Lifestyle

Carolyn, 78, Lives on Social Security Alone. Then She Ended Up Living in Her Car: “I Eat One Meal a Day for Two Dollars and Two Cents”

By Erica Coleman · November 13, 2026

Carolyn keeps her clothes hanging neatly in the back seat of her car. The rest are organized in the trunk, including her dry cleaning and her silks, which she told WSVN she cannot afford to have cleaned right now.

“I’m a neat freak,” she said.

When WSVN 7 News reporter Heather Walker met her in May 2025, the 78-year-old had been living in that car for nearly two months. Her only income is Social Security, according to the station, and she had sold many of her belongings over the last few years. It still was not enough to pay for a place to live.

She spent her days in a well-lit parking lot in North Broward County, Florida, doing word puzzles. At night she slept sitting up in the driver’s seat.

“My ankles and legs are swollen from having to sit all the time,” she told WSVN. “I buy jug water, it’s cheaper. And I eat one meal a day for two dollars and two cents.”

She told the station she still went to shower and do her makeup and hair, using the free gym membership that came with her Medicare plan.

“It can happen to anyone,” she said, as quoted in WSVN’s story. “Don’t think it can’t, because I never thought about it.”

Cassandra Rhett, the housing and social services manager for the City of Pompano Beach, was trying to find her a home. Rhett told WSVN she was seeing more and more seniors in need, that support services for them were at capacity, and that soaring rent was a main reason they were on the street.

Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust, gave the station numbers for his county. In 2019, he said, people 65 and older made up nearly 8% of the homeless population in Miami-Dade. By 2024 that share had climbed to 14%, and it is projected to reach 22% by 2030. Those are the trust’s figures as reported by WSVN.

Then the rain came, and her 22-year-old car started to leak. The city put her up in a hotel while Rhett kept working on permanent housing.

The story has a better ending than it might have. In a follow-up report in June 2025, WSVN said the Florida Department of Elder Affairs worked with local agencies after the offices of two state senators reached out. Carolyn moved into a one-bedroom apartment in a 55-plus community. The rent is nearly $1,200 a month, the station reported, but Broward County’s Elderly and Veterans Services is covering more than $300 of it, leaving a share she can pay with her Social Security. Viewers also donated to help her get back on her feet.

“It’s just a new chapter in my life,” she told WSVN.

Help often depends on knowing where to call.

For older adults anywhere in the U.S., the federal Eldercare Locator, run by the Administration for Community Living, connects people and families with local services, including Area Agencies on Aging. It can be reached at 1-800-677-1116 by phone or text. Dialing 211 also reaches local help lines in many areas. In Florida, WSVN listed the state Department of Elder Affairs Elder Helpline at 800-963-5337.

State Sen. Ileana Garcia offered advice in the follow-up that applies anywhere: keep reaching out, and if someone tells you no, call someone else.

Carolyn still loves the old car, she said. She just will not be sleeping in it anymore.

This article is for general information and is not financial or legal advice. Details are from WSVN 7 News’ May and June 2025 reports; homelessness figures are the Miami-Dade Homeless Trust’s as reported by the station. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.