Overnight in Walmart Parking Lots: Silence, Solace and Refuge

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Be grateful for having a home to even spend Thanksgiving at. There are still people right now who are far worse off.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/14/us/walmart-parking-rv.html

As night falls, the motels and R.V. parks along America’s highways begin to fill up with travelers needing a place for the night.

But to untold thousands of motorists each year — some with a sense of adventure, others looking to save a buck, still more with no other place to go — Walmart is often a willing host for overnight guests.

“It’s not pretty: no pine trees, no bubbling brook, no ocean beach,” Chuck Woodbury, the editor of RVTravel.com, said in a tutorial video intended for casual travelers. “The idea of staying at Walmart is to park for the night, to get some sleep and then move on.”

Walmart’s practice of letting people populate many of its parking lots has made the retail giant’s stores a reliable, if somewhat improvised, destination and a place where an informal culture emerges before and after dark.

[underpants]

1. The RV crowd has been doing this for years

but they do it as recreation

[mshasta]

2. Most Americans are one paycheck away from the street

Most Americans are one paycheck away from the street. Enjoy the light while it shines.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. As the Sun goes down,

we see certain Retailers Parking lots fill with Families living out of their Cars and Vans. But,this is Trump's new world order. Many of these Adults have full time jobs but can not afford housing.

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4. Been happening for a long time already here in California

Rent is just simply too much now and just won't stop skyrocketing, especially around the Bay Area. At this point, living in a car is your only real option to survive unless you want to hit the streets.

[Wellstone ruled]

5. Yes it has,started with Reagan

and only increased. Here in Vegas,we have over three thousand homeless School Children,living out of Cars,Vans,Campers and tents. But,Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn need tax breaks. F---n hypocrites.

[Nevernose]

6. Its way more than 3000

Once you count all of the other types of homeless kids: weekly hotels, couch surfers, living with relatives (not in a fun, willing way), runaways, abandoned kids, living with friends, etc.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Someone on the local Right wing News,

said,last year there were some 10% of our Student population that were Homeless. That would be in the neighborhood of 33k kids. I noticed after that report aired,the Vegas Convention and Visitor Bureau had a major hissy-fit. Their was a sudden survey done one night and they came up with some bogus number like 5k homeless in the Valley. Next morning,all the TV and Newspapers published this bogus number. Our main Newspaper is owned by Adelson,duh,what could go wrong with that. And Sinclair owns two of the TV stations.

[Doreen]

7. YUP!!!