As Economy Stagnates, Middle-Class Americans Increasingly Living in Their Cars

'Car Sleepers': U.S. Middle Class Hit By Crisis (Sky News)

The shocking reality of the true cost of the financial crisis on middle-class Americans could sweep thousands of regular families into an 'epidemic' of homelessness.

Charities say the crisis is being ignored as more and more ordinary Americans face losing their homes and being forced to seek emergency shelter.

Amid all the talk of the strength of the US economic recovery, it is those who have traditionally formed the backbone of working America who have been hardest hit.

And many of those middle-class Americans have taken the desperate step of living in their vehicles.

The city of Santa Barbara in California, a legendary playground of the rich and famous, has become a haven for so-called 'car sleepers'.

James Frangella, 45, worked for more than 20 years as a painter and decorator in Illinois but now lives in a 1991 Ford Econoline van.