Even developed countries like the United States have many homeless people — and anyone can become homeless.

Dawn Robinson, a member of the successful 1990s singing group En Vogue, revealed in a YouTube video posted on 11 March that she had fallen on hard times and was living in her car the past three years, CNN reports.

Robinson said she last lived in a home with her parents in 2020 before moving to a hotel for eight months and then starting “car life” in 2022.

Her admission was not intended to solicit help or elicit pity, Robinson stressed, but rather to inspire others to be resilient.

Not all people with a roof over their heads and who are protected from the elements, however, are guaranteed good health and safety.

A Waterbury, Connecticut woman’s stepson felt imprisoned living in their home as he was not allowed to go outside.

Desperate to get out, the 32-year-old man started a fire in his room that his stepmom kept locked from the outside. He lit some paper with a lighter and hand sanitizer, CNN reports.

Kimberly Sullivan called for help and firefighters rushed to the house and rescued the two of them.

While the stepmother was unharmed, her stepson had inhaled smoke and was treated by the emergency responders. Separated from his stepmom, he told the responders he set his room on fire because he wanted his freedom, ABC News reports.

The man said he had been held captive by Sullivan since he was 11 years old, according to ABC News.

Local police investigated the allegation and learned that “the victim had been held in captivity for over 20 years, enduring prolonged abuse, starvation, severe neglect, and inhumane treatment,” ABC News said.

The 32-year-old “prisoner” was also found to be in a “severely emaciated condition and had not received medical or dental care” the past two decades.

Sullivan was arrested and charged with assault in the first degree, kidnapping in the second degree, unlawful restraint in the first degree, and cruelty to persons and reckless endangerment in the first degree, ABC News reported.

Her lawyer said she was innocent and pointed to the victim’s biological father, who died in January 2024, as the one who dictated how his son should be raised.