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The descent into homelessness can be equated to falling off a cliff. Wealth buys passage on toll roads a safe distance from the edge, but poverty's foot path runs along the craggy and unstable lip of a gaping precipice. Emma and her family hit a few ledges on the way down, blown by winds of misfortune every time they began to regain stable footing. As Emma describes their story: "It's too much bad luck for anyone to believe."
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In February, David Walters and Laurel Sprague left Georgia for New Mexico in search of better employment prospects. The young couple now lives in an RV at a KOA campground in Bernalillo, where they work two days a week for a combined income of $900 a month, plus free rent. Savings have been depleted; they're starting to rely on credit cards. From an outside perspective, one might pass precipitous judgment that David and Laurel have had their lives torn asunder by the recession. But they choose to view their life as an adventure. Read More
Pat Poole was laid off from his construction job in April. Someone stole his motorcycle in May. When I meet the 49-year-old at a gas station on US 40 in eastern Utah, three dollars and change represents his entire net worth. By now, Pat has been on the road for more than a month, hitchhiking thousands of miles from Sarasota, Florida, driven by strangers and sustained by hopes that he will arrive to find a more fertile job market in Utah.
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Since Tim Christiansen was laid off the week before Christmas last year, his wife Porsche has learned many lessons unanticipated in the meticulous life plan she used to have. Like how to let go of those plans and live for today. How to barter services, such as mending in exchange for diapers. How to apply for food stamps. How to make her own detergent. And that her husband is even more amazing than she realized when she married him.
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Antony Roger Ellington III began his own kind of recession roadtrip last night. With a two-week route planned through Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, Antony hopes somewhere, someone will have a job for him. His pride suffering from three months of unemployment, he doesn't much care where he ends up living, as long as there is work to be done.
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The paved drive turns off Colbert Road--its surface unblemished by any cracks, its curbs as pale and pristine as the day a hot Florida sun dried the cement. Elaborate landscaping--albeit somewhat overgrown--frames the entrance to a short bridge embellished with decorative siderails designed to resemble hand-forged wrought-iron latticework. Crossing over the drainage culvert leads to...nothing.
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The Flopeye Cafe in Great Falls, South Carolina has at least a dozen forms of fried on its menu. I order two: breaded squash with tater tots. The server chuckles as I bemoan my lack of restraint. Laughter comes easy for Rebecca Polston, as do the tears after she sits down to talk to me.
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Results tagged “construction”
The descent into homelessness can be equated to falling off a cliff. Wealth buys passage on toll roads a safe distance from the edge, but poverty's foot path runs along the craggy and unstable lip of a gaping precipice. Emma and her family hit a few ledges on the way down, blown by winds of misfortune every time they began to regain stable footing. As Emma describes their story: "It's too much bad luck for anyone to believe." Read More
In February, David Walters and Laurel Sprague left Georgia for New Mexico in search of better employment prospects. The young couple now lives in an RV at a KOA campground in Bernalillo, where they work two days a week for a combined income of $900 a month, plus free rent. Savings have been depleted; they're starting to rely on credit cards. From an outside perspective, one might pass precipitous judgment that David and Laurel have had their lives torn asunder by the recession. But they choose to view their life as an adventure. Read More
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Since Tim Christiansen was laid off the week before Christmas last year, his wife Porsche has learned many lessons unanticipated in the meticulous life plan she used to have. Like how to let go of those plans and live for today. How to barter services, such as mending in exchange for diapers. How to apply for food stamps. How to make her own detergent. And that her husband is even more amazing than she realized when she married him.
"I did not want to go to the unemployment office to get money that way. My pride had a lot to do with it. Going to the unemployment office would have been like rock bottom for me," Kenneth Gregg explains. "I was getting close, but instead I chose to move away and keep looking for work."
07/23/09 12:01 PM
Real Recession Roadtripping: Seeking the El Dorado of Employment
Antony Roger Ellington III began his own kind of recession roadtrip last night. With a two-week route planned through Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, Antony hopes somewhere, someone will have a job for him. His pride suffering from three months of unemployment, he doesn't much care where he ends up living, as long as there is work to be done.Read More
The paved drive turns off Colbert Road--its surface unblemished by any cracks, its curbs as pale and pristine as the day a hot Florida sun dried the cement. Elaborate landscaping--albeit somewhat overgrown--frames the entrance to a short bridge embellished with decorative siderails designed to resemble hand-forged wrought-iron latticework. Crossing over the drainage culvert leads to...nothing. Read More
The Flopeye Cafe in Great Falls, South Carolina has at least a dozen forms of fried on its menu. I order two: breaded squash with tater tots. The server chuckles as I bemoan my lack of restraint. Laughter comes easy for Rebecca Polston, as do the tears after she sits down to talk to me.
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