New communities of ‘middle class homeless’ are appearing in the US, and building temporary ‘tent cities’ to try to get back on their feet
THREE YEARS AGO, Marilyn Berenzweig was earning $100,000 a year as a textile designer in Manhattan. Now she is living with her husband Michael, a former producer on a New York public radio station, in a tent in New Jersey, just over an hour from where her old apartment was.
Marilyn and Michael are both in their early 60s. Marilyn was the main breadwinner in the house. Her designs were sold in major American stores such as Lowe’s. The majority of money earned went on everyday living costs.
Marilyn never really saved. She says that, “when your designs earn millions for a company you expect that they will always want you.” When she lost her job three years ago she knew immediately that things were very serious. By that stage most work in her industry was being outsourced to low-cost economies.
When she could not secure other work, she and Michael went to live with their daughter and grandchildren in a small house in Queens. The living situation proved difficult and they came to the decision to move to a tent city. That was nearly two years ago.
Just off Cedar Bridge Avenue in Lakewood, New Jersey 70 people live in a community built of tents and shacks. Rev Steve Brigham, who established the camp five years ago, is noticing a change in the type of people coming to the camp: “Beforehand you could generally say that a lot of homeless people suffered from addiction problems or mental illness. In the last two years, however, more people are coming to us as a direct result of the economic crisis.”
Neil Donovan, executive director of the National Homeless Coalition in the US, says that people like Marilyn and Michael are now part of what he refers to as the new middle-class homeless, part of a growing number of people who are “two paycheques away from homelessness”.
John Torres is a contractor in his mid-50s who earned up to $1,200 a week on different building sites. In 40 years he never experienced a period of unemployment until two years ago. He has been living in a tent in the Lakewood settlement for the last three months. When he initially realised that he would have to move into a homeless shelter, he says he felt a sense of anger. He wanted to work. He stayed at the shelter for 40 days until he heard of Rev Brigham’s camp.
Torres’s family still stay in touch with him. His brother-in-law comes to the camp once a month to take his laundry. He spends his day helping Rev Brigham with any maintenance that is needed around the camp or looking for work in the local library.
According to Rev Brigham the appeal of the camp is that people such as Torres feel they can contribute to a community, unlike in homeless shelters where people are asked to leave at 7am to roam the streets.
The camp is thoughtfully laid out. At its centre are three large school buses. Rev Brigham sleeps in one of them, a 68-year-old called Sam stays in the second, and the third is used by Brigham to get supplies to other homeless groups.
There is an outhouse shack with basic hole-in-the-ground facilities to the right of the buses, and behind it is a heated shower area. Water for the shower comes from an underground supply that is pumped using a generator. There is also a makeshift chapel.
One of the most striking things about the camp is the number of chickens running around the wooded area. Ten chickens were originally introduced for their eggs but according to Rev Brigham, “when somebody introduced a rooster they started behaving like rabbits”.
Through people’s donations the residents of tent city are able to have three full meals a day. There is a communal feeding area in front of the school bus where people can take any of the food left for them.
Rev Brigham says that there is little in terms of support for people who find themselves down on their luck. “The government will put you up in a motel room for a year but after that if you haven’t managed to turn things around, you’re on your own.”
There is no financial assistance for homeless people. They can get food stamps and bed linen if they are sleeping rough but there is no cash.
Neil Donovan of the National Homeless Coalition says that while the Obama administration is making efforts to address the situation, current policy falls short by sub-categorising the homeless. According to Donovan, there is a Rapid Rehousing Initiative that has been somewhat successful in helping the newly homeless but by identifying groups such as young mothers and veterans as a priority it means that other people fall through the net.
Anthony Bowers misses being able to watch television. He was unable to watch the Superbowl. He has a job in Burger King and earns $800 a month. At 23 years of age, he says that all of his co-workers know his situation. He doesn’t drink and spends his time in the library chatting to his friends back home in Tennessee on Facebook.
He left Tennessee two years ago to work in his father’s construction company locally. Work started to dry up dramatically last year leaving both father and son unable to pay their rent and forced to leave the apartment that they shared.
According to an annual report to Congress by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than 1.5 million people spent at least one night in homeless accommodation in 2010. Rev Brigham believes that if this growing problem is to be tackled politicians need to look beyond the special-interest groups that vote for them.
“These people do not want to be rich,” says Brigham. “They need assistance to bring them out of homelessness and bring them back into the system. These people just want a job to provide for their basic needs.”
Chris Godlewfki (26) is a tree surgeon. “Just because you get knocked down it doesn’t mean you stop trying,” he says. He first came to the camp after work dried up for him last year. He managed to secure some seasonal work during the summer which meant he could leave the camp for a short while but he had to return in winter. He saved for a DVD player during that time so he is able to watch films on it in the evenings.
During the day he chops wood for all the residents. Each tent has its own woodstove, which is crucial in winter when temperatures regularly drop below freezing.
Despite the fact that settlements like these are used by some Republicans to illustrate what they see as the failure of President Barack Obama’s jobs initiative and economic policy, the forthcoming election is not something most of the residents are pre-occupied with. John Torres says that politics doesn’t interest him and he never votes. He blames the economic crisis on the war in Iraq.
Marilyn and Michael Berenzweig’s family don’t visit the settlement. A friend of Michael’s read about him in a local newspaper and came to visit, but Michael says that for the most part he likes to keep to himself. Michael was resistant at the start but says that he has become accustomed to life at the camp. Their home is a canvas tent. They do their cooking on a propane stove in front of the tent for safety, although when it gets too cold they move it indoors.
Marilyn says that she was initially scared at the thought of moving to the tent city but through her daily chores she has managed to transform their tent into a home. She does miss little things from her old life, small objects and pieces of jewellery that she collected which had sentimental value.
Just outside their tent under a blue canvas cover is an old Hardman piano that Michael plays to entertain himself. The damp is not good for the keys but he can still get a tune out of it. He also plays the organ sometimes in the camp’s chapel.
The residents in the Lakewood settlement are positive about their future and are actively seeking employment. A website for the camp lists electricians, tree cutters and divers living there as available for hire.
Anthony Bowers says that the best thing about living at the settlement is that he does not have to constantly worry about getting kicked out. The worst thing is getting woken up by the roosters in the morning.
