The son of one of my dad’s friends did 3 years at UCSD in an old VW bus. This was in the 80’s. Used the showers at the swimming pool. This was before ubiquitous cell phones – so he’d use his parents phone number as a message service – call in daily to pick up his messages.

A former coworker lived in her Roadtrek converted van with a VERY large dog for several months. She had her favorite parking spots near the beach to overnight… and rotated them to avoid pissing off neighbors.

What’s impressive about the guy in the story is not the van dwelling… It’s the intensity of paying down his student debt. Very admirable.