Becoming homeless for my dream job

[ForTidyFinch]

I've been offered and ideal job in the town where I currently live but my short term tenancy is due to end in a couple of weeks. I have tried everything to find a new place to live. There is nothing available in this small town and I have no friends or family living close enough to help. I have decided to start the job and then live in my car. I've reached a desperate point now where I think there is little chance of me being able to rent privately even if something does become available. A run of bad luck has drained my finances and a CCJ was taken out against me without my knowledge (for overstaying in a service station when my car was broken down!) This was taken out while I was living abroad and I have only just found out. So there goes the chance of renting privately. So the choice I see it is being homeless and destitute staying with relatives or living in my car and starting this interesting job opportunity. I think I will live in my car. WWYD

Would you swap a working van for a broken down, unmovable car?

It's a small town. Everyone will know she's living out of her car within a couple of days. Someone will call the police. Then what? They remove her car, she sleeps rough? Why would you encourage someone to take that risk? There are still other options.

Yes, if she had a working car or a van then it might be an okay short term solution. She could drive her car out somewhere different every evening. But the best thing OP could do with a car that doesn't go and can't be fixed is sell it for scrap.

I once was out of the country for a couple of months, leaving my car legally parked on the street ( not outside my address). The police phoned me because neighbours near the car reported it as it hadn’t been moved in weeks. They apologetically explained they just wanted to check on me and agreed that there was absolutely no obligation to drive a legally parked, taxed, and insured car.

So then there is the question of whether it is illegal to “live” in your car, but I’m sceptical…How would they define “live”? It is definitely not illegal to “sleep” in the car… the gov is always advising us to rest if we are tired…. Some places get over that by banning overnight parking, but that doesn’t apply to roads and streets…

Also all this stuff about MOT is nonsense. You can park a car that is taxed and insured on a public street. Once the MOT is expired (or somehow become invalid - not sure that’s possible) it is still legal to PARK it if it is taxed and insured, but you must not DRIVE it except to a MOT test centre. Since the OP says it isn’t driveable she won’t be committing that offence!

Oh ffs obv by “swap” I meant that she needs one way or another to change her car. As I said above living in a car could really only be a very, very short term solution. But living in a van could be viable for considerably longer if the housing situation continued to be problematic.

Also, where could she park discreetly? She doesn't have any friends or family who would let her leave the car on their drive. She'd have to have the car moved to somewhere - where? A wasteground? Somewhere derelict? Anywhere that no one would see the car would be completely unsafe. She would be unbelievably vulnerable, going back to some desolate area every night with no means of getting away.

Fucking #vanlife, I swear. People need to realise that most of those people have MONEY out the wazoo. They're doing it for instagram, not because they have no choice.

OP, I can see you’re in a very very difficult situation but I feel like maybe you’re not seeing the risks. An immovable car in a small, rural town will attract attention. People who live in their vehicles live in working, moving vehicles and often is much busier towns and cities. I’ve lived in a small, rural place and trust me, people would be on the phone to the police if you were observed sleeping in your car. You live in the small place so you know the deal, your colleague’s mum’s will mention they’ve seen someone sleeping in their car or a colleagues husband will meet them at work and say “oh hey did you know”.

OP - on the off chance that you are looking in Loch Lomond & Trossachs area (full of rural housing difficulties!), send me a message.

I have assumed from OP’s previous posts that the car is currently legally parked somewhere where she can walk to leisure centre and work, so not on someone’s drive, but legal, on a public road, but not remote. She mentioned she has curtains for privacy.

True dat. Years ago, I had to go up to a wee town at the tippy top of Scotland for a few weeks work.

First night there, coming out of my hotel, I was accosted on the terrace by an extremely intoxicated personage, who took one look at me and said "Are you here for XXX?" (XXX was not a music festival, btw).

And that was only the start of it. I could have rolled into that townlet for ANY reason. There would have been several good competitors for my attention. But no, it seemed like every horse in that town knew exactly why I was there from day 1, without me saying a word.

OP, congratulations on your new job. That is fantastic and I have a good feeling that this will work out. Ask everyone you know to post a message on social media that they have a very nice friend looking for accomodation. Nothing fancy needed! Put up signs in shops too. You just need one!

Fucking #vanlife, I swear. People need to realise that most of those people have MONEY out the wazoo. They're doing it for instagram, not because they have no choice.

Exactly. I'm not sure if people are ignoring the obvious on purpose, but trying to compare a young couple in a properly equipped camper van travelling the world/country with a solo female in a clapped out car that won't start, who's also trying to work a full-time office job in a tiny rural town is blatantly ridiculous on so many levels.

Curtains for privacy mean fuck all when some dickhead works out that you can't move your car and have nowhere else to go. It's hard to imagine a more vulnerable situation to be in, other than literally sleeping out on the street.

The only thing that curtains are going to do is draw even more attention to the fact that she's sleeping in her car, though. And then all it will take is one dodgy person to watch/wait and see a solo female getting in and out everyday and it could be disastrous.

Yep. In a small town, everyone knows your business. You don't get to keep secrets. People will already know the car doesn't go, that she has a fancy new job but nowhere to live, that she doesn't have a boyfriend, that she prefers cats to dogs... I've lived in those places and the idea that you could keep something like homelessness a secret is a joke.

The plus side of such small places is often that there is a sense of community. I've been helped out by the same people that gossiped about me. If OP could make a couple of friends, she might find herself quickly in a very different situation. The price of course is that she'll never have any privacy.

She’s already living in that community.

Not once has the OP said she’s put a post on Facebook or NextDoor despite almost everyone on here advising her to, most ideas are just being ignored.

That doesn't make you immune to danger, though.

A solo female sleeping rough in a clapped out car that never moves is at risk, no matter how you look at it. It's not remotely comparable to the people who do it full-time and who have proper beds, electricity, storage and most importantly, vehicles that actually work.

For one thing, how can someone safely sleep in a car where you can't even open the windows? (if the engine won't start, the battery will be dead).

Apologies if someone has already suggested this but would you be able to get help from CAB in getting the CCJ removed, you have a defence against the debt so it might be worth a try.
I think that generally we don’t appreciate how easily two or three setbacks can come together and tip us from life being okay to life being not okay at all and us being in a hole.

I really hope you can make the tent pitch work OP. That sounded like a reasonable plan. The only other thing i wondered is if pubs might have a small room above their main drinks area they might let out? Sometimes they have spare rooms and are looking for short/long term lodgers but they don't advertise them. Would it be worth going round all the pubs and asking if they have a spare room?

You've probably done that but thought I'd suggest it just in case. You could offer to do shifts in the pub or washing up as well in return for help with the rent. Not what you want to do I'm sure after a day at work but if it secures a room, that would be something.

Good luck OP. I hope something can work out.

https://stayinapub.co.uk/search/

You have not responded to questions asking you what savings you have and what your expected income will be - this isn’t nosiness but it’s very difficult for people to make valid suggestions without this info (buy a boat! Buy a camper! Ffs is you have money to buy a boat, rent and commute).

i suspect this is just another incidence of chaos in your life - you have probably bounced around with no long term plan for years. Just another situation where you feel out of control and detached from reality, winging it as you go focussing on totally the wrong things.

good luck whatever you choose, I doubt you’ll stay long in your dream job - no doubt you’ll bounce off to the next adventure, leaving your clapped out car parked up for eternity.

Not sure why some people are so mean on here. The devil makes work for idle thumbs, that's for sure.

Well it seems like she's only getting the downside at the moment. Maybe it's not a good place to be long term if she can't make any friends there.

Are you joking? I think people have been incredibly helpful. She's had loads of suggestions and advice and ideas.

There have been some really mean comments on this thread, as always on MN. Some people can't resist a good troll, even when the chips are really down for someone.