From Fat City to Tent City
http://www.bilerico.com/2008/09/from_fat_city_to_tent_city.php9/11/2008
Remember when many of us kept lists of names of lovers and friends who died of AIDS? Not long ago, I sat down and made a list of people I know -- some students, mostly educated professional people -- who are now a rent check away from living in their cars, or on the street. The list turned out to comprise a shockingly high percentage of the LGBT people I know -- a scary profile of the thin financial ice we're all living on. One name is an L.A. friend who was unemployed for a year, scratching along with temp jobs and selling some bits of jewelry and silverplate from her mom. She's a hardworking and courageous soul who left no stone unturned. But now her unemployment has run out, she has nothing left to sell, and expects to be evicted in the next 30 days. "I'll be looking for some bushes to sleep under," she said.
