Volume 25, Issue 5
WisconsinChristianNews.com
Page 5
Perspectives Opinions • Commentary • Letters Why Are Millions Of Americans Sleeping In Their Vehicles?
By Michael Snyder September 2024
“Van life” or “van living” is a term that is becoming more popular around the country. People packing up their lives, moving into a mobile unit and exploring the states. According to Yahoo Finance, the number of
and stuff,” Katie said, “but it will bring up a lot for you to work through when it comes to not having roots somewhere … I’m a black woman and I’m already rare in Truckee as is, so to be also living in a van, I had so much
Have you noticed an un- usual number of vehicles in the parking lots of major re-
tailers in your area at night? If you l o o k
stuff around that, so much shadow work to do around the limiting be- liefs and feeling like I’m not supposed to be here, and I shouldn’t be park- ing here and I’m gonna get in trouble.” A lot of these people have jobs, and a lot of these people would not be officially classified as “homeless.” But the cost of living crisis has driven them to the brink of los- ing everything. Unfortunately, our leaders never seem to learn. They keep borrow- ing and spending money at an unprecedented rate, and this continues to cre-
closely enough, you will see that many of those ve- hicles actually have peo- ple sleeping in them. At this point, millions of Americans are sleeping in their vehicles every night. This is happening even though we are being told that the economy is just fine. But of course the truth is that the system is failing all around us. So if you get to sleep in a very warm bed in a very warm home, you should con- sider yourself to be very blessed, because vast numbers of people are really struggling right now. The primary reason why so many people are living in their vehicles is because the cost of living has soared to unprecedented heights. In particular, the cost of housing has be- come extremely oppressive. In fact, housing in the United States has become more unaf- fordable than it has ever been before. This week, I was stunned to read about a 33-year-old man named Ishan Abeysekera that is paying $2,100 a month to share a house with 23 other people. In a city as no- toriously expensive as New York, it’s common to see people in their late 20s and early 30s living with roommates to help manage the high cost of living. But Ishan Abeysekera has taken that to the next level with his current living situation in Brooklyn: a communal building that he shares with a whopping 23 other people. That is nuts! Who would pay that much to live with 23 total strangers? Of course, most Americans can’t afford to pay $2,100 a month for housing. Also, it is being reported that some flight attendants that work for American Airlines are “sleeping in their cars” because the pay is so low. Most new flight attendant hires are required to live in cities like Dallas, Miami, and New York, which have high costs of living that they cannot afford. Some of them fight for trips just for the chance to eat the plane meals, if the pilots don’t take their meals first. When I was growing up, I always thought that those that were selected as flight atten- dants had very good jobs. But those days are long gone. In this economy, many flight at- tendants can’t even afford a place to live. Of course there are millions of others in a similar position. In recent years, “van life” has become quite trendy, and more than 3 million Americans now fall into this category.
American van lifers has increased by 63% over the last couple of years, going from 1.9 million in 2020, to 3.1 million in 2022. In the old days, if you lived in a van down by the river you were considered to be a bum. But in this economy, living in a van down by the river is just considered to be normal. Needless to say, there are some “van lifers” that choose the lifestyle because of the free- dom it offers. But there are many others that have been forced into this lifestyle. A woman named Michelle Rose that used to own a home in Montana is one of them. Three and a half years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, Michelle Rose was about to lose her Montana home, was having issues with her job, lost her mother, and put every- thing she owned into a van to live in it per- manently. “I was like let’s just do this, let’s just sell the house and get on the road and we will fig- ure out things as we go. It has sort of been a by the seat of my pants kind of life,” said Rose. Michelle says that finances are the hardest part of van life for her, it is a constant worry and finding work is also challenging. Another woman named Katie that works at a local coffee shop admits that it was a tough mental adjustment when she started to live out of her vehicle… she spoke about the mental legwork she had to work through in order to reach a sense of belonging in the commu- nity. “Van life is
ate even more inflation. If you can believe it, our government is even spending “up to a quarter million tax- payer dollars” to teach Iraqi kids how to be climate activists. The State Department is offering up to a quarter million taxpayer dollars to an eligible nonprofit to teach Iraqi teenagers about cli- mate activism. Iraqi high schoolers could receive “Eco Ac- tion Clubs” bankrolled by taxpayers that will teach them how to advocate for environmen- tal reform in their home country, according to a grant solicitation posted by the State De- partment earlier this month. The clubs will have several objectives, ranging from devel- oping an “eco-agenda and action plan” which will generate “climate change solutions” to running a social media campaign to increase awareness of the climate crisis. We are literally committing national sui- cide, but most of the population doesn’t seem to care. Every election cycle, the big spenders are sent back to Washington over and over again. Meanwhile, more Americans are being forced to sleep in their vehicles with each passing day. Please do not look down on those that have been forced to sleep in a vehicle, because with a bit of bad luck just about anyone could end up in the same situation.
MISSIONARIES TO THE PREBORN Speaking Up For the Oppressed Preborn Babies P.O. Box 26931 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53226 (414) 462-3399 defendbabies@missionariestopreborn.com www.MissionariesToPreborn.com
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