Jessica Bruder, the author of “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,” wrote over the weekend about her exploration of a growing American subculture. The film based on her book won Best Picture last night at the Oscars.
I did not watch the show, but I did see Nomadland. The unsettling film stayed with me for weeks. Later, it hit close to home.
One of the best field organizers I’ve known called on Sunday. He invited me to meet him in a nearby neighborhood for a free concert by the Firecracker Jazz Band, The band was preparing for its first live gig in over a year and had arranged an outdoor rehearsal on the front porch of a corner house on a narrow street.
A small, socially distanced crowd built, some standing, others sitting on the grass or in camp chairs across the street. A few in masks, others not. Several young women stood in the street spinning multi-colored hula hoops. With the warm, spring weather, neighborhoods are coming alive for the first time in over a year. My friend is preparing to leave that behind.
He will embark on a nomad journey of his own. He fitted out his car with a sleeping deck. He’s studied Bob Wells‘s YouTube videos on nomad living. There are compromises involved in his build: what he’d like vs. what he can afford. He hopes a persistent issue with his rack-and-pinion is finally resolved. But he’s been sleeping in the car the last few days to try it out before abandoning his apartment finally and hitting the road. More road trip than full nomad life perhaps, but that’s uncertain.
Bruder believes the film’s scene is depicting Fern, played by best actress-winner Frances McDormand, getting “the knock” is chilingly accurate.
“No overnight parking! You can’t sleep here.”
The knock, Bruder explains, “is a visceral, even existential, threat,” one nomads evade by hiding in plain sight. “Make yourself invisible. Internalize the idea that you’re unwelcome.” Homeless save for your vehicle.
Bruder writes:
Bob Wells, 65, has a popular video, “Avoiding the Knock,” and has been lecturing on the topic for ages. I first heard him talk about it seven years ago in the Sonoran Desert, at a gathering called the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. He shared tactics for “stealth parking,” such as creating police-friendly alibis and making your van look like a contractor’s work vehicle.
At first listen, I thought about how clever and resourceful those strategies were. But after hearing them a few times, I reached a second conclusion: In a better world, people wouldn’t have to go to such lengths to stay out of sight.
The nonprofit National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty keeps tabs on over 180 urban and rural cities across America, more than half of which have enacted laws that make it hard or nearly impossible to live in vehicles.
Over the past decade, Tristia Bauman, an attorney at the center, has seen the regulations multiply. Some places forbid overnight parking. Others outlaw inhabiting a vehicle outright. Penalties can pile up fast. Unpaid, they lead to the cruelest punishment of all: towing. Failing to pay an impound fee means losing not just a car but a home.
Bruder spent three years and 15,000 miles crisscrossing the country in her van to research her book. I covered that distance in three months one summer, but camping along the way. There were the sorts of sweeping landscapes seen in Nomadland. Destinations planned for places to sleep for the night (or two). But knowing your whole life is in your car takes a psychic toll.
A break-in or a breakdown can undo your entire world. Will the car be safe in the Canadian wilderness while I hike for a couple of days? Or on a city street for a couple of hours while I sightsee? I got the knock one night while stopped at a pulloff in Yellowstone. Rangers warned there was no vacancy in any campground. Move along. Instead, I tucked in beside some employees’ cars behind a lodge and slept in my front seat. Knowing there was a place called home with no uncertainty about where to sleep each night was an anchor. Uncertainty is exhausting even if the scenery is dazzling.
People ask Bruder what they can do for the nomads:
Letting vehicle dwellers exist in peace would be a fine start. Individuals have the power to help. When you see someone living in a car, van or RV, don’t call the police.