
Facebook employee is homeless, lives out of her car - rmason
http://www.ktvu.com/news/270784215-story
======
gexla
Her LinkedIn profile

[https://www.linkedin.com/in/unique-
parsha-64833361/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/unique-parsha-64833361/)

She has a degree in Sociology and her listed experience is customer service.

Other articles mention she is a contractor.

As a contractor, she might not even be working for Facebook (might be a temp
agency).

ETA: People living in the area are competing for housing with some of the
highest paid people in the country. Probably the employers in the area aren't
going to solve this problem. Perhaps FB should be setting up these jobs in an
area of the country which has lower living expenses. Then solve local labor
issues through automation (like Japan is looking to do due to an aging
workforce).

~~~
prostoalex
From
[https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/](https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/)
there are openings in Austin, Fort Worth, New Mexico and Iowa among other
lower-priced (so excluding NYC, LA and Seattle) locations.

~~~
gexla
Sure, and if they only took in contractors working from these other relatively
cost of living areas, then we may not see these sorts of articles. That's not
to say that people working for Facebook won't be homeless at times, but at
least the the pay might be above the living wage water line.

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rubyn00bie
This is why I generally look down upon the valley and its "leadership."
There's a very good chance she's a contractor which means it's an easy excuse
for Facebook to pay her less and not give her benefits.

These "leaders" donate money to causes, yet ignore the people right in front
of them. They could lobby the cities in and around the bay area to allow for
more affordable housing (or to building more housing period, I'm looking at
you SF). Instead they're more concerned with the marginal increase on their
property value than the well being of those around them.

For so much money in that area to have anyone willing to work, and try hard,
not live well is quite frankly: fucking disgusting.

~~~
MichaelBurge
Google is fighting tooth-and-nail to build 10,000 housing units:

[http://www.siliconbeat.com/2017/06/26/mountain-view-
google-c...](http://www.siliconbeat.com/2017/06/26/mountain-view-google-calls-
for-10000-unit-housing-planafter-city-cuts-proposal-to-as-low-as-1500/)

Facebook isn't Google, but they have the same incentives: Zuckerberg's wealth
is not in his house, so he shouldn't care if his property values sink a bit.
It'd be far more useful to him to have 10,000 extra employees.

Housing is something every potential employee would ask about, so I'm
surprised you think the company doesn't care about it.

~~~
rubyn00bie
It's not that I think they don't care, I just think with companies like this
caring is proportional to their investment in it. We often see how much SV
company X is investing in lobbying, R&D, etc but we see very little how much
their investing into their local municipalities to make living better.

Perhaps I'm being ignorant, it wouldn't be the first time, but it seems like,
to me, that they don't care proportional to their capital. When companies have
$30-40 billion plus in cash holdings, it makes issues like these seem
rather... baffling. Not to say money solves all problems, but it sure does
help. Though getting anyone to invest in the long term is something unlikely
to please investors, financial analysts, or executives protecting their jobs.

~~~
MichaelBurge
The argument the politicians gave was that Google is already the largest
employer, and adding an extra 10,000 people means that Google could swing the
elections by telling their employees who to vote for.

How would you turn an unlimited amount of money into a counterargument for
those scared politicians?

There should be an Amdahl's law for lobbyists: If you have 12 politicians and
it takes 9 months per politician to convince them, increasing the number of of
lobbyists loses effectiveness once you have 1 lobbyist in every politician's
office 24/7.

~~~
DrScump
Please identify a couple of the politicians who said this.

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mlindner
It's a great way to save money. I'd probably almost double my take-home amount
(after taxes and food) if I could skip rent in the south bay area.

~~~
buro9
Homelessness isn't a life hack.

I've been homeless, I've slept rough. No-one with a choice makes this choice
even though they may have an ethic that attempts to make the best they can of
it.

~~~
Danihan
It can be, with the right vehicle. And if you're single.

~~~
tomatsu
Yea, I wouldn't mind living in a large fancy RV. There are apartments which
feel more cramped.

------
ShabbosGoy
The East Bay was still somewhat affordable when I last lived in SV. Walnut
Creek is not a bad option, but commute time could very well be suboptimal.

~~~
trizzle21
especially if you're going from WC to Menlo Park. That's an hour each way
_without_ traffic

~~~
ivanstojic
I live in WC and worked for a while in Palo Alto - and THAT took two hours on
a good (week)day.

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DoofusOfDeath
I'm curious what her salary is. I doubt everyone at Facebook pulls in the
salary of a rockstar software developer.

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usaphp
What's the point of this article? What's makes her case different from for
example person working at 7-11 in New Jersey and struggling to pay rent in
manhattan? It's her choice to work there and to live in a place that she can't
afford.

Hey look I want to live in Battery Park in manhattan but can't afford it on my
job, I will live in my car - write an article about me.

------
40acres
What does she do at Facebook, the article did not mention it. I find these
headlines a bit misleading when they refer to contractors as opposed to full
time folks at these companies, not to say that the pricing in the Bay area is
out of control but I feel like these headlines are in bad faith.

~~~
ceejayoz
Contractors still deserve a livable wage.

~~~
djrogers
You can state that categorically? All full _and_ part time employees and
contractors deserve a ‘livable wage’ regardless of their role or the value
they add to the company?

~~~
mattieuga
Yes.

~~~
djrogers
Wait, so all I gotta do is work 10 hours a week and I should be able to feed
my family and afford a house? That’s an amazing world you live in.

