Have you ever been homeless or know anyone who was?

I've known a few. Of the people I've gotten to know (maybe a dozen total), their stories run the gamut. A good friend did it purposely, to have the experience (she had a great relationship with her family and wasn't well-off by any means but had enough money, she didn't have to be homeless). Others ran away from home and homelessness was a result, for a while. A fair amount of abuse/ dysfunctional families in those peoples' backgrounds.

One other person I know was mentally ill -- I met him when he still could handle his life adequately, then he stopped taking medication and went downhill. Not sure what happened to him... kind of doubt he's still alive.

A client of mine simply had no money nor the ability to figure out how to get services and was homeless for a while before I helped her get those services. She smelled, a lot more than other homeless people I've met. She really didn't realize it. Hard to tell her -- she was already so run-down emotionally -- but she really thought that she was washing adequately. Introduced her to deodorant etc. One of the transformations and subsequent job placements I was happiest about (and she kept the job, too).

Ooof, I guess it's more than a dozen because I keep thinking of new ones.

Sozobe, your story is why I've always liked and admired you.

BBB

I was always one step away from being homeless, from about age 22 through age 27. I guess you could say, I was homeless when on the road. I often hitch hiked, interstate, with less than a dollar and no belongings with me. I had to find shelter when I got there. Never slept on the streets, but slept in the woods when travelling a few times.

When I was 12 my family lived under a tree in an orchard for close to three months.

And look now far you've come Edgar---and with lots of friends to enjoy your many talents.

BBB

If I did not have so many responsibilities, I could easily go back to that lifestyle.

Why?

Because it is hard to live up to the expectations of property and associations. Much better to have nothing to answer to.

so many americans, especially middle-class americans are owned by their possessions.

What months of the year did you do that, and where in the country?

Lindsay, CA. It rarely rains there in the summertime. In fact there was an extensive irrigation system throughout the orange groves.

It's funny you should say that, because I just this moment had a relevation about someone. My ex-husband. I'll get back to him in a moment.

I've always been fortunate in that I always had a roof of some type over my head. Then again, my needs are simple. At one point in my late 20's, I was renting an apartment, had a female roommate, and the only expenses I had was rent, electric and food. Oh, and incidentals like the basic phone charge (only made local calls) One day, not so long after I stopped drinking, I looked up and said "I really don't like my job" and just up and quit. I took out a really cheap insurance policy that would cover a catastrophy, took some telemarketing job I worked less than 20 hours a week at, and had enough to pay half the rent and electric bill, gas for the car, and healthy cheap food. I could have done that indefinately. People who realized what I was doing couldn't believe it.

I say all this because my expectations are generally low, and it doesn't take a lot to satisfy me.

Anyway, what I just now realized, was that when I first met my ex-husband, he was in fact homeless. I just never thought of it that way.
The place he worked at was this large warehouse type building, where printing was done. His boss let him bring a bed, and dresser into this back storage room. So, he had a roof over his head, but it wasn't a home. It was a storage room in a printing place. It just didn't seem odd to me at all.

Fast forward not too far, when we were married, and already unhappy with each other. By this time I had learnd a lot of his past, that he'd kept hidden from me.
One of these things was that for more than a year he had lived homeless in NYC. I was horrified, asking him how he got by, how he managed to get out of that situation, etc.
What was then surprising to me was that he said that to him it wasn't bad at all. He had a job, there were places he could shower, there was a place he stored some clothes, and of course plenty of places to eat. I also learned that as a teenager, he would go off on his own for days at a time, panhandling, prostituting himself, whatever.
What I finally realized was that he was doing everything in his power to get us BOTH to the point where we were living on the street. See, to him, that was a manageable way to live.
I think, no, I know I got away from in just in the nick of time.

On the other end of the homeless spectrum, I just realized a good friend of mine is homeless right now, but I would never think of her that way.

She's currently doing house sitting gigs, she's got a good reputation. When she's not doing that, she's got friends she stays with for a few days. She has her own business, and I don't look at the fact she's not paying rent or mortgage right now as an indication the business isn't doing well.

She's adaptable. When she did have an apartment and was going to school and not working, she would ask the landlord to trade work for her rent. She did make readys, painted, landscaped, whatever.

If I lost everything but my job right now, this is what I'd do....

My office get's very little traffic, so I'd ask my boss if she'd mind if I wore scrubs every day. That gets rid of the clothing problem, as far as keeping clothes nice.
I'd join a gym that had showers, and use that for taking care of myself.
I'd spend the evenings going to yoga, and reading at the library....weekends too.
I'd get an air mattress, blow it up every night, and sleep on it at my office. I'd be up hours before anyone got here in the morning, and would be gone most of the evening.
Food wouldn't be an issue.

Depends on what's described as "homeless." I've never been homeless in the sense of having to sleep outdoors or go to a 'shelter,' but I've had a couple of times in my life when my car was the only place I could bed down for the night. Does that count?

I just remembered. I came into Long Beach, CA, one time. Could not get a job immediately and slept in the car almost two weeks. I did not know that about 36,ooo Vietnamese had recently moved in the area, or so I was told. I figured at the time it was part of why jobs were harder to get. Then I decided it was because I had just arrived from out of state and impermanency exuded from my presentations. They were right. I had a family emergency that pulled me out of Long Beach a month later.

For about 9 months in 1989, I was homeless in Washington, D.C. Whether it was "by choice" or not is debatable, because I chose to be there but I was also experiencing mental illness and substance abuse during that time. I lived in several shelters (Mostly the one started at 2nd and D Street by the Vietnam Vet Homeless advocate Mitch Snyder), and slept on park benches, under bridges and even remember sleeping in one parking lot. During the day I either "caught out" on a day-labor truck, or wandered the streets. I'm very sure that those months imprinted on me in a way that will never let me take the basic needs of life for granted. If I ever write a book, I want to find a way to include that time.

I guess the case could be made that I've come a long way since then.

Thanks for sharing snood. DC in that time was pretty scary I hear. You may be the only person on A2K that knows the phrase "olleray."

A
R
T

It could!

This experience can be valuable as you enter a teaching career, too.

Snood, I hope you get to write that book so it can inspire other young people that they can achieve a better life.

BBB

I think they started using that a couple years later, F.A. I think it's code for "Roller", meaning an approaching police car? In any case, I hung put more with the down and out winos than with the upwardly mobile crackheads and dealers.

Olleray is Pig Latin for roller.

Damn, snood! Here I am -- a honkey -- teaching you about ghetto code.