Woman with four kids "downgrades" from five bedroom house to 26 foot travel trailer..

[Fumesucker]

Edited to add: I lived with my two small dogs in a 22 foot travel trailer for about a year, if you don't have a lot of "stuff" it's not too bad for one person.. For an adult with four kids and a couple of pets it's most likely hellish, although less hellish than living in car on the street would be.

http://www.salon.com/life/pinched/2010/04/12/five_kids_in_a_trailer/index.html

Two years ago my children and I were living in a nice five-bedroom house in Colorado, and the decline of the housing market was just an abstract worry. I had plopped down almost all of my life's savings (including cashed-out retirement funds) on the down payment for our house to keep monthly payments low. I was employed in the environmental-permitting field and able to pay the mortgage. My worry was more personal: My young son was not growing. Adopted at age 3 with a successfully repaired heart defect, he had weighed 28 pounds for the nearly two years we had lived in Colorado. After what seemed like endless tests and failed fixes, we learned his lungs had suffered permanent damage in the 18 months before his heart was repaired.

"If he were my son," the doctor said, "I'd move to a lower elevation."

I landed a new job in California quickly -- so quickly, in fact, that we didn't have time to sell the house, an already difficult prospect in a down market. At the last minute, I agreed to rent it to a neighbor's friend who'd hit his own hard times -- his wife had left him. He was a contractor, and since the home needed minor repairs before we listed it, this seemed like a "win-win." Instead, it was a disaster: He never paid a dime, offering six months of excuses that came to an end, eventually, with a court order allowing the sheriff to remove him. But by then, the bank was waiting to take possession; my salary couldn't cover rent in California and our mortgage in Colorado. In March 2009, we lost our house.

The job followed about six months later, a victim of "overhead reduction" layoffs. And with no income, or assets, our landlord asked us to leave our rented house. We sold nearly everything we owned and prepared to move again -- this time into tents.

Read the rest of the article at the link..

[Xenotime]

1. It is so sad to hear these stories of suffering due to corporate greed.

I'm sure the doctor who suggested they move still lives in a wealthy area.

[ET Awful]

2. I wouldn't fault the doctor for suggesting she move a child with impaired lung capacity

to a lower elevation. Living in high elevations equals less oxygen which could be a HUGE problem for a child with impaired lung capacity.

[KG]

3. well, hope is on the way! lots o' signs for $10 hr jobs out there! america is awesome!

[ejpoeta]

4. with no insurance benefits or that awesome $400/mo plus $5k deductible per

person and then after you meet that deductible they still pay only 80%.... if they'll cover it.

[NNN0LHI]

5. For now, we live on my unemployment check ...

If the Republicans were in charge she wouldn't even have that. The fuck heads had no qualms about letting our unemployment benefits run out during other recessions when they were in charge.

I can attest to that from personal experience.

Sad story. But it could be sadder. Thanks for posting this Fumesucker.

Don

[OneBlueSky]

6. "We haven't applied for other benefits, . . .

reluctant as I am to complete the transition from middle class to certifiably impoverished." . . .

I hope this woman reconsiders and applies for whatever help may be available to her . . . all those years of working and paying her taxes made programs like TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) possible, and they exist to help people in situations like hers . . .

whatever her choices, my best wishes to her and her children (and the pets, of course) as they struggle to get back on their feet . . .