When Levi Joseph scored a manufacturing internship in Seattle for his last summer before graduating college, he waited a little too long to scope out a place to stay.
"I was kind of foolish — I didn't realize what the situation was like in Seattle," 22-year-old Joseph told Business Insider. By the time he began hunting for a place to stay in the spring, housing stock was low, and the places he saw were listed for $1,200 to $1,400 a month. Finally, the UT Austin senior found a local friend with a roommate moving out.
"He had somewhere for July through August, but I needed June through August," Joseph said. "There was a 40-day period I didn't have housing."
So, inspired by a story from a friend he'd met biking across the US last year, he decided he could spend that time living in his Subaru Outback. Concerned about having a safe place to park, he booked a space at a campground in the suburbs through Airbnb for about $600.
Below, he shared with Business Insider how he balanced nights in the car with days at the office.
The campground Joseph booked was populated by both temporary and longer-term residents. The owner, Stephanie, would have a campfire when the weather was nice and the group would congregate, talking about everything from global politics to conspiracy theories.
Because he sometimes had to wake up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the office by 6, he wasn't always able to join the campfire. When he did, it was memorable. "I'm writing a thesis on an environmental topic, and one night while I was sitting at the campfire it led into this discussion of global politics into a discussion about chem trails — basically getting in a screaming argument about conspiracy theories," he remembers.
"It was like a little community," Joseph said. "They were kind of amused by someone with a corporate job."
He kept the trappings of corporate life in a separate part of his car, and was able to dry-clean his clothing at the office.
"I had lived in my car for three weeks on a climbing and fishing trip two summers ago, but it was more camping next to it," Joseph said. "I didn't have business suits and things. It was more 'college guy living in his car' versus 'professional guy keeping his stuff clean.'"
Every morning, he'd check his shoes for mud before walking into the office. "That was always funny to me."
For amenities and activity, Joseph joined a local rock-climbing gym for $56 a month. Aside from the locker room with a shower and Wi-Fi and the iron he'd use on the sly, there was another unexpected perk: A fringe community of other people living in their cars.
"It turns out there's a lot of people who rock climb and live in their car," Joseph says. "There's a whole community of people living in their cars in the parking lot. There were these vans I noticed as I hung out there, and I started spending my weekends parked there inside the city, closer to everything I wanted to do. I'd wake up and use their showers, and sometimes we would wake up and make coffee together and hang out in the lot before the doors opened."
See the rest of the story at Business Insider