For some, living in a van is their culture or a symbol of resistance. But for many others it is the only possible response to our growing housing crisis – and proposed legislation could make life much harder for them
For Stef, living in a van made perfect sense. He was on the road all the time, travelling from music festival to music festival, feeding revellers his homemade pizzas. Soon, he had saved enough money to buy a secondhand white LDV Convoy. He moved into it in December 2019, but by early 2020, the pandemic had kicked in, lockdown was under way, and music festivals were a non-starter.
Stef didn’t have enough money to rent a place to live. “I’m on universal credit: £490 a month to live on,” he says. “Half of that goes on running and insuring the van. So there’s not a lot of wiggle room.” He may have dreamed of living in a van before, but now it was his only option.
