Hard times...
 

Today I went to my storage facility to get a set of wheels I wanted to swap onto the Z3. As I get to my floor, I hear a television and turn the corner to see a guy sitting in a chair watching a portable set, eating a bag of chips. When I rounded the corner he hastily picked up a stack of vinyl albums and shuffled thru them as if he were looking for something, but pretty clearly the man (who had to be in his 60s) was living there. A sobering sight, I'll tell ya. I hope this is just a rough patch, and not a stop on his descent into something worse...

He's probably safer there than out on the street or living in a car somewhere.

Sadly I think there's going to be a lot more of this in the coming years (more older folks retired either voluntarily or not who haven't saved enough to retire with a normal standard of living). Sad, but if he's not hurting anyone or bothering anyone I'd leave it alone - maybe leave some groceries and stuff where they'll be found to help him out.

Ive been hearing alot of the same thing around here. But I know the facility owners have been keeping close watch on it.

safer until he needs heat...then there is potential for big problems to include loss of the OP's property. Maybe just talk to the guy and see if there is some place better for him.

The CPS took kids from a family in Houston recently. They had running water, a/c, a means to cook food, everything. I think it was a 12x20. It's sad to hear of the family's predicament, but those kids had been doing just fine living in a storage facility.

Someone b!tched, and the government split a family.

I - like most people - rarely visit the place, maybe twice a year. Since I was last there they'd upgraded security to require an access code to use the elevator, and when I went to the office to get my code they had a couple of LCD screens showing video monitors all over the building. I don't get how they haven't spotted him, but I can't see ratting the guy out when he's down on his luck.

Sad story but what can you do? I'd just mind my own business.

Maybe he doesn't want to be helped.

You should see what's going on in Detroit, it's scary...

The guy I got my 914 from had a storage unit that was set up to run a repair shop out of. He had a lift in there, with a little office and a bathroom. He would stay there overnight sometimes, especially when he got a bunch of parts and was trying to finish something.

You have no idea how many people live as such. I could give a 3 block introduction/experience, and your problems would become small.

Maybe that guy just wanted to watch the game and that storage area was the only place he could get away from his beotchnig wife long enough to do so?

Had the same thought.

I've spent the morning at home doing some minor repairs/maintenance while the wife runs the kids around just so I could get some me time.

Haha!! He might have moved the tv to get her off her a$$.

lmao! :d

Several visit their units during the day and catch some sleep. I guess if the door is open they are not really breaking any rules. They apparently are out all night somewhere else. We have small colonies of motorhomes with permanent residents all over the city, but not on strictly residential streets. Near supermarkets and other shopping centers seems to be a favorite along with side roads leading to freeway ramps.

If you've been laid off and can't find a job or the job doesn't pay much, where/how do you live? Possible low and no-rent locations include: car, tent, storage facility, under a freeway overpass, homeless shelter, park/bus bench, alley, street.

And many of these are regular folks. It's not pretty. More so if there are kids involved.

Sherwood

Nowadays it wouldn't be a problem cause I have savings, but there was a time in my youth I was faced with that kind of situation.
My daughter was very young and we had just spent almost every penny we had on our house when the company I worked for unexpectedly closed down and laid everyone off.

Within a week I took a job I hated because it was laborious, dirty work and I had to travel constantly. If I was lucky I could spend one day per weekend at home. But it paid around $20/hr plus overtime was available so I could pay my bills, it would just take longer days.

I did that for about 6 months and then opened my own small consulting business (just me and one other person), which I sold about a year later for around $60k net after all expenses when I found a good steady job where I wouldn't have to travel.
It was a tough period and I missed part of my daughter's first few years but I did what I had to and there were no excuses made.

Lots of folks out there think they're too good to take a crappy job, that it's beneath them. They'd rather sit on unemployment and make excuses as their situation worsens than do something about it. Thank God I wasn't one of those.

When faced with adversity you either man up or give up.

ep: That is a sad thing to see.
Did you ask him if there was anything you could do for him like give him a ride? If nothing else, I bet he would have loved to just have someone to talk with for a little while.

Most of the big storage units around here are climate controlled. Kept in the 50s in the winter, and 80s in the summer....

Raised in the South, so I always speak when I see someone, but he was disinclined to chat. I suspect he was nervous about me turning him in.

Yep, this one is, though mine has nothing that requires that - just car parts I've accumulated over the years. I tell myself they're not worth the $1200 a year I spend storing them, but it always turns out I need something in there...

If you 'd like to help the guy, you might want to check back in a week and casually ask him if he wants the unopened extra burger, piece of fresh fruit, can of cold soda, whatever... you (just happen to) have in the car. If he says "sure" then randomly drop the idea that you might be able to suggest some contacts who can help him with what ever he may be needing... Street smart people are usually quick to pick up on whether you are going to drop the dime on them or not.

maybe he can get a job there as live in security?

also, maybe the security guys did see him on their cams and are letting him alone...

Different times now Sammy. You can't necessarily project your past experience to today's predicament and say, "Sorry, but I did it". There's not enough jobs, even menial ones, for the number of unemployed.

Sherwood

yep. I got laid off when my wife was 7mths pregnant. No IT work around here so I went into real estate. Got licensed the day before my daughter was born. House, 2 cars, a brand new baby... that %$#% will light a fire under your a$$. Real estate market was not exactly booming, I worked 80+ hrs a week including knocking on doors for 4 hrs a day, 5 days a week for leads. Got a lot of doors slammed in my face, but I got some listings too. It was a little emabarrassing sometimes, seeing people I knew... I'd gone from a "professional" career to banging on doors half-desperate for a lead. It worked though, just b*a*r*e*l*y squeaked by my first year, any single deal could have broken me, but we made it. was up steady on my feat last year, and really cookin' this year.

When my wife went back to school a few years ago, she took a part-time job at the same deli she had woked at 10 years ago. $9/hr making sandwiches at lunch for the people she used to work with. A bit humiliating? Yes. But did we miss mortgage payments or fall behind on our bills? no.

I do sympathize with people getting hurt by this economy, but there is ALWAYS work. It just might not be the work we want.

I drove through the other day and saw one of the tent villages under an overpass. hundreds of people.

wow. that's different than the stuff that I'm talking about. When a local economy is that decimated, there really is no work. It would be hard to watch thriving businesses and good jobs disapear

every private airport in l.a. county had at least one newly divorced guy sleeping in a hanger. been that way as long as i can remember.

There are several encampments on state land around here in the summer. I don't know where they all go when the snow flies. Tent cities out in the middle of nowhere. Usually friendly, peaceful self-policing little communities which is why we never hear about them. Normal families who have become nomadic.

There are quite a few people living in vacated warehouses, too. Hard times.

It's also a very different situation for a guy in his 50s/60s than a guy in his 20s/30s.

Nobody is going to hire you when you're in your so-called "golden years". No way. Especially when there are 30 younger guys willing to work the same job.

One of the most criminal aspects of the recent spate of layoffs is how it has been disproportionately targeted at near-retired, highly-experienced individuals at the peak of their earning power, simply because it allows a company to get the maximum $ cut off their payroll while minimizing the headcount reduction they have to report. Utterly soulless. You KNOW those guys will never see the kinds of incomes they lost ever again and their entire end-of-life plans are likely in turmoil as a result - even if they did have investments, retirement accounts and all the rest.

P-O-P, that is a spot-on accurate analysis of the situation. We are seeing that all over the Seattle area, and it is getting worse every week.