Miserable and cold

LOS ANGELES – Nothing can be as miserable as being poor in one of America’s richest states in the dead of winter. It didn’t snow in this city when the El Niño storms hit California last week. But it was pretty cold out there and for someone  living under a railroad bridge as the rains poured, feeling miserable can hardly begin to describe what he or she must have felt.

I am familiar with America’s homeless people. They are so ubiquitous in the big cities. I have noticed that in a city as up there as San Francisco, the homeless seem to be growing in number. I see more of them over the last few years during my annual visits here. In the area where Twitter has its headquarters in San Francisco,  the smell of urine is everywhere.

But I didn’t realize the homeless in America are also now living under bridges, river banks and other hazardous areas. That’s so Third World!

The Los Angeles Times carried a story about one such man who has made his home under a railroad bridge. The LA Times reports that Felipe Lopez, a 59 year old man, assembled his furniture in an alcove under the train tracks as if he was living indoors. It is his Home Under the Riles!

“Next to a double bed – with box spring and mattress and a clean white comforter – was a kitchen table and set of chairs, along with cupboards... On top of his dresser sat a little Christmas tree with red decorations... a little dish of apples, neatly arranged, and a loaf of bread. He was living a few feet from noisy traffic... with no privacy whatsoever, but clearly a great deal of pride had gone into his homemaking.”

The LA Times reporter visited him as the first heavy rains rolled in. “He was asleep in his bed, covers pulled over his head... Soon after, the running water had crashed the curb and began spilling across the sidewalk and into Lopez’s encampment...  The water kept climbing as vehicles plowed through a street that had become a lake... Lopez rolled up his pants and began moving his belongings to safety, but it was too late. His slippers floated in swirling knee deep water... Lopez’s boxes and clothes rode currents as he helplessly watched his encampment get destroyed.

“Water moved under the frame he had built to keep his bed off the ground... and the bed became a raft. Lopez climbed atop it, a valiant captain trying to steer his vessel to safety against the curse of El Niño, but the bed travelled a good 30 feet. It came to rest-- soaked through with filthy water – against a telephone pole. Once Lopez had done what he could, he went back to rescue his Christmas tree... He pointed to the 110 freeway and said he knew a place near where he could build a new camp that wouldn’t get washed out in coming storms.”

Lopez is just one in Los Angeles’s army of homeless estimated at 44,000. The Los Angeles mayor told a news conference one of the storm’s immediate risks was that rising waters in the Los Angeles river would engulf homeless people encamped on its banks and islands. The mayor said the LA police was ready to temporarily detain homeless people illegally camped in and near the Los Angeles river who are in danger, but refuse to move.

They have emergency shelters, but very low utilization by the homeless. Outreach workers say many homeless people decline to go to the emergency centers because they have pets or fear loss of belongings. Why do all these sound so familiar to us? How could this be happening to people in the land of milk and honey?

A lot of bad things have happened to people here in the wake of the economic recession brought about by the sub-prime credit crisis of 2008. Homes were lost or just abandoned by owners who can no longer afford to pay the mortgage. Savings and retirement investments were lost.

The gap between the rich and the poor has widened. The middle class has shrunk and job losses have been significant. The economy has started to recover enough for the Federal Reserve to dare move up the interest rate.

But unless you are among the rich, the struggle for survival, or even just to maintain an accustomed lifestyle, is fierce. Job openings do not match available skills in the market. Young people stay with parents longer than usual. Some just drop out and end up homeless.

Tough economic times have fueled anti-immigrant sentiment. Immigrants, many at the lowest segment of the social structure, are accused of stealing jobs even as they struggle to eke out a living by taking on jobs Americans don’t want. There is a general feeling the immigration system is broken, but no consensus on how to go about fixing it.

One idea I keep hearing is to follow the system of Canada and Australia that emphasizes skills needed by the economy. The US System is heavy on reuniting families. That has resulted in many immigrants who can’t even speak English, too old to hold a job or without the skills that could land them a job. We have seen this in the Fil-Am community.

An article in ww2.kqed.org quotes a Filipino migrant expressing her fears: “I know for everybody coming to the United States, it’s always a struggle. There’s always that portion of being scared. Will my husband get a job? Will I be able to get a job myself? How will I take care of my baby? How will I feed him? Things like that came to my mind.”

I  know of new Pinoy migrants who work two jobs, while taking courses to upgrade skills. Because many of our immigrants come here due to family ties rather than marketable skills, they are no match to the highly skilled Indian immigrants who arrive here with ready jobs in the tech sector.

It is probable the US will adopt the Canadian system, but that may also exacerbate problems with the locals who are not educated enough to compete with the highly skilled immigrants from India, China and South Korea. That could mean more homeless Americans in the future.

It is miserable being poor and homeless in an affluent nation where one’s worth is measured by what one can afford to buy. Even those in the middle class with good and steady jobs struggle to keep their lifestyle.

I see my daughter who teaches first graders in a public school really work herself to the bone  everyday to manage a career she enjoys and raise two children she loves no end. Up before dawn, prepare the kids for school and out of the house by 6:30, she gets back home late afternoon with laundry to do, dinner to prepare and help her fifth grader with his homework. As her father, I cannot help think that with her teaching credentials and experience, she certainly can live better back home. But this is the life she chose when she got married here. On the bright side, there is no doubt too that her American existence is a fantastic character builder that makes me so proud of her.

There are many stories of successful Pinoy immigrants here. I have a sister in the East Coast and my three children here in the West coast. Doctors, nurses, lawyers, entrepreneurs, many have found their American Dream. But talk to Vivian Zalvidea Araullo, a former ABS-CBN reporter, who now runs an NGO in San Francisco helping Fil-Ams struggling to make it here and a different story unfolds.

The thing is, if there is any chance you can make it back home, think twice before embarking on your American Dream. Make sure you have a good plan and a good back up plan on how to make it here. Depending on relatives and friends for months or even years puts an unfair burden on them, specially if they are struggling themselves.

I realize there are many of our people back home who live like my daughter does here, waking up at the crack of dawn to catch the MRT and don’t get home until late at night. But difficult as life may be in crowded and poorly served Metro Manila, being poor and miserable in a foreign land in the dead of winter should truly suck even more.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.