Sound the sirens: This New Yorker has found a way to live rent free.
And the smart would-be renter has built a clever way to induce a medical emergency to avoid paying the landlord.
“I just bought it from a government auction website,” young Elijah25, explained to creator Caleb Simpson during a video tour of the ambulance in which he lives. Yes, an ambulance.
The Pendleton, Indiana-born actor, sound designer and photographer paid just $5,000 for his emergency response mobile home which, according to his previous station, has had births, deaths and every conceivable bodily fluid inside of it.
That said, after he bought it, he gave it a thorough cleaning and spent $15,000 to refinish it by hand over the course of about six months.
He’s lived in the finished, modified end product for about four months, and took his time with the transformation, which paid off. The little paramedic cart has everything you need.
“This is nicer than most people’s apartments in New York City,” Simpson said as he looked around the vehicle property, adding, “I’m 6-foot and I can stand up here. Barely, but that’s pretty good.”
Young doesn’t have to break the bank just to live, either. Over the past year, rents citywide skyrocketed to all-time highs after plummeting to record lows in the early days of COVID-19, when locals returned to the city from their pandemic hideouts, when schools reopened for instruction and offices began requiring employees to return to work. Recently, rent prices across the city have cooled slightly after months of consecutive increases, although they are still high. The latest market report from Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel shows median income in Manhattan alone it reached $4,022 per month in September, down 1.9% from $4,100 the previous month, but up 21% from $3,325 a year earlier. Those figures aren’t far from the cost of Young’s ambulance.
The inspiration to live this way came during her senior year of college, when she moved into a studio only to discover black mold, no air conditioning or hot water, and a broken refrigerator. The feeling that “I’m throwing $1,000 a month at this and it’s horrible” solidified her desire to invest in a mobile situation, she told The Post. He initially looked for Sprinter trucks, but found that they were out of his price range. He then watched “a YouTube video of someone modifying an ambulance” and, impressed by the vehicle’s storage, took that route less traveled.
His family and friends were very supportive during the renovation process. “A lot of people who have this lifestyle don’t have that kind of support,” she noted with gratitude.
Inside, a long, narrow sofa to one side of the ambulance hides a custom-made, full-size Murphy bed that folds out of the wall and is outfitted with 9-inch memory foam. (Simpson rates comfort “like a nine.”)
The removable toilet is located in the curtained-off shower equipped with hot water, a “wet bathroom situation,” as Young described it.
Internal storage is surprisingly abundant thanks to many clever solutions and the size of the ambulance, which is significantly wider than the average van, as well as its built-in external storage “so you don’t have to have all your belongings in or out.” build a big roof rack or something,” Young said.
Under the van’s only sink, away from the toilet in the main area, are drawers for toiletries. The main cabin also has two built-in seats, one between the sink and galley, and the other as a driver’s chair. One of the outside closets contains a 45 gallon fresh water tank.
There’s a mini fridge, a thoughtfully designed pantry complete with shelves for spices and drinks, plus storage for your cookware above. Filling up the truck, which runs on diesel, is a hefty expense, but “it balances out because, you know, there’s no rent,” Young said.
To cook, Young uses a propane camp stove that he keeps on a shelf above the folding seat. To work, she can pull out a tray from the galley to use as a desk or place a board over the cabin doorway to create a standing desk. She uses a smart generator to power her electronic devices.
Young is currently stationed in new york, but with the ability to get up and move at your fingertips, you go anytime wherever work and life take you. “I try to jump every day,” he told The Post, parking mostly in cul-de-sacs and in commercial and industrial areas. “I plan to stay until something takes me somewhere else.”
