<prompt> Human: Well not necessarily the river part.But heres the thing.Im never home. Ever. All I do is sleep there, shower there, and take mail there.When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is shower and leave. I dont return until Im so tired Im ready to sleep again. I only eat out and 95 of the time I spend in my apartment is sleeping.The only possessions I own are a backpack I take wherever I go, a suitcase full of mostly clothes, and a mattress to sleep on. And my precious childhood stuffed animal. He will be with me until the die I die, goddamnit.As such, Ive been bouncing back and forth between the smallest, crappiest, tiniest, most minimalist apartments with as many room mates as possible for many years to keep the monthly cost of having a place to sleep as small as possible.Ive just gone through my once-annual room mate shuffle where people move on and do different things with their lives. Its forcing me to look for another place to keep monthly costs low. Again.And boy does doing this every year get old.Especially when I live in a place where rent is so massively inflated and rising all the time that its a huge expense. Seriously, hop on craigslist and look at the eye-popping rent in the SF bay area. I live in the south bay where it aint so bad, but its still pretty fucking bad!Anyway, this all got me thinking, fuck it, why not just live in a van? If I got one of those cargo vans and tossed my mattress in it, that should do me fine. Car insurance is a lot cheaper than rent and the weather is nice enough here year-round that I shouldnt have to worry about freezing to death. If I get a decent sleeping bag or some camping gear I should be fine in the mild winters. Not having a toilet isnt a problem for me because I have no need to get up in the middle of the night to pee.I also have the luxury of being able to shower at work and even if I couldnt, I could always get a gym membership for that.I could move my mail to a PO box although Im not sure HR would take kindly to my address relocating to a PO box...? Can I do that? and I already do my laundry at a laundromat anyway.The biggest thing that worries me about this idea is where the fuck can I safely park this thing? I havent lived in the safest neighborhoods over the last several years, but I get a feeling sleeping in a van is less safe than sleeping in an apartment in a crappy neighborhood. Another concern is how much should I expect to pay for a decent used cargo van with no windows in the back that wont break down on me? I got plenty of cash saved up, so Im not worried about the cost. I just want to find the best deal and I dont know much about autos.So tell me reddit, how can I make this work? And what challenges am I not considering?TL;DR: I want to sleep in a van in the SF bay area south bay preferred. What van do I buy? How do I park it safely and legally? Any other advice?  <response>: rvandwellers 