En Vogue singer reveals she's been living in her car for years
Dawn Robinson, a founding member of the widely popular R&B girl group En Vogue, has revealed she has been living out of her car for years.
In a video she uploaded to social media, the singer said she moved into her vehicle out of necessity during the pandemic. Robinson added that she has since become devoted to the lifestyle.
'This is not like, 'Oh my God, poor Dawn. She's living in her car. It's terrible. Oh, woe is me,'' Robinson said in the nearly 20-minute video. 'I'm learning about who I am. I'm learning myself as a person, as a woman.'
Though Robinson did not go into detail, she explained that she began taking refuge in her car in 2020 after living with her parents in Las Vegas and that her relationship with her mother became troubled, causing her to move into her car.
She said she slept in her car for about a month before staying with a manager in LA, but he ultimately didn't have room for her, so she wound up in a hotel he paid for. She worried whether he could continue to pay the hotel bill.
'I told my assistant one day, 'I have been researching car life,' she said. 'I loved what I was seeing.'
Despite the first night in the vehicle being 'scary' she said she soon learned how to make herself feel safe. She described the first time she watched a sunset from her vehicle as 'beautiful.'
'I was so free, I felt like I was on a camping trip,' she said. 'It was the right thing to do, I didn't regret it.'
According to data from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, over 40% of the unsheltered homeless population in LA county rely on vehicles (defined as cars, vans and RVs) for shelter. According to the University of Los Angeles Institute of Transportation Studies, there is a lack of research on this large and growing population.
Robinson rose to fame in the early 1990s as part of En Vogue with Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron and Maxine Jones. The band would go on to become one of the most successful girl groups of all time, selling upwards of 20m records and nabbing seven Grammy nominations, with hits including Free Your Mind, Don't Let Go (Love), Giving Him Something He Can Feel and Hold On. Billboard named them the second most successful female group of the 1990s.
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