Deteriorating Culture :
------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/06/23/business/z1e3d1455edc40d5f88257471006f05dc...
HOUSING: L.A. seeing more people living out of their cars
By CHRISTINA HOAG - Associated Press | Monday, June 23, 2008 3:13 PM PDT 8
Darlene Knoll, 53, takes a moment recently in the Los Angeles neighborhood where she resides with five dogs in her battered 1978
motor home after losing her job and house five years ago. As the economic slump forces more people onto the street, residents are
increasingly complaining about the tide of homeless turning their RVs, vans, campers and cars into curbside housing. In Los Angeles,
as in many other cities, it is illegal to live in vehicles on public streets.
---- Having lost her job and her three-bedroom house, Darlene Knoll has joined the legions of downwardly mobile who are four wheels
away from homelessness.
She is living out of her shabby 1978 RV, and every night she has to look for a place to park where she won't get hassled by the cops
or insulted by residents.
"I'm not a piece of trash," the former home health care aide said as she stroked one of her five dogs in her cramped quarters parked
in the waterfront community of Marina del Rey.
Amid the foreclosure crisis and the shaky economy, some California cities are seeing an increase in the number of people living out
of their cars, vans or RVs.
Acting on complaints from homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council got tough earlier this year by forbidding nearly all overnight
parking in residential neighborhoods such as South Brentwood.
