Homelessness In The Middle Class: Stable Families Reduced To Poverty

Here is the article, written in May 2011.

But within months, the life she had built evaporated. When she failed to secure a new job, she entered a steady downward spiral that eventually led her to a homeless shelter. Homelessness, once an abstract idea, had become real.


evaporate -> fail to secure a new job -> a downward spiral -> homeless shelter. 

an abstract idea -> real 


After the worst economic downturn since the Depression, formerly middle-class people like Cooke have found themselves reduced to poverty. With jobs scarce, and with government safety nets shrinking, one misfortune -- a layoff, an injury, a mortgage default -- can transform a person's life beyond recognition. No longer a condition reserved for the margins of society, for drug addicts and the mentally ill, homelessness has infiltrated the heart of America.

reduce to poverty -> with jobs scarce, 
one misfortune - a layoff, an injury, a mortgage default 
margins of society 
infiltrate 
the heart of America

As foreclosure and unemployment rates have swelled to epidemic proportions in the past two years, the ranks of the American homeless have grown: the number of homeless families rose 4 percent in 2009, and then 9 percent last year, a pair of new reports show. 

homeless families rose 4% in 2009
9% in 2010

But then came the financial crisis. As tax revenue withered, local governments across the nation were forced to slash spending. When Cooke finished her internship and looked for a teaching job, she found no one was hiring.

Perhaps even more significant, the number of households "doubling up," as desperate families move in with friends and relatives, increased nearly 12 percent between 2008 and 2010, according to Census Bureau data. Now, over 13 percent of all U.S. homes contain more than one family, the highest proportion since at least 1968.

People once accustomed to middle-class comfort have turned to shelters for aid.

"They have this look on their face like, 'I never imagined this would happen to me. I've worked, I'm educated. This is not supposed to happen to me,'" said Chris Canter, executive director of Shelter Network in San Mateo, Calif. "But for a variety of reasons, it has."

Today, Canter said, the majority of his clients are homeless because of a job loss. Almost two-thirds, he said, are homeless for the first time.

$1400 rent - five days as a substitute teacher, a driving instructor, $200 short on her $1400 rent.