LogFAQs > #914706019

In response to exorbitant rents, many assistants, craftspeople and working actors are adopting a transient lifestyle, some by choice, some less so: "It's hard for me to say this because I don't think of myself as in need of help, but right now I need help."

Even by Los Angeles standards, Noelle spends a lot of time worrying about parking. A writers room production assistant for a major streamer and script reader for a premium cable network, Noelle wakes up at 6 a.m. on weekdays to secure a spot close to her jobs in West L.A. After work, she moves her white, unassuming Ford Transit to another spot, carefully chosen to be located in a non-residentially zoned area without nightly parking restrictions and far away from any schools, daycare facilities or parks. She is constantly rotating these "day spots" and "night spots," as she calls them, so as not to annoy neighbors or attract too much attention. These days, Noelle jokes, she's more worried about a cop knocking on her window than getting "murdered or attacked."

Noelle, 25, who is using only her first name because she signed a no-publicity clause for one of her jobs, is one of the 15,748 Angelenos currently living in his or her vehicle, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. Their ranks are growing amid a worsening income inequality and homelessness crisis: As of January 2018, 9,117 vehicles were being used as homes, up 600 from 2017.

Noelle, an Iowa native who graduated from Chapman University in 2016, can afford to rent a room in L.A. Still, she feels that even reasonable rents her last place was a $600-per-month shared room are too expensive. (She says her average monthly costs are $850.) Noelle initially wanted to switch to living in a "tiny home," which generally takes up just 100 to 500 square feet and is often marketed as a more affordable way to own property. Still, even do-it-yourself tiny homes can cost up to six figures, so she found a more affordable solution on Instagram: living in a van.