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For homeless, a house with a roof
Selmia Magee, right, stands next to her EDAR, a portable home, with her family.
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Bob Moon: The bad news from Southern California isn't really unique, but that doesn't make it any less tragic. Officials here in Los Angeles County say homelessness has doubled since last year. Today, more than 74,000 people in the county have no place to call home. At the same time, there are only 12,000 shelter beds to go around.
Enter a device called the EDAR, which stands for "everyone deserves a roof." By day, it's a heavy duty shopping cart. By night, it converts to a tent that can sleep two people. Rob Schmitz takes a look.
Rob Schmitz: The idea for EDAR came to Hollywood producer Peter Samuelson on a bike ride last year. He noticed there were more homeless people than usual, and one of them gave him a tour of her make-shift home.
Peter Samuelson: There, behind the bushes was a large cardboard box. And it had been raining and it was wet. And it was smelly. And it was disgusting. And this was her home.
Samuelson sponsored a competition to invent an alternative, and the winner came up with the EDAR.
Selmia Magee zips open the canvas flap of her EDAR unit and peeks outside. Last night, she slept on the floor of the chapel at an overcrowded homeless shelter on LA's Skid Row. The 7 foot-long tent is suspended inches off the cold ground by wheels. Its floor is a thin, firm mattress. Its ceiling, a beige water-proof canvas, is four feet tall.
Selmia Magee: And it has like these little windows that you can open up, right? And then you can just feel the mattresses, it's really nice.
After you sleep in it, the EDAR converts to a covered shopping cart where you can keep your belongings.
Magee: You just simply lift that up. And it clicks.
Magee, her husband, two children, and two grandchildren have all been homeless since November, when her husband lost his job as a trucker. For her daughter, 11-year-old Kiyomi, the EDAR serves as a place to do homework, draw, and to escape from the routine at the shelter.
Kiyomi: It's kind of like my own little room, because I have my bed and then I have, I can put my stuff here and then I have a window. It's like a room.
Outside the chapel, EDARs line the hallways. The shelter has just ordered close to 50 more of them at $500 each. It's searching for donations to cover the expenses. Samuelson is currently in talks with one city in Southern California to use vacant land for an EDAR encampment. He plans to give away 10,000 EDARs by the end of this year.
In Los Angeles, I'm Rob Schmitz, for Marketplace.
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For those interested in donating, the link next to the story links to a blog with more info, but the donation page is http://edar.org/contribute.html
If each one of those who wrote comments (regardless of opinion) would donate the price of a dinner out, there'd surely be more shelters/help available. Put your money where your mouth is. NOW.
By the way, I live where there are homeless AND I donate on a very very regular basis.
NO EXCUSES!
There are plenty of homeless people who ARE working but can't pay rent. EDAR offers some dignity, some comfort, so that these folks can continue to work. Not a solution for everything, but we need as many ideas as possible. $500 too much? You could buy 2 very good raincoats for the same.
If you see someone who has fallen into a ditch full of water and is obviously drowning, do you pause to consider whether they might be illegal immigrants, intoxicated, handicapped, ethnically, politically, or socially different from you before you consider whether or not to help them? This is the richest nation in the history of the world and the fact that we have hungry and homeless children and adults must be attributed to the fact that we lack, not the resources, but the will, the intelligence, and the determination to correct the problem. Many of the same people who seem to feel that it is very important to be identified as a follower of Christ seem to have little notion of what that means exercised in the real world. Many thanks to those individuals who try to do SOMETHING as opposed to those who manage to criticize ANYTHING done to help fellow humans in distress.
I am unsure about California, but a great many of the homeless here have physical and mental disabilities OR were one time convicts. The one time convicts often have a great deal of trouble getting a job that pays anything but minimum wage. While I am sure there are a great many that will say they are getting what they deserve, nevermind how long they were locked in cages like animals to pay for their crimes, the ultimate point is that unless they have a road on which to find a productive life, would you expect them to return to anything other than crime? Why do we have the highest incarceration rate in the world? Now you have rampant unemployment with a less than caring public. Too many have based their opinions on appearance and money. These are all symptoms of a great ill. What it is? There are many theories, but if you find a lump on your neck, you would do well to figure out what it is. The situation here is no less serious.
As sad as it is, where are these "Homeless" people from? Are they infact US citizens or are they illegal aliens? Or are they simply a minority who got squeezed out of their homes due to the loss of income. If in fact they are of the latter, then they should be able to receive help from social services, no? And if they are illegal aliens, they should go back home and not be a burden to our country. Too many illegal aliens come here and bleed our social services to death, as opposed to being in their own country seeking health bennifits.
Thank you
When I first listen to the story on NPR, I was literally crying, with sadness and at the same time with happiness, sad because of the situation of thousands of people that are becoming homeless entire families, the story of Mrs. Magee really touch my heart at the same time happiness that people like Mr.Samuelson work hard to come up with solutions for homeless, they are not in anybody's agenda, so no one think that they have basic need like having a roof. thank you very much for helping you have inspired me to do the same by contributing to organizations like EDAR.....
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