Oregon Woman Turns School Buses Into Tiny Homes for Working Homeless Families

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Julie Akins, a freelance journalist based in Ashland, Oregon, began a life-changing road trip in August 2016. Off and on over the course of the next two years, she pitched her tent and lived among homeless people from Portland to Denver.

Fascinated by the working homeless, Akins asked what they needed to get off the streets as she chronicled their stories for the book she’s writing, One Paycheck Away.

Then Akins noticed families living in school buses. Curious, she knocked on the door of an old blue school bus and met a family with seven children living inside. They had ripped out the seats and put down floors. There were mattresses on the floor, tubs full of clothes and a stacked bookcase.

“It was in disarray,” says Akins, 58. “There was no toilet, shower or kitchen.”

The father had gotten too sick before he could complete the renovation and was in hospice care when Akins met the family.

After meeting other families who found homes in the buses, she came up with the idea to take retired school buses and convert them into nice, livable spaces with kitchens and bathrooms for working homeless families.

-more-

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/oregon-woman-turns-school-buses-into-tiny-homes-for-working-homeless-families/ar-AAGErdp?li=BBnbcA0

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. ditto

[love_katz]

3. Kick and rec.

[lunamagica]

4. K&R for visibility

[Hekate]

6. KnR

[StarryNite]

7. That is sooo cool!

[pecosbob]

8. Big fan of tiny homes and a reduced footprint

and anyone that gives of themselves as this person has done.

[MontanaMama]

9. Kick.

What a wonderful story....and it is so important to remember that so many of our fellow Americans are working and it just isn’t enough for them to avoid homelessness.

[sheshe2]

10. K&R

[trueblue2007]

11. i would live in one !!!

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. Neat!

[Indykatie]

13. Unusual Profile For the Second Homeless Man in Article

He's a 63 year old with 2 school age children and a wife too sick to work. He holds 2 Masters degrees, works as a substitute teacher and is working on a 3rd Masters degree. Why not get a second job to help pay rent instead of pursuing another post grad degree? Pursuing more education is fine but not at the expense of being evicted because you can't pay rent.