Whether home is a van, a motel or a garage, L.A.’s suburban poor children learn to survive [latimes.com]

“There it is,” Yolanda Vasquez said, pointing to the converted garage she and her family of six lived in for four years.

We stood on Kewen Avenue, a block from Telfair Elementary School. Vasquez was giving me a tour of her old neighborhood on a blistering September afternoon before picking up her daughter, Ammy, a third-grader.

“I have one son diagnosed with autism, and it was difficult to be in such a small space,” said Vasquez, who paid $1,175 a month for the garage but finally found a roomier rental in Northridge a couple of years ago for $1,500.