RVing and the poor

[JackieOnLine]

when you can't afford to retire is an interview with the author of an article in Harpers, which I'd have to pay to access. the first paragraph is here and it's depressing. but the interview I did read.


In a must-read article in the current issue of Harper's magazine, journalist Jessica Bruder, adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, adds a new phrase to America's vocabulary: "Elderly migrant worker." She documents a growing trend of older Americans for whom the reality of unaffordable housing and scarcity of work has driven them from their homes and onto the road in search of seasonal and temporary employment across the country. Packed into RVs


so this is the opposite of what Diana & her husband are doing - full time in an RV and out of necessity, not choice. the lines are sometimes blurred; I recently was reading the blog of a younger couple doing the work/camping thing and - of course - they made it sound like an adventure. because it is and maybe at least partly because it makes for better reading.

poverty is much better if you aren't old, that's for sure.

the whole subject fascinates me and not only because I'm going to end up old and poor if I don't get my crap together.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

Re the non-elderly...we used to, 30+ years ago, live near Hoover Dam. The local elementary school had students who lived at the campgrounds...several in TENTS! But Child Protective Services often ended up out there come winter.

This makes it sound like fun...but even Diana's RV is probably under 300 square feet. My marriage would survive that for only a very limited time.


http://stephaniehenkel.hubpages.com/hub/RVing-Full-Time-While-Living-On-Less

 

[JackieOnLine]

I have a friend whose parents recently sold the farm and now RV full time. the thing I would worry about (if I were them) would be the price of gas - if it skyrockets you are in real trouble.

but 180 degree difference between doing it on purpose (let's sell the house! freedom!) and not being able to afford housing/rent but you have a camper on the back of your pickup so you move in there...get a storage unit for your extra "stuff"...

 

[Velvetkiss]

When I lived in Oregon I was surprised by how many people actually owned campers or RV's and lived in the campgrounds year round, even kids who went to school. When I asked a couple who I become friends with why they choose to live in the RV it was out because of money, they both had become disabled early in life and were not able to keep there jobs that afford them their lifestyle, so they sold what they could and bought an RV and found a park with cheap space rent and live in there full time. I was more surprised how some families and I do mean families with children lived in the tent camping, they would tent for the time allowed and get a hotel for one night and then restart the camping nights and there kids were in school. It was something I had never experienced before, I grew up with not much, but my family always had a home. It made me feel blessed and wonder how does this happen in this day and age. I was also shocked at how many students at my college were actually considered homeless.

 

[bearmom]

I suppose it's more common now, but having been an RVer since traveling in one with my parents, to getting a pop up VW van, to motorhome now, I have always been camping alongside campers from both ends of the spectrum.

It may make a difference that I've been broke or at least cheap at times, so I targeted inexpensive or free places, and am much more likely to be camping alongside folks who are basically homeless, and not by choice.

This reminded me of one of my first big trips out, when I headed to a mountain top in Idaho in early spring (off season, so NO other campers or people whatsoever) and I found a campground by the Smokey Joe river that had a tent pitched by it. I was psyched to have a neighbor, so set up all my junk nearby, and went for a hike thinking my new neighbors may be back when I returned.

I gathered many "weeds" on my hike that I was going to prepare as salad with my dinner, and thought I had enough stuff to share (LOL, like I don't know why I thought ANYone, even a starving person would want to share the stuff I was gathering and eating).

Well, I did have a guest when I returned, but it was a ranger, and when she saw my camper she felt she needed going to warn me that the other camper only returned during the brief periods he remained out of jail. She made this worse, when she commented that she was "alarmed" to see that I was a young, small female, and said she was going to stand there and wait for me to pack my things before he returned.

She never said why he made so many trips to jail, or why she was particularly concerned that I was a young small female, and I'm probably better off not knowing.

I've learned several places aren't worth staying even if they're free since then.