For homeless, a house with a roof
Limited shelter is a severe problem for California's homeless, whose numbers have doubled since last year. But a new portable home is at least providing a decent roof. Rob Schmitz sees how the EDAR works.
Selmia Magee, right, stands next to her EDAR, a portable home, with her family. (Rob Schmitz)
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TEXT OF STORY
Bob Moon: The bad news from Southern California isn't really unique, but that doesn't make it any less tragic. Officials here in Los Angeles County say homelessness has doubled since last year. Today, more than 74,000 people in the county have no place to call home. At the same time, there are only 12,000 shelter beds to go around.
Enter a device called the EDAR, which stands for "everyone deserves a roof." By day, it's a heavy duty shopping cart. By night, it converts to a tent that can sleep two people. Rob Schmitz takes a look.
Rob Schmitz: The idea for EDAR came to Hollywood producer Peter Samuelson on a bike ride last year. He noticed there were more homeless people than usual, and one of them gave him a tour of her make-shift home.
Peter Samuelson: There, behind the bushes was a large cardboard box. And it had been raining and it was wet. And it was smelly. And it was disgusting. And this was her home.
Samuelson sponsored a competition to invent an alternative, and the winner came up with the EDAR.
Selmia Magee zips open the canvas flap of her EDAR unit and peeks outside. Last night, she slept on the floor of the chapel at an overcrowded homeless shelter on LA's Skid Row. The 7 foot-long tent is suspended inches off the cold ground by wheels. Its floor is a thin, firm mattress. Its ceiling, a beige water-proof canvas, is four feet tall.
Selmia Magee: And it has like these little windows that you can open up, right? And then you can just feel the mattresses, it's really nice.
After you sleep in it, the EDAR converts to a covered shopping cart where you can keep your belongings.
Magee: You just simply lift that up. And it clicks.
Magee, her husband, two children, and two grandchildren have all been homeless since November, when her husband lost his job as a trucker. For her daughter, 11-year-old Kiyomi, the EDAR serves as a place to do homework, draw, and to escape from the routine at the shelter.
Kiyomi: It's kind of like my own little room, because I have my bed and then I have, I can put my stuff here and then I have a window. It's like a room.
Outside the chapel, EDARs line the hallways. The shelter has just ordered close to 50 more of them at $500 each. It's searching for donations to cover the expenses. Samuelson is currently in talks with one city in Southern California to use vacant land for an EDAR encampment. He plans to give away 10,000 EDARs by the end of this year.
In Los Angeles, I'm Rob Schmitz, for Marketplace.
Comments
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03/27/2009
For those interested in donating, the link next to the story links to a blog with more info, but the donation page is http://edar.org/contribute.html
From Denton, TX, 03/26/2009
Where can we donate to help people receive a free EDAR?
From Oakland, CA, 03/26/2009
If each one of those who wrote comments (regardless of opinion) would donate the price of a dinner out, there'd surely be more shelters/help available. Put your money where your mouth is. NOW.
By the way, I live where there are homeless AND I donate on a very very regular basis.
NO EXCUSES!
From Dayton, OH, 03/26/2009
Peter Samuelson is brilliant! We need more compasionate people like this in our world. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and your kindness and your energy to persue this, and inspire other people to do the same. Thank you!
From Lexington, KY, 03/26/2009
There are plenty of homeless people who ARE working but can't pay rent. EDAR offers some dignity, some comfort, so that these folks can continue to work. Not a solution for everything, but we need as many ideas as possible. $500 too much? You could buy 2 very good raincoats for the same.
From Roland, AR, 03/26/2009
If you see someone who has fallen into a ditch full of water and is obviously drowning, do you pause to consider whether they might be illegal immigrants, intoxicated, handicapped, ethnically, politically, or socially different from you before you consider whether or not to help them? This is the richest nation in the history of the world and the fact that we have hungry and homeless children and adults must be attributed to the fact that we lack, not the resources, but the will, the intelligence, and the determination to correct the problem. Many of the same people who seem to feel that it is very important to be identified as a follower of Christ seem to have little notion of what that means exercised in the real world. Many thanks to those individuals who try to do SOMETHING as opposed to those who manage to criticize ANYTHING done to help fellow humans in distress.
03/26/2009
I am unsure about California, but a great many of the homeless here have physical and mental disabilities OR were one time convicts. The one time convicts often have a great deal of trouble getting a job that pays anything but minimum wage. While I am sure there are a great many that will say they are getting what they deserve, nevermind how long they were locked in cages like animals to pay for their crimes, the ultimate point is that unless they have a road on which to find a productive life, would you expect them to return to anything other than crime? Why do we have the highest incarceration rate in the world? Now you have rampant unemployment with a less than caring public. Too many have based their opinions on appearance and money. These are all symptoms of a great ill. What it is? There are many theories, but if you find a lump on your neck, you would do well to figure out what it is. The situation here is no less serious.
From Harrisburg, PA, 03/26/2009
This is perfectly American, someone trying to make a buck off another's misfortune. $500 bucks? come on. If GM or the other auto companies don't end up in EDARS themselves maybe they can produce something and get the price down.
From Concord, NH, 03/26/2009
As sad as it is, where are these "Homeless" people from? Are they infact US citizens or are they illegal aliens? Or are they simply a minority who got squeezed out of their homes due to the loss of income. If in fact they are of the latter, then they should be able to receive help from social services, no? And if they are illegal aliens, they should go back home and not be a burden to our country. Too many illegal aliens come here and bleed our social services to death, as opposed to being in their own country seeking health bennifits.
Thank you
From Baltimore, MD, 03/26/2009
When I first listen to the story on NPR, I was literally crying, with sadness and at the same time with happiness, sad because of the situation of thousands of people that are becoming homeless entire families, the story of Mrs. Magee really touch my heart at the same time happiness that people like Mr.Samuelson work hard to come up with solutions for homeless, they are not in anybody's agenda, so no one think that they have basic need like having a roof. thank you very much for helping you have inspired me to do the same by contributing to organizations like EDAR.....
From St Paul, MN, 03/26/2009
EDAR Great Idea. I think this would be great for those who like to walk several hundred miles. St Paul to Chicago. Maybe the wheels are too small.
From MD, 03/26/2009
The story was inspiring, but the $500 is high and prohibitive. EDAR's would be an attractive product for the homeless urban populations throughout the developed and developing world if the price could be reduced to $100/unit. On the EDAR website (edar.org) it seems that the product is basically a shopping cart/camping tent hybrid.
From Cincinnati, OH, 03/26/2009
The thought of a 'tent city' scares me - not because of fear of the homeless, but fear of the fact that we would even need such a place. I have great respect for Mr. Samuelson for his heart and desire to help, and yet it seems like just a band-aid over a much deeper problem. I wish I had an answer for it - homelessness can be very complicated for some people living it.
From Philadelphia, PA, 03/26/2009
Yes, let us contact our representatives and demand, not ask, that they insist that FEMA, as part of Homeland Security, provide housing for, by making use of those FEMA trailers. Why wait for a tragedy when one exists continually in front of our eyes.
Thank you.
From NJ, 03/26/2009
Why are we spending more money for temporary housing when the govt has 100,000 unused FEMA trailers all over the country that we are paying enormous rent for the land to store them on?
Some may have formaldehyde problems, but if remedied, it is better than living in a tent or a soggy box, especially families with children.
Perhaps Obama needs to declare the homeless problem a disaster and get FEMA doing something about it.
03/26/2009
This is the richest country in the world and people are living in carborad boxes. Not bad people. Not crazy or lazy people. Just people who have had bad luck. What has heppened to this country? Thank you Peter Samuelson for caring enough about these people to do something to help them.
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