Who Lives in Vehicles and Why? Understanding Vehicular Homelessness in Los Angeles

Figures & data

Figure 1. Distribution of survey respondents and overall population living in cars and vans compared to recreational vehicles (RVs) and campers.

Table 1. Characteristics of total, nonvehicular unhoused, and vehicular unhoused individuals.

Individual characteristics	Total	Tents, sidewalks, makeshift, and public spaces	Cars, RVs, vans, and campers	Significance
Sociodemographic
Gender
Male	68%	71.4%	53%	***
Female	30%	26.2%	46%	***
Transgender	1.6%	2%	.8%	**
Gender nonconforming	.2%	.2%	.1%
Missing data	.2%	.2%	.1%
Race/ethnicity
White	33%	31%	36%	**
Black	32%	32%	32%
Asian	2%	2%	1%
American Indian/Native Hawaiian	2%	2%	2%
Multiple races	3%	3%	3%
Hispanic	25%	26%	23%
Missing data	3%	4%	3%
Senior (over 62 years old)	11%	10%	15%	***
Living with children	5%	2%	18%	***
Monthly income (mean)	$743	$567	$1,458	***
Employment status
Employed	14%	13%	19%	***
Unemployed (looking, not looking, or student)	56%	29%	30%	***
Retired	2.1%	2.2%	3.6%	**
Missing data	12%	13%	8%
On disability	17%	16%	21%	***
Housing
Chronically unhoused	48%	50%	38%	***
Years unhoused (median)	4	4	3	***
Years unhoused (mean)	6.5	7	5	***
Physical disability	43%	42%	53%	***
Mental health	51%	52%	48%
Justice system	78%	80%	68%	***
Household with children	2%	1%	6%	***
Main reasons that led to loss of housing (avg. # reported)	1.65	1.51	1.48	**
Domestic violence	9%	9.2%	10.7%
Family/personal	20%	20.4%	19.1%
Housing	12%	12.5%	12.5%
Incarceration	6%	5.3%	3.6%	**
Mental and physical health	16%	17.4%	12.1%	***
Unemployment	31%	30.2%	32.4%	*
Trauma-related experiences
Domestic violence (%)	36%	27%	31%
Veteran/armed services (%)	7%	7%	7%
Mobility
Slept in different neighborhood than last night in the past 30 days	11%	11%	9%
Distance between last 30 days and last night (median)	2 miles	2 miles	2 miles
Total survey responses (n)	3754	3113	641

Note. RVs = recreational vehicles.

*p < .1; **p < .05; ***p < .01 for t-test (continuous) or Chi-squared test (binary) significance between vehicular and nonvehicular respondents.

Figure 2. Graphic representation of logit model results.

Table 2. Logit model results—likelihood of living in a vehicle.

	Odds ratio	SE	p > |z|
Gender (excluded category: Male)
Female	2.10	0.32	***
Transgender	0.52	0.35
Race/ethnicity (excluded category: Black)
White	1.65	0.28	***
Asian	1.65	1.11
American Indian/Native Hawaiian	0.92	0.43
Multiple races	0.74	0.30
Hispanic	1.14	0.22
Senior (> 62 years old)	1.73	0.39	**
Living with children	11.47	3.07	***
Employment/occupational situation (excluded: Unemployed)
Employed	1.98	0.37	***
Retired	2.30	0.91	**
Monthly income	1.00	0.00002	**
Receives disability benefits	1.69	0.31	***
Chronically unhoused status	0.64	0.10	***
Main reasons for becoming homeless
Violence	0.96	0.20
Family/personal	0.89	0.14
Housing	1.14	0.20
Incarceration	0.53	0.19	*
Mental/physical health	0.72	0.13	*
Unemployment	0.94	0.13
Domestic violence victim	0.93	0.14
Veteran status	1.04	0.28
Slept in different place within last 30 days	0.70	0.17
Distance between last two places slept	1.01	0.01
Constant	0.14	0.03

Note. SE = standard error.

*p < .1. **p < .05. ***p < .01.

Table A1. Characteristics of total vehicular respondents, vehicular respondents living on public streets, and vehicular respondents living in SPPs.

Individual characteristics	People living in vehicles (total)	Not surveyed at safe parking	Surveyed at safe parking	Significant differences
Sociodemographic
Gender
Male	53%	53%	55%
Female	46%	46%	41%
Transgender	0.8%	0.5%	2%
Gender nonconforming	0.1%	0.1%	0%
Missing data	0.1%	0%	1%
Race/ethnicity
White	36%	36%	31%
Black	32%	31%	35%
Asian	1%	1%	1%
American Indian/Native Hawaiian	2%	2%	5%
Multiple races	3%	2%	7%	**
Hispanic	23%	24%	12%	**
Missing data	3%	2%	8%
Senior (over 62 years old)	15%	14%	20%
Living with childre	18%	19%	6%	***
Monthly income (mean)	$1,458	$1,293	$2,461
Employment status
Employed	19%	16%	39%	***
Unemployed (looking, not looking, or student)	30%	42%	28%	***
Retired	3.6%	4%	4%
Missing data	8%	9%	4%
On disability	21%	20%	27%
Housing
Chronically unhoused	38%	38%	39%
Years unhoused (median)	3	3	2
Years unhoused (mean)	5	5	2.5
Physical disability	53%	51%	63%
Mental health	48%	47%	50%
Justice system	68%	72%	41%	***
Household with children	6%	7%	3%	***
Main reasons that led to loss of housing (avg. # reported)	1.48	1.57	1.54
Personal violence	10.7%	16%	8%
Family/personal	19.1%	28%	17%	**
Housing	12.5%	18%	13%
Incarceration	3.6%	5%	2%
Mental and physical health	12.1%	16%	20%
Unemployment	32.4%	44%	49%
Trauma-related experiences
Domestic violence	31%	38%	44%
Veteran/armed services	7%	6%	16%	***
Mobility
Slept in different neighborhood than last night in the past 30 days (%)	9%	10%	4%	*
Distance between last 30 days and last night (median)	2 miles	2.23 miles	2.44 miles
Total survey responses (n)	641	558	83

*p < .1; **p < .05; ***p < .01 for t-test (continuous) or Chi-squared test (binary) significance between vehicular respondents on public streets and vehicular respondents in SPPs.