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Many of us who have struggled with being low income/disabled/single mom/seniors know what it is like to be without transportation.Here is an article that talks about this struggle .If you know someone who doesn't 'get' what it is like to not have a car , send them to this link.
High Cost or High Opportunity Cost? Transportation and Family Economic Success

by Margy Waller, Visiting Fellow

Center on Children and Families, The Brookings Institution




"Research evidence suggests that having a car is a worthwhile investment in better outcomes for low-income families. Recent reports quantify the additional money required to own and operate personal vehicles, as compared to the lower cost of traveling on public transit. However, this method of accounting fails to consider the fact that poor workers without a car may not be able to search for or accept a better-paying job because public transit doesn't go there, causing these workers to lose lost income or benefits as a result. This report outlines opportunity costs experienced by transit-dependent poor households, and concludes that when all costs are considered along with benefits of private vehicles, it makes sense to press for more assistance and policies that reduce car ownership costs for poor workers."
The rest of the article can be found here : http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2005/1128childrenfamilies_waller.aspx car for 2 years

I have currently have a minimum wage job, about 30 miles from where I currently live. It gives me 34 hours a week. What has happened is my brakes have gone out. I haven't anyone to help me, and I need my car to get to work so I can at least attempt to pay my rent and eat until I can find a second job or 1 good job. Can anyone help me with my brakes?

Hi i am a 22 year old female i live in Miami, i lost my job almost 3 months ago, my car broke down to a complete damage, i sold it for $400 to cover my rent, my front tooth was about to fall 6 months ago, and 3 months ago.. it finally felt, i've been going through a hard depression since all this happen to me, since i have no front tooth, this is preventing me from getting a job, i will like to know if anyone can help me , i have no health insurance and no money to pay for a dentist. =0(.. PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!

Can't get a job without a car.  No money for a down payment.  Have terrible credit.  Have a pacemaker.  Am 71.  Am very good with PC's and windows7 - help, teach, install.    What to do???

Im a 29 year old single mom of three. recently came back to Texas to see my elderly mother.. now that i have gotten here i cant go back home.. i live in virginia.. me and the kids are now homeless and i cant get a job because i cant afford a babysitter for my kids... i have no car.. no money to buy a car.. i have asked everyone i know for help and i cant seem to get any...none of my family has the financial stability to help me either...I NEED HELP...all i want to do is take my kids back home where we belong...does anyone know of some kind of support systems around to help??

thanks

This started when my landlord sold our appartment and we became homeless. Moved in with mother, found out that girlfriend was pregnant. My mother assulted my girlfriend but she is fine now. After that we moved in with my girlfriends mother that did not work out either. They recorded our conversations and threatened to take our kids away. At this time we are now living with some friends and only have 3 weeks left. Every day I ride my bike ten miles to work and I am running on empty. I don't mind though because I have to be a man about this sistuation and do what ever it takes to provide for her. I started a third job and might loose it because I had training 50 miles away. I am tired and running out of ideas any help would be greatly appricated

im a single mom that needs help i just got a job and i have no car and no way to get to work  im looking for help getting a car

It's 5:30 in the morning, and I still can't sleep. It was like this last night, too.

Tomgight I had a meltdown when the property manager, who is being replaced, called to ask me about the date a check cleared and let me know that the owner was mysteriously thinking he hadn't gotten paid at all. The Manager reassured me that he remembers depositing 3 money orders and one check including a late fee,  and I sent him a copy of the canceled check and told him I had the recipts if necessary. I know they can't do that to me--but I also am perceptive enough to get that the owner would only want to say that because he could then try to get me out of here before I make any noise about the mold and the swage.... and get to keep my last months rent and secrity deposit in the process.

I'm nervous about even talking about any of this anywhere; they keep using tactics that make me feel intimidated and upset. The property manager also said something aboout the owner saying he "couldn't find" my security deposit. Dude, what, does he think I'm the stupidest woman alive? What did they put it in a shoebox under the bed and accidently give it to Goodwill?

37 days till I'm homeless, not that I should stay in a place where I'm now discovering mold in all kinds of weird places. 

and it seems so futile now. It's not right to think this way, but where are all of the people I really stuck my neck out for over the years now that I am in a desperate situation. On $339 a month, with little rentall history in this town, I won't be able to get another place here. Still, I can't stay her after the sewage flood. I'm still sick, but getting better. My cats are sick, I need to take them to a vet and have no way to do so. This isn't supposed to be how my story ends.

MY NAME IS CLARENCE ANDERSON IM FROM PINEBLUFF ARKANSAS,I BECAME DISABLED IN 2002.IWAS SHOT CLOSE RANGE IN THE BACK BULLET LODGE IN SPINE.SINCE THEN I HAVE LOST OUR HOME,CARS,FRIENDS AND ALMOST FAMILY.IM STAYING FROM PLACE TO PLACE BECAUSE 600.00 DISABILITY A MONTH WONT PAY THE BILLS.MY WIFE LOST INTEREST IN ME I HAVE NO ONE TO TALK TO,SHE TREATS ME LIKE IM NOT A MAN ANY MORE.I HARDLY SEE HER AND IT HURTS.IM SO DEPRESSED AND DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO.I CAN DRIVE BUT I DONT HAVE A CAR.CANT AFORD ONE AND CANT DO MUCH FOR MY KIDS.I REALLY NEED HELP AND IM ASKING SOMEONE OUT THERE TO PLEASE HELP ME AND TELL ME WHAT I CAN DO.

Last week I was hit by a drunk driver and my truck is totaled. I do not have enough money to take out and my insurance wont cover it. If I don't get some money somewhere soon I am going to lose my job and in the economy today I cannot afford that.  I have 2 kids and can barely afford to keep food on the table I do not know how I am going to get the money for another car. The hospital bill is another story. I am okay and believe if I just get another car I will be okay. If I loose my job I will not be able to feed my kids. I am really freaking out and need help. Anything will be well appreciated. Please, somebody with a kind heart understand where I am coming from and help me please. I just need enough to get a decent enough car or some money to start saving up for one. If I loose my job, I lose everything. Please someone help me. Please.

After being laid off recently it seems as though things keep getting worse for my fiance and I. Had to pack up everything and move back to mom's. After being laid off the only car we have decides to break down.  With no means of transportation and no work I am really struggling. How am I supposed to get back to work with no car? No money? We have nothing now, really in a deep hole. I have a DBA for a construction business and all the tools necessary to work but no truck to get to work.  The car is an old (1990) Nissan, so it was just bound to happen. I have no money to fix the car now and the olny fall back I do have are my tools and my skills. I am in need of some help so my fiance and I can get back on our feet. We don't have the money to fix the car, yet get our own place to start out in. Living with mom is getting to be difficult and this is not the life I had dreamed of. I am broke, No car, and really struggling. My fiance has put applications out everywhere in walking distance. That will be the only way we are going to be getting anywhere for ahwile. I pray that somebody with a kind heart takes the time out to read this. My contact info is:lucky81stars@yahoo.com 0r 817-470-9134. Please feel free to contact me with any help possible.

As if my luck couldn't get worse,

the transmission broke in my car and the man who came to tow it tricked me into giving him the title. He told me it was going to the dump because the homeowners association where I was staying would charge me an arm and a leg to leave it until I could fix it. He sold the motor for almost 3K and kept all the money. Now I have no car, no money, no job and I have to leave the people I'm staying with.

I am an alcoholic (recovering-5 years sober), I am a drug addict (recovering- 5 years clean), I am a domestic abuse survivor (8 years still alive). When I was 19 I was almost killed in a head on collision with a drunk driver. I survived all that, and am still here to say that now...

 I am a mother ( 3 beautiful kids...4, 2 and 2 months). I am a wife (wonderful husband of almost 5 years). I am scared every day...how can i find a job? I have no clothes to wear if I find one, I have little free time to try and find one, I am unsure of how we will pay for childcare for 3 kids, I have no car to get us around to babysitting and work. My husband is working but it takes most of what he makes to keep the rent and bills paid. We live in a 1 bedroom apartment because that is all we can afford. He has child support to npay for his son from a previous marriage. Sometimes i feel as if i am in a lake and my head keeps sinking below the surface. I keep gasping for air every time i come up. Sometimes I am up for longer than before but I always seem to slip under again eventually. I know that one day I will step onto the shore and dry off...but how long do i have to gasp for air before i get out?

jennifer

Havein health problems missin a lot of work got 2 kids.got run out of the road an wrecked my car so have no way 2 go either. Need a break need help

i am 20 and 5 motnths pregnant with no job, n i am in evrest university but i dnt have a HD or GED. but my school is trying to help me. i am going to school to become  medical assisting. but i need a job now to buy a car and buy things for my baby n so i can pay my student loans back. and no1 doesnt want to hire a pragnant women who doesnt even have  GED. my 1st stap was to get back into school for a better life. but that just added my money i dnt have. i moved back in with my mom. she helps me as much as she can. but i have credt card bills i need to pay off n i need to get things ready for my baby. but i need a job right now, not when i am done with school. when i am done with school the baby is already here, i ned to buy aot of things. i am so scared that i cant get a job.

My name is Stephanie. I am 22 years old, a full time student, and work two jobs just to eat and pay the rent. I am a strong and independant woman who loves to work hard to enjoy my life. Recently, life has become too hard. I still have 2 more years in college before I get my degree in Early Childhood Education. My mother and father are unable to help me anymore because my grandfather is terminally ill. My mother goes to work everyday and then directly to my grandfather's house to take care of him. She is not at home anymore. My father works 2 jobs to keep the family going and the bills taken care of. I live with my boyfriend and neither of us have any money saved.

Today my car died. It is a 1989 Acura and has had a good run. I don't know how I am going to get to work and school. I have my bike but on bad weather days, what will I do? How will I make enough money to buy a car and pay my rent? I would take the bus, but my job starts at 5am and the buses do not run that early. Can anyone offer cheap car advice?