ANDERSON — As Barb Norris looked over her property on the outskirts of town, she felt blessed to have what she did: the outbuilding that houses her goats and chickens, the pieces of the greenhouse she plans to build for her plants, the few flowers she’s planted to make the place feel like home.

The only thing missing on the tiny lot is a home.

Instead, Norris, 51, and her 14-year-old son have lived in a 34-year-old camper on the property since March. She’s done what she can to make it into a home, replacing its flooring with a carpet remnant and putting sheets over its worn cushions, but she doesn’t forget the reality of her situation: She’s homeless.

Although Norris’ situation stemmed from a marriage gone bad, many others are in the same boat because of a recessed economy and personal problems such as drug addiction and mental illness.

Mary Jo Lee, director of Anderson women’s shelter Alternatives Inc., said the local problem is growing.

“Right now, it’s such a different time in this country and in our local community because of the economy,” she said. “We truly are seeing the increase (in homelessness) because people are losing their jobs. It’s people who want to work, and yet the jobs are just not there.”

Norris once owned the one-story brick home next to her lot near the intersection of 53rd Street and Layton Road. She moved out of it in 2005 when she married a woodcarver from Ohio. Upon moving with him to Ohio, things turned sour.

Norris and her husband and son were living in a tent on her son-in-law’s 57-acre farm while they built a cabin. Eventually, the son-in-law didn’t want Norris and her son living there, and she was forced to return to her hometown of Anderson without her husband.

“I was so stressed because I had to leave, and he wouldn’t leave,” she said.

Without a home or job back in Anderson, Norris used her tax check to buy the camper to place on the sliver of property she still owned in the city.

“It looks like a piece of junk, but it’s home,” she said. “I have no income; I have $200 child support. I have a telephone and two credit cards and I have to pay them off. Everybody’s got bills.

“This little piece of land is all I have.”

To make matter worse, Norris recently received a letter from the city citing an ordinance that says no one can live in recreational vehicles in city limits. Norris’ property is a couple hundred feet east of the city’s western boundary of Layton Road.

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” she said. “I had it together before I met (my husband).”

For now, Norris is able to stay in her camper until city officials tell her otherwise. Luckily, she just obtained a job as a bus driver, which starts in the fall, and she now is working a 12-week temporary position.