Two miles from Los Angeles there is a Parking lot where drivers of Uber are waiting for orders from customers. Drivers call it the Jenny a lot. For some of these drivers Jenny lot — not just a temporary shelter, and home. They live in cars.
According to recent estimates, more than 4 thousand people in the County of Los Angeles living in cars and vans, almost 7% of the total number of homeless in the County (about 58 thousand), reports KCRW.
The history of some of the drivers really sad.
Renee (a girl called only his middle name) told me that the whole experience of its collaboration with Uber was «demoralizing».
«In the beginning was all good, I was earning good money. There were fewer drivers, less competition. But that was before Uber and Lyft started their price wars. In one not so fine day I noticed that I travel a lot and the money I barely enough to pay for a rental car,» says Renee.
In 2015, the woman began to live in the car to save, and their three children sent to live with grandma.
«When I realized I could just be a stray, terribly frightened of this, and eventually also moved to her mother,» adds Renee, who continued to cooperate with Uber, but not living in the car all day.
And Renee is not alone.
34-year-old Brandon moved into my Prius about two months ago. He says he can ride 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and earned barely enough money to cover your expenses and pay off debts.
«When I’m taking rich passengers, and they sit in the back seat talking, I involuntarily think to myself: I will sleep wherever you sit. This is my life,» says Brandon.
«I’m sure you’ll be surprised at the number of people who work», — said the lawyer Eric Ares. «The fact that they are homeless, may prevent them to obtain public assistance to which they are entitled. You know, in other cities they would probably have enough money to rent a small Studio apartment. But not in Los Angeles».
According to Joel Kotkina, an employee of Chapman University, an expert on the economy when Uber first came out, it really was a chance to make a career for many, but now they’re just «stuck» in this job, unable even to pay the rent in such expensive cities like Los Angeles.
In most companies, Uber refused to answer questions about their drivers, living in their cars. Representatives of the company only noted that the drivers themselves and voluntarily decide to cooperate with Uber, and «to decide where and how much they need to go.»
