48-State Road Trip Highlights Homelessness

In 2001, Greg Staffa found himself homeless and living out of his car. Seven years later, he is driving a new car and owns his own townhouse.

One of the results of his struggles has been an appreciation for the obstacles that homeless people must overcome. Staffa found a promotional tool to: He decided to take a road trip.

Inspired by the New Beginnings Counseling Center in Santa Barbara, Calif., which has amongst its programs one that helps people living out of their cars, he decided to put signs on his own car advertising New Beginnings. He plotted a route that would take him to all 48 of the contiguous United States and set out from Minneapolis on Sept. 9 to hit them all in nine days. He also started a blog, GregStaffaRoadtrip.com.

Along the way he did some media interviews and handed out cards to people every time he stopped, encouraging them to donate to New Beginnings. The trip ended right back in Minneapolis where it started.

During his journey, Staffa slept in his car.

"I felt that if I did hotel it, it would kind of be cheating the message that I’m sending," he said.

Inspiration

Staffa said he got the idea for the trip from a number of sources. One was when he read about a group of college guys who drove through the contiguous 48 states in 106 hours while chronicling their adventure through their blog, The Great American Road Trip.

He also got inspiration from New Beginnings.

"They said, 'Well, we're getting a lot of attention from all over in other states, and we want this not to not just be a California thing. We want all of the states to expand on this, because it's illegal in most states to sleep out of your car;" said Staffa. "So they wanted to expand it and I'm like, 'OK, it's a statewide thing that you want, and the car is the focus, so, OK, all the states, car, road trip.' So I said, 'I'm going to go on a road trip to see what kind of awareness I can bring.'"

New Beginnings executive director Gary Linker said that the center was pleased with Staffa's efforts.

"We think it's great that he has dedicated his time and energy to help bring the public's attention to this issue, and we appreciate him very much singling us out and supporting our efforts. It's very generous of him to do that," said Linker. "It shows a lot of dedication on his part to do what he's doing. He obviously feels very passionate about this issue."

Stay At Home?

Staffa said a lot of people have asked him why he isn't focused on helping charities in his home state of Minnesota.

"Since I've been driving, I haven't seen a state line sign that said, 'Homelessness Ends Here.' Homelessness isn't a state-by-state issue," said Staffa. "It's not a Democratic or Republican issue, and so we need to find programs that work and incorporate them into our communities. It's not that there are bad programs in Minnesota; it's just that for me, this one hit home the hardest."

When interviewed by cell phone as he was about one-third done with his trip while driving through Baton Rouge, La., Staffa was more interested in talking about his cause than his personal story, but he did share some background.

"I came from an abusive family, and we had a falling out back in 2001. I lived out of my car just over nine months back in 2001," said Staffa. "I was working at the time with Northwest Airlines while being homeless, but then Sept. 11 happened, so I found myself homeless and without a job."

Staffa said another reason he wanted to help New Beginnings was because of the frustration he experienced when he went to the government for help. He said he went to many government agencies, and one of them told him that they could not help him unless he sold his car.

"And I can understand their point. A car is an asset," said Staffa. "On paper that makes sense, but in reality it seems detrimental to helping anyone. People that are living out of their cars, their car is the last thing that they have that's theirs, really. It's a source of security. It's a source of protection. It's not just a car."

Slowly, Staffa said he crawled out of the hole he was in. Northwest continued to employ him sporadically through various layoffs, and in the summer of 2001 he was able to rent a studio apartment. In 2005, he said, he bought a townhouse in Farmington, Minn., and he currently works in the customer relations department for Northwest. But he said he has never been able to forget those times he was living out of his car, and the videos on New Beginning's Web site documenting people living out of their cars struck a chord.

"Times are tough right now, and I'm here to say that I was those people in those videos, talking about how they are living out of their car and they don't know what tomorrow will bring," said Staffa. "Fast forward to today, and I am driving a brand new car that I bought, I am paying for my own gas on this trip, and I am able to do this because I believed in myself and I worked hard. If this trip can inspire one person that's where I was back in 2001, if that can inspire one person today, then this trip is worth it."