. She wishes to extend her offer to that particular (emphasized) lady. Nothing more, nothing less.
I bet she’ll go
With waiting list for section 8 being over a decade long and the working poor that don't have addiction, mental health or are just working people that do not earn enough money for housing there is always somebody. I am not knocking anything you do but the reality is that homelessness is never looked at for the people that have a financial issue. It is always correlated with the social ills of the lowest man on the homeless totem pole. @@AlisonProctor-fq4kt
This is really eye opening. Thank you for showing this, and thank you to the beautiful souls who were willing to speak with you 🙏
Man,This is eye opening.I wish the best for these awesome people.
Thank you for making this! My partner and I live in our van (planned) due to our seasonal job schedules. We have interacted with so many types after our years on the road and this video really helps to show our experience too. A few of us are here by choice and partial necessity, some of us are here by necessity and fewer are here due to addiction. It’s hard to convey the essence to those who don’t live it. I started grad school last year for architecture bc of this experience and hoping to help get some humane and considerate alternatives. Here’s to “[getting] into good trouble!”
Best of luck with your degree, I hope that you will be able to help many people have a safe roof over their heads.🙏😊
In my early 20's I left behind a roughnecking job on oil rigs in -40 Alberta, grabbed a 60lb backpack, and hit the road. I traveled through the west coast of Canada and the US for nearly 2 years, and saw every form of homelessness. I hitched highways, hopped freight trains, slept in national forests and on city sidewalks. I spent nearly a year in and around San Francisco. I saw the darkness of the streets, but also the shimmer of beautiful people. Some of the realest human connections and character building experiences can be found in the hardest places. Over a decade later, and those times are still as vivid as ever. You can take the kid off the street, but you can't take the street off the kid, in most cases anyways. Thank you for shining a light on these situations, you are doing great work.
@P A Ups and downs, but miles from the turmoil I was in back then. I got off the road, started a carpentry apprenticeship, but a week after I graduated my first year my dad died, and I spent 5 years in the bottom of a bottle, 3 years sober now, but still feeling far from where I need to be.
@P A I am pretty resilient, I walk about 10km a day with my dog, but don't do any formal exercise currently. I was a pretty chubby kid growing up, most of my family is overweight. I weighed around 230lb out of high school, lost 40 of that in my first 2 months working on Great Lakes bulk cargo ships, then cut the rest on the rigs. I have maintained about 160 for a couple years now since getting off the booze, but could definitely benefit from a regular workout routine.
Thanks for the encouragement!
@@PatJamesRicketts 60lbs sounds like a big backpack.
@@ppumpkin3282 I began my trek by hiking a portion of the PCT to get across the border between US and Canada. It was 7000ft up in some places! You need quite the assortment of gear to tackle that. As I traveled, I gave things away, learned what I could live without, and ended up with an average of 45-50lbs, even with enough food and water for myself and a dog. Ultralight/expensive hiking gear made way for heavy/rugged military surplus. Turns out freight train travel is not too forgiving on nylons or polyesters, so rubberized canvas and durable workwear was eventually the way to go. I roamed 20-30km a day with a pack on, to take it off for a rest or at night was like a cheat code for gravity, I felt like I could jump to the moon at times!
You've conveyed your story so eloquently. Have you considered writing a book?
The best video regarding the homeless I've seen, you talked to the right people, great job Kirsten.
Powerful people created this problem and have not been inclined to solve it for the past 40 years. It's horrible. I'm 64, still working on the west coast, thinking of leaving my friends and son to go live with a family member back east so that I don't have to work so hard. I've been on lists for over 50 affordable housing for years.
Carole, I worked for 50 years in California. At age 65 I made the choice to live the final chapter of my life in peace. I was on a wait list for 2 years (small community on the Oregon Coast). When I got the call that my housing was ready (affordable rate)I cried tears of joy. It was difficult to leave my family/friends, my home state. I exited California 2 years ago and will NEVER go back. My family comes here to visit, and they love the beaches, lakes, amazing beauty the Oregon Coast has to offer. I hope you live the final chapter in life in a place where you have peace of mind, relaxing and have time to smell the roses !
Maybe if you could get yourself classified as an undocumented immigrant things would go a little different!
@@TwinSister1957 Thank you. I'm very happy for you. I think I know the place you're talking about. It's gorgeous.
@crassgop I've lived in Florida, no thank you very much. I'll take winters over that any day, but I do know people who live there and like it somewhat. My solution for now is to get a 2nd job.
You can do early retirement.
I took care of my elderly mother, with dementia, she was 87 yrs old when she passed but after her death I was left without a home since I lived with her in her 1 bedroom apartment in a senior citizen only complex. I didn't have a job/income since she was my "full time job" nor was I old enough to live there so I instantly became homeless. She left me as the beneficiary of a $2500 policy payout and combined with the sale of my car and help of my sister and friends I bought a van which I live in full time. I am currently disabled and now fighting with the aid of a lawyer to be put on disability. I live in my van on a friend's property in Arizona and it's soon going to be in the upper 90's F and I just hope and pray that my disability case will soon be accepted so I can go somewhere where it will be cooler. Luckily for me I had been watching RUclips vids on RV'ing and vanlifing for a number of years so I feel I'm way ahead of the game now as I knew what I needed and had an idea of what to do once I had the van. I don't see my living situation changing any time soon. This isn't the lift I choose for myself but it's the life I have and I have to survive the best way I know how.
Oh I'm in much the same situation. 65 years old and was taking care of my paralyzed husband for the last 10 years, until he passed away 5 months ago. He needed round-the-clock care which left no time for outside work, so like you I am now looking for a way to be employed. Fortunately I have a friend that I can stay with for the time being but we'll need to find a way to house myself. I've been looking at them I for a while now as it is likely the choice I will have to make at least for a while.
You sounds very intelligent and determined! I hope you get on disability and find stable housing! All the best to you!
Same. Lost my housing when the people I rented a room from sold the house. I looked for a year and a half. Nothing available, affordable, safe neighborhood . Close to work ( Uber close) none of it. Also I don't believe in credit and haven't had an card in probably 35 yrs. This didn't help. People would rather see you in debt upto your eyeball just to put you further in debt. Anyway I bought an RV. Don't know how to drive and got chased around by the cops because it's against the law to have an RV in a residential area. I live in fear for a year. Coming back to the camper from work gave me anxiety because I was sure that it got towed with my dogs ,cat and ferret in it. Luckily the same people I rented the room from bought a piece of land upstate. I'm parked there now. I'm glad you have a friend to take you in. Stay strong, good luck with the disability determination and I hope you find housing. God bless.
I wish I had the money I would just love to give this amazing woman a house - she has made a home from nothing. God Bless Her.
Why do people lie like this ! We know dam well, even if you could you wouldn't! 😂😂 just facts
your deep intellectual response speaks for itself. God exists beloved. Peace be with you. You would too. Why not? We are all one.@@MichaelBrown-sh8yh
We flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Once I finished the restoration of that house..it took most of our life savings because we lived in a 500 year flood zone. So, no flood insurance. Since then I’ve lost my attachment to material things. Watching my things floating around in water. I want a tiny home and a camper van. Travel some and come back to my tiny home. That’s my dream. I never want to be a slave to another house.
Great work. I’m in Boulder Colorado and we are experiencing this exact situation. I’ve never been homeless however a great friend of mine has lived full time in vehicles since 2001. It’s very difficult.
I moved in the USA in 2009 without any profession, with elementary English and with $3000 in my pocket. I never lived in a car, never was homeless and since 2013 my salary was above the national average in the USA. What did I do wrong?!😅
@@user-wu2er4zd1d yet you don’t even have a profile picture? Strange.
"How hard is it to correct after you've screwed up?" - this is such an insightful question. We shouldn't make it impossible for people to get back up on their feet, and yet it is.
The guy in the RV is so right. I have a home and I'm looking around and I have so many things I don't need to have. House paid off 2 cars are paid off but I don't have money in the bank. If there was a disaster storm or health emergency i could very well be in these situations. This is an eye opener.
If you have a paid off house and paid off cars, I'm guessing you have no mortgage or car loan payments and have pretty low property tax (assuming you bought a long time ago). So I'm curious why you would not have money saved up. I'm genuinely curious, not trying to be a dick or anything. I know that it's pretty hard to save up when people have high rent/mortgage, so I would think that without those, it would be easier to save for an emergency.
@@CarlosG2288 No idea, I see these comments a lot on RUclips but it makes no sense. If a person has no debts then how do they no cash? I assume they have not worked in a long time by choice or other reasons or spent their money on other things. No clue.
@@drscopeify Well, with two cars and a house you still have insurance costs, repairs, utilities, real estate taxes, food, health insurance (unless on Medicaid). Two cars probably means a partner and kids (?)
@@howard5992 I guess it depends on what part of the country, I am paying 1300 a month for my mortgage and that is far above what i spend on everything else combined but I get it if someone lives in New Jersey or Illinois and life is crazy expensive that might not mean much.
Your house is the liquidation.
These stories really resonated with me. I worked as a software engineer in Sunnyvale, CA making over six figures but I willingly chose to live in my truck (with a camper shell) because I refused to spend over 50% of my salary on rent. I live in a different state now but I do miss the wild adventures, the mad scramble every night to find a quiet/safe spot to park and waking up to beach-front views.
What state are you living now
My Grandfater was an electrician and had the first christmas lights on his house in Sunnyvale.
In the depression.
Sure... when you're sitting on a six figure income, living in a truck would be considered 'fun' knowing you can bail out anytime you want if it doesn't work out for you. But for those who didn't choose to live in a car, it probably means a lot of tears being shed late nights when they're alone thinking how life turned out for them.
I *adore* my RV and my tents but I want to know where I am going to sleep...that "mad scramble" you loved so much is the only reason I don't want to go mobile full time...yet.
@@tonykartracer8032 so what
KIRSTEN.I HAVE BEEN A VAN / VEHICLE DWELLER MOST OF MY LIFE. AND AT 66 YRS OLD I LIVE IN A OLD BEAT UP 95. GMC G3500 1 TON VAN..YOUR DOCUMENTRY IS THE BEST MOST DOWN TO EATTH VID I HAVE SEEN. ❤❤ .KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK..MY SAYING IS "LIVE THE NOMAD LIFE.SIMPLE FREE AND GREEN"
AND CURRENTLY AM IN MILW WIS.DESPERATLY WANTING TO SAVE ENOUGH TO GO SOME WHERE SAFER..
Im so pleased all the people in the street camp are firm that no ppl doing drugs etc are in the camp..well done,show the community that not all ppl who need help are not gutter trash.
Your home looks really well set up,good on you 👍
Speaks volumes about humans being resilient but also how lacking in empathy people with means are towards others. Dog eat dog mentality.
There’s certainly a story here about how women persevere beyond inhumane treatment by men. The three women who raised kids in a car working as waitresses is heart wrenching.
Women are saints!!
Thank you for helping me understand. Prayers for all those who are making such efforts.
Love this channel.
totally agree. just amazing info about some real folks without any crazy "left" preaching. we are all human and have basic needs, and deserve to be given a break when we need it. God bless those struggling to do this life, as well as those who choose it. Maybe the gub'ment can give you some money because your environmental footprint is so small....?! 😃
@@floyd2222 what does "crazy left preaching" mean?
@@gabrielhollIts Democrat ( the left) policies that are destroying our country, plain and simple.
@@gabrielholl 😂😂 He doesn't know 😂😂
Once again, Kirsten, you've done a fine job of bringing together different voices from the margins in our society and showing not only how they live, but why they live the way they do. Thank you for this channel and the work you do. I've learned so much from your work over the many many years I've been following along and it's made my life better.
I lived in a minivan for two years. The only worries I had were to be hassled by the police and to have my van house broken into or stolen. There are times when I want to do it again, but the stress is a bit much.
I love the lady in the Oakland. It was fascinating to see her day to day. You approached this with such openness and nonjudgment... Than you
I like that the issue of initial cost was brought up. There are a lot of people that can afford a small studio or apt, but can’t afford the absurd move in costs. 10k to move into a studio that’s 1800 a month doesn’t make sense.
A big problem is that so many renters destroy the places where they live, don't pay rent for months forcing evictions, etc. Landlords ask for as much as they legally can to cover their potential losses, which can easily be tens of thousands of dollars if you include lost rent, lawyers' fees, court costs, insurance deductibles, higher insurance premiums, etc. If we had some kind of mandatory national insurance network for renters, where they could pay some monthly amount toward premiums, but which would cover landlords in case of any of these events, I think it would be a huge help. Renters would pay premiums based on how much they have cost landlords in the past. So if they always paid their rent on time, kept the place clean, etc., their premiums would be very low. Those who have been evicted and/or destroyed places they lived in previously would have higher premiums. Landlords would be covered for their losses. If this were the case, landlords would feel secure in renting out places without charging security deposits, pet deposits, last month's rent, etc., because they know they would be covered for any losses, and the majority of premiums would be paid by those who cause the problems in the first place. If those people later become responsible renters, their records could be erased (say, after 7 years like bankruptcy) and they could go back to paying the lower premiums. I'm sure there are many details that would need to be worked out, but I think something along this line would be a win for landlords and renters alike.
@@Geronimo2Fly a permanent class of renters
There are so many commenters elsewhere in the discussion section of this video who don't seem to understand that the cost to move to a more affordable area, sometimes prevents people from moving at all. So much victim blaming going on.
That is exactly where I am stuck. Can't afford to stay or leave.
This is a wonderful video and it shows there are so many people NOT on drugs or doing bad things when they find themselves homeless! I mean face it, this can happen to anybody. I got lucky and found a free lot in a gated community before the place blew up and now costs a small fortune to live there. We lived for over 10 years in a beat up 5th wheel and we recently sold that same lot for a sizeable amount of money(for us at least) and I an now a first time home owner!!!! We bought us a small home with 1/2 acre of land in a tiny rural town...... is it perfect? To us it is and we bought it with cash...... many people who have more money would probably laugh at our tiny house but having this stability means the world to us!!! I encourage people to never give up! Much love from Kansas!❤❤❤
My wife and I are blessed not to be homeless. We’ve both retired, have sufficient guaranteed retirement and are basically debt free. That doesn’t mean it could not all go south one day. Thanks for your video it has shown the living off the streets a better understanding. Thanks.
Kirsten, this is your best work yet. Thank you for shining a compassionate light on a growing situation.
Really an incredible work. Excellent job, and I can attest to the authenticity , and really praise your motives for making this. You have my subscription.
I've been doing Vanlife for the past couple years and this is a very well done video...I work remote and am traveling around most of the time-thanks for sharing the various stories on the spectrum of "VanLife" and house/homelessness.
I think these folks are smart, resourceful, have fortitude. I don't care where you call home, you can make it clean and respectful.
I love this comment. ❤❤
Excellent, one of my favorite. You found some great people, all homeless are indeed not drug addicts or alcoholics.
I was born in the area and have friends there as well. It's insane what the cost of living is now. The only way we are going to get out of this is to care about one another and work together to find solutions.
The solution is strict regulation of Real Estate markets. Eliminate speculation and the practice of using housing as an investment.
It seems this situation is world wide. Even in isolated western Australia people are being priced out of rental accomodation and rentals are scarce. More and more people particularly the elderly being left homeless. Situation bad and getting worse 😔
true, but nothing like in the US
Making elderly people homeless is one of the lowest things you can do in life.
What a shame for your country.
Inflation is the real covid.😮
Great documentary. I found myself in a temporary homeless situation living in a tent in the woods for a few months. Even in that little span of time it changes your perspective on life and can be a humbling experience. I would've prefered that to sharing a tiny pod with 3 mates any day
He's so right about how his home owned him, how his life owned him...I never looked at it that way be4. God bless him for opening my eyes to that point
I own my house and it owns me, as it needs to be kept up. Small price to pay. LOL Small price!
Pray for people on the streets whether in your heart or out loud with them. Love just melts human hearts and many people just break down in tears. To have anyone speak their name, to be heard and acknowledged, to pray openly for their needs. Wow, I was too chicken to do this at first, but getting better at it. Compassionate care through food services and other is very cool, but there is also the wounds of the heart that needs to heal as well. Encountering many wounded warriors out there!
It's so great to see the people who are not doing drugs and are just trying to have a place to live. It breaks the stigma that I have had that most people on the street are drug addicts or mentally ill. We need to see more beautiful small communities like these ones.
Thank you for doing this video Kristen! I cannot believe how much the US has changed since I was a teen.(70’s)
Great documentary on the fragile situation anyone of us can face. There are no easy solutions.
Yes there are! Build apartment complexes with studios in large numbers.
It’s cuz the city makes it hard to increase housing supply. Lack of housing supply, increased demand , drives prices up. I’m not talking “affordable” housing. Increase the Market rate housing. Can blame the NIMBYs and interest groups. They put controls over density, so this is what you get. Thank you for making this video.
Probably my most favorite episode so far. Thank you for sharing these perspectives
I cannot believe he's paying 1200 for that pod. That is just mind blowing. Makes me glad to be living in the country I'm living in now.
That one single bedroom, pod room is making the landlord 6k a month times how many rooms 20? The real criminal in the city is that landlord.
Yeah . The pod price is ridiculous
But that always happens if there are a bunch of well-paying employers in a urban or suburban area. People who work there all want to live close, because many corporate jobs have long and busy work hours, and their decent salaries means prices sky rocket, and literally just a bed is 1000-plus a month (and many will take that over losing half their salary to rent, or a 2-4 hour commute day.)
It is the natural economic result of having people with lots of money who “need” to live there for their well paying job.
One solution…more remote work with those high paying jobs. I worked for a great company that had a policy of you can live wherever and just work from home, so long as you get your work done. That means everyone doesn’t have to outbid each other on homes within driving distance of one city.
My mortgage for 1.2 acre house is $945
Pakistan?
One of the best videos on the subject..thank you for taking the time to make it
Excellent explanations! This is the first program I’ve seen that clearly points out the reasons that we have such a terrible housing crisis. Most landlords require a minimum of first and last months rent, plus a security deposit and “application fee”. As the first woman in the video said, that can mean having to come up with like $7000-$10,000 just to move in, and then the next month’s rent 4 weeks later. I know homeowners with big, lovely homes who have monthly mortgage payments that are half the cost of the monthly rent for a studio apartment where I live (LA).
This situation is just ridiculous.
Also, most landlords require proof of monthly income that is (at minimum) 3x the amount of the rent. That means that if you make less than $100,000 per year, you may never find a place to live.
@Julie Peterson not to mention that having kids AND pets is almost a death sentence for a renter.
That was our problem. So we bought an RV. We live in a campground, its not terribly cheap, between the cost of the RV & the 1200/mo space, however its ours and we can keep the kids & the pets :-) and I guess it's cheaper than renting a 3br house for 6k/mo, but it's not a 3br house....equivalent to maybe a 1br apartment that would be 3k/mo.
$1200 for a bed, no storage, sleep with all your belongings, sharing a space & probably the 1 bathroom with a gang of people...insane. I live near the capital & I'm at $1300 for my own 1 bed with en suite & walk in closet & I don't share with anyone. I'm only about an hour & a half from SF & I can't believe anything could justify that level of a price difference.
Your docs are excellent. A must watch for everyone. Well done.
Thanks.
I, for a second time in 3 years, decided to work in a local RV/Camp Ground. It’s part of a chain of campgrounds owned by a billion dollar company here on the East coast. Theses membership parks, sell memberships at likely 500% of their combined capacity. It’s where many of the Mid-section to East Coast homeless call home. “Homeless Campers” scurry from campsite to campsite with the 2 week in, 1 week out policy, until the season traditional campers start using their memberships and getting into a park is impossible. Homeless Campers include folks tossed out of their homes during the 2008 crash, retirees who say they cannot afford houses, veterans in limited incomes, and families who just can’t afford housing. I think a census needs to be taken on this group of people, and a story or two needs to be written.
in 2008, I naively believed we would NEVER allow the unhoused situation happen to anyone in America again. I sincerely thought that experience would be the awakening our nation needed bc it touched SOOOO many people. How did things get worse when so many people experienced 08?
Well done, such a compassionate and needed view into the houseless situation. Cant wait for part 2!!
I was born and raised in California and as a long term Southern California resident I am appalled at how expensive it is to be housed in California. It is completely ridiculous at how expensive everything is now. I don’t see how the next generation is going to get by. As soon as my wife and I retire, we are leaving California for a more affordable state to live in. 😕
Check out Thailand 😊
That's what people have to do. Sometimes you don't want to leave where you were born and raised, but you do what you have to do.
Not just California, all across the country housing is out of control
Thanks Kristen that was such an enlightening documentary. I’m in the UK and having been to different parts of the US I have understood that what I see on the MSM is very different from the reality, but great to see all the charecters surviving. Great work . Thank you.