Has anyone ever been homeless with no money? How did you / would you survive?

reply to post by MoosKept240


Since my experience I nearly always help too- but I won't donate to shelters. I think they often exploit the homeless and are too paternalistic. I prefer to help directly- Once met a family whose car died in a gas station lot. I gave them enough for a hotel, tow, and repairs. My fiance, luckily, is a very understanding soul

reply to post by mr-lizard

Being Homeless has always been my biggest fear in life. Personally, I would grab my B.O.B and head for the woods. I also have a few books packed about what you can eat from the wild - Linda Runyon's type of stuff.

In my little town, we put unsellable, but edible produce out back in the alley. The homeless here know this and come pick it up, as do people looking for hog food. Nearby is a campground on the river that will let them use the shower when they want to, and most of these folks live under the nearby bridge. There is a food bank in town which is run by a church as well that feeds these folks. If you are going to be homeless, you could sure pick a lot worse place to do it than a small town in Washington State.

However I think it would be the woods for me. I have a tent and a sleeping bag and a huge camper for the back of my truck. This would seem preferable to me to being under the bridge as it would allow you to build a fire and not feel so homeless.

In truth, I have had to stop my roommate from heading off in this direction several times as he is ready to say the hell with this wage-slave existence that we are all locked in. I probably have couple more times of dissuading him left in me before I say "let's go" instead. In which case it will be time for a huge yard sale, a few more purchases for the B.O.B. and off we go.

We were out cutting wood the other day in the forest and honestly, I did not want to come back at all. I really feel the wilderness is a much better place to live and die than the rat-maze we all call home right now. The things I would miss the most would be communicating with my family and coffee and Nestle's quick, but hey, these are small prices to feel the sovereigns we are.

Daddybare posted recently about how hard it is to survive out in the woods, but isn't it hard in civilization as well? If I die in the wilderness I think it will be a better death than being t-boned by some drunk kids acting like idiots, or being starved to death by a broken system.

reply to post by mr-lizard


IMO it is quite simple.....google "Knap In" and look for one near you, or goto a library and research a bit on how the native americans lived....
Somewhat nomadic..."regional" live by the rivers "of life" tent/Tp style living...aquire a few or one good horse, donkey, burrow sp?.....
But (Knap in's) if you have the oppurtunity neolithics.com...

Knowledge will always win in the end......
learn flint knapping, fire making, how to make cordage, set snare traps....etc..etc...

Here is a knap in near me and DB Im one of the fire and cordage class instructors...come join the gathering...no SO I'm not recruiting.....lol

www.boisdarc.info...

With style

You gotta give people what they want.

Entertain them, and keep them happy, and you've always got a place to crash at.

I bummed around for a while in my youth, but it got old after a while.

Not sure I could pull it off so easily these days.

Too much competition.



Actually, if I had to do it now, I'd probably ditch the city, and go find a farm/ranch to work on if absolutely necessary.

You just trade out labor for some food and shelter.

People do it.

A little over 15 years ago I was homeless in Phoenix and Mesa Az. 7 years of doing drugs are what got me there, so when I packed my backpack with a few changes of clothes and walked out of that way of life, I had no friends or family to turn to as they were all my "using buddies." Fellow drug users are not friends. This was my ex-wife's family by the way as all of my blood family is in Indiana. I didn't want them to help me out because I was the one who got myself into that situation, so I was going to be the one who got myself out. I wasn't about to drag them into the hole I was in, because I love them.

I sold plasma (the white blood cells) for bus fare and the $1 dollar shower that a downtown hotel/flophouse offered at the time. I kept myself clean for the purpose of keeping myself from looking like I was homeless. When people do that they are not giving themselves a chance to get out of that situation because nobody is going to hire a bum.

With the exception of eating in the chow lines, in Phoenix for breakfast and Mesa for dinner, I stayed away from those areas of town becasue they are filled with bums, crack heads, and the mentally disturbed. I kept myself to myself. My plasma money afforded me the opportunity to buy monthly bus passes which gave me unlimited access to all the routes in Phoenix and all the surrounding areas. I usually slept behind various buildings on the north side of town becasue that's where the bus service started the earliest and ended the latest.Back then it was 3:15 am to 11:00 pm. If I didn't feel like going downtown to eat, which was more times than not, I found the best places to fish food out of the dumpsters.

I used my previous address on job applications and pretty much lived on the busses except for when I had to sleep. It didn't take long before I had enough part time janitorial jobs to afford a $7 dollar a night sleeping room in downtown Phx. I was being realistic about getting that type of job because the companies that hire people for that type of work to clean their accounts typically don't do very thorough checks on people. Unless their accounts are banks or other Federal institutions. I was mainly cleaning doctors offices and such, and at one point I had 3 part time jobs ( the full time positions do more thorough checks) all on the bus lines and I timed them all to where I could get to them all.

To make a long story short, I did things in that vein, slowly working myself back up, long enough to where I could afford a bona-fide apartment. I met quite a few different types of people during my time on the streets and there is a common truth out there. When you associate a lot with a lot of other homeless people, you are going to stay out there longer. For those couple of years I really was a lone wolf. About the only people I remember making eye contact with were the bus drivers. At the time, I had nothing in common with the working people, and I had nothing in common with the "lifers" out on the streets. I was in-between.

The way I saw it was that if I start associating with people it's going to take my attention off of the job at hand, and that was getting a life. Because of the life I had led up to that point anyway, nothing told me that anyone was going to help me out. Whether I was right or wrong about that, I'll never know. All I know was it worked because I took myself off the streets and became a productive member of society again. (Whatever that's worth, right?

If my story can help someone else, that's great. I wouldn't recommend homelessness to anyone. To be perfectly honest with you though, because of my "lifestyle" that led up to my position in society at that time, being homeless was a kind of freeing experience. The drugs kept me in chains, and keeping to myself on the streets was liberating to say the least. I learned a lot about myself and what I'm capable of when my back's to the wall. It made me a better man.

It was a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.



www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by lbndhr

Originally posted by Blastoff
Just a bit of advice, but it will not apply to everyone: go to another country and become an English teacher there. If you are a native English speaker, there will always be language schools willing to take you in.

You see, even with hardly any special skills you can still earn an honest living and be respectable.

Creativity is the key word here.

If a person is homeless or on the verge of being homeless how will they get the funds to go over sees to get this english speaking teaching job?
How will they survive until they get there first check if they even managed to get the thousands it would take to get to this job?

You are right, it would be extremely difficult and I take back what I said. Probably not a worthwhile thing, unless you could possibly work out some sort of arrangement before going there.

If you're young and female, there's a pole in every city. Not recommending it though, it was a soul sucking experience. Hunger and shelter are a powerful motivator.

Been there done that. I am going to be very careful with my words cause you never know.... but I can say at the end of the day if it comes to starving to death or committing a crime. I will commit the crime. Not everything I did was actually a crime. I used people when possible, I stole when I had to. I never crossed the line into violent crimes, but I would be a liar if I said I never considered it when things were at their absolute worst.

When you find yourself jobless, homeless and you lose hope completely. 3 meals a day and a warm spot to sleep in a jail cell can actually start to look pretty good.

reply to post by mr-lizard


well your caveat about 'No Transportation' changes my reply...

i made sure i had a Van both to carry my tools and serve as a bedroom in times of need

been homeless by choice several times... but i always had a falllback... which was getting lunch & meals at a St. Vincent DePaul food line, sleeping in the Van, and rarely getting funds from the outreach programs for gas money to get to employment venues... pan-handling is always a sad way to get some funds too.

I was broke, unemployed back east in SC twice, but i had relatives thru marraige to cout on ... but when i struck out for the desert SW... i had to learn a new set of tactics--- other than being a vagabond living in public parks and camping under overpasses and hanging with dopers as a type of network for survival.


sorry, all i've ever had is success endings for the 4 times i've lost small fortunes and rebounded--
so i can't relate advice to live at that type of status for more than 2-3 months at a time....




Taupin Desciple


i've been on the same destute streets you were on.... including Mesa where lots of Mormons reside
did you ever get those daily pay jobs @ $5 per hour just to get folding money? i only sold plazma once, got $15 for my donation,,,, had one of those flea bag closet rentals for $30 week but thats where i got mugged/rolled but only because i had a Dodge Colt to try & live in instead of a Ford Van


glad you made it to the here & now...

Yes I have been homeless before.It definitely is something to experience I must say.Although at first it seemed like the world was ending and nothing had meaning anymore.But once you accept the situation and realize you are homeless progress can be made.
One thing that I did while being transient was pan handled.I kept my things at a friends house for about a week until I moved my belongings into a temperature controlled storage unit located on the bus route,also this is where I spent my nights as well,courteous of generous humans.
I think everyone should have a contingency plan made up if they ever find themselves in situation where they are without shelter.
Having a sturdy backpack and durable camping gear will surely be it's weight in gold..

Originally posted by unityemissions

Actually, if I had to do it now, I'd probably ditch the city, and go find a farm/ranch to work on if absolutely necessary.

You just trade out labor for some food and shelter.

People do it

i did a stint in 1995 at a small mini-ranch in Phoenix... it was a 4 acre combination of used cars & trailers and a cross-section on animals like goats/peacocks/ etc on a piece of land at about 29th Ave North and Northern Ave in Phoenix... George Bartel was the landlord and i happened to become his foreman for 6 months while i repaired a warehouse roof on another property he had... some 6 miles away on Washington Street in the industrial section of phoenix (35th ave & washington?)


this was like i say in 1995... & back then George Bartel was retired & over 65 yo... so he's likely deceased and his oriental mail-order bride is likely re-settled too ! so there ain't no use trying to dig up data...
just letting you know there are mini ranches with bunk-houses living arrangements out there... all one needs to to is search...
its a might bit better than going to the foothills in south dakota for example...

Originally posted by Blastoff
Just a bit of advice, but it will not apply to everyone: go to another country and become an English teacher there. If you are a native English speaker, there will always be language schools willing to take you in.

You see, even with hardly any special skills you can still earn an honest living and be respectable.

Creativity is the key word here.

I think most countries want you to have a degree. It doesn't have to be in English or education, but they generally want some kind of 4 year degree.

Originally posted by kro32
reply to post by mr-lizard

 

Don't live beyond your means and prepare for such instances and they will never happen. I have a very old computer held together with duct tape for a reason.

This is completely untrue. If you believe this, you are quite naive. Many people have situations that cannot be planned for or prepped against. Things happen. People have bad luck.

Not all that fall on hard times do so because of bad decisions. I am truly saddened that there are people that think this way.

Originally posted by St Udio
reply to post by mr-lizard

 

well your caveat about 'No Transportation' changes my reply...

i made sure i had a Van both to carry my tools and serve as a bedroom in times of need

been homeless by choice several times... but i always had a falllback... which was getting lunch & meals at a St. Vincent DePaul food line, sleeping in the Van, and rarely getting funds from the outreach programs for gas money to get to employment venues... pan-handling is always a sad way to get some funds too.

I was broke, unemployed back east in SC twice, but i had relatives thru marraige to cout on ... but when i struck out for the desert SW... i had to learn a new set of tactics--- other than being a vagabond living in public parks and camping under overpasses and hanging with dopers as a type of network for survival.


sorry, all i've ever had is success endings for the 4 times i've lost small fortunes and rebounded--
so i can't relate advice to live at that type of status for more than 2-3 months at a time....

 

Taupin Desciple


i've been on the same destute streets you were on.... including Mesa where lots of Mormons reside
did you ever get those daily pay jobs @ $5 per hour just to get folding money? i only sold plazma once, got $15 for my donation,,,, had one of those flea bag closet rentals for $30 week but thats where i got mugged/rolled but only because i had a Dodge Colt to try & live in instead of a Ford Van


glad you made it to the here & now...

edit on 28-8-2011 by St Udio because: (no reason given)

Yeah. I did the day labor thing in Phoenix and Mesa. Used to be in a place they called "Blind George's" I don't know if it was the same Georfe you knew, but it was a real sink hole off Alma School and Main.

I don't know about you, but I was kinda surprised at how how many of the homeless addicts in Mesa were the sons and daughters of prominant Mormons. They'd rather have their offsping on the streets and ignored than in halfway houses where people could figure out who they were, thus giving the family a bad name.

reply to post by mr-lizard


Hey, didn't read everything so if this is a re-post of info, please disregard. But, me and my wife just got back together, while we were seperated she had some misfortune and found herself in this same situation. she asked me to post a reply just in case it helps anybody now or in the future. with all of that out of the way:

The bigger the town, the easier it is to be...well, homeless. Salvation Army's are found everywhere, but not many people know that they offer shelter, food, programs to help you get back on your feet, counseling, gas vouchers/bus vouchers depending on where you live. Also, most cities have walk-in centers, usually around the shelters, that provide a place for your mail to be sent, (which was an issue the OP brought up I believe, as far as getting a job with no mailing address.) they have showers, laundry facilities, and usually will offer one meal a day, they also will help with mental illnesses/disabilities and drug/alcohol addiction. She said, to poster number 2 in this thread, that in her 2 years of homlessness she never had to resort to stealing to get by. The thought crosses her mind more now that she has a job than it did before. It's a crisis guys, not an excuse to forget that you evolved higher than mere animals for a reason.

Also, seeing the posts on page 3, i think she would find some kindred spirits here. That seems to be the way it goes with people who have gone through it. Just this weekend my wife gave my last few smokes to a homeless man. When I protested (afterward, of course) she looked at me and simply said, "I would have wished somebody would do that for me."

reply to post by mr-lizard


I found myself in this position in my 20's....alongside a lot of other kids who were out seeking answers and themselves on the road. Survival skills varied greatly.

Personally, I'm an advocate of artistic endeavors with "found objects" or ingenuity - you can cobble together amazing things out of found pieces of wire, wrap bamboo roses for sale, make journals out of old brown paper bags and draw a nice design on the cover, write stories or poems for performance at cafes for tips, even go so far as to develop a new genre of performance art.

The best rules of thumb are never carry weapons, always keep your head up and steer away from anything sketchy, and couches will always open up for you.....or, if you hit hard times, there are always 24/7 diners. Just keep busy with something productive and be polite and the night crew will usually let you hang out

reply to post by mr-lizard


yes..

yes I have...

Bartered my services to survive...

still have the same great friends I meet over 10 years ago...

When I was 14 my Mom went to prison for 3 years and my dad was nowhere to be found since I was about 6 so my 17 yr old brother and I were homeless..We had been through a few raids before and knew what was happening when we came around the corner to cops in front of our house so we ran because we had been to shelters at that point and knew we didn't wanna go back.. Basically we had friends with awesome moms that would let us shower but we slept on rooftops and park bushes..I say bushes because we were under age and police check parks here nightly for Graffiti so I would have been arrested for curfew...I didn't so much get good at stealing as I just got faster from running out of grocery stores with a hand basket of food...A few years back I came back to America after a business I was involved in failed and I was broke/homeless...I was sleeping on park benches then, so I went an applied for emergency food stamps so I could eat.. After I had food I went to Labor ready daily until I had enough money saved to buy a beater car and slept in that..I found a job because I had transportation, then I saved and saved till I was on my feet again....Also I should note that the first thing I did upon getting back to my former home city San Jose CA, I bought a gym membership for 6 bucks a month so I could shower daily and spent my last $200 on storage for my clothes and tools for a few months while I struggled..Things are great now Except I live in Vallejo CA,

go to another country and become an English teacher there. If you are a native English speaker, there will always be language schools willing to take you in

This is what saved me from being homeless around 20 years ago. I found myself just married in a South American city where we knew no one, had no car, barely any cloths and only $25. We knocked on random doors for 6 hours asking to rent a room with only the promise to pay in a few weeks time. We were lucky to find a family willing to take us in. I then went out and in around 3 days found an English teaching job (I did not have any teaching degree). We still had absolutely no money for over 2 weeks and had only bread to eat during that time. People really have to BE in that type of dire situation to understand it. It's a desperate survival situation, where ingenuity and a positive mindset must be present to overcome. It's not an easy experience to go through. Anyone who has the willingness and determination will overcome a homeless situation - usually with lots of hard work and sacrifice.