Voluntary "homelessness" and alternative living arrangements.

If you're living in a car, you don't have room for nice toys.

 

I've considered living in a storage unit. I haven't REALLY looked into it yet, but I haven't thought of any downsides besides a likely lack of insulation during the summer and winter.

 

I actually have a few commercial truck drivers in my family including one who is about my age that recently got a CDL for big rigs. In my own case as someone who has plentiful material objects (books, figures, and so on), the idea of those sort of living conditions are not interesting to me. Partially this is because where I live decent housing is relatively cheap for the money. Although the idea of a nomadic life is semi-interesting to me but then again it is not to the extent that I would want to do so.

 

well there's the downside of it being illegal.

 

I'm almost 26 and I currently live with my Mother by my own choice. I pay part of the rent and buy my own food and it works out great for both of us.(we both save money this way)

Though I used to be materialist I have since changed and I feel it's for the better. I also feel a lot less stressful as I don't have to worry about money as much and since I have less bills I can save/invest more which only makes my money issues less of a problem.

I couldn't do living in a car though. I still have a few nice things and I enjoy sleeping in a bed too much. Maybe if I wanted to travel for a year or so I could see myself doing something like that.

 

Care to cite any references?

 

No, it is not normally legal due to city ordinances. For example, they are not built to code for human habitation and as such the wiring and all that jazz really are not safe.

 

Trust us, its illegal. And you'd have no electricity, and they close the gate at like 8 or 9 PM.

 

No idea if these are legal, but they seem to be a better choice than living in a car.

 

As an ex-Houstonian, I do agree the market the last time I checked (5 years ago) was pretty high (at least where we were looking), but as for living in a car one idea would be just to hang out at a library where you can take advantage of the a/c, internet, and electricity for so much time in a day (my local one is open like 9-9 for example) and then just stay in your car when needed. I mean it could work and a few homeless people actually will go to libraries for this reason...

The biggest issue with those things would be whatever local ordinances say about RVs and parking them.

 

The ones around here provide a nominal amount of electricity for battery chargers and lights. Sounds like an episode of Maron though.

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So how does one go about not having an address? PO Box?

 

You could always move three hours away to San Antonio where housing is dirt cheap.

 

General Delivery is free and can be used if you stay in a certain area

 

Nearly every storage center you'll come across have mandatory contracts that are meant to prevent owners from staying overnight on the property. Most places will search through their storage spaces looking for people who do this at the end of their opened hours and will simply kick you out if you're found. Not to mention there's usually no heating/cooling for the units themselves, no easy access to power in the storage unit itself (meaning you'll likely have to at least run an extension cord from the hallway to your unit...which is going to be noticed). Source: I know a guy who used to hop through storage units throughout the state and kept getting kicked out of them.

Those are technically legal (since they'd count as an RV I believe) but at $60,000 for a pre-built one you might as well just...buy a house lol. Even their "Shell's" are going to set you back $20k not including materials to finish the build. They look pretty neat though, I'd live in one of those if need be.

As to the topic on hand, I don't think I'd ever voluntarily "go homeless" so to speak, even if it'd save me thousands of dollars a month. But if forced to, I'd probably live in my car But I'd try and couch surf as often as humanly possible.

 

A house for $60000? Please tell where.