Ex En Vogue singer Dawn Robinson has admitted she has been living in her car for nearly three years.
Dawn, whose R&B group has sold 20 million records worldwide, shared the plights of her homelessness in a candid video, posted on YouTube on Tuesday.
“For the past three – almost three years, I have been living in my car… I said it. Oh my God,” the 58-year-old singer, who had a successful solo career before returning to En Vogue, said in the clip.
Dawn’s struggles began in 2020 when she felt compelled to move out the Las Vegas home she shared with her mother. The musician continued: “I can’t deal with this. I respect her too much. I didn’t understand it. I still don’t and it hurt me. I was just trying to figure it out but I couldn’t … you can’t read someone else’s mind and you can’t figure them out.”
Her exit led her to spend around a month sleeping in her vehicle in the heat of Las Vegas. During this time, her manager encouraged her to head back to Los Angeles, a city she “loved”.
Initially, the plan was for her to crash with her manager until she found stability, but space issues arose due to both having dogs, reports the Mirror US.
Even so, her manager still aimed to offer support by securing a hotel room for her, where she lodged for an extensive “eight months,” showing a glimmer of kindness during her plight.
Dawn was in need of a new home and her former boss offered a helping hand, suggesting he would go with her to view listings. However, the support fell flat; whenever she consulted her once-manager on the potential places, he always found something amiss.
“I’m trying to make this easier on you because financially I know it’s got to be hard,” she said she told him when discussing her situation. “You’re paying rent and you’re paying my hotel.”
However, as Dawn couldn’t find a suitable home, she began exploring the idea of living in her car and became intrigued by the lifestyle she discovered online.
“There’s a whole community of people who live in their cars and a whole community of people who live in their RVs and a whole community of people who live in their vans,” she remembered. “And I loved what I was seeing. I just thought, ‘Wow, these people. I could do this, I think.'”.
In 2022, Dawn decided to leave hotel life behind and took her car to Malibu. Despite a challenging first night, she declares no remorse over the switch.
As she becomes more adept at car living, mastering tasks like covering her windows, she feels a growing sense of liberation. She detailled: “I felt free. That was a sense of freedom that I had. I was so free.”
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