Ducking and diving in a van
Izzy is a vandweller somewhere in England. She chose the life as it was a way of getting an affordable home as a low paid worker. Here she describes some of the pitfalls of her chosen life:
F*ck off you crusties!” The familiar call of a particular lycra-clad cyclist whistles through the air as he commutes past me. Again, this morning, I heard a distinctive throat-clearing and loud phlegm-spit outside my home.
I live in a van. Lots of people do. We do this for a multitude of reasons, whether it is cultural background, choice, or necessity. In my case its financial insecurity. Everyone knows rent is unaffordable and many working people struggle to pay it. Van-living affords some people a way to survive. It allows independence from the rental market and some freedom to move around, it costs the Council nothing, and it costs the environment significantly less than living in a house. Yet it also brings with it a level of precarity and marginalisation.
I love living in my van. I know other people in vans and we have cups of tea, share meals and generally help each other out. People walk past and smile; they inquisitively peer in, admire our homes, and stop and chat. As I generally feel supported by my community it is easy to find the cyclist’s call – “F*ck off you crusties!” – humorous, but otherwise I might feel vulnerable.
I felt that way when my van was graffiti-tagged and I had a window smashed. Last summerI received rude notes and even an elaborate fake Council-letter warning me about an imminent ‘van removal project’. I did not move on, and I later came home to my tyres stabbed. When I replaced them the same thing happened again. I called the police but their response was minimal. I have since learned that about 10 other vans got their tyres slashed by residents around the same period, in the same well-to-do area. We’re sometimes treated badly simply because we live in vehicles.
Earlier this week my van-neighbour awoke to a policeman opening his door, allegedly “looking for someone in a caravan”. It is against the law to enter a home without permission or warrant. My vandweller friend protested that it was rude to just come in without knocking. The policeman retorted that it was rude to live on the street without paying local tax, implying he felt he could act with impunity. He drove off before my friend got a chance to get dressed and speak with him properly.
Local Tax
I imagine my van-neighbour would have liked to say the following: Van-people pay vehicle tax, and our wages are taxed. We may not pay local tax, yet services such as rubbish collection and recycling are less readily available to us. But this is beside the point: why should our status as fellow human beings …