If anyone is thinking about this, please do research into how crappy modern, mass-produced RVs are built.
Lemon Laws do not apply to RVs (except maybe in one state).
Many RVs can easily spend most of a year waiting to get a single item half-assed repaired multiple times while the 1 year warranty runs out and the 20 other things don't get fixed.
There is a relatively-new YouTube channel called Liz Amazing that showcases RV horror stories, including the most recent one where a luxury RV manufacturer didn't properly install VINs on the RV leading to a $600k fine for the user:
Back around 2000, I bought a Honda Civic, and in buying insurance the VIN number was entered wrong by the insurance company employee - had a 1 instead of a 7 or something, due to the handwritten process in use at the time.
A few years later, after dutifully paying my insurance, but moving a few times for school the registration had lapsed and I got pulled over. They ended up taking the license plate because of this, that my car was "uninsured", and apparently I was paying for nothing for the last few years..
I cleared up the registration the next day and the insurance as well, but a few weeks later had to go to court to clear up the ticket. The judge asked me "Why didn't you check that the numbers matched on the insurance forms?", to which I replied "Did you check this with the last car you insured?". They let me off.
This is all to say, how is it possible that someone got $600k fine for a mistake that is obviously not the fault of the buyer?
Remember there are states that actively use civil asset forfeiture laws to straight-up steal people's property. So an excessive fine does not seem much different in comparison.
I watched several videos from the Liz Amazing YT-link you provided — very thoughtful content from two obviously-compatible sunbirders.
Her overall recommendations tend to recommend older, well-taken-care-of models over the newer less-expensive trash being mass-produced. Get a PROFESSIONAL INSPECTION before purchasing any RV particularly if your first purchase, and buy from a local person (instead of a dealership).
Really loved that some of Liz's most-popular videos weren't about RVs, particularly her Introduction to Electric Bicycles (helpful as we've gotten older).
By least-favorite brother (maker of terrible decisions™) lived in an RV for about two years, and it was absolutely embarassing to the neighborhood... just a squalor'd pig-stye.
If anybody near Chattanooga wants to restore an old Airstream, I know a guy... [that owns a dozen, variously delapidated]
Tangent... I've always thought a custom resto-mod Airstream Bambi would make for a rad little travel trailer. Scrap the wet bath, ditch the propane, add a pile of LiFePo4 batteries and flexible solar, run it all off 12V. Probably end up costing $60k or more, so probably never happen. Oh well.
I built my own [1] — but then I have a garage (and had been building something approximating furniture for several years).
I feel like with the tutorials out there, a novice could learn as they go and enjoy the experience of building out a van.
It's possible too to do it in stages. My Stage 1 had no solar or stove — limited cabinetry. The wife and I took it out nonetheless. You find out quickly too that way what you miss/want.
The cost of a new Ford Transit was not cheap, and there were some pricy components. As an example, the two LiPO batteries were $1K each — but they're about 1/3 that these days (wow). The electric refrigerator (more like cooler) was not cheap. The propane stove was not either — but a camp stove would have worked as well (and has the benefit that you can cook outside on hot days when you don't want to heat up the van/RV).
I never tallied up the total cost, but I promise you it was significantly less than a new RV. And because I made it myself, I can vouch for the quality of the components.
The single best resource was faroutride.com [2]. But then there were plenty of online forums, YouTube etc. with all kinds of info.
I was a few years from retirement when I began. The idea was to "van life" with the wife after I retired. As it is, we've done a good deal of travel in the U.S. but until she also retires, we don't live the van life.
(The fact is though, after a few weeks on the road, you come home appreciating your creature comforts.)
(Recently drove from the Midwaste to San Diego to get my middle daughter and her two cats. Heading out in a few weeks to the Bay Area to visit some ex-coworkers.)
Just another example...
We bought a small teardrop camper last year (basically a king bed on wheels, with a small kitchenette on the rear under a clam shell). We used to car camp with a large tent - we got tired of sleeping on an inflatable mattress and wanted to do longer trips, so the teardrop made a lot of sense (we aren't ready to give up "camping" for "RVing", if that makes sense).
On day one, the solar controller (feeds power from panels to battery) was wired wrong. Fixed by dealer on the spot, but not a great start. Thankfully, this dealer has a solid post-sale/delivery-day walk through (not all do), so we picked up on the issue.
The wiring in the battery box is a bit of a rats nest. It's not wrong per se, but it's not as tidy as it should be, IMO. The battery lives in a storage box on the front of the trailer, alongside miscellaneous items (tools, bucket, hose, power cord, etc), so having the wiring untidy makes it more likely for connections to get broken.
The AC unit sits on a drain pan that's a bit too shallow for the job. If the trailer isn't nearly perfectly level, it will overflow into foot of the bed. Again, not wrong per se, but if you don't know in advance, you could be in for very wet bedding.
The brand is well-known and considered middle-of-the road. Not the cheapest, not the most expensive. We knew what we were getting into, and we're quite happy with the purchase, but if we hadn't done due diligence, we'd probably be a bit disappointed.
First off, a travel trailer make a lot of sense because you decouple the propulsion from the living quarters. But, then you might need a big truck (depends on size of trailer - most mid-size SUVs and compact trucks can only tow ~5000lbs). Another plus is you can drop the trailer at camp and drive to town/trail heads/etc. Downsides are total length, two registrations and insurance plans, etc.
If you don't need to live in it long-term, one of the fiberglass shell travel trailers (Oliver, Escape, maybe Scamp and Casita, though they're lower spec). The less plumbing, the better. The simpler the better. Less to go wrong/leak. They generally max out around 20 feet or so - plenty for a week here and there, but less than ideal for full-time living.
If I wanted full-time, I'd probably skip the Class B ("ship in a bottle van-based RV") and Class C (van/truck chassis and cab with box bolted on the back) RVs and jump straight to a Class A (bus or commercial truck chassis with custom cab). Something like a slightly used Prevost (though that's probably still $500k+, so won't help if you're priced out of traditional housing).
not the parent but Airstream or any other RV with an aluminum or molded fibreglass body.
most RVs have thin skins glued to a type of particle board and right angle joins everywhere. those joins will leak and when they do, the leak is often imperceptible. the interior walls and subfloor will rot before you notice anything's wrong.
RVs with a molded fibreglass or aluminum body use overlapping panels to naturally shed water and the materials used don't corrode (caveats apply, eg galvanic corrosion of aluminum). generally this means the RV won't rot out unless the panels themselves are holed, which is unlikely. it's not uncommon to see an Airstream that's been sitting in a PNW field for 30 years and find that the interior is musty and likely mouse chewed but structurally fine.
of course the mechanicals -- frame, axles, gas lines, appliances -- all need to be maintained and they are more expensive compared to their non-RV counterparts, but if you're handy and aware of your limits, these don't have to be show stoppers.
RVs are absolutely garbage quality. Damage is not a matter of IF but WHEN, so it is essential to budget for big ticket, frequent repairs. And you will be replacing your roof in ten years at best.
Made that choice 12 years ago. I have no regrets. I was also very lucky. I found a good RV park that had grass yards surrounded by fences with plenty of trees for shade.
The RV itself has been incredibly sturdy and I've only had a few issues. I did have to spend 1 day upgrading the electrical from 30 amp to 50 amp so I could run the A/C and the Water Heater at the same time. I had to replace the city water inlet check valve after 8 years. The spring valve on my toilet broke after 5 years but it was less labor to just install a new one. The mattress got replaced immediately.
Otherwise, if you can get a good park to live in and don't have large pets or children, I can only highly recommend it.
In Portland, it's legal to live in an RV on someone's land as long as there is a proper sewer/electric/water hookup. This is beneficial because it makes for more dispersed RV living rather than concentrating everyone in an RV park.
This Sightline article talks about some of the people it has helped:
Long term, we should make other more permanent forms of housing cheaper and easier for people to get into, but this is a good solution for some people some of the time.
Not difficult if you’re comfortable being handy. PVC is easy, it’s just a sewer clean out or a dump station for extra fanciness. If your sewer line is something other than PVC, you might need a professional involved. Hand trench, and you might need a private locator service to find it if you don’t know where the existing sewer line is.
“home rv sewer dump” are the keywords to use for additional research and sources.
There is affordable housing, but it's not where people want to live. I am concerned articles like these support the notion that everyone must live in a bustling metropolis in the heart of everything. The article cites up to $45/night to park an RV. Thirty days is $1350. In Valdosta, Georgia, the average apartment rent is approximately $1,004 per month
Arkansas median rent of $868.
There is affordable housing, even buying, but more publications must get off this notion that everyone must live in Highland Park, or the Castro, or even Midtown Atlanta.
My landlord (owns four duplex units) moved out of the other side, into an RV on his land, in order to rent out an additional $900/month unit. No A/C, in the American Southeast [not worth it IMHO].
Freaking property owners are starting to get priced out (of living)!
No, it's not permittable land (floodplain). His hoarding has resulted in junkyard vibes (at least it "resets" after major flooding). I'm a blue collar guy in Appalachia, so this isn't exactly California...
Landlord is a decade+ older than me — after his parents died, he's sort of going back to the land (if that makes sense). I've testified as a character witness for him (he occassionally gets arrested for self-help evictions — doesn't give AF at all — readily brags admitting to what he done'did); us long-term tenants currently screen new tenants, and all he cares about is money (cash only). If you want a written rental contract, you have to provide one yourself =D
I often love it here — and am paid through the end of 2026 (and do everything I can to keep this massively-undermarket rental). Landlord won't even consider selling it (I've offered!), but he has no heirs so... [fingers crossed it'll work out eventually].
Ref: An RV park very close to me is mentioned in OP's article — very real (I am on a slab, thank god). Mostly nothin' out there but land and poverty.
>She house sat for a family member to get her finances back in order, but she found it difficult to afford a rental apartment on the $58,000 a year she gets in disability and Social Security payments.
It's not for everyone, but that's more than enough to retire in much of the world. You can get a very nice apartment in much of Seoul for around 700$.
The EU doesn't make getting a long term residency easy, but holy crap.
That might be an option for anyone who wants to retire early. Assuming you can sort out a visa, from my understanding the Nordic countries are extremely easy for English speakers. Thank you!
It's a sad situation and really shows our collective failure to build enough housing. But in articles about the financial struggles of single parents, why do journalists frequently not report anything about child support payments? The reader is left to wonder whether the father of the Stitt children is paying his share, or dead, or a deadbeat. In a number of cases I know about the custodial parent didn't even bother to pursue a legal support order. Even a few hundred dollars per month can make a huge difference in paying rent. I understand that navigating the legal system is difficult and many single parents are overwhelmed, but most counties have social workers or legal aid agencies that will help with court filings and collections.
There has been net transfer of housing ownership to the wealthy through increasing LTV and rentals - interest and rent are two ways of transferring money from the working class to rentier capital. Framing this as simply a supply issue is obscures the dynamics of wealth transfer undergirding the rise in housing scarcity.
It’s actually a trend since 1980s. Things like deindustrialization and financialization, outsourcing (which collapsed the unions), deregulation (incentivizing externalities primarily felt by the working class - the 2008 collapse, environmental deregulation in Louisiana, etc), inflation (which benefits those with assets and harms those without), tax cuts for the wealthy. The wealth gap grows which means assets like housing shift to asset holders (the wealthy). This in turn allows asset holders to increase cashflows from the working class to the ownership class in a feedback loop.
Sarah has 2 kids with her ex husband Bill. Everytime Sarah mentions child support Bill talks about pursuing joint custody.
Bill has no intention of actually following though, but he knows fighting in court is going to very expensive and difficult for Sarah.
Sarah drops it. Often filing for child support involves a whole lot of BS. Bill might just be a wacko she'd rather not deal with anymore.
After all, they aren't together for a reason.
I know my dad kicked me out at 15 and didn't give me a dime until I was like 20, and that was about 300$ or 400$ tops.
He wasn't going to spot me rent money during my second eviction.
Honest to God, I was grateful he just left me alone for the most part. He still lived in this fantasy land were you can kick you kid out and expect them to do well in school.
No I'm not college bound, yes my GPA was like a 1.7 when I graduated high school.
Thank you Brendan Eich, thank you for JavaScript, without that magical programing language I wouldn't be where I am now.
I guess I wasn't smart enough for C++, but I've made great money in JavaScript and other higher level languages for a long time.
Anyway, the woman who starts the story has her reasons.
Right, I get that dealing with family law issues can be extremely difficult — especially when irrational or abusive people are involved. But at some point custodial parents need to step up and do what's necessary to collect the money owed to their children even though it's a painful process. It sucks and it's unfair but usually better than letting the children become homeless.
The subject of the story might have her reasons (the father could be dead for all we know) and I wouldn't presume to criticize her based on such a limited set of facts. My criticism of the journalists is that they just leave that part out. It's sloppy writing and leaves the reader wondering what else they missed? Like they can ask for the intimate details of the family's financial history and living situation but they can't ask about child support? It makes no sense.
So he can go tell the court she's an unfit parent and she'll lose custody of her kids? If anything doing a story like this is really risky for her, CPS could argue she's not capable and make things really different.
People get really messed up and vindictive when it comes to child support.
I'm 100% sure she's evaluated her options and child support just isn't one of them.
No, you can't be "100% sure" of anything because the article omitted key facts. That's my point. You're making unwarranted assumptions about people you don't even know.
Litigants say a lot of things in family court. So what. Judges don't automatically believe such claims. An allegation of being an unfit parent doesn't mean loss of custody so quit exaggerating. While you can find rare stories of CPS employees and judges who abused their authority, the reality is that CPS makes every effort to keep families together and only take children away from parents in extreme cases of abuse or neglect.
I'm just going to assume that you don't have any personal firsthand experience with the system .
I'm going to trust the judgment of the struggling single mother, there's probably a good reason she's not collecting child support right now.
This website has a tendency of attracting upper middle class people, and the vast majority of you have just world theory. You think things are much more fair than they really are.
I will agree that this is irresponsible journalism, unless they paid her a significant amount of money, the potential downsides of exposing her situation outweigh any benefits.
A social worker can easily make a case for sending the kids to foster care from an article like this.
Even just getting CPS to leave her alone might be a difficult process
How about truck+trailer combo. The vehicle can be used without taking your house everywhere. And the reliability of each of these things alone is higher than an RV
Now do the math on driving your RV everywhere (or purchasing a separate smaller vehicle that you can use to get around town, and tow behind the RV when traveling). I'd assume that would cost more.
I had considered doing this about 3 years ago. I purchased a 1986 Vixen 21TD (a BMW diesel powered, 5 speed motorhome, build specifically as a motorhome, and gets 30mpg).
Ultimately, my goals ended up changing. I did a bit of modifications (modern brakes, improved electrical, upgraded alternator, 300aH 12v Lithium, and more), but I ended up only doing a couple trips in it.
It was really incredible, being able to have enough space to work, traveling anytime I want without worrying about crashing at a friend's place, or paying for a hotel or being stuck in a boring part of a city where the hotel is, etc.
I did a ton of research before purchasing, and loved the fact that it was fully built from the ground up to be a motorhome, rather than how modern conversions or RVs are built. It has a full queen size bed, and a wet bath, and I could comfortably stand when the roof is up.
Vixens were super cool! We bought a used one in the 90s when I was a teenager. Although it did wind up breaking down on a road trip,bao I think they might have been on the unreliable side or known for some issues-- either that or we just got unlucky.
They tell this joke in Louisiana too but usually the punchline is divorce in Chalmette (looked down upon suburb of New Orleans). The joke became significantly less funny when a deadly tornado actually hit the neighboring town of Arabi.
What stands out to me about the people in the article is that they don't seem to be poor in the conventional sense. The woman who sold her 5 bedroom / 3 bathroom house and the guy getting 3k/month in pensions.
I don't hail from the US but wouldn't it be possible for people like that to move to one of the low cost states and rent a modest apartment? I have a friend in Tulsa and I think he pays something like 750 bucks per month for what looked like a pretty nice flat, seems possibly cheaper than this:
"When the family is unable to afford a spot at a campground, which can cost $25 to $45 a night[...]"
You may be right. I grew up in the Midwaste but when I was living in California I met a number of native Californians that I am sure would never consider heading to the flyover belt of America. Rightly or wrongly I think they have stereotypes about what it's like to live here.
(And to be sure, the weather is not what they are used to.)
It's because they're not looking for a place just to live, they want a place where they want to live. Otherwise RVs would be parked all over America, instead of just in downtowns and other urban areas. Everyone wants to live in the Noe Valley and walk to the Whole Foods, but space, and supply and demand make that simply impossible without absolute government control of housing.
If anyone is thinking about this, please do research into how crappy modern, mass-produced RVs are built.
Lemon Laws do not apply to RVs (except maybe in one state).
Many RVs can easily spend most of a year waiting to get a single item half-assed repaired multiple times while the 1 year warranty runs out and the 20 other things don't get fixed.
There is a relatively-new YouTube channel called Liz Amazing that showcases RV horror stories, including the most recent one where a luxury RV manufacturer didn't properly install VINs on the RV leading to a $600k fine for the user:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zGOANydJURQ
Back around 2000, I bought a Honda Civic, and in buying insurance the VIN number was entered wrong by the insurance company employee - had a 1 instead of a 7 or something, due to the handwritten process in use at the time.
A few years later, after dutifully paying my insurance, but moving a few times for school the registration had lapsed and I got pulled over. They ended up taking the license plate because of this, that my car was "uninsured", and apparently I was paying for nothing for the last few years..
I cleared up the registration the next day and the insurance as well, but a few weeks later had to go to court to clear up the ticket. The judge asked me "Why didn't you check that the numbers matched on the insurance forms?", to which I replied "Did you check this with the last car you insured?". They let me off.
This is all to say, how is it possible that someone got $600k fine for a mistake that is obviously not the fault of the buyer?
There has to be more to it.
Remember there are states that actively use civil asset forfeiture laws to straight-up steal people's property. So an excessive fine does not seem much different in comparison.
This sounds very plausible in Louisiana.
I watched several videos from the Liz Amazing YT-link you provided — very thoughtful content from two obviously-compatible sunbirders.
Her overall recommendations tend to recommend older, well-taken-care-of models over the newer less-expensive trash being mass-produced. Get a PROFESSIONAL INSPECTION before purchasing any RV particularly if your first purchase, and buy from a local person (instead of a dealership).
Really loved that some of Liz's most-popular videos weren't about RVs, particularly her Introduction to Electric Bicycles (helpful as we've gotten older).
By least-favorite brother (maker of terrible decisions™) lived in an RV for about two years, and it was absolutely embarassing to the neighborhood... just a squalor'd pig-stye.
If anybody near Chattanooga wants to restore an old Airstream, I know a guy... [that owns a dozen, variously delapidated]
Tangent... I've always thought a custom resto-mod Airstream Bambi would make for a rad little travel trailer. Scrap the wet bath, ditch the propane, add a pile of LiFePo4 batteries and flexible solar, run it all off 12V. Probably end up costing $60k or more, so probably never happen. Oh well.
I built my own [1] — but then I have a garage (and had been building something approximating furniture for several years).
I feel like with the tutorials out there, a novice could learn as they go and enjoy the experience of building out a van.
It's possible too to do it in stages. My Stage 1 had no solar or stove — limited cabinetry. The wife and I took it out nonetheless. You find out quickly too that way what you miss/want.
The cost of a new Ford Transit was not cheap, and there were some pricy components. As an example, the two LiPO batteries were $1K each — but they're about 1/3 that these days (wow). The electric refrigerator (more like cooler) was not cheap. The propane stove was not either — but a camp stove would have worked as well (and has the benefit that you can cook outside on hot days when you don't want to heat up the van/RV).
I never tallied up the total cost, but I promise you it was significantly less than a new RV. And because I made it myself, I can vouch for the quality of the components.
The single best resource was faroutride.com [2]. But then there were plenty of online forums, YouTube etc. with all kinds of info.
I was a few years from retirement when I began. The idea was to "van life" with the wife after I retired. As it is, we've done a good deal of travel in the U.S. but until she also retires, we don't live the van life.
(The fact is though, after a few weeks on the road, you come home appreciating your creature comforts.)
(Recently drove from the Midwaste to San Diego to get my middle daughter and her two cats. Heading out in a few weeks to the Bay Area to visit some ex-coworkers.)
[1] https://www.fordtransitusaforum.com/threads/hot-tamale-build...
[2] https://faroutride.com/van-build/
Just another example... We bought a small teardrop camper last year (basically a king bed on wheels, with a small kitchenette on the rear under a clam shell). We used to car camp with a large tent - we got tired of sleeping on an inflatable mattress and wanted to do longer trips, so the teardrop made a lot of sense (we aren't ready to give up "camping" for "RVing", if that makes sense).
On day one, the solar controller (feeds power from panels to battery) was wired wrong. Fixed by dealer on the spot, but not a great start. Thankfully, this dealer has a solid post-sale/delivery-day walk through (not all do), so we picked up on the issue.
The wiring in the battery box is a bit of a rats nest. It's not wrong per se, but it's not as tidy as it should be, IMO. The battery lives in a storage box on the front of the trailer, alongside miscellaneous items (tools, bucket, hose, power cord, etc), so having the wiring untidy makes it more likely for connections to get broken.
The AC unit sits on a drain pan that's a bit too shallow for the job. If the trailer isn't nearly perfectly level, it will overflow into foot of the bed. Again, not wrong per se, but if you don't know in advance, you could be in for very wet bedding.
The brand is well-known and considered middle-of-the road. Not the cheapest, not the most expensive. We knew what we were getting into, and we're quite happy with the purchase, but if we hadn't done due diligence, we'd probably be a bit disappointed.
>please do research into how crappy modern, mass-produced RVs are built.
Any brands you/Liz Amazing suggest?
Depends what you want...
First off, a travel trailer make a lot of sense because you decouple the propulsion from the living quarters. But, then you might need a big truck (depends on size of trailer - most mid-size SUVs and compact trucks can only tow ~5000lbs). Another plus is you can drop the trailer at camp and drive to town/trail heads/etc. Downsides are total length, two registrations and insurance plans, etc.
If you don't need to live in it long-term, one of the fiberglass shell travel trailers (Oliver, Escape, maybe Scamp and Casita, though they're lower spec). The less plumbing, the better. The simpler the better. Less to go wrong/leak. They generally max out around 20 feet or so - plenty for a week here and there, but less than ideal for full-time living.
If I wanted full-time, I'd probably skip the Class B ("ship in a bottle van-based RV") and Class C (van/truck chassis and cab with box bolted on the back) RVs and jump straight to a Class A (bus or commercial truck chassis with custom cab). Something like a slightly used Prevost (though that's probably still $500k+, so won't help if you're priced out of traditional housing).
not the parent but Airstream or any other RV with an aluminum or molded fibreglass body.
most RVs have thin skins glued to a type of particle board and right angle joins everywhere. those joins will leak and when they do, the leak is often imperceptible. the interior walls and subfloor will rot before you notice anything's wrong.
RVs with a molded fibreglass or aluminum body use overlapping panels to naturally shed water and the materials used don't corrode (caveats apply, eg galvanic corrosion of aluminum). generally this means the RV won't rot out unless the panels themselves are holed, which is unlikely. it's not uncommon to see an Airstream that's been sitting in a PNW field for 30 years and find that the interior is musty and likely mouse chewed but structurally fine.
of course the mechanicals -- frame, axles, gas lines, appliances -- all need to be maintained and they are more expensive compared to their non-RV counterparts, but if you're handy and aware of your limits, these don't have to be show stoppers.
Supposedly Airstream was sold to one of the RV Giants and quality has been deteriorating.
Basically an RV made by the smaller, newer companies that you've never heard of and have to do some research to find, are building quality stuff.
Liz Amazing is selling a PDF of recommendations that she put together from comments by people. (For $100, was 50% off, the 40%, now 25% off).
RVs are absolutely garbage quality. Damage is not a matter of IF but WHEN, so it is essential to budget for big ticket, frequent repairs. And you will be replacing your roof in ten years at best.
Made that choice 12 years ago. I have no regrets. I was also very lucky. I found a good RV park that had grass yards surrounded by fences with plenty of trees for shade.
The RV itself has been incredibly sturdy and I've only had a few issues. I did have to spend 1 day upgrading the electrical from 30 amp to 50 amp so I could run the A/C and the Water Heater at the same time. I had to replace the city water inlet check valve after 8 years. The spring valve on my toilet broke after 5 years but it was less labor to just install a new one. The mattress got replaced immediately.
Otherwise, if you can get a good park to live in and don't have large pets or children, I can only highly recommend it.
Was this an RV or a mobile home (single wide, double wide)? Different products (for those who aren’t aware).
An RV, specifically a Travel Trailer, 33' in length and made by Jayco.
A 12 year old used Jayco might be vastly better quality than what Jayco is pumping out these days.
In Portland, it's legal to live in an RV on someone's land as long as there is a proper sewer/electric/water hookup. This is beneficial because it makes for more dispersed RV living rather than concentrating everyone in an RV park.
This Sightline article talks about some of the people it has helped:
https://www.sightline.org/2025/09/11/homes-on-wheels-are-fil...
Long term, we should make other more permanent forms of housing cheaper and easier for people to get into, but this is a good solution for some people some of the time.
Is it difficult to connect in to an existing sewer line?
From the article: "Adding the water and sewer connection only cost another $5,000. "
Building an ADU (aka Granny flat) can cost hundreds of thousands and take a long time to get done.
So it's a way cheaper and easier option.
Not difficult if you’re comfortable being handy. PVC is easy, it’s just a sewer clean out or a dump station for extra fanciness. If your sewer line is something other than PVC, you might need a professional involved. Hand trench, and you might need a private locator service to find it if you don’t know where the existing sewer line is.
“home rv sewer dump” are the keywords to use for additional research and sources.
There is affordable housing, but it's not where people want to live. I am concerned articles like these support the notion that everyone must live in a bustling metropolis in the heart of everything. The article cites up to $45/night to park an RV. Thirty days is $1350. In Valdosta, Georgia, the average apartment rent is approximately $1,004 per month
Arkansas median rent of $868.
There is affordable housing, even buying, but more publications must get off this notion that everyone must live in Highland Park, or the Castro, or even Midtown Atlanta.
My landlord (owns four duplex units) moved out of the other side, into an RV on his land, in order to rent out an additional $900/month unit. No A/C, in the American Southeast [not worth it IMHO].
Freaking property owners are starting to get priced out (of living)!
Does he plan to build on his land? RV while building can be a great source of tax free income.
No, it's not permittable land (floodplain). His hoarding has resulted in junkyard vibes (at least it "resets" after major flooding). I'm a blue collar guy in Appalachia, so this isn't exactly California...
Landlord is a decade+ older than me — after his parents died, he's sort of going back to the land (if that makes sense). I've testified as a character witness for him (he occassionally gets arrested for self-help evictions — doesn't give AF at all — readily brags admitting to what he done'did); us long-term tenants currently screen new tenants, and all he cares about is money (cash only). If you want a written rental contract, you have to provide one yourself =D
I often love it here — and am paid through the end of 2026 (and do everything I can to keep this massively-undermarket rental). Landlord won't even consider selling it (I've offered!), but he has no heirs so... [fingers crossed it'll work out eventually].
Ref: An RV park very close to me is mentioned in OP's article — very real (I am on a slab, thank god). Mostly nothin' out there but land and poverty.
>She house sat for a family member to get her finances back in order, but she found it difficult to afford a rental apartment on the $58,000 a year she gets in disability and Social Security payments.
It's not for everyone, but that's more than enough to retire in much of the world. You can get a very nice apartment in much of Seoul for around 700$.
Food and healthcare is going to be better too.
A friend is just selling a two bedroom apartment for 15k€ furnished.
Small town, sure, but the apartment is in a good shape and the city is nice by Nordic standards.
The EU doesn't make getting a long term residency easy, but holy crap.
That might be an option for anyone who wants to retire early. Assuming you can sort out a visa, from my understanding the Nordic countries are extremely easy for English speakers. Thank you!
You can live comfortably in many, many places in the US on $58k a year as well.
It highlights that the problem most of these people have isn't a lack of income.
I know many people aren't a fan of the book Ready Player One. Despite that, like any halfway decent future sf story, certain elements ring true.
This reminds me of how the stacks get started from that novel.
It's a sad situation and really shows our collective failure to build enough housing. But in articles about the financial struggles of single parents, why do journalists frequently not report anything about child support payments? The reader is left to wonder whether the father of the Stitt children is paying his share, or dead, or a deadbeat. In a number of cases I know about the custodial parent didn't even bother to pursue a legal support order. Even a few hundred dollars per month can make a huge difference in paying rent. I understand that navigating the legal system is difficult and many single parents are overwhelmed, but most counties have social workers or legal aid agencies that will help with court filings and collections.
> our collective failure to build enough housing
There has been net transfer of housing ownership to the wealthy through increasing LTV and rentals - interest and rent are two ways of transferring money from the working class to rentier capital. Framing this as simply a supply issue is obscures the dynamics of wealth transfer undergirding the rise in housing scarcity.
The ultimate reason the wealthy are earning so much in rent is housing supply shortages.
It’s actually a trend since 1980s. Things like deindustrialization and financialization, outsourcing (which collapsed the unions), deregulation (incentivizing externalities primarily felt by the working class - the 2008 collapse, environmental deregulation in Louisiana, etc), inflation (which benefits those with assets and harms those without), tax cuts for the wealthy. The wealth gap grows which means assets like housing shift to asset holders (the wealthy). This in turn allows asset holders to increase cashflows from the working class to the ownership class in a feedback loop.
Alright.
This is just a hypothetical story.
Sarah has 2 kids with her ex husband Bill. Everytime Sarah mentions child support Bill talks about pursuing joint custody.
Bill has no intention of actually following though, but he knows fighting in court is going to very expensive and difficult for Sarah.
Sarah drops it. Often filing for child support involves a whole lot of BS. Bill might just be a wacko she'd rather not deal with anymore.
After all, they aren't together for a reason.
I know my dad kicked me out at 15 and didn't give me a dime until I was like 20, and that was about 300$ or 400$ tops.
He wasn't going to spot me rent money during my second eviction.
Honest to God, I was grateful he just left me alone for the most part. He still lived in this fantasy land were you can kick you kid out and expect them to do well in school.
No I'm not college bound, yes my GPA was like a 1.7 when I graduated high school.
Thank you Brendan Eich, thank you for JavaScript, without that magical programing language I wouldn't be where I am now.
I guess I wasn't smart enough for C++, but I've made great money in JavaScript and other higher level languages for a long time.
Anyway, the woman who starts the story has her reasons.
Right, I get that dealing with family law issues can be extremely difficult — especially when irrational or abusive people are involved. But at some point custodial parents need to step up and do what's necessary to collect the money owed to their children even though it's a painful process. It sucks and it's unfair but usually better than letting the children become homeless.
The subject of the story might have her reasons (the father could be dead for all we know) and I wouldn't presume to criticize her based on such a limited set of facts. My criticism of the journalists is that they just leave that part out. It's sloppy writing and leaves the reader wondering what else they missed? Like they can ask for the intimate details of the family's financial history and living situation but they can't ask about child support? It makes no sense.
So he can go tell the court she's an unfit parent and she'll lose custody of her kids? If anything doing a story like this is really risky for her, CPS could argue she's not capable and make things really different.
People get really messed up and vindictive when it comes to child support.
I'm 100% sure she's evaluated her options and child support just isn't one of them.
No, you can't be "100% sure" of anything because the article omitted key facts. That's my point. You're making unwarranted assumptions about people you don't even know.
Litigants say a lot of things in family court. So what. Judges don't automatically believe such claims. An allegation of being an unfit parent doesn't mean loss of custody so quit exaggerating. While you can find rare stories of CPS employees and judges who abused their authority, the reality is that CPS makes every effort to keep families together and only take children away from parents in extreme cases of abuse or neglect.
I'm just going to assume that you don't have any personal firsthand experience with the system .
I'm going to trust the judgment of the struggling single mother, there's probably a good reason she's not collecting child support right now.
This website has a tendency of attracting upper middle class people, and the vast majority of you have just world theory. You think things are much more fair than they really are.
I will agree that this is irresponsible journalism, unless they paid her a significant amount of money, the potential downsides of exposing her situation outweigh any benefits.
A social worker can easily make a case for sending the kids to foster care from an article like this.
Even just getting CPS to leave her alone might be a difficult process
> “If we don’t adapt, we won’t change, and if we don’t change, we’ll be mad, and if we’re mad, that just sucks. You don’t want to be mad.”
What positive attitude in such a rotten situation. It really hurts reading such stories about hardworking honest people.
How about truck+trailer combo. The vehicle can be used without taking your house everywhere. And the reliability of each of these things alone is higher than an RV
35ft fifth wheel RV: Truck burns 14 MPG on a good day. Tires $1000+ every 30-50k mi. 6-9 mpg towing if using gasoline
Now do the math on driving your RV everywhere (or purchasing a separate smaller vehicle that you can use to get around town, and tow behind the RV when traveling). I'd assume that would cost more.
Even better, you have somewhere to live if your vehicle is in the shop.
I had considered doing this about 3 years ago. I purchased a 1986 Vixen 21TD (a BMW diesel powered, 5 speed motorhome, build specifically as a motorhome, and gets 30mpg).
Ultimately, my goals ended up changing. I did a bit of modifications (modern brakes, improved electrical, upgraded alternator, 300aH 12v Lithium, and more), but I ended up only doing a couple trips in it.
It was really incredible, being able to have enough space to work, traveling anytime I want without worrying about crashing at a friend's place, or paying for a hotel or being stuck in a boring part of a city where the hotel is, etc.
I did a ton of research before purchasing, and loved the fact that it was fully built from the ground up to be a motorhome, rather than how modern conversions or RVs are built. It has a full queen size bed, and a wet bath, and I could comfortably stand when the roof is up.
Alas, the home life ended up being for me.
P.S. It's for sale.
Vixens were super cool! We bought a used one in the 90s when I was a teenager. Although it did wind up breaking down on a road trip,bao I think they might have been on the unreliable side or known for some issues-- either that or we just got unlucky.
Would love to see pics of the interior!
They can be an option for some but i wouldn't do it.
- it can be more expensive to repair items on or in the RV
- i wouldn't want to permanently reside in an RV in an area where tornadoes are a possibility
- they're a depreciating asset
There's an old saying in Alabama:
Q: What does a divorce and a tornado have in common? A: Someone gonna lose them a trailer
They tell this joke in Louisiana too but usually the punchline is divorce in Chalmette (looked down upon suburb of New Orleans). The joke became significantly less funny when a deadly tornado actually hit the neighboring town of Arabi.
What stands out to me about the people in the article is that they don't seem to be poor in the conventional sense. The woman who sold her 5 bedroom / 3 bathroom house and the guy getting 3k/month in pensions.
I don't hail from the US but wouldn't it be possible for people like that to move to one of the low cost states and rent a modest apartment? I have a friend in Tulsa and I think he pays something like 750 bucks per month for what looked like a pretty nice flat, seems possibly cheaper than this:
"When the family is unable to afford a spot at a campground, which can cost $25 to $45 a night[...]"
You may be right. I grew up in the Midwaste but when I was living in California I met a number of native Californians that I am sure would never consider heading to the flyover belt of America. Rightly or wrongly I think they have stereotypes about what it's like to live here.
(And to be sure, the weather is not what they are used to.)
It's because they're not looking for a place just to live, they want a place where they want to live. Otherwise RVs would be parked all over America, instead of just in downtowns and other urban areas. Everyone wants to live in the Noe Valley and walk to the Whole Foods, but space, and supply and demand make that simply impossible without absolute government control of housing.