Tech bus drivers forced to live in cars to make ends meet

Wendy Lee Sep. 21, 2015 Updated: Dec. 14, 2015 5:02 p.m.

Apple bus driver Scott Peebles naps in his van between shifts in San Jose , Calif., on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015.
Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

Scott Peebles drives employees to their jobs at Apple, the wealthiest tech company in the world, yet he can’t afford a place to live.

The 53-year-old sleeps on an inflatable mattress in the back of his green 1997 Dodge Caravan, a space smaller than a walk-in closet. His morning routine is an exercise in hiding the fact he is homeless — he slides on his dry-cleaned uniform, shaves behind tinted car windows and uses a work restroom to freshen up before shuttling tech workers from Fremont to the company’s Sunnyvale campus.

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“Living in a car is hard,” said Peebles, who is 6 feet tall and, after almost two months of sleeping in the car, has developed muscle aches and a stiff neck. “I don’t care who you are. ... It’s too small of a space.”

Peebles is part of a growing segment of homeless people who have full-time jobs but can’t make ends meet.

In the past decade, as tech jobs have boomed in Silicon Valley, so has rent. Average monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment are $2,186 in San Jose, $2,469 in Oakland and $3,361 in San Francisco, according to research firm Real Answers. Salaries for tech shuttle drivers start at around $2,900 a month — making even modest nearby apartments unaffordable.

Instead of moving somewhere cheaper on the outskirts of the Bay Area — hours from their jobs — Peebles and several other tech bus drivers live in their cars. “Right now I have a lot of financial obligations to take care of before I can even think of getting a place to live,” said one driver, who transports Apple employees from San Francisco to Cupertino. The driver, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, has been sleeping in the backseat of his Subaru for months, saving up to pay for health care related expenses and other bills.

As demand for even the tiniest apartments grows, landlords have the power to be extremely picky about tenants. Several struggling bus drivers have thousands of dollars in credit card debt and are single, which could make them less desirable than dual-income renters. Peebles has racked up $20,000 in credit card debt, some that was accumulated when he was caring for his mother. He’s open to having roommates, but says it’s hard to find a good match — someone his age without a volatile personality.

PayPal employees are dropped off at the company's corporate headquarters by a Compass Transportation bus driver in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015.
Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

Apartments go fast

When Peebles finds apartments in his range, they get snapped up quickly, sometimes before he can even visit them. Scrolling through listings on his phone, he once saw an ad for studio apartments in San Jose for rent between $850 and $1,200 month. He checked in with the manager 30 to 40 times hoping to land a space.

“She told me to call every Wednesday. I called every Wednesday. (And it was) ‘Nope, nothing available,’” Peebles said. “So you give up. Why keep calling these people who are not going to move out?”

In August, he inflated an air mattress in a minivan and called it home. He hangs his shirts on the hooks above the doors and spends nights reading books at Barnes & Noble until closing time. He used to check out movies like “Field of Dreams” from the public library and watch them on his handheld DVD player — until it was stolen from his van.

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Poster Comment:

I had a room mate once. His name was Elliot. He had two TVs blaring, every light on in the house and the heat blasting. One day he threw a check at me and said, "Get out." Screw him.