Nomadland—Surviving America in the Twenty-first century

Author: Jessica Bruder
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company 2018

They are known as "Rubber Tramps".  That is, "people who live in a vehicle which uses rubber tires".  They drive around the country to find temporary jobs, they park in campgrounds, parking lots and even roadsides.  They are harassed by the Police and people who do not like people living in vans in their neighborhoods.

They are also known as "vandwellers".  They name their vans with names such as "VanIson, VanGo, DonoVan, VanTruck, VanNa White and Van Helen.  Some of them used to be high-salaried professionals such as electrical engineers, vice presidents of companies.  For one reason or another they have lost their nest egg after retirement.  Some were victims of the burst of the housing bubble in 2008, and some had health issues, some had nasty divorces, some were let go during downsizing and could not find a similar job since they are old, some had just bad luck through out their life.

Amazon, the forest department, campgrounds, and some processing factories like to hire these vandwellers for temporary jobs.  When they do these temporary jobs, they are known as "workampers".  A workamper is a mobile traveler who takes temporary jobs around the US in exchange for a free campsite—usually including power, water and sewer connections—and perhaps a stipend.  Amazon calls these workers "CamperForce".   

Recruiters wear CampForce T-shirts and pass out "Now Hiring" fliers, along with promotional stickers, note pads, paper fans, tubes of lip balm, landscape calendars, and "koozies", the neoprene sleeves that keep beer cans cold.

However, the work can be back-breaking.  This is especially hard on bodies that are more than 60 years old.  But they need money.

A vast majority of the vandwellers are white. Jessica reasons that "Avoiding trouble—hassles with cops and suspicious passerby—can be challenging, even with the white privilege. Living in a vehicle seems like an especially dangerous gambit for anyone who might become a victim of racial profiling."

Vandwellers help each other.  They maintain websites and blogs with helpful information for other vandwellers.  There is an annual gettogether of vandwellers in an Arizona desert town called "The Rubber Tramp Rendezvous" (RTR).  The attendance increases every year.

LaVonne, a vandweller who attends RTR regularly wrote on her blog:

I found my people: a ragtag bunch of misfits who surrounded me with love and acceptance.  My misfits I don't mean losers and dropouts.  These were smart, compassionate, hard working Americans whose scales had been lifted from their eyes.  After a lifetime of chasing the American Dream, they had come to the conclusion that it was all nothing but a big con.

It is a sad story.