The Mermaid Needs Her Car; The Skinny On My Transportation Issues!

It's become increasingly clear that the two biggest obstacles to my recovery are not having a car and not having a bank account.

Nearly every day, when I know that I have work opportunities that can't be easily reached by BART, I spend hours trying to line up rides or borrow a car so that I can say, "Yes" to the job! It's exhausting and a bit soul crushing to beg all the time and to see work slip through my fingers that could put me back on my feet again. 

Also exhausting are the quetions I get grilled with and have to answer repeatedly. Here are some of them and some further background.

1. Why do you need a car?   My business often requires me to travel to multiple places in one day and to areas where public transportation doesn't go or would be impractical. Also, in an emergency , I might need to transport an animal to the vet.   In the past 18 months, I have lost thousands of dollars in job opportunities for my own business as well as outside jobs which required me to a legally registered car. If I had  been able to use my own car it is unlikely I would have ended up homeless for 11 months nor would I have fallen behind in my storage payments and lost my belongings. With regular, reliable transportation I would have independence  be able to jump on  opportunities and I wouldn't be so close to slipping down that rabbit hole again.
2.  Why can't you take public transportation? Why can't you ride a bike? Besides the impracticability, I have some physical disabilities/ medical issues that rule these both out as options.
3. Why don't you rent a car? Why don't you join Zip Car?  For one thing Zip Car/City Car Share are too expensive. Get-A-Round, with car rental as low as $6 an hour and no monthly fee looked good, but for all of these I need a Credit/Debit Card and I have no bank account! Due to the strains of homelessness, my long time Bank of the West account became overdrawn by $7 because Netflix did not honor the terms of the  hold I had put on my account and processed my payment instead. BofW began to charge me exorbitant fees and refused to reverse them despite Netflix' error! Eventually, they just closed my account and sent me to collections. The black mark on my record precludes me from opening an account anywhere. When things stabilize, I'll resume calling and writing BofW to try to resolve this, but I have more pressing day to day priorities!
4. Why don't you just sell your car & buy a new one? My Civic probably has at least 100,000 more miles left in her. My last Honda got 300K. The fines and fees travel with ME, not the car so I will still have to pay ALL of them when I register a new car. In addition, if I sell, rather than register my car, because of a fix it ticket I got for driving with an expired registration while driving TO A JOB , the ultimate fine will be close to $500. If I register it that ticket will only about $25! My car is 2 years past due on registration FYI : you can not register it as non-operative once it has fallen behind. More details on all of this below.
5. How did you get in this mess? Why isn't your car registered? Well, it was a dire situation that snowballed!                                      

• First, in the midst of the chaos of my becoming homeless my registration came due. Registration itself wasn't bad, but I had no extra funds and the car also required a "Test Only station" Smog. I had hoped I would recover quickly, but this didn't happen.
• Also, I had 3 parking tickets which I contested. In one case, the sign was missing and the next closest one obscured. I sent in pictures, but since the City of Oakland is trying to balance its budget with parking tickets, I had no luck. You can't do community service for a parking ticket. You can't make a partial payment on a parking ticket so they double and triple the ticket rapidly. Eventually, you can't register your vehicle without paying every penny of the accumulated fees.                                                            
•  A few months after I lost my home, I had money to get my car registered and do some necessary repairs. There was suddenly light at the end of the tunnel. I was temporarily staying with a couple in their basement apartment. They had insisted I bring my bedroom furniture and some things with me to feel like home even though I wouldn't be staying long. This was a huge mistake. Toward the end of my time there, I injured my foot and got a tenacious staph infection, was nearly hospitalized and the medication I was on made me very ill. This hampered my packing and ability to find another place to stay, let alone move. I tried to talk to them about it, but at the same time, their cat died and the wife seemed to be having s complete emotional meltdown. I limped back one night to find her in a frenzy, smashing some of my things and throwing others outside. My poor cat was cowering under a table. They  "evicted" me knowing I had no place to go but the street then told me I had two days to get my things out of their yard or they'd have it hauled off. Besides re-traumatizing me, it gave me a very practical dilemma. I could fix my car OR lose my stuff.Because of the time  crunch, I used the money to pay my late storage so I could put the things I'd had with me into it, pay someone to move all of my things TWICE, once to a friend's side yard in a pinch and then into the storage unit. Then I had to pay for a place to stay off the street when I didn't have places for me and my cat to crash.  During that time I lived out of my storage unit, going there daily for toiletries, food and clothing.  
• I took as many jobs as I could when proof of registration was not required. For months I drove side streets whenever possible, always looking over my shoulder in fear that I'd be spotted with my expired sticker and pulled over. I already had the notice from the DMV saying my car could be confiscated if I drove it or parked it on the street. In December 2011, I was caring for my friends' cats in an emergency; one of them had a kidney transplant! I hadn't heard from them and was on my way to check on the cats when a CHP pulled me over. Miraculously, he only gave me a "fix it" ticket that requires me to actually register the car to satisfy it. At that point, 
• I stopped driving my car other than moving it back and forth across the street for street sweeping. Every time I do this I know I am at risk for the parking cop to see my expired tag and confiscate the car.  The Registration has since become due again!

6. What / How much money does your car need to solve this problem? I estimate between $1500-$2K If I sell it and buy a new car, with the increased fine from failure to satisfy the fix it ticket I will have to pay about the same amount to register it!

• Before I can try to smog my car, I need to pay all of the DMV fees and parking tickets so that I can get a "temporary registration" and take it to be smogged. Last time I checked it was about $700 in fees, now that the reg has come around again, I expect it is a couple hundred more.
• Smog check at a "Test Only" Station (around $100)
• Repairs. It may be necessary to do some of these before it will pass smog: Tune up, oil change, TIMING BELT! (It's at 106K, mechanic will probably do water pump and clutch at the same time) I've had varying estimates, from $400- $800 and may even be able to have friends help with some of this which cuts the labor. One of the headlights needs to be replaced and the rear passenger window is broken. Those things may be able to be postponed. The high beam works on the broken headllight and it is not that bright compared to normal high beams.
• Fix it ticket. Could be as little as $25 possibly a couple hundred dollars because so much time has passed, 

7. Until you get the money, what would help? By the way,  I have an impeccable driving record and am a very safe, responsible driver. Here's what will help:

• Borrowing a car on a long term regular basis. Do you have an extra car just sitting? Are you going away a few weeks, a few months and don't want your car just sitting?
  
• Being "gifted" a car, however, it has to remain in someone else's name.
• Being allowed to use someone's credit card on a regular basis to rent a car through Get-A-Round The company needs to put a hold on a card when the car is rented. The car would only be billed for the actual rental which is very cheap.  I would gladly reimburse for the car rental promptly!  Get-A-Round is pretty nifty! If my car had been legal, I could have made money renting my car put using this service and once it's repaired, I plan to do this! Renting it out a few days a week could make a big difference for me. 

Whew! There is my basic dilemma, how I got into it and how I can get out of it. I've left out a few details, but this is the important stuff and that's long and convoluted enough without adding more!
Thanks for reading! I'm open to help from all sources as well as your helpful suggestions! Email me at [email protected]