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Comment by vanthrowaway | Hacker News Reader

I live in a van in SF and I'm a software engineer. I park in the Sunset and ride a bike to work. I have a gym membership with towel service at a major gym chain. I have two comped meals a day at the office. I make more than $150K, but less than $200K. I go out drinking every night and wind up at a bar in the Sunset with clean bathrooms. On weekends I drive out of town and camp somewhere scenic. I'm saving 80% of my take home pay. I have been doing this for six months. I date regularly. On the first date I state that my place is a no-go. Camping is a good second or third date. If they are special, I explain that I live in a van.

My van was towed once when I was out of town and construction notices were placed after a few days. That stung. Otherwise, it has been fine. If everything in the van was stolen I'd be out $1,000.

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I live in the sunset district- there are a bunch of vandwellers who do this in our hood and it's frankly disgusting. They urinate out the side of their van in the gutter and leave their feces in the gutter. Perhaps YOU are clean but there are plenty of people who do it as well who are not as conscientious. It's making the neighborhood pretty disgusting.

You're telling me in the middle of the night if you wake up and have to pee, you're really going out to a bar and finding a restroom? I think not. At worst you're peeing onto the sidewalk or into a bush and at best you're peeing into a bottle in your van and then dumping it out on the street.

I report anyone I can tell living in a van on our streets to the non-emergency PD line, and they come out and they make them move.

I think this is much more than a local Silicon Valley thing.

I have noticed similar things in Europe and Australia.

As I see it this is a symptom of housing becoming too expensive. By a perverse logic the only thing the powers that be do is to make sure that housing becomes even more expensive. In that way people buying too expensive houses are saved by house price appreciation.

How this will end is no longer obvious too me, however people in top paying jobs living out of hostels or vans for me is a sign of erroding real wealth in our society.

I think we just have to build much more housing. The housing prices are too high and simply must go down. It will suck a lot for all those people who bought houses in the past 20 years, but it’s the only option that is good for society.

The political will is a big problem. Homeowners are much more likely to vote than people like me. In San Francisco, the latest new regulation/roadblock is that any increases in waterfront height limits have to be approved by voter proposition. That regulation was passed by simple majority, 8.5% of San Francisco residents voting in favor. This is pathetic. We need to be involved in reforming our neighborhoods.

I pee at the bar before I go to bed. Bars close at 2 am. Coffee opens at 6:30 pm. I have never peed outside. I keep no food in my van. I sleep there and that's it. You wouldn't know I was there.

Are you an alcoholic?

"I am 35 years old, I work as a software engineer at a startup that just got $20 mil in venture capital, and I live in a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER."

Sign of the times.

In fairness, it sounds a lot less like an inability to find more permanent housing, and a lot more like an optimization to maximize savings.

Still, though.

Honestly this person could afford a place in San Francisco with that salary, they just choose not to.

Even assuming you can find housing, the hassles of hunting (and places snapped up) make it daunting.

Which suggests the market's more fucked up than I care to think -- insane and all-but-unaffordable rents and still oversubscription.

I once travelled in my car for couple days and the hardest part for me was staying fresh in terms of hygiene, I can not feel good unless I have a shower in the morning, bath twice a week and brushing teeth/shaving daily, I can not imagine doing that while in a car or in a public restroom, I guess I just need a private space for that. It is actually the main reason why I can't relate to homeless people, most of them have a horrible personal hygiene and are very unappealing to talk to because of that.

Lots of offices have showers these days. Just pretend you rode a bicycle in and hop in the shower.

>I go out drinking every night

Not so appealing

American badge of honor. No point fighting it.

It's that or read in the van. I read enough at work. I need to take a break from consuming information.

This really is the way to go. Next year I'll be trading in my comfy mortgage for the van life. I'll be going from saving 70% of my take home pay to about 90%. Obviously this works best for people without dependents, but some people don't really have a choice. With banks owning 1 out of every 5 houses and people not being able to pay off student loans, the next crash is coming. Will you be ready?

You're the Google Van guy? Or is this becoming a trend?

becoming? it's been a pretty common thing for as long as I've lived in the area. I'm pretty sure a co-worker of mine is living in his benz. (He's real quiet about it.) same income range.

I know a few people who move here and discreetly lived in their car until they got a good job. I even know a guy who was a unix guy like me, who quit working with computers during the real-estate boom and became homeless in the crash. He's been living out of his car for a while, while looking for work.

As far as I can tell, the factors for success are

1. make sure it's not obvious you live in the van.

that is all.

I know of 2 Google van guys in MTV and the parent is not one of them. It's definitely a trend.

I'm definitely not negotiating enough. I've literally been offered half that (and less) in SF.

I do hardware, though.

thanks, but you should remove some of this identifying information.

I don't keep it a secret from coworkers and friends. I just don't go telling strangers. I'll keep it up while it's still fun and simple.

I thought your coworkers didn't know! Very useful additional information.

Out of concern for what the other respondent said-

I looked for you, people suggest a kind of self-contained bathroom -

https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/comments/2ve9qf/how_man...

specifically this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SFKJIQ?ref_=cm_sw_r_awd...

I don't think that $70 will cut into your life too much :) Even though it's well-sealed and hygienic, if it were me I would also put it into a large black trash bag, rolling the sides down to expose it when I needed it, also keeping new and a grocery bag of used sanitary wipes (baby wipes) in the same bag, and so after use I would clean my hands carefully and put the used wipe into the grocery bag of used wipes in the same black trash bag, then manually roll the trash bag back up, sealing it hermetically, and probably even put something on top.

Who wants to sleep next to a toilet - but out of sight, out of mind. This would likely take about five minutes of work but I'm sure beats the alternative if you have to do some business at night. I would try to avoid using this at all. But it would probably lend you some peace of mind to have around in case you really need it. Empty it in the woods.

As for piss, I'd probably piss in a large opaque bike bottle - since it says sports - and bike with it to work. On my way back I'd empty it somewhere (for example into a gutter, it's just biological, totally a non-issue), or keep it on my bike. worst case scenario someone learns a lesson in stealing.

it all sounds doable and a nice hack/challenge.

At least his address is safe.

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