We spoke to this young family after seeing them at the entrance of Safeway along U.S. Highway 101 in Seaside on Thursday. 

Q: What brings you here?

Lotus: Right now we are trying to find a new home in the area to get away from bad influences in our lives.

Q: Where are you from?

Lotus: We are from Idaho. My name is Lotus. This is my fiance Colin, and Jasper.

Q: How did you end up in Seaside?

Lotus: Honestly we were just kind of driving through. We’re a little bit low on gas, and we need back tires more than anything. Our back tires are so gone they’re about to burst. We’re trying to get funds up to be able to get tires.

There’s a perfect set down the road with a for sale sign on it that we’re hoping to get. I can’t imagine they’re too terribly much. I hope maybe we can make some kind of deal. They’d be perfect for the car. Without them we’ve been sliding all over the roads because it’s slick out there in the morning.

Q: How long have you been out here in the parking lot?

Lotus: About 10 minutes.

Q: Have you thought about asking the city for help?

Lotus: We actually don’t know anything in the area. He (Colin) was going to look up whatever services maybe could help us with the tires.

Q: Where will you go next?

Lotus: We heard there might be an opening at an RV park.

We are employed, we’re just in between pay checks right now. We do computer programming. We’re not really used to having to do this to get by, but times are hard.

Q: Do you consider yourself homeless?

Lotus: Prospects are looking pretty good right now. There’s actually a lady who might be willing to rent her camper to us up in Astoria.

Postscript: After this article was posted, a good Samaritan stepped up and provided the family with a new set of tires from Les Schwab Tire Center in Seaside.