Allen Phelps stood before the admissions board of BYU in October of 2001. Twice he had applied to the university and been denied entrance. This was his final attempt, his last chance at acceptance.

The interview was a success, they granted him admission and gave the following stipulations; he must start classes in January and his grades had to be top notch.

Grateful for the opportunity, Phelps addressed the next problem; he didn’t have the money to pay for both his tuition and books and his room and board.

Employment wasn’t an option that semester. He had to focus on obtaining grades acceptable to the admissions board.

Phelps found shelter in his car: the green, four-door Toyota Corolla.

“It’s more comfortable on the passenger side than the drivers side, I can tell you that,” he said.

Years later, Phelps only thinks about the time spent living in his car when asked about it by others.

“BYU was my goal, and I really wanted to go, so I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” he said.

He attributes a lot to the support he received from friends and family, the whole time knowing that when school let out in April he could work all summer and have money for his next semester.

To Phelps, his first semester at BYU was little more than sacrifice.

“I’ve always had it in my mind that you were poor during college,” he said. “I always thought that college was a sacrifice.”

Reflecting on the nights he spent in his car, Phelps said he typically slept on the passenger side, sometimes he was so tired he didn’t have the energy to move, he would pull over and fall right to sleep.

“You know how you come home and just crash on your couch,” he said. “Sometimes you could just crash in the drivers seat.”

In January and February, when he wasn’t sleeping in the random attics and basements people offered, he spent nights in his car.

He would turn the heater on full blast about two times a night. The car would get as hot as he could stand, and then he would turn it off and go back to sleep until his shivering woke him up again.

Phelps showered and used the restroom in the PE lockers on campus. He also found creative ways to eat.

His normal meals were off-brand macaroni and cheese, with tuna added on a good day. On Sundays he would eat macaroni and cheese and chili. He was also attending local alarm and pest control recruiting meetings to get the free food they offered.

His car was also storage space; in it he had a standard issue army duffle bag filled with his things.

“Mostly it was full of books,” he said. “Most of these books actually.”

Smiling, he pointed from his comfortable recliner to a light-brown-finished bookcase filled with books on a variety of subjects.

For the first little while Phelps’ mother, Marsha Phelps, didn’t know the situation her son was in.

When she found out, he wouldn’t accept any financial aid she offered. So Phelps sent her oldest son an Albertson’s food card – at least she knew he was eating.

“I hated it,” she said. “It’s a nightmare for a mother.”

While it felt like a bad dream, Marsha Phelps said she trusted her son and knew he would be able to see the semester through.

“As long as his basic needs were met, he was OK,” she said. “He knew it would get better, it wasn’t a permanent thing.”

Nick Reed, a close high school friend, said Phelps played his cards right.

He proved he could use his resources wisely, Reed said.

“Now that I think about it, I wish I would have done it,” Reed said. “I could have saved a lot of money.”

Phelps is now married; he and his wife have owned their own home for almost two years. He held his newborn son in his arms and expressed his gratitude for what he now has, knowing what things could be like.

If his son had to go through a similar situation, he said he doesn’t think it would hurt him.

“A lot of people say, hopefully my kids will have a better life than I did, and they always refer to it financially, but I don’t really understand that,” Phelps said. “I don’t think life is in any way about my kids having more or less money than I had, I hope they have the same opportunities to learn, and I think they will. But if they have to live in their car for a little while to learn, I don’t think that’s too big of a deal.”



Copyright Brigham Young University 28 Jul 2005