Stuck in “development hell”, my television show featured housing situations just as strange as Hollywood’s idea of quality programming.

2016 has been a shocking year. Britain leaving the EU. The U.S. presidential election. Los Angeles criminalizing vehicular homelessness mere hours after voters approved a billion-plus dollar measure to house the homeless. Even sports blew us away, with the Cubs winning their first World Series in over a century and Leicester championing the English Premier League at 5,000-to-1 odds. And that’s just scratching the surface.

Personally, the year was full of highlights and disappointments. My improbable reaching of the 4-year home-free, rent-free milestone passed recently, giving me a double-dose chance to review 2016 in the life of The Office Hobo. So here is, in classic Good/Bad/Ugly fashion, in descending order:

The Ugly

A Volatile Political Climate
The influence of a shaky political landscape on homeless and home-free populations cannot be ignored. America is facing three branches of federal government historically opposed to supporting social services, a cruel fate for the most vulnerable among us. Though local and state politics remain largely unchanged, and one could even argue the political will for empathy is trending positively with the willingness of voters to approve $1.2 billion in funding for housing the homeless. Yet little has been done to address the disappearing affordable housing in the city. Only 10,000 units are expected to be built, with the first not slated for completion until 2019. At the earliest. Meanwhile, city officials have pushed ahead with their de facto criminalization of vehicular homelessness, pushing those sleeping in their cars to the periphery of the city. The fines for those who don’t move will likely land some in deep water. A startlingly discompassionate action for a growing community with increasingly fewer affordable housing options. Disregarding the source of the problem ensures it will get worse.

Illnesses in the Final 1/3 of the Year
The Office Hobo has never been sicker. From September to December, I’ve seen a doctor two handfuls of times for different ailments. What was once a reliable, healthy body began to fail me a bit these past few months. Why? Probably stress. (Will address this later.) The worst seems behind me, but it was an alarming reality.

I wasn’t seeing enough of this logo in 2016.

My Upkeep of The Office Hobo Blog Page
This is only my second update since August! Coincidentally when my health started to decline. (Could a blog update a day be what was keeping the doctor away??) Regardless, 2016 has been a failure on the blog update front. Shame on me.

The Bad

My Television Show Didn’t Sell–Yet
Promising leads never revealed the promised land. Without revealing too much, I’ll just say the links with industry powerhouse CAA and executive genius Brian Graden were not enough to sell a show. This time around. But I’ve been blessed to come in contact with some brilliant minds in entertainment. Our network meetings were highly informative and the lessons I learned from Graden’s team were invaluable. The show is not dead, only hibernating. Trust I’ll resurrect it in 2017 and push forward once again.

Not a bad place to have the flu. If that’s any consolation.

My Book is (Still) Not Done
Two writing retreats later and I still don’t have a finished product I’m satisfied with. But I’m close. Catching the flu during halfway through my second stint at my desert getaway set me back, leaving me with a handful of minor but intensive lingering improvements. I’m vowing to complete these in the coming weeks. Then we can talk publishing.

Limited Travel Due to Project Focus
I didn’t travel nearly enough this past year. For the first time in years, my passport was left unstamped. I didn’t climb any notable mountains. My road trips were limited to Southern California and I departed by plane only three times–the Atlanta Film Festival, the Tiny House Jamboree plus a side trip to New York, and back home to Florida for the holidays. On the surface, one might wonder why this is in the “Bad” category. But context is key. Giving up stable rental housing has meant unparalleled flexibility for travel. My past travels are well documented here, but in retrospect 2016’s paltry travel calendar seems like a waste of free time. Most of that time was dedicated to advancing projects. Probably too much time for my own good. More on how I’ll approach that in a minute.

The view from my housesit to close out 2016.

The Good

An Emerging “Sharing Economy” Lifestyle
2016 revealed an epiphany in rent-free living: Favor sharing. I discussed this in a post back in July, but in short I stumbled upon a wealth of housing opportunities in exchange for favors. These ranged from cat- and dog-sitting to helping write website content or donate labor for charity projects. As I write this, I am enjoying a week on Venice Beach, housesitting in an old friend’s bungalow perch in view of the Pacific. It’s a heck of a way to ring in the new year.

In 2016, I spent 71% of my time either house-sitting, pet-sitting, vacationing, or away on a writing retreat. The remainder of my nights, roughly speaking, were spent in my truck. (Disclaimer: An uncounted number of those truck nights were spent at the home of a girl I was dating, something I was keen not to take advantage of.) With house/pet-sitting comprising the largest chunk of my residential housing in 2016, one might wonder if I should stick to this housing model in the coming year. That seems a hopeful enterprise. One of my pet-sitters has already drastically reduced my role, thanks to a new landowner taking over her property, converting the main house into an Air BnB rental and hiking her rates by a few hundred bucks. My other steady clients are mulling over moves. While 2017 could yet yield a fair number of nights in some else’s bed, I doubt I’ll replicate the numbers I put up this year.

My Appearance at the Tiny House Jamboree
I covered my experience at the Jamboree in detail here, but it bears repeating. The relationships I formed with some of the folks in the movement still mean a great deal to me. As much as anything, assembling content and preparing for delivery of the 1-hour keynote address (cut into a 5-minute version above!) was invaluable. I’m eager to build on that experience and continue to discuss the movement with others–in front of the mic or otherwise.

The Tiny (Toilet) Home Project Progresses
A year ago, I’d have never guessed I’d be planning to live in a toilet. And I’d probably never had guessed doing so would be a good thing. What started as a punchline soon became a pursuit. An obsession. By summertime we were talking with PolyJohn about securing a gutted unit straight from the factory. My posted pitch video (see below) gives an idea of the design. The project spans well beyond that, though, taking the lessons I’ve learned over the last few years and applying that to a simple solution for the affordable housing crisis here in L.A.

Sure, living in a toilet sounds silly. And it may very well be. But it’ll also be innovative, insightful, ambitious, and surprising. Our team is already arranging logistics of the year-long tour, in which I’ll occupy the unit for the duration. By publicizing the merits of tiny living in an urban landscape–and the availability of residential land to do it–the project ought to turn a few heads. After its humble beginnings, what more could I want?

What the Hobo Faithful Can Expect from 2017

A Push for Greater Balance
Like most Americans, I need to do a better job balancing health and leisure with work. Of course, that will look a little different for me. I spent only 18 hours a week at my wage-earning part-time gigs in 2016. Less than half the hours of the average American. Sounds posh until one accounts for my time spent working on creative projects, when I estimate that number nearly quadruples. Which puts me among the most overworked, though one could (and should) argue that my “overworked” hours are spent on my passion and therefore are permissible. But averaging 60+ hours of work each week is simply unhealthy, regardless of the endeavor.

Next year I want to average 20-24 hours per week at wage jobs to meet some financial goals, which should be helped by securing some better paid gigs in the latter part of this year. And cut down my time spent on creative work by 10-15%. That time will be devoted to physical health (regularly) and travel (occasionally). My goal is to travel abroad at least once next year, spreading out substantial getaways to once every 10-12 weeks instead of 16. And read more often. I only read two more books in 2016 than the previous year. All quality reads. I’d like to double that increase in 2017.

More Action on the Project Front
While my aim is to loosen my leash on the project front, I do expect to see more gains in 2017 from work already in progress. My hope is that this will mean less head-spinning from one project to the next and more reaping of rewards for projects like the book and the Tiny (Toilet) Home Project, among others. I’m working on structuring my year to include built-in leisure travel and personal health goals, while setting clearer goals for income and giving myself January and February to tie up some loose ends on the project front. My goal is to be ramping up the sharing of good The Office Hobo news with you guys by Spring and Summer.

The Potential End to My Home-Free, Rent-Free Streak?
Living home-free was never intended to be a long-term endeavor. I just managed to extend living temporarily rent-free as one opportunity yielded the next. The greatest challenge is maintaining a functioning–thriving?–place in a competitive materialist local culture. Part of my income still comes from standing in front of LA’s hottest nightlife spots, standing dapper as hopeful patrons approach, eager to gain my acceptance of their appearance. It’s the single most enduring irony of my lifestyle. And the power of perception never ceases to tickle me.

My lifestyle as of late has strayed from true voluntary simplicity. Or at least the modern, urban version most of my readers can relate to. All those mornings waking up in comfy bedrooms, greeted by other peoples’ pets shedding their hair on my haphazardly placed clothes from the night before. In a way, I haven’t had to suffer through the rigors of home-free living–the constant moving, the exposure to temperature changes, the cruel untimeliness of nature’s calls. Yet simultaneously I have had to put forth more effort. Experiencing the grueling morning commute from the Valley to LA’s westside. Accommodating the constant schedule changes of my housing hosts. Most people move once every few years. I move multiple times a month, shuffling my belongings from one home to the next, often forgetting which house key on the chain I need that day.

My streak of rent-free living is in jeopardy. The urge to bridge the gap between now and the beginning of the Tiny (Toilet) Home tour with stable housing is strong. A seasonal sublease could be the most direct path between myself and my career goals. Yet despite this urge, I have grown no less disgusted with the state of rental housing in Los Angeles. Costs have risen nearly ten percent in the past year. Living in most safe, close, attractive parts of the city is simply unaffordable. My debate over whether or not to weather them for a bit cannot ignore that.

I guess that’s the enduring theme of The Office Hobo story. Bridging the line between nomad and normal is no picnic. Yet I can’t quite bring myself to commit to either side, unconvinced that I have put an authoritative coda on the era that set my whole lifestyle exploration in motion in the first place. For those of you checking in with me from time to time, I guess that challenge of mine is part of the fun.

Which is why I promise to keep you guys engaged on www.theofficehobo.com over the next 365 days.

Regardless of how I’m living.

-TOH