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Dateline investigates whether or not the American dream is still alive.
Video journalist Aaron Lewis in Santa Barbara, California, surrounded by some of the most
valuable real estate in America, yet his story unfolds in a car park.
Such
is the magnitude of the US’s economic crisis that a new breed of
homeless person is emerging: middle class Americans who’ve lost their
homes and are forced to live in their cars. To keep them safe at night,
the New Beginnings Foundation has arranged for security guards to watch
over the sleepers at 12 different parking lots.
Aaron meets
Craig Miller, whose life coach business dried up as the economy
plummeted. Now he, his wife and two children live in a borrowed
recreational vehicle.
One real estate broker tells Lewis the
phenomenon is the new downside to keeping up with the Jones’s: people
buying trophy homes in an economic climate that required no down
payment and involved little bank scrutiny.
Yet among those
living in the parking lots, Aaron finds surprising optimism. Barbara
Harvey has spent months sleeping in her car but has accepted an offer
to stay in a friend’s house. The 60-year-old is leaving Santa Barbara,
her home for 26 years, to start her life over.
On air: 1st October 2008
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