This is one of the cars I lived in for a while. My Buick Electra. I called it 'The Pig' because every time I turned the ignition switch, it squealed like a pig.
I was one of the thousands upon thousands of working homeless (42 percent of homeless people in the United States are employed). And I was homeless on wheels.
I had planned on living in this car, the second of my automotive cars, just as I had planned on living in a '96 Chevy Lumina. Both cars were street stealthy and served me well. But then I got a great deal on an old El Dorado camper that had been repoed for unpaid storage fees and thought I had landed in heaven when I moved in.
Trouble was, it wasn't street stealthy, attracting ticket-slinging cops like maggots to shit. So I talked my Arco employer into letting me park on the gas station property where the ticket-mad cops couldn't harass me or impound my home for the crime of homelessness.
The camper was my bedroom, but the front of the gas station was my living room and its beer coolers were my 'fridge. The gas station restroom was my shower when I was too lazy to go to the nearby Los Angeles Air Base gym where disabled vets like me are allowed to sauna and shower. It was easy living compared to car dwelling.
Tags: homeless, homeless on wheels, working homeless, car living, living in a car, automotive home, auto dwelling, employed and homeless, planned car living, living in your car, street stealthy, repoed, unpaid storage fees, police harassment, parking ticket hell, maggots, Arco, living behind a gas station, crime of homelessness, Los Angeles Air Base, disabled vets, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, homeless veterans, James Jarvis
Where'd that come from? You ditched the roomie?
ReplyDeleteNevermind. Not to self, read post before commenting.
ReplyDeleteThese posts are not always in chronological order. I'd had to cut loose from Creepy at the nearby Motel Marquis because he raised a fuss about my new homeless 20 year-old Korean girlfriend sleeping over.
ReplyDelete