Homelessness

Nurses General Nursing

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If you graduate nursing school, assuming you were living with your parents, and you had a lot of student loans and your parents said, "You graduated, now, get out" and you found a job as an RN in a field you wanted to get into or didn't, say you had no money and you had to live in a van for awhile, how would the facility feel about your lack of address? Say you had no friends you could reach out to to allow you to utilize their address for your mail. I know companies not related to medical field who have no problem with you living in a car or van or whatever that helps you save money on rent or mortgage so you can pay off student loan debt.

I'm not living with my parents, but I will be in this situation soon, so I'm hoping facilities would have no problem with it assuming you can prove you can maintain cleanliness.

I'll have enough money saved up by the time I graduate where I can afford a van, preferably white cargo van, where I can avoid the stress of paying rent/mortgage bills.

When I first commented on this, I believed that you had already graduated and had gotten your first RN job due to your original post. I thought this housing situation was an immediate problem of yours. Now I am confused.

Do you have a place to live still or not? Was this just a hypothetical post?

I think you're way ahead of yourself and if you were my kid I would say 1) save your money but wait til you're closer to graduation (you're 3 yrs out?) before over thinking it and closing off other options, 2) renting a room with laundry and kitchen privileges close to work/public transportation will save a significant amount of money in terms of gas/insurance/repairs/maintenance and other "convenvience" costs.

Yes, that's my thinking exactly. If you still have 3 yrs left at your current home, might as well make it 4 and save up money that way instead of all this van talk.

My husband and I are house-less by choice. We live in a cargo van. We owned a house (well, actually, the bank owned it...mortgage and all that...), but we decided we didn't want to be tied down to such a huge debt. Not to mention that we can now "live" wherever we want, whenever we want. My husband is a military officer and I am still in school, but we are clean and put together and if I didn't tell you about my living situation, you would never guess it.

We live in a medium level cost of living area (metropolitain southwest) and it is much cheaper living the way we do than when we rented an apartment or owned a house. This may vary based on where you live, though. Our monthly expenses are a mailbox at the UPS store, a gym membership for free showers, and propane for the small heater and stove we use. Plus gas and maintenance for the van (but you'd have that in a car, too), and all the other normal expenses of life, like food. We have a few solar panels for electricity so we can charge cell phones and computers. And in case you're wondering, there are many ways to use the bathroom when you live in a van, and most of them are not-at-all gross.

Where you park the van depends on where you live. We stay mostly on the military base because there are a million parking lots that we can blend into. But we've stayed at Walmart, 24-hour grocery stores, on the street in residential neighborhoods, on National Forest/National Park/BLM land, and in hospital parking lots. Once, when desperate to find a place to sleep while we were travelling, we stayed in the parking lot in front of a mechanic shop. We figured if the cops bothered us (they didn't) we would just say we broke down and were waiting for the mechanic to open. We made sure to leave before the mechanic showed up in the morning. We've never had a problem with other people or police. Check the laws of the municipality you're staying in. Some places do not allow overnight street parking, some do. We do move to a different parking lot or at least a different part of the parking lot very frequently, but I think that's just me being paranoid.

There are a million more things I could tell you about living in a van, but I'll leave you with a youtube channel to look up: Cheap RV Living. Although it says "RV," this guy lives in a van and interviews others who do as well. We have learned a lot from this channel, and if you are serious about living in a van, I would advise you check it out. Like someone above said, your employer and your colleagues won't know you are "house-less" unless you tell them. Good luck!

Specializes in Med/Surg/Infection Control/Geriatrics.

Perhaps you might be able to rent a Post Office box at the Post Office? You could use your present address for now, as you are still living there.

Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.

I have two sons about your age and if they had half this much foresight, motivation and self assessment ability, I would be busting with pride and very optimistic about their future. All wrapped up in a warm cozy blanket of motherly worry for safety reasons, of course.

It sounds to me like the perfect time in your life to do this if it is what you truly want to do. Stay safe and keep asking questions and making plans. I predict you are going places. And not just in your van. ;)

In my NURS-299 class I had to take, we learned that homelessness is temporary. I would like to live in a house or apartment, but I would like to be debt free before that. The only two forms of debt I would like to have is a mortgage and maybe a car payment. I don't have a wife or kids or alimony or child support to pay, and if it were possible, I would like to work two RN jobs, then again, I wouldn't have a life, but like I said if it's possible as in if it's safe and people do it or if it's doable, I'd like to do it to help speed up my situation so I can live a normal life.

Paying for a place to live period defeats the purpose of paying off stuff. When I worked at a hospital in East Tennessee as a sterilization technician, I think I looked into living in my car, but my manager at the time said "NO" in a heavy, southern tone.

Why did manager say no?

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

IMO, your living situation is not your employer's business. Nor will it be their business...unless you tell them, that is.

Get a PO Box for mail; if you need a physical address, rent a box at UPS or see if a friend will you have mail sent there in their care.

Specializes in Care Coordination, Care Management.

There are forums out there dedicated to the "van life", I have family who do this, though not full time. It truly is not as crazy as it sounds.

Specializes in Case manager, float pool, and more.

I think aside from safety concerns of course, research thoroughly about van life and see what you need. Glad you are asking questions and seeing what steps you'll need to take. I agree with others that having a PO Box would solve the living situation question. Best of luck.

Specializes in ER.

I lived in a houseboat for 8 years and it was a blast, except the winters which were harsh. Finding firewood was a challenge, and coming home to a cold boat after a 12 hour shift was miserable, but the summers more than made up for it.

Check out a website called Apollo Duck to find a cheap boat for sale near you!

Specializes in ER.

And whatever tiny home you choose please invest in a CO alarm. Cooking with a propane stove and burning firewood in a confined space with inadequate ventilation can be fatal unless done sensibly.

When I first commented on this, I believed that you had already graduated and had gotten your first RN job due to your original post. I thought this housing situation was an immediate problem of yours. Now I am confused.

Do you have a place to live still or not? Was this just a hypothetical post?

No, I'm still trying to get into nursing school. Just trying to make different plans and see what works the best. I think this is probably the best way to live period. Maybe buy a house after nursing school, rent it out, and live in a van while your home is being used by other people they're paying you to provide for them.

I've just been so far away from being able to reach what I want that I think more ahead than I do with what I have. I get section 8 through the VA (former military), but even HUD threatens the VA they'll cut me off section 8 if I don't pay my rent. It's really stupid how things are with HUD, but it's their beliefs, not mine.

I'm just making a plan B. If I can find a van that I would feel comfortable blending in and not having to worry about being harassed, I'd look into buying one soon. Then I can tell HUD to go **** themselves with their threats. It'll upset the VA for sure, but at least I made an effort to do something about my situation. I'm not about to lose it, but considering that I'll be working and trying to save up to take the entrance exams since they're so damn expensive, I'm doing everything I can to keep my section 8 before making a drastic decision. There is going to be a financial gap/gap in applying for nursing school if I choose to save up for a van. If I don't, I can continue to work and try beating down the TEAS test. Eventually if I pass, I'll hopefully graduate nursing school, and find a job THEN worry about the van.

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