Former En Vogue singer Dawn Robinson has fallen on hard times.
“For the past three — almost three years, I have been living in my car,” Robinson, 58, said in a YouTube video uploaded on Tuesday, March 11. “I said it. Oh my God.”
Robinson explained that in 2020 she was living with her parents in Las Vegas. She claimed that after experiencing some tension with her mother, she decided to leave the home.
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“I can’t deal with this. I respect her too much. I didn’t understand it. I still don’t and it hurt me,” she reflected on her decision to leave her parents’ house. “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.”
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When Robinson moved out, she was sleeping in her car for “about a month in Vegas.” Robinson’s manager at the time encouraged her to come back to Los Angeles where he lived. As the temperatures in Las Vegas started to increase, she decided to go back since she “loved” living in Los Angeles.
Robinson then claimed that her former manager offered to let Robinson stay with him until she got back on her feet. However, both he and Robinson had dogs and there wasn’t enough space in his place for two people and two canines. As a result, the manager volunteered to get her a hotel where she ended up staying for “eight months”
While Robinson looked for a place to live, she said the manager offered to help her and attend listings with her — but didn’t follow through. When she asked him for his thoughts, she said he allegedly found something wrong with each housing option.
“I’m trying to make this easier on you because financially I know it’s got to be hard,” she said she told her former manager in the video. “You’re paying rent and you’re paying my hotel.”
After finding no success on the home front, Robinson said she decided to research car life and was impressed with the lifestyle.
“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 reflected. “And I loved what I was seeing. I just thought, ‘Wow, these people. I could do this, I think.’”
Robinson left the hotel for good in 2022 and took her car up to Malibu. While she said she found the first night to be “scary,” Robinson had no regrets about her decision and she ended up getting comfortable as she learned the ins and outs of car life, including how to cover her windows and being selective of the information she shared with others around her.
“I felt free,” she shared. “That was a sense of freedom that I had. I was so free.”
Robinson claimed that many people encouraged her not to be so candid about her current living situation, fearing it would lead to public judgment. For Robinson, she said she wasn’t worried about others’ perception of her lifestyle.
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“Nobody has stepped or walked five steps in my stilettos,” she said. “It’s real and it’s OK. Part of being human is to be vulnerable.”
Instead, she opted to be honest, hoping to inspire others.
“My aim is to inspire and let people know that you’re capable of anything no matter what the odds are against you,” she said.
Robinson was an on-and-off member of the girl group En Vogue. She joined the band when they formed in 1989. Robinson first exited En Vogue in 1997. In 2002, she returned before leaving again in 2008 for a solo music career.
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