I had to move into my car at 75 and I work full time – I can’t afford air con

A 76-year-old was forced to move into her van despite being in full-time work because of spiking rents, and she has no extra cash to cover either the heating or the AC.

Lindy said she is “too independent” to accept help from her son and attempts to ask for support from the state have miserably failed.

She said she once had to cope with sweltering 140-degree heat in her 2013 Chevy van because she couldn’t even afford to pay for AC.

While she said she was lucky Arizona hardly sees snow, she revealed she had to rely on a small stove to keep warm during the winter – and it still sets her back “$400 (£328) per month for butane.”

Any extra money Lindy makes is used to stockpile food and she gets a bag of fresh vegetables from a local church every week.

Speaking in a video shared on the YouTube channel Glorious Life on Wheels, she said: “I have at least six months’ worth of food in my van right now. I carry around 40 pounds of rice, 20-30 pounds of beans.”

She said she tried to sign up for food stamps a few years ago but was turned down because her wages are “$3 (£2) a month too much.

And her bid to get state assistance was rejected twice after she was told her rent would likely cost her more in low-income housing because she is employed.

The 75-year-old continued: “If I go on low-income housing now, they will not lower the rent for me when I quit working.

“You have to go out of the housing system and re-sign up to wait for another house.”

Lindy admitted that while she has been living in her van for years, she still struggles to adapt to living in poverty in the small space her van affords her.

She said: “You have to be a minimalist to live like this and how do you do it?”

The senior worker has been documenting her van life on YouTube since 2013. Lindy said she had to move out of her house in 2011 but had planned to turn her van into a home for five years.

She recently concluded a 7,400-mile solo journey across the United States in her van.

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