Lost In Bel-Air

1992

13 minutes - English

Among the mansions and private clubs of Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, you'd never even notice.
Barbara strolls down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in a green silk dress and matching high heels. Her makeup is perfect. She looks like she could be a television news presenter, or a businesswoman coming back from an important meeting.
But Barbara is homeless and jobless. She lives on as little as five dollars a week and stays with friends 25 times in two years.
And she's not alone. Many divorced women who previously lived in Bel-Air mansions don't have a place to live anymore. Having lost their husbands, they are too young for social security, and too proud to ask for financial help from their children. Divorce settlements in the State of California are not favorable to women who wish to separate from their husbands, leaving these women with next to nothing.
60 Minutes visited Los Angeles to see how these former residents of Bel-Air hide their homelessness in one of America's wealthiest neighbourhoods.