Woman Reveals How She Lived in Her Car for a Year Before Finding Dream Loft

Rising rent costs and poor living conditions forced a woman to live in her car for a year, and she has shared the journey she went through until she could afford to rent a loft.

When Charmagne Good, 33, of Greenville, South Carolina, moved into an apartment in May 2021, she was spending an inordinate amount on rent, despite the patches of mold throughout the unit. South Carolina is one of many states that doesn't offer rent control, and her landlord soon raised the rent by $600 a month. When her 12-month lease was up, she started looking for more affordable options.

She was rejected for many of the apartments she viewed, so Good resorted to living out of her car and was "operating on autopilot."

"I think the most important part was learning to give myself grace and making the best of what it was," she told Newsweek. "I had to start believing that this situation wouldn't last forever.

"This was just a part of my story that I would be able to share with others to encourage them and to bring awareness to what is being normalized in our country," she said.

Homelessness in America has been rising since 2016 and affected approximately 582,500 people across the country in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Seventy-two percent of those experiencing homelessness are individual adults, while 28 percent are families, HUD says.

The impact of homelessness is starker in some states, with California recording the highest rate, affecting 44 people out of every 10,000.

At first, very few people knew that Good was living in her car. She developed a routine to ensure she was able to eat, wash and sleep every day.

"Obviously, living in your car is not the safest thing to do, so finding places to sleep was strategic," she said. "I wanted to stay near campus while in school and near work once I started my job. I also wanted to be close to the gym and, most importantly, safe.

She continued: "Most of the time, I chose parking garages, and I found it was my favorite because I was able to wake up to the sunrise and it made my days a little bit better. A lot of businesses are cracking down on overnight parking, so sometimes I spent a lot of time driving around to find somewhere safe.

"Hygiene is very important to me and something I didn't want to change just because I was living in my car. I got a membership at Planet Fitness and went twice a day. I chose Planet Fitness specifically because there are so many locations and a lot of them were open late or 24 hours. I went to different locations depending on where I was sleeping that night," she said.

After a few months, Good told her sister and close friends about her situation, and while they offered to let her stay with them, she refused to "impose on them." At times, she would stay with someone overnight, but she made sure she wasn't a burden to other people.

Every few weeks, she would save up enough money to afford an overnight hotel room, which allowed her to do laundry, wash her cooking utensils and get a decent night's sleep.

After 377 days living out of her car, Good finally saved up enough money to move into a rented loft in May. However, it's been a surreal and traumatic experience, and she has struggled to adjust to her new life.

"I had a lot of car issues and personal issues during the first eight months, so I didn't save anything," she said. "I was just surviving. But by the time I moved into my apartment, I had saved enough to cover my deposit and rent for three months. I would say about $1,500 per month in the last three months.

"The first night, I felt a sense of safety, but the silence was a lot. I have been there for four months now, and I'm still not sure how I feel. I love my loft, but it doesn't feel permanent. I spent so much time setting up the car, living in such a small space and having to pack up and move on to the next place, so being in one place is hard.

"I still work, but the reality is so many of us are one paycheck away from living in our cars. The only difference for me is now I know that I survived it once so I can do it again if I had to," she said.

In July 2022, Good spoke publicly about being homeless on TikTok (@thatgirlcharmagne). She was "afraid of how others would receive it," but she was inundated with positive feedback. Looking back, she now believes that the encouraging responses she got helped her to power through such a difficult year.

Good has shared videos highlighting her routines while living in her car and her move into her loft. She said in a post that her "homeless journey is over," and the clip has generated more than 470,000 views and over 81,000 likes from supportive followers.

Among the 3,600 comments on the video, one person wrote: "Congratulations! You so deserve this after all you have been through."

Another person said: "There is nothing like having a safe roof over your head. You deserve that."

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