In Silicon Valley, people with six-figure jobs sometimes live in vans, so how can they scrape together financing for the $2.6 million asking price for this 897-foot bungalow in Palo Alto? Just imagine what it’s like for working class people, some of whom have to commute so far from affordable towns that their employers let them sleep in the parking lot. Via San Francisco Chronicle, VTA bus driver Adan Miranda is now getting kicked out of his employer’s parking lot to make room for developers:
Miranda, 48, said the decision to sleep weeknights inside his 18-foot trailer in VTA’s parking lot wasn’t an easy one, but when he almost died after falling asleep on the road three times in the same week, the choice was clear.
“This what I have to do,” he said. “I want to see my family grow.”
Miranda and his wife bought a four-bedroom home in Elk Grove (Sacramento County) in 2003. He’s looked into similar work closer by, but the job paid about $12 an hour less, so he decided to stay at the VTA — with the trailer. Miranda goes home Friday night and drives back to work Monday morning.
At first, the decision was hard on his children. “My oldest kids — they took it hard because we’re raised as a close-knit family,” Miranda said. “They didn’t see me there every day.”
• Silicon Valley bus drivers sleep in parking lots. They may have to make way for development (Chronicle)