This bum's in no rush!
A man intent on buying a condo on the Upper West Side has decided to shack up in his van instead of wasting cash on sky-high rent.
"People get caught up by luxury," explained the man, who goes by the name Uri Toron.
"I try to keep myself back to basics — and you save a lot of money. To be rich is half to earn — and half not to spend."
Toron, 72, said he has been a hobo-on-wheels for about a year and is enjoying every minute of it.
"It helps me explore New York City and decide where to live," he said. "I didn't know I would end up on the Upper West Side, but where else can you live between the sea and the forest?"
And he's living in style.
His high-roofed $45,000 2013 Mercedes Sprinter is packed with canned goods and bottled water, foam insulation to keep the summer heat at bay, and a radio to keep the divorced dad of three company on lonely nights. He drives the van around occasionally to avoid parking tickets.
He uses a gas burner to cook and relieves himself in an orange bucket discretely stashed in back of the vehicle.
Two family photos hang in the back of his 20-foot ride, one showing Toron alongside former Mayor Michael Bloomberg on hand to congratulate the proud dad's son, who graduated at the top of his high-school class in Queens.
When The Post paid a visit to his pad-on-wheels last week, Toron was in the middle of brushing his teeth, spitting the slurry into a plastic cup.
Photo: Helayne Seidman
"This rough life keeps me young," he boasted.
At night, he sleeps on a humble bed in back of the van, whose engine is kept off so as not to disturb neighbors, he said.
For the past two months, he has plastered the neighborhood with fliers offering $500,000 for an apartment, the news site West Side Rag reported.
He's picky, though.
"It has to be between the 70s or the 80s and has to have a yard or a balcony," insisted Toron, who said he is eyeing a co-op on West 72nd Street.
Photo: Helayne Seidman
Since marrying in 1986, he has been a househusband, a job that abruptly ended last year in divorce.
With winter around the corner, Toron said he has thought about moving in with his ex — a college professor who lives in a two-bedroom flat on Park Avenue.
"She's very nervous that I haven't found anything yet. She would offer it, but it's not fun for her. She needs her privacy," he said.
Habitating in a van — even a Mercedes — is taking a toll on his dating life, admitted Toron, who recalled one fetching prospect who turned her nose up at his downwardly mobile lifestyle.
"I told her that I live in a van, and she said, 'When you have a home, we can continue.' "
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