Living in the city might be a dream to many, but current rent and utilities prices have turned it into a nightmare. One aspiring actor has found a way to still live the dream and do away with the nastier financial aspects of living in a city like New York.
This is Bessie, his ambulance conversion slash home on wheels: a campulance, as these conversions have come to be known. Bessie is an old Ford decommissioned ambulance that aspiring actor Eli Young bought off a government website in the fall of 2020, converted into a home on his own in a 6-month project, and which now offers him the freedom of movement he’s always dreamed about.
Eli (and Bessie) became a viral star at the end of last month, when he was featured on one of the videos of content creator Caleb Simpson, who goes out and talks to people living in some of the quirkiest and least expensive places in New York City. Bessie is definitely both these things: quirky because it still retains many of the features from its previous life as an emergency vehicle, and least expensive because the only costs it incurs are for gasoline. And those are still cheaper than what Eli would have paid for rent, he says.
Before deciding to make the transition to the nomadic lifestyle, Eli lived in a rented apartment. As he tells Business Insider, that situation was money down the drain: more than $1,000 a month on a small place that was mold- and rat-infested, had no AC, and little creature comforts to speak of. He’d always wanted to live in a van, so he started thinking about converting one for his home.
Photo: Eli Young
The advantage of converting an ambulance, as opposed to a van, is that the ambulance is much wider and has more storage options. Bessie, for instance, still has the original exterior, built-in storage boxes, which means that Eli can afford to not pack everything he owns inside the living space.
Since he liked the blue of the ambulance and the paintjob was still in good condition, he didn’t repaint over it. He only removed the decals, bought new tires and replaced the batteries, and focused exclusively then on the interior. He stripped everything bare and gave it a good clean – a most necessary operation, considering that the vehicle had seen every scenario (and bodily fluid) imaginable, and still had needles and medical gowns inside when he got it.
Designed to suit his lifestyle and needs, Eli put not one, but two desks inside Bessie: a sitting one buy the kitchenette and a standing one. Besides acting, Eli does freelance work as a designer, so he will often spend time on his computer. The captain’s chair is perfect for that.
Bessie has a fully-stocked but diminutive kitchen, including a propane camp two-burner stove, pots and pans, a full pantry with everything from a spices to a booze rack, and a sink with hot and cold water. It also has a lounge with a comfy two-person couch, over which Eli brings down a queen-size Murphy bed to sleep at night. There’s also a dual wardrobe with hanging racks, and a “wet bath situation” with a standing shower and a port-a-potty.
Photo: Eli Young
As Eli explains on his social media (see the second video available at the bottom of the page), he wanted his mobile home to have all the comforts of a real apartment, so he wasn’t willing to cut any corners here. The fact that he worked off the platform of an ambulance meant that he had ample opportunity to get them, but he had to plan thoroughly on how to repurpose everything inside.
Bessie has a 45-gallon (170-liter) freshwater tank, a smart generator that powers all of Eli’s electronics, and runs on diesel. That last aspect means that it can get pretty costly to travel across the country, but it “all evens out” because he’s no longer paying rent, he explains. In October, for instance, while he worked as an electrician on Broadway, he paid an average of $350 a month on gas and $100 on insurance, so about 12% of what he would have paid to rent a one-room apartment in the city.
As a bonus, he gets to move around whenever he feels like it, so the views outside his windows are always the best. Because he gets to decide what they are.
In case you’re feeling inspired by this story, Eli is offering exact numbers for the 6-month conversion, too: the ambulance cost $4,000 to buy, with another $1,000 for tax, while the conversion totaled up to $15,000. Eli says he had help from friends and family, for which he will remain forever grateful.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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