Who Are the Homeless?

JASON, 28, was born in Torrance, graduated from Carson High School and lived for a while in Lawndale and Wilmington. He would have liked to remain in the South Bay.

But then he lost his job, and he and his family were evicted from their Wilmington apartment when they couldn’t pay the rent.

Last month, Jason and his 30-year-old wife, Ann, decided to try their luck elsewhere. They stopped at Alondra Park to pick up some free groceries as they prepared to drive to Palmdale with their four small children, ages 4, 2, 1 1/2 and 8 months.

For the last few nights, they had stayed with a friend in Lawndale. Before that, the family of six lived in their battered 1968 Chevrolet van for a few nights after being evicted.

“Me and my wife have been together seven years in four different homes and we’ve never been down this low before,” Jason said. “I know I’m getting ulcers over this. I’m worried about my kids. I’ve never been through anything like this before.”

Using $40 from the sale of Jason’s motorcycle that morning, the family had purchased enough gasoline to get the van to Palmdale, where Jason had heard that a dry-wall installation job might be waiting.

Even if that job fell through, however, Jason figured his family would be better off in Palmdale.

“We hear there’s this place where you can move into an apartment for just $475, no security, no last-month (deposit),” he said. “I’ve got a friend who said she’d put us up for two weeks. I know I can work hard enough to get $475 in two weeks.”

His father, who lives in Colorado, once helped the family out of a tight financial situation, but not this time, Jason said.

“He thinks I ought to learn the hard way, take some knocks the same as he did,” Jason said. Four-year-old Trisha, munching on a banana given her by some church workers, tugged insistently on his pants leg.

“But it’s not the same,” he said, smiling wanly at the child. “It’s not.”