FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (CNN) -- Richard Barboza sits behind the steering wheel, patiently working a crossword puzzle. There's no rush. Time is one thing Barboza has plenty of.





Richard Barboza, left, and John Nilsen are among those struggling in the current economic recession.





It's just after sun-up. The streaks of light shimmer off the car windows. In the back of the Ford Explorer John Nilsen stirs. This is home. Clothes are kept in a suitcase. Food is wherever they can find it.





"It's definitely not something that you ever see yourself being, homeless," Nilsen says.





But homeless they have been for the past six weeks, ever since the money ran out and they were evicted from the Fort Lauderdale, Florida, apartment they shared. Nilsen had lost his job, and Barboza is waiting for disability checks to start arriving.





The line of homeless men and women has already started to form at the food bank when the two men walk up. The faces are always the same, with a few more added every day.





Michael is a regular. He makes grasshoppers out of palm fronds, then sells them when he can for whatever he can get.





James says he once played professional football for the Miami Dolphins. No one believes him.





Nilsen and Barboza wait quietly for their turn to get in the front door. "There's a lot of emotional and mental turmoil when you're in a situation like this," Nilsen says.





Breakfast at the Cooperative Feeding Program is rushed. There are so many to feed. Seats at the tables are a premium. Nilsen and Barboza eat quickly their meal of sausage patties, an orange wedge, some cake and coffee. They want to get moving.





It's back in the car and off to the County Library. They can charge their cell phone there and use the public computers for an hour. Nilsen checks Facebook to see how his friends are doing That's how he stays in touch. The two men then begin searching for places to rent on Florida's West Coast.





"Big old double-wide trailer," Nilsen snickers. A two-bedroom catches their eyes. "I like the location," whispers Nilsen, "It's just north of Tarpon Springs."





If they can get enough money together, Barboza says they'd like to get out of Fort Lauderdale. "After having spent 20 years here I'm due for a change anyway."





Nilsen agrees. "We've agreed that we're going to go together, that we're going to stick together. We've been through enough as it is. It's easier to have someone you trust with you when you're in a situation like this."





In the afternoons, the two men try making a few bucks. Nilsen got $25 for participating in a food tasting. Barboza has an opportunity to be in a focus group that will pay him $75.





Nilsen had been donating plasma twice a week, but now that he's homeless they can't use him anymore. Barboza made about $20 by panhandling on an Interstate 95 exit ramp for about an hour. He stopped after some other homeless men threatened to kill him for working their turf, he says.





It's not easy finding work when your address is a license plate number. For Nilsen and Barboza, it's doubly difficult. Both men have disabilities. Barboza was injured in a car wreck. Nilsen had a blood clot in his right leg when he was 16. He walks with a limp and uses a cane.





"When we pull ourselves out of this," Nilsen says, "it's gonna be something you can look back on and draw from and say, 'You know what, if I was able to get through that ...' "





The long days together living in a car don't allow for much space and not much alone time. "We're at the point now when I know when not to say anything and he knows not to say anything. And
What is their home now?
Ford Explorer
question: What is their home now?, answer: Ford Explorer