Eight years without a permanent home is long enough.

My name is Tracy (Tré) Taylor.

I'm a 63-year-old Bay Area singer, writer, creative entrepreneur, pet sitter and lifelong creative who currently lives on a fixed Social Security retirement income.

For more than eight years, I have lived primarily in a converted Ford Transit camper van while trying to find an affordable, permanent place to call home.

I have made the best of van life.

I've also reached the point where I need something different.

I need a home.

Not rescuing. Not another temporary place to sleep.

Not an unsafe arrangement made out of desperation.

A small, affordable, permanent home where I can lock the door, exhale and begin building the next chapter of my life.

That's an important distinction.

I didn't buy my Ford Transit intending to spend the rest of my life living in it.

After owning an old VW bus that became an art car—and also became increasingly unreliable—I bought the Transit and converted it into a flexible passenger van and camper.

It became my little steel chrysalis.

I could drive to the coast, open the doors and watch the surfers.

I could travel to a music engagement and have my own little dressing room.

I could take a road trip, go camping, work remotely, take a nap, cook something wonderful or disappear into nature for a few days.

That is the van life I love.

There's an enormous difference between choosing a camper for adventure and depending upon a vehicle as your only home because permanent housing is financially out of reach.

I still want my van.

I simply want it to become a camper again.

There isn't one simple answer.

I spent much of my adult life working extremely hard, including years in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era.

Later in life, major health challenges, surgeries, financial hardship and previously unrecognized neurodiversity changed what my body could sustainably do.

I eventually learned that simply working harder was no longer the answer.

For years I had compensated for severe dyslexia and other challenges by pushing myself relentlessly.

Eventually my body couldn't keep paying that bill.

When housing became unstable, the van allowed me to remain independent.

What was supposed to be temporary slowly became years.

I registered for assistance through the Pacifica Resource Center in 2019 and have worked with organizations and programs in San Mateo County while continuing to seek permanent housing.

I've experienced shelters.

I've experienced temporary housing.

I've experienced couch surfing.

I've experienced well-intentioned arrangements that weren't sustainable.

And I've learned something important:

Temporary survival and permanent housing are not the same thing.

This isn't a story about spending eight years waiting for somebody to rescue me.

I worked on myself.

I received trauma therapy and other mental-health care.

I learned more about my neurodiversity.

I rebuilt my creative life.

I continued singing.

I wrote.

I cooked.

I created music.

I learned new technology.

I started building The Tré Taylor Universe around the things that have always kept me alive and curious:

Love • Music • Food • Art • Fun

I learned artificial-intelligence tools that have dramatically expanded what I can create despite severe dyslexia.

I started developing recipes and The Nomad Kitchen.

I created music and video projects.

I continued pet sitting when my health allowed.

And somewhere inside that little white van, something changed.

I stopped thinking that surviving was the entire assignment.

I started imagining what I might still build.

I am approaching this differently today.

I am not looking for somebody to take care of me.

I am advocating for myself.

I currently have a legitimate permanent senior-housing possibility under consideration in the Bay Area, and I am working through the appropriate case-management and housing channels.

For privacy and personal safety, I am not publishing the name or location of that prospective housing opportunity while the process is underway.

I am hopeful.

But I am also continuing to look.

Because after what recently happened to my van, waiting quietly for one possibility no longer feels sufficient.

My first priority is safe, affordable, long-term housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, preferably near my established community and support network.

San Mateo County would be wonderful.

I'm also open to the right opportunity elsewhere in the Bay Area or California.

I'm seeking legitimate possibilities such as:

Permanent supportive senior housing

Affordable or subsidized senior housing

Income-based apartments

A small studio

An affordable ADU or in-law unit

A legitimate long-term private rental appropriate for someone living on fixed retirement income

An appropriate live/work environment for a quiet writer, musician and creative entrepreneur

I'm also interested in hearing from legitimate nonprofit organizations, affordable-housing developers, foundations, community organizations and people working on innovative housing solutions.

I am not seeking caregiving or childcare work in exchange for housing.

I am not seeking a romantic relationship in exchange for housing.

And I am not seeking an arrangement that leaves me dependent upon someone's personal goodwill for whether I have a home tomorrow.

I'm looking for housing.

I don't need a mansion.

Give me a little studio and watch what happens.

I would love a kitchen.

A bathtub would feel like extraordinary luxury.

I need reliable internet.

A place for my computer.

A bed that remains a bed.

A refrigerator that remains plugged in.

A door I can lock.

A place to put groceries.

A place to hang a winter coat.

Maybe someday, if circumstances allow, a little cat or dog.

Most importantly:

I need somewhere I can return to tomorrow.

And the next day.

And the next.

That kind of continuity would give my body something it hasn't had in a very long time:

A home base.

I receive Social Security retirement income, and my health currently limits the amount and kind of conventional work I can sustainably perform.

But retirement isn't the end of my creative life.

Quite the opposite.

I'm building toward another chapter.

My dream is to continue developing The Tré Taylor Universe as a small creative business combining music, food, storytelling, humor, art, digital multimedia, and community.

I can write from home.

I can create music from home.

I can edit video from home.

I can develop recipes from a small kitchen.

I can continue learning AI and emerging creative technologies.

I can sing when opportunities arise.

I can pet sit selectively.

And perhaps one day The Nomad Kitchen can finally have a kitchen.

I don't know exactly how large this dream will become.

I simply know I'm not finished.

THE BIGGER DREAM

There is another reason I'm documenting this publicly.

I'm not the only person living this story.

There are older adults, artists, neurodivergent people, people with health limitations and people whose lives changed dramatically after the pandemic who are discovering that conventional housing and conventional employment no longer fit together very well.

Some are living in cars.

Some are living in RVs.

Some are moving constantly.

Some are staying in unhealthy relationships because losing that relationship would also mean losing housing.

Some simply need something smaller and more affordable.

I have become increasingly interested in tiny homes, ADUs, small intentional communities and innovative affordable-housing models.

Someday I would love to travel and document communities that are actually making these ideas work.

Maybe I can learn something from them.

Maybe eventually I can help build something.

Perhaps this Permanent Housing Project begins with finding one woman one home.

Mine.

And perhaps the things I learn along the way eventually help somebody else.

I want to keep the van.

I want to drive down the coast.

I want to go camping.

I want to visit hot springs.

I want to travel for jazz gigs.

I want to park beside the ocean, open those big doors, make lunch and watch surfers.

I want adventure.

I just don't want adventure to be mandatory.

I want somewhere to come home to afterward.

CAN YOU HELP?

If you are a housing professional, property owner, affordable-housing provider, nonprofit organization, community advocate, foundation, developer—or someone who genuinely knows of an appropriate housing opportunity—I would be grateful to hear from you.

I welcome legitimate referrals, introductions, collaborations and housing possibilities.

Housing inquiries

Email Tré Taylor:
tretaylorconsulting@gmail.com

Please put PERMANENT HOUSING PROJECT in the subject line.

Housing providers and case-management professionals may request supporting documentation privately.

For my personal safety, I do not publicly share my current sleeping location, daily schedule, police case numbers, pending housing applications or complete personal documentation.

WANT TO HELP RIGHT NOW?

My community has also established a fundraiser to help me recover from recent emergency expenses and continue working toward stable housing.

Other practical support—such as grocery, fuel or essential-needs gift cards—is also deeply appreciated.

But the ultimate goal of this project isn't another emergency repair.

It's permanent housing.

WHY MAKE THIS PUBLIC?

Because I've spent a lifetime figuring things out by myself.

And I've learned that independence doesn't have to mean silence.

There comes a moment when advocating for yourself means standing up and saying:

This is my situation.

This is what I've survived.

This is what I'm building.

And this is what I need.

I know my value.

I know my creativity.

I know how much life I still have inside me.

I also know that right now I need more help than I've ever been comfortable asking for.

Both things can be true.

The recent break-in didn't convince me that I'm helpless.

It convinced me that eight years is enough.

HELP TRÉ FIND HOME

If you know of a legitimate permanent housing opportunity that might fit my circumstances, please reach out.

If you know someone who works in affordable senior housing, please share this page.

If you can't help directly but know somebody who might, please send them this link.

And if you're another person struggling to find safe housing later in life:

I see you, too.

Maybe the Permanent Housing Project starts with my story.

I hope it doesn't end there.

Tré Taylor
Singer • Writer • Creative Entrepreneur
Founder, The Tré Taylor Universe

Housing inquiries:

tretaylorconsulting@gmail.com