Have you ever been homeless ?

[jdots]

It seems that this country lost it's soul about thirty years ago when a new term of "working homeless" was born. When I spent those months working 60 -80 hours a week with my girlfriend who was doing the same while we lived in my van I swore that this country shouldn't be that way.It is much worse now,not for me but so many people out there.No one even mentions it anymore since it has become a part of life,the occasional homeless joke or a spot at Thanksgiving on t.v. for 10 seconds read by a hairsprayed news smirker.
Does this have to be a fact of life in America ?

[Elidor]

1. Yeah, I've been there

As long as we spend more on war than we do on education and welfare, there will always be homeless people. And there will always be assholes like Neil Boortz and Rush who blame them for not getting jobs. Remember Reagan prattling on about how many jobs there were listed in the Sunday paper? Ugh. Times may change, but Americans never do.

[demwing]

2. Lived in a 65 Mustang

with the passenger seat pulled out and a futon dropped in. I parked it by the beach in S. Cali for several months.

Another time I slept at Honolulu airport for about a month, catching a bus to work every day till I saved enough to get an apartment.

Tough times, very tough times. I could not do it again, especially since I now have a handful of kids.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. yes, my childhood was exactly like Dennis Kucinich's...10 sibblings &

we were homeless many times until the age of 9 when i was put in a Catholic orphanage and i refused to be adopted and told this to all prospective people who took me home on weekends to try me on for size. i would tell them, " i don't need parents because i had a family but because we were poor they separated me from them" i drove the nuns crazy! and i spent 7 years away from my mother and sibblings. i will never forgive the "system" for what they did to me and my family.

as a child sometimes my mom and us kids slept in churches and parks in the 50's....we were happy and loved each other very much ...yes happyniess can be had in poverty as long as you are together as a family...the tragedy came when good intended people did the wrong thing!

[datasuspect]

5. wow

i'm sorry that stuff happened to you, that is really sad.

[BiggJawn]

4. Yeah, it sucked.

About 2 weeks. I slept on the living room floor of a classmate's of my daughter's. I was grateful that we didn't have to live in my van, but....

Another reason I still hate my ex-wife....

[graywarrior]

6. The memory of homelessness is still fresh in my mind

Which is why I despise this current administration so goddamn fucking much.

[htuttle]

7. Yes, for most of a year during Reagan's reign

Lived in a box under a bridge, in a mission, in a car, in bus stations, and did some couch surfing when I could. Collected some cans, sold some blood, did some day labor, though I never really did any panhandling -- too embarrassed.

Can't say I was happy about it at the time, but looking back, it sort of put things in perspective. It IS possible to live 'outside the grid' of society in America, but it's not very comfortable (and it's damned hard to find cigarettes...).

[DoNotRefill]

8. Yup...

lived under an overpass for a few months in the 80s. Ate "roof rabbit" when I could catch them, and 20+ year old "surplus" rice I got for $3 for a 50# bag at the military surplus store when I couldn't.

[MadHound]

9. Yes, I've been there

I was homeless for nearly two years, due to a combination of poor economy(thank you Reagan recession) and my own emotional problems I was having to deal with. While I never want to go through it again, nor wish it on anyone, looking back I realize that that period in my life was in many ways beneficial to me. It made me a much more thoughtful, caring and compassionate person. I learned many things also during that period, things that most Americans don't even dream about because they've never been in the belly of the American capitalist beast.

[catmandu57]

10. I've been there

I could do it when I was younger, but, I dread the prospect of being homeless at this age, and my physical condition. It would ammount to a death sentence pure and simple.

[H2O Man]

11. In 1975

I was homeless for about 10 months. I developed an ability to sleep in places most people would never consider; to eat food I forgot to pay for; to do any work for enough money to get me through to being flat-out broke. There were, of course, both good and bad times. It ranks with any classroom experience as far as education goes.

[eridani]

12. A month in the early 70s

Lived in a car parked in my school parking lot. Showered in they gym and ate leftovers for from the cafeteria. Met the people who became my housemates when our financial aid came through. I think it would be far, far worse now.

[Swamp Rat]

13. Yes

I'm almost there again.

[mike_c]

14. yes, lived in cheap hotels, cars, and on friend's couches...

...and some not so good friends. Gone hungry for days. Once had an absolutely psychotic episode in Memphis of all places because I'd been using speed for weeks, because speed was cheaper than food. I remember once making a hotdog last for two days, when I was already starving. That was thirty years ago, but I remember.

[homebrewer]

15. " Have you ever been homeless ?"

yes, i have.

unfortunataly, my parents live "on the road" still.

they work, they pay the motel, eat, pay bills, and can never climb out of poverty.

i help when i can, but there is no mechanism for people like them to catch just one break, so they can climb out.

it sucks.

[William Bloode]

16. Yep sure was...

And for many years. Mine was self imposed. I basically just chose to drop out of society.

It's awful hard in some aspects, yet extremely liberating. At anytime i could decide "i'm gone to California, or Montana" and just pick up and leave no problem.

I spent the largest part of 8yrs wandering the U.S. in this fashion. I enjoyed it greatly and have many fond memories of my travels. The worst part of it all i experienced was how other folks treat people like i was at the time. You know the whole homeless layz bum rap.

It was all good till i fell in love, and had children. I knew in my heart i had to settle for my children, but to this day i often get the urge to up leave my paid for house, my nice newish car, Tv's, radio's computers and all, and just be free.

[bobbieinok]

17. son lived out of his car about 2 months ca 10 months after he graduated

from college

he wasn't technically homeless....he could come home to me or my ex anytime...but he wanted to find out if he could live out of his car 'on the road'...he had both interesting and scary experiences, physically and emotionally

he kept a diary, so he can go back and 'be there again'

as I said, it was more an experiment for himself.....he learned a lot

I said if he really wanted to try it, he should do it then when he had no commitments of wife (and kids), job, family....or he might regret this 'lost opportunity'

[eridani]

18. Interesting book from a homeless person--

--to be published soon.

Introduction to the Project

http://guide2homelessness.blogspot.com/

I spent nearly five years, from mid-1996 to the beginning of 2001, homeless, or as I liked to call it with a distributed household. I had storage, shelter, mailbox, telephone, shower, bathroom facilities, cooking equipment, and transportation, even access to television, radio, computer equipment, and ac power. I had the essence of a home. It was simply more geographically scattered than is traditional in our culture.

I'm not the first to do what I did, to live homeless well. I'm not the first to find advantage in homelessness. It is a well kept secret that homelessness can be freedom and comfort can attend it. The secret is well kept because revealing that you are homeless in this society is dangerous. There is stigma. There are even laws prohibiting it. Imagine that. There are laws against being homeless. Let me say that one more time. There are laws against being homeless.

There are laws against sleeping in public, in your car, on the beach, anywhere in the public view. It is the only law that I know that prohibits a behavior that is involuntary. You must sleep. There is no choice. You must do it. If you do not sleep for approximately one third of your life, you will suffer. The less sleep you get, the more physical and psychological symptoms you will suffer, until your mental faculties break down, your grasp of reality disintegrates, your self-control disappears. Your body will make you sleep, and if you use stimulants to avoid it, you will rapidly begin to become psychotic, with unpredictable mood swings, displays of aggression, and hallucinations. Nevertheless, the law in nearly every municipality forbids sleeping unless you are rich enough to afford a house or hotel to do it in. It's a human rights violation, but I will get back to that.

I've been thinking about writing this book, a guide to living well, for years. People think it will be easy to be homeless, that it is a lazy choice. Nothing could be further from true. Homelessness is very hard work. Homelessness can be very uncomfortable until you solve some basic problems. It is vital, for instance, to have a place of concealment. It is vital to assure that you will be warm, and to provide for safety, and for hygiene, and for communications, and even for a source of income. If you are newly homeless, you will not be meeting all of these basic needs, and to the extent that you don't, you will pay for that. This book will teach you to meet those needs effectively and fast.

posted by Mobile Homemaker @ 9:46 AM
http://guide2homelessness.blogspot.com/2004/10/introduction-to-project.html

[kentuck]

19. How many have sold their blood ?

Cincinnati - Race and Vine...