Have you ever had to live in your car?

[Sub Atomic]

I'm not referring to 'car camping' or being unfortunately stuck in a storm somewhere.

Have you ever had to live in your car?

[bigwillq]

1. No (nt)

[Brickbat]

2. No, but Mr. Brickbat has.

[Sub Atomic]

7. Would you ask him to post his experience?

Humanity needs to know what happens to everyday people.

[Brickbat]

22. It was not as dire as many had it. He had just started a new job but didn't have any money for a

flophouse so he lived in his car until his first paycheck.

[Sub Atomic]

26. That's really more common than many people think.

it's interesting that we, as americans, consider basic shelter as a luxury and not a right as human being.

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. I just posted below. I know someone who waited for the 1st check at work, sleeping

at their desk. Anyone see the movie "Pursuit of Happyiness" with Will smith. He slept under the desk.

[Tx4obama]

3. Yes, in 1982, for about two months. n/t

[Sub Atomic]

11. I remember the Reagan Recession. I joined the Navy in 1982 because I had no other options.

Please tell your story. What happened to you?

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Yeah. 1979.

[Sub Atomic]

12. Why?

What happened?

[Jackpine Radical]

19. A long story, but I was a newly-minted PhD with no job & no

employment prospects after finishing my degree. Inflation was shooting through the roof, the academic world was in turmoil, the country was getting ready to dump Carter, & I was still dragging around a lot of baggage as a Vietnam vet. I eventually worked my way out of the hole, but it took a while, and put me on a career path much different from the one I had planned.

[Sub Atomic]

27. You are truly one of the few that were able to dig themselves out of that hole.

for whatever platitudes they're worth: thank you for your service. i'm sorry this nation refused to recognize your sacrifice.

[Edweird]

5. Yes - for around 8 months in the not too distant past.

Might do it again by choice soon to get ahead financially.

[Liberal_in_LA]

36. 8 months is a long time.

[Edweird]

47. One day at a time adds up. You fall into a routine....

Living in my truck alllowed my to finish an apprenticeship I was in. The only job I could find was far from where I lived. The gas alone for the commute was more than my rent. I would have happily used public transportation but my shift was from 5pm - 2am and the last train ran around midnight. So, I did what I had to do and slept in my truck. This was in South Florida and that can be an extremely tough place to hide in plain sight.

I may do it again in the very near future. My current job sends me wherever the work is and it's up to me to house myself. We are all staying at a hotel near our 'showup' and it costs over $300/wk. I can afford it, but at my current payscale I don't have much cushion left over and I have to gird myself for the inevitable layoff.

I have a Chevy Suburban, so it's not like I'm doing this in a Ford Festiva. I am considering either building my own travel trailer or actually going all out and converting my Suburban into a bona-fide RV.

[Morning Dew]

6. I haven't but I have a friend who had to.

It was before I knew her or she'd have been staying with me until she found a place.

I nearly cried when she told me about those days.

[saras]

8. No "other" options on poll - I couldn't afford a car when I was that poor.

[Sub Atomic]

17. My apologies.

I didn't mean to exclude you.

Many people (myself included) don't consider themselves 'homeless' when they have a car they can live in. I know - I did it for 3 months two years ago.


I had shelter. I wasn't homeless.

[Politicalboi]

9. Just last year

But lucky for me it was only for a few days.

[lonestarnot]

10. Close once, but no cigar on that, negatory.

[ret5hd]

13. Yes.

[AsahinaKimi]

14. This was easy .. maybe next time I post a poll I will just use the

YES or NO option :D

[TheDebbieDee]

15. No, but I did spend a night or two in my car, with my toddler,

while hiding from my abusive husband.............

[Sub Atomic]

18. Debbie Dee, I am so sorry for what you had to endure.

You deserve nothing but the best, and don't you ever let someone who happens to have a penis tell you otherwise.

[TBF]

25. I know at least one woman who did that - but without the toddler.

Far too much abuse in this world ...

[MadrasT]

57. {{{hugs}}}

I did the same thing (minus the toddler)

[rpannier]

16. I never have

I got lucky to being born into the family I did
Because I came close a couple of times but was helped
I went without power for about a month in January of 2001.
They shut me off the day of a major snow storm
But even then, I feel luckier than a lot of others at the that time for two reasons
1. When I got paid there was enough to pay for the bill and still eat
2. I had a house.

[handmade34]

20. hmmm

limited to cars?

trucks?, tents?, abondoned buildings?... what does it mean to be homeless? (is that the gist here?)

[Sub Atomic]

31. The 'gist' is that for so many of us, our vehicle is our last bastion of 'residence'.

A car we can park somewhere and consider it an address.

A car can be driven to someplace that's supposedly going to be 'better' somehow.

A car allows individual freedom in a society where reliance on public transportation has become stigmatized.


When you're down and out and you lose your vehicle your options become incredibly limited.

Tents and abandoned buildings are the next sources of refuge for those that live without homes, but they're usually run out by police that were hired to 'protect and serve' those who have homes and heat and food and security.

[handmade34]

48. so many don't even have cars....

I have such a hard time wrapping my head around a "civil society" that allows so many of us to be homeless... I am out and see it everyday and I am sad for our collective society

I have been homeless(with children) a number of times and (I suppose fortunately) it was always in a rural area where it was possible to pitch a tent or find an abandoned building....

Over the past 7 years I have lived in hotels (some consider that homeless).

[Nye Bevan]

21. When I was poor, I was in no position to buy, maintain, or insure a car.

So no.

[drmeow]

23. No, because I had a friend

who let me stay with him for a bit.

[Raine]

24. No but one time I spent the night in my car. I was traveling

and it broke down. It was in November late in the evening and all I could do was have it towed to a garage and stay there till it opened. It was the longest night of my life, I was scared, cold, hungry and miserable. I finally found a place I walked to that was open late and I used the public restroom. It helped that I knew this was just a glitch but still gave me a taste of how awful such an endless existance would be. :-(

[Liberal_in_LA]

35. that is scary. I broke down and ended up at a hotel overnight. I felt at loose ends that night

Almost homeless. Car was towed to a closed auto repair and I was taken to the hotel. Because I was in a town I had no plans of ever visiting with no way of getting home til talking to the car repair in the morning.

[Brickbat]

37. I spent the night in an airport in a second-world country and it was scary. I had nowhere else

to go.

[sfwriter]

28. Yup... in high school.

I remember when food budget was two cans of beans and bakery thrift bread, augmented with stolen popcorn.

[sfwriter]

29. that was weekly...

[Sub Atomic]

33. Over the years, I've found that the general population laughs at things like 'ketchup tomato soup'.

But when it's the only food you're going to eat today, you're going to swallow every last drop like it were Manna from Heaven.

Some people have absolutely no clue.

[dogknob]

30. Car?

What car?

[Liberal_in_LA]

32. I know someone who lived in their office at work for the 1st 30 days of employment until got 1st pay

They slept in their office at the desk. when the janitor showed up, they'd sit up and pretend to be working.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

39. I knew someone who slept on a couch in the ladies' room for a while.

The story didn't get around until after the fact or, knowing the workplace, many people would have helped her out.

[Kali]

38. no, I have been extremely lucky

have had the utilities turned off and am presently by no means well-off but I have always had shelter and enough to eat

poverty/involuntary homelessness in the country that claims such greatness is utterly disgusting

[TheKentuckian]

40. Yup.

[EFerrari]

41. Not yet. In the really dangerous years of Doug's stuff

I fixed up an old airstream up here and stayed there for most of two years while I supported the house in San Francisco, only going up there to drop off walking around money for him. During another period, I stayed with him in an SRO so he could be close to his doctor and I commuted back and forth at night from here. I might as well have been living on BART. I was working, he wasn't. Those were some bad years.

[astral]

42. I did, but I wanted to at the time.

So I don't think that counts. I would love to live in a van that was set up comfortably enough but with no plumbing taking up any valuable space, except maybe a sink that drained clear through the floor. I would have a hard time imagining not having somewher to store extraneous stuff, so I'm not in that headspace yet. When I did it before, I was moving, and didn't have a job or a sense of direction yet. You have to go to the right kind of surroundings for it to work, and there is always a little fear for safety.

The question of the OP, though, could have included have you ever had to be homeless, without the benefit of a vehicle to occupy, too.

[Capitalocracy]

43. I've never had a car to live in

But I have couch surfed fairly desperately and spent a few nights awake for lack of a place to stay.

[Blue_In_AK]

44. No, but I've lived in some other very small places,

including a a three-sided shelter in the woods, a tipi, and a 12 x 12 guest house for eight months when my oldest daughter was a baby. I've also been homeless, or couch-surfing, for periods of time.

[Art_from_Ark]

45. I don't think I've ever had to live in a car except for travel

But I have stayed in homeless shelters before, including one in San Diego when I had 16 cents to my name. After lining up in front of the shelter 30 minutes before opening, I was treated to an hour of testimonials from reformed drunks. After that, I got supper consisting of a bowl of the worst soup I've ever had (thin unflavored broth with a big chunk of hard cabbage and a few grains of rice). Then, after a cold rinse off in a community shower, it was time to hit the cot. There were about a dozen cots in the room, and several of the men spent the night coughing.

The next morning, I was directed to Traveler's Aid (I had to wander around downtown San Diego for 3 hours until they opened), and they were gracious enough to loan me the bus money I needed to get back home. I paid them back as soon as I got the money.

[snort]

46. Bobcat station wagon.

mattress fit perfectly in the back so it was at least comfy. Now I have a car thats 26' long. No worries.

[quaker bill]

49. No, but

would a 30 year old 8' by 24' travel trailer that cost less than my car count? I bought it for $600 and the space to park it cost $35 a month. This worked for a couple of tough years.

[DiverDave]

50. For a short period

I was forced to live in a friends camper.
Winter in Oregon in a thin skinned camper is not fun.
But I was single, thank god, and didn't have my kids to worry about.
I had been hurt at work and wasn't getting paid for a few months,
a paperwork snafu (they said).
I recommend EVERYONE get supplemental insurance at work, I didn't and suffered.

On edit:
I was very lucky to have that, if not it would have been my car.

[sofa king]

51. I recommend the Toyota Van of the early '80s.

The back seats folded into a bed, it had the largest production sunroof available, and a six-pack sized refrigerator with an ice-maker, when it ran. "I've got the Falling Water of live-in cars," I used to quip.

My homelessness (that time) resolved itself pretty quickly, and the Van had problems I couldn't fix, but I kept it strategically parked for years, and always kept a key for it hidden, just in case. Once you've been homeless, you never forget how easy it was to become so.

The more important lesson is that my "second home" lived for a very long time in the driveway of a wonderfully compassionate family who are deserving of more thanks than I ever gave them. The homeless, and those like me who aren't competent enough to take care of themselves all the time, rely heavily upon others for the small degree of comfort they enjoy. Bless all of those who care enough to help.

[MadHound]

52. No, but then again,

For the two years I was homeless, I didn't have a car to live in. So I lived in the woods, in shelters, a cave, wherever I could. This includes walking all through the night simply to keep warm so I wouldn't freeze to death.

A car would have been nice.

[w8liftinglady]

53. I was lucky- I had a mom to go to.

As is typical,I left a verbally abusive man with my first son wrapped up in my arms.My mom welcomed us with open arms.
sigh,I went back,of course, and had 2 more kids with him.

I worked to find housing for a pregnant co-worker who was sleeping in her car!Luckily,Dallas does have a good network for abused women with children.

[Paka]

54. Several times, but only for a few weeks at a time.

Once when I didn't have a car, I would sneak in at night to the building where I was working and sleep on couches in the law offices. Had to be real alert and get up early on that one. Again only for a couple of weeks until someone offered me a room in their basement. It's a character builder for sure. Gratefully now in my retirement I am able to live in Thailand and provide a roof over my head in spite of a severely limited budget. :wtf:

[Lyric]

55. It wasn't *my* car, it was my Mom's car.

But yeah.

[guitar man]

56. Yeah but I was lucky

I had a van with a rear seat that folded down into a bed. I was one of the "McVansion" crowd lol

[Zorra]

58. No. But I always own a vehicle that I can live in very comfortably.

Just in case.