In 2020, because of Pandemia, Chris Hoskey lost her job. For nine years, the woman dealt with the management of returns in a company producing cashmere clothing north of Detroit.
Without $ 14 per hour, she could not afford the rent in her mobile house park, so for a few thousand dollars she sold a trailer and left the city.
Loss of work made me lose everything
-said 49-year-old Hoskey.
Low pay is not enough for life
In search of work and a place to live, she bought a motorhome and moved to the northern Michigan, where she found a number of low -paid works in fast food and hotel restaurants.
After a few months of unemployment, at the beginning of July, she started a new part -time job at the Amazon delivery point, earning $ 18.50 per hour. Hoskey would prefer a full -time job. She had a problem finding a job for more than 20 hours a week.
Amazon spokesman told Business Insider that all employees at the Traverse City plant are limited to part -time work, which is what the company calls “Flexible working time”.
Although he has a job, he supplements the costs of healthcare and meals from Medicaid and SNAP programs and shares costs with her husband Jason, Hoskey does not see the exit from the camper. Jason recently started working almost full -time in a company dealing in the shaping of the landscape, where he earns $ 16.75 per hour, but the work is seasonal.
“The financial situation is terrible at the moment,” she said. “It is getting harder and harder for me to disentangle it”.
Homelessness in the USA is a growing problem
Hoskey and her husband belong to the growing number of Americans who work but experience homelessness. Many have low -paid work with an unpredictable graphic designer that does not provide them with financial security and the stability necessary to pay growing rents. Almost 5 million American employees want to work full -time, but they can only get part -time job, and this number has been increasing in recent years.
The Department of Housing and City Development estimates that people who resort to life in motorhomes or camping vehicles without media, such as running water, are “homeless without shelter”. The total number of working people is growing, but they cannot afford basic needs.
“There are different types of homeless people” Hoskey said. “There are people you see on television, and there are people like me who work to stay.”
They work and are in the crisis of homelessness
After about a month of work in a new job, Hoskey likes working at Amazon, where, he claims, her colleagues are friendly and caring. However, despite the work in which he earns, he pays more than a minimum wage in Michigan of $ 12.48, Unpredictable part -time work is probably not enough to Hoskey to set out a way out of homelessness.
A study conducted in 2024 among Amazon warehouse employees by the Illinois University in Chicago showed that:
- 48% of them had difficulty paying rent or other housing costs in the last three months,
- 53% experienced a lack of food safety, a
- 33% used one or more forms of public aid.
Amazon questioned the results of the UIC study, calling its defective methodology.
Similarly, the 2019 non-profit organization report from 2019 showed that Amazon storage staff in southern California received an average of $ 50,94 per year as part of public aid.
Wages are insufficient, irregular work, unpredictable and unstable working hours, and people do not receive enough money to pay for the rent
– said Daniel Flaming, president of Economic Roundtable, about workplaces such as Amazon magazines.
“To sum up: our goal is to be an employer of the first choice and in the last five years we have worked on it, By investing over $ 5 billion in hourly ratesincreasing our average rate to $ 22 per hour in the United States, “said Amazon spokeswoman Eileen Hards.
When running water is a luxury
For now, the couple parks in Jasona, where they pay a minimum fee for using company electricity, bathroom and kitchen. There is no running water in their camper.
Hoskey uses government health insurance and food assistance. The Michigan State Housing Office suspended the issue of new housing vouchers under the Section 8 program and closed the waiting list for the program in 2024 due to the lack of federal funds. Hoskey said that when they were really desperate, Jason asked his mother $ 50 here and there. “I'm very sorry about that” Hoskey said. “Because she lives from social insurance.”
They have a propany stove to warm up during the cold northern winter, but for part of the year they cover their 8.5-meter caravan with a tarpaulin so that snow and ice will not get on it.
They have air conditioning in the summer, but they turn it off when they want to heat something in a microwave or use a deep fryer.
I would like to be able to wash the dishes in my own sink
Hoskey said. “I miss trinkets.”
They hope that they will finally manage to collect enough money to buy a piece of land in the northwestern Michigan, build a house and become hosts.
“I try to be optimistic as possible, but we are here so long that it seems out of our reach” Hoskey said.
The above text is a translation with American Business Insider edition
