Who knows what kind of businesses are doing well during this economic crisis?

Due to the foreclosure crisis and credit crunch, how many of you are on the verge of becoming homeless?

• Or know someone or a bunch of someones' who already are? I know the government doesn't give a crap about the American people (otherwise--why are they trying to force us to eat a $700B bill to bail out the wealthy elite of Wall Street?), but how many of you know someone who will become homeless because of this crisis? Personally for myself, my wife and I are--yet...we never owned home. Being on fixed income and unable to successfully find work or go to back to college on our own terms, we thought we would be here in our apartment for awhile longer yet. We never once *thought* that we would be affected by the foreclosure crisis or the credit crunch this bad. But over the past several years, we both saw red flags and early warning signs that something bad was coming our way--and we started packing up our things and getting ready. Just in case. But the bottom fell out this year when housing would no longer allow me to continue pay over 40% of my fixed income. I was thinking, "2009 would be our last year here." But things came to a head a year earlier than planned. And while we were lucky to get a large enough storage unit for our things--we quickly discovered that we were priced *out* of any possible rental unit in the area. We simply had no money to barter, bargin with, or engage on--with any of the complexes in my immediate target range. Even going outside our area of residence proved to be a futile gesture. Rents were exploding by the wayside--up and up. To levels I've only heard about rumored in places like San Francisco and checked off in Seattle. (You know: The expensive *posh* rentals some of us can only dream of.) So...we found ourselves in a pickle. One that we quickly tied to what's going down nationally. As a result, we are going to be homeless in a matter of a week. Our credit checks came back dinged because we didn't think having such a low amount in collections (less than $500) would hurt our chances of securing even a 1-bedroom unit. We never dreamed that the credit crunch would sweep people like me up and hit me or my wife where it hurts the most. Not once. And because of the way the crisis is playing out, it may be several years before things start to moderate or even reverse itself--allowing us to get a place to live again. Because even the jobs we have these days aren't up to combatting the level of inflation and COL that has crippled the majority of us working Americans. Despite some of my friends and family-in-law's insistance that we find work--it's really bad timing. The jobs aren't strong enough to mount an effective attack on the outrageous asking prices for rent these days (they never were), and most don't carry basic health insurance. I normally didn't worry about that in the past, but now I have a reason to: I was diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic blood disorder only 2 years ago. A kind of blood cancer that altered my body's ability to properly clot itself properly without going into overdrive. The only way I can control my now over enthusiastic clotting factor is through blood-thinning medications. Which job do you know that would be able to cover me with autotomatic health coverage? So far, I haven't seen anyone who would. Most businesses health care plans kick in between 60 days after employment and 1 year. My window of viability is only measured in days--while my overall survability is 3-6 weeks. There would be no *way* I could last 2 months or a year without meds or access to a doctor. So getting a job for me has become challenging if not difficult now. For me and my wife, it's a simple choice: Get a job or die prematurely. Which is more important? I choose life over financial convenience. I have to. I have no choice in this matter. But I've been homeless before. And it's not because I haven't sought to better myself. Things just don't go the way you planned it. I've made some dumb mistakes and decisions--which cost me--but I've learned from my past errors. This one...I can plant firmly at the feet of our useless government. This crisis could've been *avoided* had the GOP and Bush just stuck to keeping certain institutions and Wall Street regulated and in check. But they chose to *remove* these safe guards in favor of greed, power, and the promise of more money. And now...? We are all paying for it. In way or another, we will ALL pay for this. As I've told you mine, what's your story? How are you being affected by this?

• Answer:

  I lost my home and just about everything I owned about 8 months ago. I'm a 56yr old woman who no longer has any family to help out. The loss is devastating and being homeless is overwhelming. I never thought this would happen to me. There's no place to go that isn't public especially the bathroom. The feeling of not belonging any where is too much to bear. There's no privacy, no place to shower and it's hard to find places to sleep without being woke up or harassed by the police. Don't dare tell anyone you're homeless cause you're immediately looked down on and considered scum. There's alot of homeless people who aren't bad people they're just broke people. Some are too ashamed to even contact their families or friends. As far as getting any help through state agencies or human resources forget it....I either don't qualify or there's waiting lists forever. Although I come from a long line of native Californians who have paid taxes here all their lives it just doesn't matter. The only help I got is food stamps which I'm thankful for but they don't cover hot foods and I've had no facilities to cook food on. I even wrote my Governor and his only solution to the problem is about 10yrs away. You can't get a job without a address and you can't get a address without a job! The only help I've been able to get was through the churches even though I haven't attended any of them. They're also the ones who have helped me get this rv . I now attend church You won't see any of those people from Wall St. out here in the streets nor will you see them try to help the people they put out of their homes into the street. Of course the goverment is gonna help the one's who are responsible for this but they won't help the victims who are the American people. This all happened suddendly to me without warning and it can happen to you although I hope and pray it doesn't.