Imagine yourself homeless. No, really, try it.

Let's say you've been working at a job for a while, and things are looking good for you and your family. Then suddenly you lose your job. Maybe sales are not so good, or whatever, but you're now un-employed. Probably you and your family have based your future on you having this job as long as you wanted it. (Maybe you were even looking to move ahead, get a better job, take your family into a nicer living space, buying a house instead of renting.) But wham! Out of the blue, you don't have a job.

Of course you reassure your spouse that all will be fine, that you'll find a job even better than the one you just lost. But then your spouse is laid off, too. Just not enough business to keep all these workers. Sorry. So the two of you find yourselves at home, in the middle of the day, looking at each other, thinking: What if neither of us finds another job? Is that possible?

Weeks go by and nobody is calling you back. Nobody is calling your spouse back, either. And, of course, the bills keep coming. Not just the rent but the electricity and water and gas bills. You have a little in a savings account but not that much. You and your spouse have already agreed
that you can't take the kids out to dinner anymore on Friday night, at least until this is resolved. But now you're faced with cutting down on groceries, too. Meat only on sale. No more of those packaged salads: only fresh spinach or lettuce from now on, which are better for you anyway.

Another week goes by, maybe two. Still no paychecks. The savings account is being tapped, all that money -- not much -- that you had set aside for your kids' college fund. Another week or two and that's gone, too.

You call your moms and dads, but their retirement accounts have been decimated by the current financial crisis, and they're reluctant to give you money they may need as they get older and have no income but rising medical needs. They're really sorry but . . .

And every day you're out on the street trying to find another job, not one like you had before but just something to put food on the table. Your spouse is looking, too, but jobs are scarce these days. And who's supposed to look after the kids while you're both trying to get these jobs you really don't even want? And now the people you pay to look after your kids are demanding you pay up or else.

Another week and neither of you can even find the most menial of jobs. You can't even be hired to bus tables at the all-you-can-eat restaurant.

Now you're desperate. You're two months behind on rent, and the landlord is threatening to evict you, to put your belongings on the street. After a nasty argument you never thought you'd have with your spouse -- that boy/girl you fell in love with all those years ago --you load all your stuff into your old SUV or station wagon - if you were smart enough, back in the time of cheap gas, to buy a big vehicle -- and one bright morning you all set off in it, not knowing where you're going but knowing that you only have about a hundred dollars and no jobs and no place to live.

So you and your kids spend the next few weeks in that vehicle. Where else could you go? It's not comfortable, and you have to make all kinds of excuses to the kids, who complain about no TV and no bathroom -- except for the nearest gas station -- and about how they're going to explain this to their friends, who are used to coming over on weekends to play video games.

You and your spouse are constantly at each other now, blaming first one and then the other, but still nobody will hire either of you to do even the shittiest of jobs. You have no money. None. You're broke. And you have kids in school who have no lunches.

In desperation, you go to the city or county to try to get food stamps and maybe subsidized housing. After a few humiliating hours of waiting and then being questioned about every detail of your lives and your situation, you do get some food stamps, but the housing will have to wait: there are lots of people ahead of you, and not enough units available right now.

So you have some food, at least for a while, but no place to live. So it's back to the car and sandwiches in the parking lot. And school the next day in dirty clothes.

What should these parents do?

What would YOU do?