Nearly three million Americans currently live full-time in vehicles. In the next 15 years, that number is likely to grow to more than 20 million.
Actually, there is no way to verify the truth of either statement. At least no official statistical way. What we can say, according to the American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau, is that in 2024, of the 146,740,964 occupied dwelling units in our country, 200,311 of those are classified as “boat, RV, van, etc.” Also, note that it counts dwellings, not the number of people living in them.
HUD enters the conversation with its Point-in-Time count, a snapshot of homelessness across the country on a single night in January 2025. Of the 745,642 people who are homeless, 479,332 of those were considered “sheltered.” Sheltered includes people living in abandoned buildings, in tents, or in their cars. It does not, however, include people living in RVs, because RVs can regularly serve as sleeping accommodations. So HUD drops them out of that statistic altogether.
The problem with all of those statistics: how do we count? How do we count people who are living in RVs and cars? Yes, RV parks can report numbers of long-term stays. But why would they count the people staying 3-4 nights and then camping on federal land, where often they can stay for free (or $15 a night) for up to two weeks? Those people are just on vacation as far as the statistics know.
People who are living in their cars are even more slippery. In many municipalities, it is illegal to live in your car. People in that situation become highly skilled at making their car look as if no one is in it. Plus, they are often at work for a third or more of the day (some of them use their homes for a second job delivering for DoorDash or Walmart, for example). Then they park and sleep in 24-hour businesses like gyms or truck stops, where showers are also readily available. If law enforcement or security guards knock on their windows, they just drive a few miles to another location. Most of the time these people are gainfully employed somewhere. They are not showing up in homeless shelter counts or meal lines or even drawing government assistance. Their mail probably goes to their workplace or a PO Box. They can pay their bills and keep themselves fed and clothed. They just can’t afford rent.
So really we do not know how many people in our country are living in cars, vans, and RVs. What do we know? I am one of them.
Let me be honest from the beginning of this series: I can afford to live in a more traditional dwelling. But let’s also be honest: the rising cost of housing influenced my decision to buy an RV and live full-time this way. Several factors led to this decision, and that is definitely one of them. Over the course of this series, I will share more of the motivations at work for me, to expose some real challenges we have in this country when it comes to housing affordability.
As an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church serving in a full-time appointment, I will also explore the significant ways this impacts pastors and congregations as we examine the sustainability of the itinerant system. Finally, I hope that we experience some real moments of joy and exasperation as I share with you the practical reality of living in a truly mobile home.
Through my story, I hope it calls to mind for all of us the tension of the biblical calls God has for us: to remember Jesus’ own detachment from having a place to lay his head and what that means for discipleship (Matthew 8:20, Luke 9:58) and the prophetic warning that if some amass wealth (including houses) at the expense of the vulnerable, there will be dire consequences from God (i.e., Isaiah 58, Amos 4-5, Jeremiah 22). Like any journey, we will have moments when we have to turn one direction or the other. Our goal will always be to seek God’s guidance. So here’s to the journey before us, my friends! Glad to have you along for the ride.
Michelle Morris is a United Methodist pastor in The Arkansas Conference. She currently lives in an RV.
She is the author of Prophets to the Generations.