More Middle-Class Professionals Becoming Homeless

Published October 26, 2008 @ 08:13PM PT

What do real-estate agents, lawyers, business owners, Hollywood writers, and pre-med students have in common? Sadly, it is that they share the distinction of being the emerging face of homelessness in America.

The Burbank Temporary Aid Center in Burbank, California has seen a 66 increase in requests for assistance in the past year, According to the Contra Costa Times. About half of these requests come from middle-class people who, for the first time ever, are becoming homeless. Shelters across the country are reporting similar trends.

Colin is one of the unlucky individuals in LA who has fallen on hard times:

As a middle-class father and business owner, he had achieved the American dream. But that all came crashing down recently when his coffee-bean importing business went under and the home he was renting in El Segundo went into foreclosure.

With nowhere else to turn, the Westmont College graduate sought shelter for his family at the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles.

"It definitely gives you a whole new take on life and how quickly things can unravel," said Colin, 39, who requested his last name not be published. "My experience is far more widespread than I think people would like to admit. And we may not have seen the worst of it yet."

Unfortunately, he's probably right. And his story is becoming more and more common.

[Picture: Colin went from being a middle-class business owner to a resident of the Union Rescue Mission on LA's skid row, courtesy of the Contra Costa Times.]

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Author

Shannon has worked in homeless shelters and service organizations in San Francisco, the Triangle region of North Carolina, and currently in the greater Boston area. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.