CRYSTAL RIVER -- Florida may be a great place to have a boat, but for one family, boating has become their worst nightmare as the tough economy has kept them anchored.
“Nobody should have to go through this, no one,” said Valarie Buhl, who has been living on her 16-foot boat with her son, because they have nowhere else to live. “I would love to be working right now. I don’t want anyone to go through what I’m going through.”
After Buhl lost her job and her home in June, she and her son float around Kigs Bay. That boat and everything on it is all they have.
“After a couple of days, the ice melts, the food is bad and we got to throw it away,” Buhl said.
She and her son have had to use a white bucket to wash their clothes and take a bath.
“God, I wish I could at least have one night in a hotel to take a real bath, to lay in bed. You know?” Buhl said.
Taking out a small tarp, Buhl explained, “We use it to cover our boat when it rains. My blankets get soaked, and then when we try to dry them out, it just ends up raining in the middle of the day again.”
Buhl said she has been walking all over town to find work, but so far, no luck.
Her son, Joseph, should be a senior in high school this year, but he was not able to go back to school.
“I just made it so far, and I was right there and I didn’t get to finish,” Joseph said.
Buhl gets unemployment money, which she uses for food and gas -- but she said that will run out in a few weeks. In the meantime, she and her son have stayed side by side, hoping things get better so they can leave their boat home behind.
The bad economy has actually meant fewer boats on the water in many places, because others have sold their boats or had them repossessed.
Information from News 13’s Bright House Networks affiliate, Bay News 9, was used in this report.
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