At Home on the Road

From http://TheHardestYear.com : A cross-country road trip documenting ordinary Americans' experiences during the economic downturn.

The Walmart parking lot in Butte, Montana resembled a campground. More than twenty RVs, campers and travel trailers were parked on the outskirts when we arrived in the late afternoon. The vehicles varied from top-of-the-line, bus-shaped motor homes to rusting, beat up contraptions that looked ready to fall apart.

Our 1986 Toyota Escaper fell toward the less attractive end of that spectrum and, for the first time on our trip, we shared the Walmart parking lot with a vehicle just like it. That's how we met Mike and Jane.

We said hello shortly after they parked a few spaces away, and they were kind and welcoming as we chatted about the peculiarities of our aging twin campers. We figured the middle-aged couple were were, like the rest of the Walmart population, on vacation, maybe headed just down the road to Yellowstone National Park. But they soon revealed that their Toyota was no home away from home. It was their only home.

A few months ago Mike and Jane moved out of their Butte, Montana apartment as expenses ate up more and more of their meager income. They loaded themselves and much of their belongings into their small motor home and began their life on the road.

With little money for fuel, they're not criss-crossing the country. The couple has stayed close to Butte as they struggle each evening to find a safe and legal place to park for the night. After a few nights at Walmart, they reach the limit of the store's hospitality and must head out of town to stay in a state camping area before beginning the cycle again.

In the video story, they explain what life is like without a fixed address, the factors that led them to it and how they get by in a world that sometimes seems to have left them behind.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• rv
• camper
• homeless
• flying
• sign

[djkenny]

@stewartx5 okay, can be the case. keep in mind that bad things happen to folks. land lords will not rent to you without a job. land lords will not without credit even sometimes. jobs often will not hire without an address. it can be a vicious cycle. also, if they get a 7 dollar an hr job what guarantees they can rent much of anything? we need universal housing in this country since there is such low wages for minimum required. if rent is supposed to be 25% max income, then create that housing

[Dovenpeis]

@stewartx5

Being a moneyless student in your teens does not give you the poor experience, asshole.

Besides, just because you did it does not mean everybody else can. Not to mention that your success is a de facto result of other people’s choice. In the real world nobody is making it by themselves. And if you think you have the right to deny others a reasonable share of the collective product that is a modern economy, you are human garbage waging an illegitimate class war.

[CraKLePoPz]

Hello to everybody, and god bless you all, I have a 85 coachmen too, am live there, so, is a kool experience!!!!

[jaredj631]

these people need to get there priorities in order 50% goes to rent that's the case for most people in there early 20s. she should get a job anywhere she can minimum wage is less degrading than begging.

[vatti902]

God Bless you people. I wish you all the best, and understand your struggles. Take it one day at a time, and try to remember that as long as you have air in your lungs and can smile and have a laugh sometimes you have it made. Peace.

[098firechicken]

@democratichypocrit you're scared aren't you pussy?

[democratichypocrit]

@democratichypocrit Lonely? looking for a friend? Need a companion? Go to a gay bar.

[democratichypocrit]

@098firechicken Bit man at the key board ar ya? Another internet bully. LOL.

your name should be fried chicken

[098firechicken]

@democratichypocrit want to find out in person pussy?

[democratichypocrit]

@098firechicken Doesnt matter what you think of me. It only matters what I think. Life is tuff, tuffer for some than others.

[democratichypocrit]

@098firechicken Who cares. Must be you LOL