Homeless?

Have you ever experienced being homeless?
How did you get thru it?
How are you now?

 

No, but I did skip around living with friends for a year or two.

I think everyone should have to live homeless for at least a week. Maybe their fucking attitudes would change.

Well, as I said, I just crashed with my friends (different friends every week or so).

Things could be a whole lot better. But, they could be a whole lot worse.

 

1. Yes.
2. I lived in the woods in a shack for a little while, and then I slept on a college campus.
3. Sleepy, hungry, but generally ok

 

I was homeless for about a month when I was 20. My family was in Australia doing the tourist thing, and I was home in Canada doing the student/working thing. Got involved in a nasty relationship that ended with me being thrown into a wall and my cat biting off part of the guys ear.

The cat and I lived in my little Geo Metro for about the next month. Luckily, it was summer! I lived in my car until my manager caught on and lent me some money to get back on my feet.

Now I am totally fine. Got passed it, got over it but still remember it clearly. Having lived a "different" sort of life than most of my friends and family helps me to have a different sort of perspective. Also helps my friends and family remember not to judge the guy sleeping on the bus station bench. My mom probably has the hardest time with it... keeps worrying about what could have happened as opposed to what actually did happen.

 

No, thankfully I have never experienced being homeless. I couldn't even imagine what it must be like.

 

i lived with a friend for a while once when i had nowhere else to go. it was hard, i had a kid too.
i think even though i wasnt' on the street it changed my attitude and made me grateful to have a place to live.
my ex husband lived out of his car for a while just after HS. i was still living at home and used to sneak him into our shower, lol.

 

I never have and thankful for it, even more thankful that I have had the ability to allow others a place to be so they did not have to be without basic needs.

 

i have been several times. to me they were no different then other times, other then the inconvenience of having no place i could set something down so i wouldn't have to pack it arround with me and be able to expect it to still be there when i got back.

mostly i slept in shelters and ate in soup lines and doing this took so much of the day there was little hope of ever getting the chance to do anything else.

that was the part that annoyed me about it. that and most of the shelters and soup lines being provided by, often the only people lawfully allowed to provide them, in this land of supposedly seperation of church and state, by those with ulterior 'religeous' agendas.

there were day labour offices, if you could get to them early enough in the morning, and between once a week if you were lucky and got to be known as a good and relyable worker, or once a month otherwise, you'd get a job out of them that would last for a day or two, sometimes longer.

farmers seeking cheep agricultural labour would sometimes pull up with a bus outside and i did that a few times too. spent one strawberry season in a nice cool packing shed that way. was able to buy a few things. a little battery radio with ear phones. still didn't make enough to even rent a place of my own doing that though.

then one day some restaraunt i had worked at called me back because one of there regular employees called in drunk on a monday again.

they started asking for me every time this happend. then one week they fired him and hired me.

three weeks later i was able to rent a nonsubsidised place to live and then i was no longer homeless.

that job lasted most of several years. the same years during which i joined the portland science fiction society and probably among the freeest and happiest years of my life, although the years of living on a half assed commune in sothern oregon were pretty cool too, as was the year i lived on a boat.

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My first time was 10 years ago after my marriage ended and I slept in my car-beaches or parks.
Then 5 years ago I was again homeless for two years and at the time was also very sick and very near death.
I have to say both experiences helped me grow in many ways and there is nothing as hard as not having a home.
I remember sleeping so the pain of being hungry would not be as bad.
The people I met all had their own stories of how they got there.
Now I live in a wonderful 200 year old carriage house and there isn't a day I don't give thanks for what I have and know if I lost it all again I would be just fine.
Now home is wherever I am standing at the time and I help out anyone I can who is in need.

 

I agree too. I know I became much more capitalistic after my bout of homelessness. Never again!

 

I have been homeless when I sold my house and started to travel. Does that count?

 

I've spent alot more nights sleeping outdoors than indoors since I left home at 16 and I actually prefer it; no landlord, no roomates, no neighbors, no rent (except for the occasional illegal camping ticket).

I'd be outside right now except that I work where I live so there's a convienance issue. But I have to say I miss it.

 

Me and my mom were homeless for a while when I was about 12 years old. We ended up moving into a very small camper with 7 other people. It felt like living in a sardine can, but it was better than nothing. Then we moved out of the camper and didn't have anywhere to stay so we ended up "letting ourselves into" someone's house while they were out of town on vacation or something. They came back and found us squatting in their house and we had to get out. Then we just ended up moving in with my grandmother and then got kicked out of her house and we found an apartment after that. I have never had to live on the streets though, so I can be thankful for that. But yes, I was homeless for a while.

 

See, if a racoon gets into your food you can hit it with a 2-by-4.
If your roomate gets into your food you can hit him with a 2-by-4 too but you have to make it look like an accident.

 

I lived out of my car when I was 17 and still in high school. After my mom died, I was having some issues with my grandparents whom I was living with at the time....long story short, they kicked me out...I hadn't talked to my dad in five years, so I felt very uncomfortable just moving in with him, so I was parking my car in parks and parking lots for about three months. Then it started getting cold and I had to suck up my pride and move in with my dad.

I'm doing well now. DIdn't even think I was going to graduate high school during that time...but ended up graduating sixth in my class with a 3.97 GPA. I graduate from college in December. Life is pretty good now, I would say.

 

My heart pumps piss for you Bird.

 

I never heard that saying. What exactly does it mean?

 

I was homeless before with a car which I guess isn't really homeless.

 

never been homeless....however, we were on the brink of being homeless for a little while when i was younger. being 10 and collecting cans and bottles just to get dinner is not all that fun.