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

This is just asking to be a victim in some sort of messed up situation.

Women advertising they have no-one and nothing to god knows who? Men are out there waiting to prey on vulnerable women like this. Watch some crime documentaries and you’ll change your mind.

@OriginalUsername2 the car doesn't work. It's stuck where it is and not sure how the locks are going to work when the batteries are flat. Hence all the camping suggestions.

All the best OP and I hope you are ok.

Do you have the funds to get the car sorted @ForTidyFinch ? That would certainly keep you safer if you were able to keep it moving.

I’m sorry but that’s asking for all kinds of trouble. Inviting strangers into your home. Ones with chaotic personal lives, unable to source a room from friends family or the council, or living in violent situations . The odds of you having major issues are high.

if you want to help homeless people go for it, there is many things you can do, but as a lone woman inviting strangers into your home is not wise.

The car is a moot point. It doesn't run and will have a flat battery before long. A car with central locking won't be able to be locked/unlocked with a flat battery. I think we need to remove the car from the equation because it's only going to be secure for a very limited period. It isn't going to save OP and won't be able to be kept locked for long.

The first thing she should be doing is going straight to the council when her tenancy ends, not wasting time chasing a dream job that she will not be able to sustain anyway while living in a car. With no friends or family in the town I very much doubt she will be working from home In the boot of the car. Sadly this just isn't the right time for chasing dreams.

I think the priority here is getting a roof over her head first. There will be other dream jobs when she has more security of accommodation.

I had a manager who did this (not sure about the circumstances behind him living in a car) but he became a source of ridicule and bullying when he was found out. Don't do it.

According to OP the car is broken beyond repair (but at the same time, it has just passed its mot.)

A car with central locking always has a manual override. The key flips open, and you can lever off the cover and unlock.

Are they right though?

OP, I wish you all the luck in the world. If you were my co-employee or otherwise known person, I would do all in my power to help you. I hope all works out for you. 🌷

Well that should keep all her belongings safe then..

Yes the vast majority of posts have been helpful and understanding. The person who I replied to has not been and I quoted her.

There's only about three posters that have tried to kick the boot in or try and make me out to be a liar out of many hundreds of posts. I wouldn't have engaged with them at all but I won't be painted as a liar.

For example questioning that a small town would have a leisure centre 🤔, saying something doesn't add up, it's a wind up not believing the cost of a campsite or that craiglist exists in the UK.. if I don't reply to it they say I am ignoring them and further imply I am a liar.

And then there are just the daft posters insisting I will be safer in a tent!

I suppose it's all par for the course for a public forum. There are many who genuinely want to give helpful advice and others who are here for entertainment. Which I suppose is what an online forum is about! So thank you everyone!

In my OP I asked WWYD stay in the car and take the job or move to live with family/friends & no job. Others have made suggestions of other ways to find accommodation, none of these have proved viable as yet but I will keep trying. I have repeatedly thanked everyone for their suggestions.

It's not the sort of area that people get moved on by police as it's not a known problem in the area. The car is legally parked. There is plenty of space for parking in the area and if people walk past and see me getting in or out of my car so what? I'm not going to standing outside brushing my teeth in the road. I don't know what sort of areas you guys live in who are insistent I will be moved on by police. Maybe areas where the police have nothing better to do? My cars been sat in the same spot legally parked since it broke down and nobody has batted an eyelid.

People can keep banging on about me living in a tent no sorry it's not going to happen. I'm not going to make myself much more vulnerable by doing this. There have been great ideas on this thread but that isn't one of them. Camping on a tent to go on holiday is not the same as living full time in one without a car nearby to escape to.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions. I'll survive and there are people in much worse situations than me.

An co employee or otherwise known person who has only just applied for the job and whom you know absolutely nothing about? I don't believe you.

Yes unfortunately I have already experience this when replying to posts about rooms! Often men renting out a room who want to take advantage of the situation. Being asked to send a photo or being told I can live there for free if I clean in the nude or give a massage 😕

I'd rather sleep in my car and risk the indignity of being 'exposed' as homeless than put myself in that situation.

I'm deleting as I've decided not to take the bait

Yes I’m surprised at the “I’m so kind I’d do anything “posts; I don’t believe these people for one moment.

In my OP I asked WWYD stay in the car and take the job or move to live with family/friends & no job.

Well there is a third option: forgetting about the dream job and taking a job- any job- in an area with affordable accomodation (or a job with an accomodation as a PP suggested), then sorting out your financial situation; and only then, going after the job of your dream.

OP I've tried to keep up with all the updates and appreciate the thread's gotten derailed but the defining factor in the WWYD for me would what the dream job actually was. And like how stable of a career it would be. How hard would it be to get another job.

Well, I "bounced around with no long term plan for years". I did live-in jobs so as to have a room and an income. There were a few hairy interludes between jobs, which make great stories now although they're actually tales of a young woman relying on the kindness of strangers for a place to sleep.

My proper career started with a dream job and squatting in London.

Getting out of precarity involves hard choices. There are things I would've done differently but this isn't my thread. I'm trying to say there isn't always a good answer; I just hope OP can find a way to do the job - because the work is what changes your life, not the temporary home.

I do wish squatting wasn't so much more illegal now! Plenty of places sit empty, even in tourist resorts.

No it isn’t, it’s a regulated scheme from my local council.

It's always been illegal for commercial properties - the change in 2012 was to make it illegal to squat in residential properties. There are a lot of boarded up pubs for example because of the capital value being bigger than the profit of operating it as a business.

The issue with the OP is that her 'dream job' is in a tourist town that's so isolated she can't find much accomodation even in neighbouring areas. Different from London where there's plenty of opportunity.

Personally I've always avoided jobs that would tie me to certain areas. I mean if you're, say a marine biologist you'd have to live by the sea. If course if you have a burning passion that's one thing but I don't.

Now if OP said it was a dream job that paid very little.... Oh and if it was available in a few areas in the country, all with similar problems... Is it worth it? Different from a job that could really take her places just this specific opportunity is in this town.

This!

I don't know how old you are op but you seem to have few possessions - a defunct car and what will fit in the boot - so I'm guessing you're still very young with plenty of time to build a dream career. Prioritise getting a stable life started over this new job that won't pay brilliantly anyway. Take any job anywhere that allows you to have a home and stability. Make things easier for yourself, then start focusing on the 'nice to have' things like a preferred career.

It is a local version of this.

Deleting what? I didn't understand that part, but that's the info you gave.

If you can get your car working then that would be amazing for you.

It sounds like you feel the area is very safe and people wouldn't mind you living in your car where it's parked. You're not worried about people knowing you're there and you don't think it's risky or uncomfortable. In that case, maybe it is the best thing to do.

For me it would depend on the job. If it's truly an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity and you feel safe in your car short term, then I'd consider it as a last resort. I would definitely prioritise making some friends and local connections though. I would also leave valuables with family or in a locker. And I would make sure my phone was fully charged at all times.