If the above quotation is accurate and demand for live in vehicles exceed supply despite large automakers like ford devoting entire production lines to satisfying demand. It would seem to mean large numbers of americans no longer can afford to rent a home or apartment and are instead living in their cars, trucks and vans.
I wouldn't jump to those conclusions based on this article or anything Ford does. If they were making a van-home for homeless people....they just wouldn't. I think what they're capitalizing on is the whole "van life" trend, which has become quite popular in the past few years. Jet Cash is living out his retirement in his van or RV if I'm not mistaken, and I've seen tons of videos on Youtube by people just cruising around whatever country they're in, having a great time.
They already make camper vehicles and such, and this just looks like Ford is scaling down the size of the vehicle being lived in according to what's trendy. I just don't see this as evidence of an impending economic apocalypse or anything of the sort. There's plenty of evidence elsewhere that it's coming, but not from Ford.