"When Edgar Rosales Jr uses the word home he isn't referring to the house he plans to buy after becoming a nurse or getting a job in public health. Rather, the second-year student at Long Beach City college is talking about the parking lot he slept in every night for more than a year. With Oprah-esque enthusiasm, Rosales calls the other students who use LBCC's Safe Parking Program his roommates or neighbors."
"Sleeping in a car may not sound like a step up, but for Rosales who dropped out of a Compton high school more than 20 years ago to become a truck driver being handed a key fob to a bathroom stocked with toilet paper and hand soap was life-altering. He kept the plastic tab on his key ring, even though he was supposed to place it in a drop box each morning, because the sight of it brought comfort;"
"The scariest part of sleeping in his car was the noises, Rosales said: I heard a dog barking or I heard somebody running around or you see cop lights going down the street, you see people looking in your car. He couldn't sleep, let alone focus. Without the ability to bathe regularly, he began to avoid people to spare them the smell. The car became his sanctuary, he said, but also, a prison: It starts messing with your mental health."
Edgar Rosales Jr lived in his car while enrolling at Long Beach City College and called the campus parking lot his home. LBCC's Safe Parking Program allowed students to park overnight while staff used the lot by day, and nearby showers opened early each morning. Access to a bathroom key fob felt transformative after years as a truck driver and a Compton high school dropout. Rosales later stayed briefly with a brother but returned to parking near RVs and encampments. Nighttime noises and lack of regular bathing worsened sleep and mental health. First, Rosales dropped a class.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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