Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) an apartment or similar used to satisfy legal requirements of residence; one’s real home would be elsewhere; also in non-criminal contexts.

1908		Union Co. Courier (SD) 25 June 3/2: Those of the divorce colnies [...] who have maintained merely a ‘suit-case’ residence in the state by renting a room within the boundaries of the state amnd occupying it just long enough to give the appearance of a bona fide residence.
1922		Eve. Exp. (Liverpool) 3 Aug. 3/2: [headline] check to ‘suit-case’ / address trick ‘Suit-case residence’ [...] Many people, in order to be married in a certain parish, have rented a room and put a bag or suit-case into it, and given this as their address to the vicar .
1929		Illinois Association for Criminal Justice et al. Illinois Crime Survey 850: Some of the political lieutenants maintained only ‘suitcase residence’ in the ward and lived in good residence sections.
1957		C.H. Rich How to Plan to Teach the First Year : Inconveniences of ‘suitcase’ residence seldom breed happiness.
1973		L. Hewes Suitcase Farming Frontier : The suitcase residence of a large amount of out-of-county wheat farmers in the North Harrison part of Greeley County was also noted.