Preliminary text, NOT TO BE PUBLISHED Introduction Today, over 16,000 people in Los Angeles County live in a vehicle. While vehicle dwelling is not a new phenomenon, the numbers are sharply on the rise. Just like for the rest of the homeless population, individual circumstances are diverse. Vehicle dwellers range from couch-surfing students occasionally using their car as a fallback accommodation to financially down-and-out individuals who have lost everything but their car and its contents. Regardless of what brings people to live this way, a common denominator seems to be low wages and the lack of affordable housing.For example, the Reis family photographed here decided to live in a converted school bus in order to afford spending more time together as a family. For them, it was a rational decision that cut their living expenses by ninety percent, while allowing Ismael Reis to stay home with his family instead of having to work long hours seven days a week to make rent.I met Ismael and Greice Reis--along with their three children ages two, five, and ten--the day they arrived in Los Angeles in the yellow school bus they call home.

Mormons from Brazil, they had come to the United States two years earlier to chase the American Dream. This book documents their trials and tribulations over a ten-month stay in the City of Angels while they struggle as vehicle dwellers, improvised mechanics, unconventional parents, Mormonism doubters, and experimental breadwinners, while seeking happiness as a family.Rather than speaking on their behalf, I share their own words from interviews that I conducted with Ismael. Greice does not yet speak English, but Ismael did consult with Greice before answering many of my questions. I have lightly edited Ismael''s responses for clarity. "We could just try to figure out how to be happy" One day, I was home in our apartment in Delaware, and I was just walking around thinking: I know I have everything I wanted to have, but I''m still not happy. In Brazil, we were struggling to afford a car or air conditioning, even after saving for five years. We wanted all those things.

Here, it was just a matter of months before we had everything we ever dreamed of. Our whole lives, we were taught that we had to work hard, buy things we wanted, and then we would have made it. We would have won. But now that we had everything we ever wanted, we discovered that we were still not happy. We could either continue to work hard and make more money and buy more things, hoping that at some point it would make us happy, or we could just try to figure out how to be happy. As we started researching happiness, we landed on some Brazilian street artist''s YouTube channel. He had decided to quit everything to travel and sell his art. He somehow seemed quite content with his lifestyle.

We were inspired by his videos. I could relate to them, even though they were very different from what I had been taught at church or by my family. Inspired by this YouTuber, my wife came up with the idea of taking an epic road trip back to Brazil. The initial plan was to drive from Delaware to California and then get back to Brazil. In hindsight, we were completely clueless: Initially, we wanted to convert our Honda Pilot, which is a big SUV, but it''s not big enough for five people to sleep in. I thus went online and bought the biggest used trailer I could find, only to realize it was way too big to tow with my SUV. We immediately resold it. After more online research, I finally discovered the "Schoolie" movement: You buy an old school bus and convert it into a mobile home.

In July 2017, we bought a 1999 Ford E350 school bus for $2,300. I spent a year converting it part time. My restaurant job, a foot injury, and the harsh Delaware winter slowed me down, but I managed to get it ready by June 2018, which is when we finally left Delaware with $400 in cash, a tankful of gas, and a one-month supply of dry food. "You never know" When you live a regular life, you don''t realize how privileged you are: You go to the bathroom, and you can just flush and forget about it. In the bus, we have to find legal places to dump the "black water" on a regular basis. In a home, if you want to sleep, you just go to your bedroom and turn off the lights. We have to find a safe place that allows overnight street parking, cover all the windows, etc. Even taking a shower or washing the dishes is complicated: We only have seventy gallons of water in the tank, so we soap up dishes with the water shut off and only turn it on when we actually need it.

Same thing for the shower or brushing teeth. And you can''t simply let used water go down the drain. It has to be dumped somewhere. Electricity is yet another challenge: Normally, you''d buy food and just store it in the fridge or freezer. We don''t have such appliances, because they consume too much power.That said, these are just small inconveniences for us. Earning an income with this lifestyle proved to be our biggest challenge by far: Before this, I''d just wake up, go to work, and money would magically appear in my account. With the bus, there''s no such thing: Our expenses are much lower, but I don''t know when or how I''m going to find the next job, especially when we''re traveling.

Right now, we''re settled (in Los Angeles), so it''s a little different; but when you''re on the road, moving from place to place, you never know. You never know if you''re going to find a job. You never know what kind of job you''re going to get. You never know how much you''ll get paid or if you can trust them to actually pay you. I would say this lifestyle can be summarized as: "YOU NEVER KNOW." But I really shouldn''t complain too much: I''m willing to sacrifice my thirty-minutes shower, doing dishes with infinite running water, and not having to worry about electricity or even money running out. I''m totally willing to sacrifice all these things in order to live the life that I''m living right now. A big benefit of this lifestyle in my opinion is family relationships: We relate to each other very differently than when we had a house.

I believe that living together in such tight quarters helps [Greice and me] as individuals and as a couple to get to know each other better and get to know ourselves better. To find ourselves. I don''t think my dad knew half of what I know about my kids when I was their age, because he was always at work. We never had any time to spend together. He didn''t have time to get to know me. That''s why I used to fight a lot with my parents. I didn''t feel like they knew me. Of course, being with the kids all the time can be hard too, but we take turns watching them, so each of us can have some "alone time" to do the things we like to do.

I have my jewelry making, my video editing, my drawing. Greice studies and pursues her own creative writing projects. In short, we adapt to this living situation. As humans, we''re really good at adapting to a new environment. And that''s true in terms of intimate couple relationships, too: We always find a way around. The kids always eventually fall asleep. I don''t have to get more specific, but we get creative. And when we''re traveling, we try to stay at National Forests.

So, in the wild, there are always options. "Hungry. Traveling with family. Auto problems. Please help" The thought of giving up has crossed our minds more than once, but there was a particular episode I vividly remember coming very close: One day in Pennsylvania at a Walmart parking lot, we had run out of gas and were quickly running out of food. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn''t find a job. It was a very small town of only a couple of blocks, so opportunities were limited. The cops came and told us that we had outstayed our welcome in the parking lot.

I had finally found a restaurant interested in my services; but it was already Friday, and they wanted me to do the job on Monday. A jar of peanut butter and a few crackers barely sustained us through the weekend; so, when I finally got paid the meager wage of forty dollars for the job, we had to make an important decision: We could buy either food or gas, but there wasn''t enough money for both. We were desperate for a real meal, but it wasn''t really an option, as we needed gas in order to find more work. I bought forty dollars of diesel and headed out. When we got to the next town, we entered the Walmart parking lot and drove past an odd-looking motorhome covered in biblical quotes written on cardboard signs. I asked the owner if it was okay to stay at this parking lot overnight, and he said yes. The next day, as we were all starving, and I was getting ready to leave to find a job, the gentleman from the odd motorhome knocked at the door of the bus. He awkwardly opened with: "I just felt like I should come over and talk to you.

" He kept hesitating as if he had something embarrassing to say and suddenly disappeared. He returned from his RV with a cardboard sign that read "Hungry, traveling with family, auto problems, please help." All he managed to say was: "This morning, I was at that corner in the entrance of the Walmart for one hour, and I made twenty bucks. I know you have kids, so if you''re ever in a situation. You can always do that." I was incredulous, but he actually wanted me to go and try in front of him. I think he wanted to coach me. I politely thanked him for his concern and said we''d have to think about it.

I just couldn''t believe he had made twenty bucks just sitting there and holding a sign. Greice and I discussed the matter and concluded that we had no choice but to give it a try and hopefully get a few bucks to buy some food at last. I would resume my search for a more honorable job as soon as the kids'' bellies were full. I went to the designated spot and sat with the cardboard sign. Exactly one hour later, I miraculously came back with two hundred dollars in cash and several bags.