People are spending all their benefits on having a motel room for a third of the month
Experts say that these families are from 'the boom suburbs that have now gone bust'
By Martin Robinson
Thousands of middle-class U.S. families are being forced to sleep on floors in public buildings because so many have lost their homes and jobs in the economic crisis.
These shelters were once the preserve of drug addicts and alcoholics but now normal Americans are having to bed down in halls and corridors as they have no other place to go.
An investigation has also found many from the Midwest are spending their benefits to stay in motels for up to ten days a month to avoid having every night on mattresses surrounded by dozens of strangers.
Experts say that these middle-class people are from 'the boom suburbs that have now gone bust'.
Entertainment: A group of young children at the shelter crowd around a portable television while laying on their beds
Shelter: Children play outside their church hall home
Paul Mason on BBC's Newsnight has been comparing the plight of these people with the path followed by the Joad family in John Steinbeck's Grapes Of Wrath.
Set during the Great Depression, this poor family is forced from their Oklahoma home by drought and economic hardship, going to California in search of work and dignity.
But it appears that many modern American families are suffering in the same way.
Maurice Henderson was until recently a successful manager of a vehicle fleet, who has lost that job and his home.
Distress: Maurice Henderson and his young family are in the shelter after he lost his job and later his home
He, his wife Roseangel, and their small children, are sleeping on the floor of a church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
'When you have lost a job and you have to downgrade, and those bills start racking and stacking up. You sell you car, you cannot pay bills and you lose your home and then you end up here.'
When asked the worst thing about their predicament, Roseangel said with tears in her eyes: 'Having my kids here'.
Trucker Larry Antista is in the shelter with his daughter Michelle, after he lost all work and eventually their home.
Homeless: 14-year-old Michelle Antista has not even told her school that she has nowhere to live
'In these economic times my spouse took off on us and that cut our income in half. We lost our house and here we are,' he said.
His 14-year-old daughter Michelle says that her friends and teachers are clueless about the fact she is now homeless. 'They haven't asked so I haven't told them,' she said.
She also warned that many American families could fall on similarly hard times.
'If they came to live one day like us they would see how hard it is and how good they have it. They complain about what they have got but that is really dumb,' she said.
Experts are warning today that many more families may go down this route as the U.S economy continues to creak.
Broke: Some families are spending their benefits staying in a motel to get away from sleeping on a shelter floor
It grew in the first half of the year at the slowest pace since the recession ended, and the second half is not looking much better.
Weak consumer spending, dismal job possibilities and cuts in government spending held back growth in the April to June quarter.
Experts forecast the economy expanded at an annual rate of 1.7 percent in that period, according to a FactSet survey.
That follows a 1.9 percent growth rate in the first three months of the year. Those are the slowest back-to-back quarters since the economy began recovering from the recession two years ago.
Even if the economy picks up later this year, growth in 2011 will likely be slower than the 2.9 percent expansion last year.
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