Life Inside the RVs of Silicon Valley
<i>Their precarious living situation became a catch 22: while the truck allowed them to live near the hospital, when the social worker found out Isidoro was living in a truck, the hospital kicked Isidoro off the transplant list: he needed to live indoors to recover from a potential surgery to be eligible for a transplant. Luckily, after weeks of looking, Silvia’s sister in nearby Milpitas rented her a bedroom for $700&#x2F;month this fall, where they’ve been staying since. The last she heard, they had to stay inside for a year for Isidoro to get back on the list.</i><p>Well, I think I officially feel ashamed to be an American now.<p>I slept in a tent for nearly six years to work on getting healthier, but I was not seeing a doctor. I was doing my own thing. That was frustrating enough, what with not getting taken seriously by a lot of people and facing classism online, etc. But, I kind of understand why I get given so much flak: people genuinely think what I am doing simply cannot be done. They have no mental framework for effectively engaging with me.<p>But to have a specialty hospital someplace so expensive and a requirement to live near it to get treatment and no help for complying with this expectation, then delist them for sleeping in a truck, it just seems monstrous. The hospital has to know that normal, healthy people can&#x27;t afford housing here. They should also be fully well aware that people with health problems face the double whammy of high medical expenses plus reduced earnings.<p>America needs to fix both the medical system and affordable housing. It doesn&#x27;t really deserve to be seen as a civilized, first world nation as things stand currently. I don&#x27;t care what our GDP is. We are failing to take care of our people and it is monstrous.