San Francisco Residents Can Pay $600 a Month to Live in a FedEx Truck

[marmar]

This article was first published on AlterNet.


In the past few years, San Francisco’s massive rents have displaced long-time residents and worsened the city’s already epic homelessness problem, sending more people into encampments or forcing them to live in cars or doubled up.

Now, residents have the opportunity to experience that glamorous lifestyle by paying $600 a month to live in a FedEx truck. The SF Weekly reports that an enterprising car landlord equipped an old truck with luxury amenities like a mini-fridge and fold-out couch, renting the truck out for $600. No running water or toilets. “I didn’t end up putting plumbing in it because I was going to get a gym membership and use their facilities to help motivate me to work out every day — awesome plan right?! — so if you don’t mind doing that then this is a GREAT match for you,” reads the Craigslist description, according to the Weekly.

A student who rented the truck found herself facing the predictable problem of parking tickets and extreme discomfort:

Cinthia, a student at San Francisco State University, lived in the truck this fall. She would often park it near the school’s soccer fields and move it on cleaning days. But it wasn’t a flawless system — one night the battery died and the truck wouldn’t move. After class, she came back to a rainbow of parking tickets.

“The first time parking it was hard because I accidentally left the FedEx truck in a residential area and got yelled at,” said Cinthia, who asked that her last name not be used out of embarrassment. “I only move it at night when no one is around. The hard part is not being able to be at your house and relax. You don’t have a place to shower, and that can be tough.” ...............(more)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/san_francisco_residents_can_pay_600_a_month_to_live_in_a_fedex_truck_201512

[whatthehey]

1. Or they can get a mortgage for a perfectly decent house elsewhere. Their choice.

Unless they have erected a huge electrified fence around the Bay Area recently, nobody's doing things like this without choosing to do so.

[marmar]

2. Unless your job is in the Bay Area. .... It's not always so simple to pick up and move.

[whatthehey]

4. Did they apply dor those jobs unaware of housing costs? First thing I consider personally.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I've never been to a city that was worth

living in a truck without plumbing. I spent some time in San Francisco in the early 90's, and I loved it, but nobody except the down and out were living like that. We all make trade-offs for the places we live. Living in Mississippi is relatively cheap, but we're about 20 years behind the times here (even more in some places). Still, I'm able to live at a decent standard on a little bit of money. I wouldn't mind relocating, but I wouldn't go some place where I had to live hand to mouth. Not worth the extra stress.

[Lizzie Poppet]

7. Agreed.

I live in Portland, and I love this city with all my heart. But that wouldn't be worth it.

The housing situation here has become absurd. The (generally-useless) mayor actually declared an emergency. We're not in SF/NYC/London/etc territory, but Portland's "discovery" and semi-recent population boom and gentrification have sent us strongly in that direction. It's changing the city, and not for the better. The quirky folk who made the city something worth discovering in the first place are getting squeezed out.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. That's a shame.

I also visited Portland when I was out west, and I thought the people were wonderful. They were friendly and willing to take the time to explain things about their city to a visitor.

It's a never-ending cycle in America. Yuppies move to nice cities with character and in the process make it 'hip,' then all the people who made the city desirable in the first place get squeezed out. The hip think they can buy character like a commodity at Costco. They take and give nothing back. Vampires.

[Javaman]

5. Google worker lives in truck...

http://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-lives-in-truck-in-parking-lot-2015-10

A 23-year-old Google employee lives in a truck in the company's parking lot and saves 90% of his income

When 23-year-old Brandon headed from Massachusetts to the Bay Area in mid-May to start work as a software engineer at Google, he opted out of settling into an overpriced San Francisco apartment. Instead, he moved into a 128-square-foot truck.

The idea started to formulate while Brandon — who asked to withhold his last name and photo to maintain his privacy on campus — was interning at Google last summer and living in the cheapest corporate housing offered: two bedrooms and four people for about $65 a night (roughly $2,000 a month), he told Business Insider.

"I realized I was paying an exorbitant amount of money for the apartment I was staying in — and I was almost never home," he says. "It's really hard to justify throwing that kind of money away. You're essentially burning it — you're not putting equity in anything and you're not building it up for a future — and that was really hard for me to reconcile."

[Orrex]

6. Do they have to be there overnight?

[LuvNewcastle]

10. They're usually a day late, if they show up at all.

Even if they do make it, they're often damaged in some way. People who live in UPS or USPS trucks are more dependable, I think.

[pinboy3niner]

12. They have to follow the shipping route and be tracked

[Orrex]

13. I lived in a USPS truck for a while

But then some asshole wrote "Merry Christmas" on me.

[EX500rider]

9. Do they know there are these things u can buy used called "RV's"?

That come with plumbing and kitchens?

[KamaAina]

11. When you absolutely, positively have to stay there overnight.

[smirkymonkey]

14. Beat me to it!

Seriously, the rent situation in our major cities is getting completely out of control. Especially the nicer coastal cities.