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Lisa Williams encountered housing uncertainty before starting a “working camping” in national and state parks.
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Many parks offer seasonal employees and volunteers free RV Hookups.
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Homelessness among older Americans is increasing, with some living in vehicles against the background of high housing costs.
Lisa Williams and her husband had dreamed of traveling the United States to RV when they retired.
But this future evaporated when Williams’ husband died in 2014. The then 54-year-old hostess could not afford $ 1,200 for her home Palm Springs, California, and was forced to move within six months. Williams spent the next seven years living in a trailer in the backyard and a tiny home near his daughter in Tacom, Washington, and later in a small apartment near his son in Las Vegas.
But a significant increase in the rent, the gloomy prospects for work and the constant wandering brought her back to the nomadic life she had once wished. Three years ago, Williams bought a 17-foot second-hand travel trailer and started moving between national and state parks, working and voluntarily in exchange for a parking space for several months during time.
Like many Americans, Williams cannot afford to retire, and increasing life costs have threatened to leave it homeless.
It almost does not scrape away from $ 1,764 in the monthly social security survival benefits it receives and the salaries it makes from its paid jobs in the parks. But she has some savings and monthly checks for her husband’s life insurance to return, and she doesn’t mind the narrow living quarters. In fact, her new way of life has become her “passion” and she fears she will be bored or ants to stay in any place for a long time. In her spare time, she kayaks, hikes and mountain bicycles and feels a sense of belonging and community in every park.
“I did this because I didn’t feel like I had any opportunities, but I wouldn’t have returned,” Williams said, now 64 years old.
Do you struggle to afford home costs or can you not find the right home for age? Refer to this reporter of eralman@businessinsider.comS
“Literally saved me”
Not everyone is cut to live in a small space without basic amenities.
But Williams has already been successfully experimenting with this when he spent five years living in a backyard trailer and a tiny home in Tacom, bathe exclusively on the gym for two of those years when there was nothing more than a hose for running water.
So she was immediately interested when a friend told her that parks across the country offer their paid and volunteers free connections for their RVs or traveling trailers.
After her landlord in Las Vegas raised more than $ 1,000 from $ 780 in two years, Williams called the Mojave National Reserve, which is only an hour southwest of Vegas, and they invited her to a “work camp” there.
In exchange for helping visitors to navigate the campsites and sell stickers and T -shirts for 30 hours a week, Williams had a free parking space, showers and kitchens for use, free WiFi, electricity, sewage services and laundry.
“It literally saved me,” she said. “They had everything I needed.”
Williams has been living a nomadic life for almost three years.With the kind assistance of Lisa Williams
Since then, she has moved seasonally – she spends winters in the southwestern desert and summer in the western parks of southeast or higher altitude. She works part -time, paid work at Green River State Park in Utah until October and hopes to spend this winter in Joshua’s National Park or the Valley of Death.
She felt lonely over the years after her husband died, but it was distracted as she acquires new friends with volunteers and employees of the park.
“I know that when I get to where I go, there will be a community of people to hug me,” she said. “I know people all over the country now with whom I still keep in touch.”
If she was not able to live this way, she would probably have moved to Sacramento to be close to her daughter and son -in -law, who offered to help her care for her while she was old. But she wants to continue to live independently and explore the country.
“I would probably get a job for watering plants in Lowe or a greeting to Walmart,” she said. “But I don’t want to do it.”
Homelessness at record peaks
The work camping has become popular with older Americans, many of whom cannot afford to retire.
At the same time, homelessness in the US struck a record high in 2023, and then jumped 18% higher in 2024, according to the annual issue of the federal government. Many working people turn to live in their vehicles, stay with their family and friends, or live in motels.
Many of those who are pushed into homelessness or live on the edge of this are older. Part of Homeless lonely adults of 50 years or more it is estimated that it has increased to about 50% of about 10% in the last three decades.
Williams has a family to help her support her if she needs them. But she wants to continue living independently and explore the country for as long as she can.
“I want people to know that they have opportunities and just go out there, think outside the box,” she said. “I know that at the end of my life I will not regret. I’ve been in incredible places and I’ve seen incredible things and it’s just over the last few years.”
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