An excellent article about the various reasons people live in vehicles.

[MrNoodly]

Though the discussion in this article is weighted toward those who would rather not be living in vehicles, it doesn't lump all vehicle dwellers together. It recognizes we're each somewhere on a broad spectrum.

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issu...br9GC3dbhI6GCr8bKxIf4cWlmS4MVmZY4Zs-q8[/SIZE]

"Ethnoarchaeologist Graham Pruss is among the nation’s top experts on vehicle residency. Now a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, Pruss was homeless for a time as a teenager. He slept at the Bay Area punk-rock club 924 Gilman and got a crash course in the social-services system after having a child at age eighteen. A former U.S. National Science Foundation graduate research fellow, Pruss has developed a vehicle-residency research program at Seattle University; helped launch a “safe lot” program in Seattle that provided places for people to park their vehicle homes; directed a tech startup that facilitated online donations to people experiencing homelessness; and worked as a city liaison to unhoused people, serving on the Seattle mayor’s Innovation Advisory Council."

<a href="https://ibb.co/bFvz9PR"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/68tgCmJ/550-grahampruss.jpg" alt="550-grahampruss" border="0" /></a>

"All human beings make homes. Our society views shelter from an economic and political vantage point, but the individual doesn’t necessarily see their home that way."

 

[JohnnyM]

Good piece, MrNoodly.

Thanks for sharing it.

Johnny

 

[landyachtman]

Yes, thanks for sharing

 

[WanderingRose]

An interesting article, and thanks for sharing it.

As with so many other circumstances, few things are as simple as they might seem.

 

[JoshPigeonFeather]

Something has got to give. Either society has to accommodate vehicle dwellers or ..... The range of responses is mind boggling. It could get very ugly if society/governments just decide to "eradicate" vehicle dwellers who have no "residence" - don't pay taxes. Some already regard this class as on the level of stray dogs and cats. No need to go into detail as to the implications.

It's almost a shame that the custom sprinter or half million dollar (or more) motorhome image often depicted in YouTube videos is what most people have been "influenced" into thinking about when they think "nomadic living". More and more people in utter desperation are retreating into their vehicles and heading onto the road as their only alternative to pitching a tent in the local park or freeway embankment.

It would be relatively easy to just allot some public land (city, county, state, federal) to making accommodations for all levels of vehicle dwelling. Things based purely on donations often fail. So a model of paying based upon ability to pay seems the best model. Like the campgrounds on public land, they should be partly subsidized by taxes, but with input from residents to give them some say in how things are run. Whenever you get people together, it's inevitable that there will be neighborly disputes. Some sort of security arrangement would be essential or the place would be taken over by gangs, drug dealers, all kinds of traffickers.

The "Safe Parking" program in California even requires a background check to approve those staying their safe parking lots. And there's a curfew. This seems to me only reasonable and the only way to keep things from disintegrating into chaos and the whole system shut down by public demand.

 

[gizmotron]

Have you seen 'The Grapes of Wrath' film; 1940? It depicts things like Hooverville's.  They will never allow those to pop up again.

We need a few LTVA sites in the North West, somewhere cool.

 

[GoingMobile]

Interesting article, its easy to pre-judge people you aren't familiar with. It also illuminates some of the problems of perception and legality of living in a vehicle, pretty much all along the spectrum.

I feel like I'm potentially in the middle class of vehicle dwellers. Have worked for over 40 years, saved several hundred thousand dollars, no pension, just a 401k style pot o' money, that has to get me through how many years? and a monthly social security check that is not enough to live on, at least to the standard I've known most of my life. Housing being the main thing that has gotten out of reach. Lost my house in California in a divorce and during the real estate collapse in 2009, so nothing to show for all that.

In a job where my considerable experience and hard work is not only not recognized but where colleagues work against my efforts and have marginalized me due to seeing my experience as a threat to their advancement. I'm working in a job I hate in a location that is very difficult for me. I have had enough of the work world and finding a better situation is extremely difficult and unlikely at age 64 in my field. I am planning on living in a van I am converting in the near future.

But I am very concerned about being lumped in with the vehicle encampments I see under freeway overpasses and similar. There is drug abuse, signs of behavior typical of heavy meth use, theft, dumping of waste on the street, and other situations that clearly would annoy just about anyone. Of course this statement is revealing my own prejudices and painting people I don't know with a broad brush. 

I am also concerned about laws and law enforcement making it difficult to live in a vehicle. About being able to set up residency in such a way that I can access health care, be insured, and have coverage actually there when needed, build some attachment to communities, conduct some commerce selling my artwork, and not be seen as a homeless person who is just lazy or broken. Where I used to live in Venice Beach, a place I could never afford to buy or rent in again due to rising prices, it is against the law to park a vehicle the height of my van on the street at night, as well as to sleep in a vehicle. That seems to be more and more common. It seems our political and governance system is so transactional, that is to have money in the game, to where those in power are concerned about where that money goes, and want it to go to help them maintain power. If you are without money in the game, you are without a voice in making decisions that may impact you. I was thinking about how as groups people band together to influence by pooling their resources, but I'm not sure van dwellers collectively have enough resources to gain any influence? Thinking about the AARP or to look at a more extreme example, the NRA.

My brother's girlfriend is from New Zealand, I have friends from Canada and a few European countries. They have their issues too, but they sure have a better safety net there for their citizens to receive healthcare, education, and have housing and healthcare in their old age without the cost bankrupting them. I've paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes over my life, yet all I seem to get back from that is a giant war machine I don't want, fighting wars I am not in favor of.

I love camping, but dislike the way people get crammed together in campgrounds, and detest RV campgrounds along with not being able to afford their high fees. I certainly do not want to park next to meth heads dumping their waste and trash everywhere. And some of the one size fits all perspectives used in public policy debates would seem to group anyone living in a vehicle not on private property in the same group. I guess this sums up my fears about what may lie ahead for me. But I know better than to let that stop me from exploring what the reality might offer, which could possibly be quite a bit better.

 

[morongobill]

Modern day Hoovervilles can be found in the homeless encampments.

 

[crofter]

@going mobile
You have the ultimate power over where you park. If you do not like the neighbors, turn the key and go elsewhere. Do not ever stay under a freeway underpass.

After retiring, I have enjoyed some resort style living at a cost of around $500 per month for palm trees & swimming pools etc (AZ). Many AZ resorts are much cheaper.

Not all resorts take vans, but you can get a cheap park model with a carport and park your van under that (shade). I would not spend more than 17 thousand for the park model with carport. But, it gives you a home base between travels & many have excellent mail services for forwarding etc while you travel.
-crofter

 

[crofter]

The best option would be the private parking where you are not subject to the problems of public parking. Private parking is illegal in many places due to restrictive zoning. Like redlining, restrictive zoning attacks the constitutional rights of the targeted people, in this case dwellers.

In my case I am paying a fee for private parking, and someone else deals with all the hassles including zoning ordinances. Not aware of private parking that is free.

Court cases could be productive to change the zoning against overnight parking on streets and public lots. What most of us actually do though is turn the key and go somewhere else.
-crofter

 

[DannyB1954]

Only two types. Those that want to, those that have to. From there each group branches off in a hundred types of personalities.