Andria Condominiums

It's illegal to live in a storage unit.

(John M. Vincent)

Everyone knows that hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, which winds from the Mexico-California border to the Washington-Canada border, is not a luxury vacation. People camp wherever they can, unrolling the barest of necessities that they carry on their back.

So, when a hiker returned from the 2,700-mile trek through the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges, he wasn't looking for posh accommodations. Just a place to lay his head and not get trampled by wild animals.

His cheap housing option? A storage unit.

As he describes in a YouTube video that has received more than 410,000 views in a day: "I had just came back from hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and found myself homeless. I had given up my apartment to go hike and now that I was back I wanted to turn my car into a livable space. I eventually did that."

You can see how he camperized a 2009 Honda Civic.

He goes on with his story, explaining that even while living in his car, he found he needed access to his stuff in the storage unit. So to shorten his commute, he upgraded from a jammed-packed unit with 240 cubic feet into a 600 footer.

The video shows that he built shelves to get organized. "But why stop there!" he exclaims.

He says he plugged into the facility's electricity and put in a simple water system. He made a rack for his clothes, wood slats to hang a snowboard and nunchucks,

other improvements that cost about $100. Household items he already had in storage -- from a hotplate to fridge, bed to a bar -- were then put to use.

"The only thing I don't have in here is a washer-dryer," he says.

He says he lived in the unit for about two months.

The cost: $205 a month, which included insurance.

"A bargain, considering an apartment in the area was $1,000 or more a month," he says.

Big problem: It's illegal.

"Oh, my," said a worker at a self-storage facility in NE Portland when called to comment on this story. "I can't imagine anyone thinking he could do that."

A storage unit is not fit for human habitation and would not pass building code requirements because there's no plumbing, electricity, ventilation or two means of egress, not to mention a bathroom inside or accessible in the building.

People who have experience in alternative living posted on Reddit other reasons it's not a good idea to move into a storage unit:

"Did it for about a week. It was extremely inconvenient. I ended up camping outside of town because my storage place was too difficult to get in and out of and midnight bathroom breaks became a massive pain. Had a membership to the gym where I could shower in the mornings. It just got to be way too big of a pain and I moved in with some friends eventually."

"Remarkably bad idea, my friend. I managed a storage facility ... and was forced to deal with a few people who were trying to live off the grid, so to speak. I found that her whole unit was set up like a bedroom. She had power running from the closet where we had our air conditioning units. She was paying $120 a month for 250 square feet of space but the sneaking around she had to do was pretty excessive even with the [previous] manager knowing. It can be done if you're clever but it's really, really not worth it."

-- Janet Eastman



jeastman@oregonian.com

503-799-8739

@janeteastman



