The American, who did not have enough housing, told about life in the car

When 22-year-old Levi Johnson managed to get a job training in Seattle last summer before he graduated from university, he couldn’t decide on his living experience for too long. “I acted stupidly, I just didn’t understand how things were going in Seattle,” he said.

In the spring, when he began to look for housing, there were few offers on the market, and the places he watched cost 1200-1400 dollars per month, writes Big Picture. In the end, a student at the University of Texas at Austin found a friend among the locals who was planning to leave his roommate. “He was free from July to August, but I needed from June to August. There was a gap in the 40 days in which I had nowhere to live, ”the guy says.

Inspired by the story of a friend with whom he met in a bicycle tour of the United States a year earlier, Joseph decided that he could live this time in his Subaru Outback car. After taking care of a safe parking spot, he booked a campsite in the suburbs via Airbnb for 600 dollars. And the guy managed to live 40 days in the car, while appearing in the office every time in a suit.

The campsite that Joseph booked were inhabited by people who stayed here for both short and long terms. Camping mistress Stephanie made a bonfire in good weather, and the residents gathered to talk about everything, from politics to conspiracy theories. The guy did not always have the opportunity to sit around the fire, as sometimes he needed to get up at 4: 30 in the morning to get to work by six.

But when he stayed by the fire, those were memorable moments. “I’m doing my senior thesis on the environment, and one night I was sitting around the fire and the conversation turned to world politics, then chemical pollution in the sky, and it turned into a huge argument about conspiracy theories,” Joseph recalls. “It was like a small commune.” They found it strange that among them was a person who worked in an office,” he says.

He kept the external attributes of his corporate life in a separate part of the car and could take dry-cleaning clothes in the office. “I lived in the car for three weeks during a climbing and fishing trip two years ago, but it was in nature. I did not have business suits and anything else. This is “a student living in a car” against “a professional who is trying to keep his things clean,” says Joseph.

Every morning, before entering the office, he checked whether dirt was sticking to his shoes. “It made me laugh all the time,” the guy says. In search of household amenities and to keep fit, Joseph signed up for a local climbing wall for 56 dollars a month. In addition to the locker room with a shower, Wi-Fi and an iron, which he slowly used, a surprise was waiting for him: a whole party of extreme people who live in cars.

“It turned out there are a lot of people who climb rocks and live in their cars,” says Joseph. - There was a whole community living in cars in the parking lot. There were vans that I noticed when I was there, and I began to spend the weekend, parked in the city, closer to everything I wanted to do. I woke up and enjoyed the local shower, and sometimes we woke up and made coffee together and waited in the parking lot until the climbing wall opens. ”

According to him, most of the other residents were guys living in vans. “There is a slight difference between living in a car and living in a van. Vans are much easier to equip for themselves. People attached shelves and set up a bed on a platform, hung curtains. Some have generators or refrigerators that give the feeling that you live in a house that moves, and not in a car. ”

“I wish I had curtains,” reflects Joseph. - It would be a significant improvement. It is very difficult to darken the car. I was in the campsite in the forest, so it was rather dark, but there were bright lights near the gym. ”

While he lived like this, Joseph brought out for himself the three commandments of life in the car. By all means, it is necessary to avoid car theft, evacuation of the car and locking the keys in the car itself. There were no problems with the first two points, but one night he made a fatal mistake with the keys. “It was half-past ten, I had to get up at 4: 30 to work. I changed clothes to sleep, so I was without a T-shirt and I didn’t have a phone or a purse with me. Only flashlight. I went to another person at the campsite and called the emergency service. They drove two hours. The next morning, to call a good language did not turn.

One of the difficulties of living outside the home is the lack of space to relieve stress after work. As a result, you yourself do not notice how you spend your free time in the car. “At first I discovered that I was spending time in the car reading or writing letters. Then I began to go to coffee shops, but did not want to spend so much money. I was in the suburbs, so I started going to the nice local library after work. I made friends with local librarians. ”

As for food, Joseph took with him a Jetboil, a miniature device that quickly boils water. In the mornings, he used it to make instant cereal and coffee, but in the evenings he often went to the cafe. Because of this, and the cost of dry cleaning office clothes in the end, he spent more money than planned. Although he was paid a novice analyst, he focused on saving wherever he could.

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