My Secret Life in a Car

I have a secret. A big secret. I live in a car. And I've lived in a car for the last five months. So, I suppose you could say I'm homeless.

I didn't plan this. A little over a year ago, my wife and I lived in a regular 3-bedroom, 2-bath home. We were a two-income family getting by. However, in little more than a few seconds, that all changed. While she was driving home from work one evening, my wife was hit by a drunk driver. She survived the accident initially, but lost her battle after four days in the hospital.

As if the grief of losing my wife weren't enough, the hospital bills amounted to over $70,000. Insurance only paid a little over half. My income by itself wasn't enough to pay the mortgage, so I decided to sell the house.

My initial reaction was to rent an apartment, but my income - by itself - wasn't enough to make it worthwhile.

On the day the sale of our house closed, I had moved what was left of my possessions into a storage unit, and I had nowhere to sleep. I thought about staying in a hotel or asking friends or family if I could stay with them. But I hadn't lost my wife more than three months before, and part of me just wanted to be alone.

And so I did what made the most sense to me at the time: I slept in my car that night. Now, it was the middle of April. The weather here (in the middle of the country) was still a bit chilly at night. But the weather had been warmer than usual, so it was really quite comfortable. So I slept in my car the next night, and the night after that. And I've been living in my car for almost five months now, with just a relatively few nights sleeping in a 'regular bed'.

Now, it wasn't the easiest thing I ever did. But I started to realize that I kind of liked it. I had a level of freedom that I had never had before. And my fixed monthly expenses dropped to near zero.

Of course, I had new challenges to face. Where would I shower? How would I get mail? Where would I go to the bathroom? Where would I park my car at night when it was time to sleep? And, not the least of my worries, how would I deal with the social stigma of being one of 'those people' that lives in his car - a.k.a. - a homeless guy, or a bum.

And I still haven't mastered all of these challenges. But I've found some level of satisfaction in this new lifestyle. I guess you could say I'm homeless by choice.