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No, I wasn't, but there are many on this thread who would like to try to stop the escalating homeless problem here. Thanks for your input!
You are very welcome, and yes, after 30 years from my odyssey starting, I really would have hoped that it would have been significantly less homeles, not significantly more...
So there I was in So Cal. I said I was homeless for 6 months in Cali, it was really six months total time over about two years, I refinanced my house, I got to spend a few more months there with my dog, I took some refi money and went into business in the credit card advertising game, (did very, very well with that,) it's a job a 15 year old kid can do, but unless you or anyone has a certain knack for it, it's almost impossible.
We were putting credit card applications into retail stores... strip malls, our territory was all of Orange County, a very tough territory for such a thing, but I managed to put 90 out a day on average, 7 days a week.
And two weeks later, (there is a lag time) business exploded!
We had far and away the busiest office of about 60 they had across the country...
It showed you one thing: advertising works!
But... my partners were unscrupulous and ripped me off and that was that.
At least 50% of my dilemma was my own fault, I admit, but that leaves 50% that was me being used by other people.
When on the decline, you will find locusts who will take advantage of your situation and glean out the last drop of whatever you have.
So... I lost my electronics job due to foreign competition, (Dominican Republic, 25 cent an hour labor) couldn't make my house payment, my property taxes were adding up, and I get ripped off when I think I'm going to pull out of it.
One day, I just found myself in the city of Duarte CA, and I headed toward my last tech job to beg the owner to see if they could fit me in somewhere...
He was a pretty nice guy, but he just couldn't justify it, realize that with 45 employees at a manufacturing company, half of those 45 are needed for company "infrastructure" if you will, the office folks, the VP, the Chief Engineer, the purchasing agent, the testing dept, supervisors on the production line... that leaves about half, maybe 25 at the most actually "making" something...
So that was a wash, and I walked away from the plant dejected and wondering where I was going to stay...
My first day of full-blown homelessness.
I didn't have to look too far as it turned out.
No, I looked under a bridge I came across and saw a towel laying across a pipe... then looked further in and saw someone had what looked like a camper sink, sitting there with soapy water and a few dishes...
I look further and I see a big tent set up under there, with about four couches someone set up...
So I called out: "Haloo haloo...?" ()
And that's when I met an old guy named "Sonny" who was the leader I guess of a small band of tramps.
There was Sonny, Greg, "Guitar" John, "Airplane" John and on occasion a nice guy named Mondo...
And they showed me the "ropes" of how to get by there in the area, where to get fresh water, the lowdown on the cops, where to get food, and where to get state and local services...
It would only be a few months until I left there for Seattle, in the meantime I walked up and down the big streets trying to find any kind of work, panhandling as I went (that was so hard at first!) and picking up cans and bottles to put into the recycling machine.
And I also ate at a little Mexican place a few times for lunch...
With no money...
I would be walking by about 1 o'clock, and would see a couple plates someone left with rice and beans they didn't finish... so I sit down and scoop it all onto one plate and eat faster than any ravenous dog...
So fast I am long gone before anyone can notice me.
This I did often at a busy pizza place, say in a mall... I buy a small coke and sit and watch, everyone leaves a couple almost whole pieces, and of course there is a lot of crust.
I scoop it up very fast and am again, gone before anyone can say or do anything.
That was a tough way to go, and I am certainly not proud of it, but I never shoplifted to get by, and never ate out of a dumpster either.
Until you get hooked up with services in Cali, you are just going to have to do things like I did if you cannot find work.
So I got my GAU hooked up, collected for a month, then with the next check ($360?) I bought a bus ticket to Seattle...
Now I remember what Kennedy said: "Ask not what your country can do for you..."
But, would you make your bed in a burning building?
That's about how much "future" I saw for myself in California, I needed a "sea change."
"Police say he is a transient and was arrested in San Jose on Monday and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail for murder.
The suspect was arrested following the murder on possession of methamphetamine charges, where police took a DNA sample. That sample linked him to the crime, police say. "
My heart goes out to the victims, their families, and the communities that have to deal with this. More and more of this kind of thing goes on . Seems like a lot (most?) of the homeless have intense criminal histories. Why are they being let out to harm us more? Shouldn't they be kept inside till they can function without drugs and crime? Too much money is being spent on this while person and property crime is going through the roof.
"Police say he is a transient and was arrested in San Jose on Monday and booked into the Santa Clara County Jail for murder.
The suspect was arrested following the murder on possession of methamphetamine charges, where police took a DNA sample. That sample linked him to the crime, police say. "
My heart goes out to the victims, their families, and the communities that have to deal with this. More and more of this kind of thing goes on . Seems like a lot (most?) of the homeless have intense criminal histories. Why are they being let out to harm us more? Shouldn't they be kept inside till they can function without drugs and crime? Too much money is being spent on this while person and property crime is going through the roof.
Yeah, then there are "incidents" like this!
"A homeless man in Las Vegas has been praised for rescuing two small children from a burning apartment after he heard them crying.
Anival Angulo, 36, rescued the three-year-old girl and 10-month-old boy after he noticed smoke coming from the building.
After walking around the building to investigate the smoke, Mr Angulo heard the children crying and jumped over a locked gate to gain access to the apartment complex, Las Vegas Fire and Rescue services said."
Yes- it just seems like one huge purposefully orchestrated crime spree- many smaller towns are being devastated- not just LA or even California.
Maybe time to develop work camps again-instead of just letting them out.
You are very welcome, and yes, after 30 years from my odyssey starting, I really would have hoped that it would have been significantly less homeles, not significantly more...
So there I was in So Cal. I said I was homeless for 6 months in Cali, it was really six months total time over about two years, I refinanced my house, I got to spend a few more months there with my dog, I took some refi money and went into business in the credit card advertising game, (did very, very well with that,) it's a job a 15 year old kid can do, but unless you or anyone has a certain knack for it, it's almost impossible.
We were putting credit card applications into retail stores... strip malls, our territory was all of Orange County, a very tough territory for such a thing, but I managed to put 90 out a day on average, 7 days a week.
And two weeks later, (there is a lag time) business exploded!
We had far and away the busiest office of about 60 they had across the country...
It showed you one thing: advertising works!
But... my partners were unscrupulous and ripped me off and that was that.
At least 50% of my dilemma was my own fault, I admit, but that leaves 50% that was me being used by other people.
When on the decline, you will find locusts who will take advantage of your situation and glean out the last drop of whatever you have.
So... I lost my electronics job due to foreign competition, (Dominican Republic, 25 cent an hour labor) couldn't make my house payment, my property taxes were adding up, and I get ripped off when I think I'm going to pull out of it.
One day, I just found myself in the city of Duarte CA, and I headed toward my last tech job to beg the owner to see if they could fit me in somewhere...
He was a pretty nice guy, but he just couldn't justify it, realize that with 45 employees at a manufacturing company, half of those 45 are needed for company "infrastructure" if you will, the office folks, the VP, the Chief Engineer, the purchasing agent, the testing dept, supervisors on the production line... that leaves about half, maybe 25 at the most actually "making" something...
So that was a wash, and I walked away from the plant dejected and wondering where I was going to stay...
My first day of full-blown homelessness.
I didn't have to look too far as it turned out.
No, I looked under a bridge I came across and saw a towel laying across a pipe... then looked further in and saw someone had what looked like a camper sink, sitting there with soapy water and a few dishes...
I look further and I see a big tent set up under there, with about four couches someone set up...
So I called out: "Haloo haloo...?" ()
And that's when I met an old guy named "Sonny" who was the leader I guess of a small band of tramps.
There was Sonny, Greg, "Guitar" John, "Airplane" John and on occasion a nice guy named Mondo...
And they showed me the "ropes" of how to get by there in the area, where to get fresh water, the lowdown on the cops, where to get food, and where to get state and local services...
It would only be a few months until I left there for Seattle, in the meantime I walked up and down the big streets trying to find any kind of work, panhandling as I went (that was so hard at first!) and picking up cans and bottles to put into the recycling machine.
And I also ate at a little Mexican place a few times for lunch...
With no money...
I would be walking by about 1 o'clock, and would see a couple plates someone left with rice and beans they didn't finish... so I sit down and scoop it all onto one plate and eat faster than any ravenous dog...
So fast I am long gone before anyone can notice me.
This I did often at a busy pizza place, say in a mall... I buy a small coke and sit and watch, everyone leaves a couple almost whole pieces, and of course there is a lot of crust.
I scoop it up very fast and am again, gone before anyone can say or do anything.
That was a tough way to go, and I am certainly not proud of it, but I never shoplifted to get by, and never ate out of a dumpster either.
Until you get hooked up with services in Cali, you are just going to have to do things like I did if you cannot find work.
So I got my GAU hooked up, collected for a month, then with the next check ($360?) I bought a bus ticket to Seattle...
Now I remember what Kennedy said: "Ask not what your country can do for you..."
But, would you make your bed in a burning building?
That's about how much "future" I saw for myself in California, I needed a "sea change."
what did you think of places like skid row and Venice Beach?
I didn't hang out there so I couldn't say firsthand, mostly I hung out in El Monte, trying to "blend" with all the other tramps.
I was a new newbie and wouldn't know why you wanted to avoid areas like that in the first place.
But I just wandered around El Monte/ Rosemead and took off on a Greyhound from the El Monte bus station.
I hate riding the bus, I had ben cross-country a few times, so I did know what a drag that was.
In fact, a sort of friend I had there had been to Seattle before and was going to take the train the next morning... I could have waited, but I wanted to be long gone by the time the train pulls out!
It was about a 38 hour ride if I recall, we puled into Seattle on a Friday night, the Coast Guard was in town and Pioneer Square looked like a riot scene, I wondered if I had made the right decision and if I had enough money left to turn around and go back "home."
But I had come that far and maybe knew in the back of my mind that there was no going back.
Myself and another chap managed to show the Union Gospel Mission in Seattle that we were indeed weary travelers and showed them our cancelled bus tickets.
The mission was full, but they put us up in the basement on mats.
The next morning I get up to use the bathroom and there is tis guy rinsing out his socks before the rest of the mission gets up.
I said "Hi" and he returned the greeting in a foreign accent.
Turns out his name was Andi, he was from Poland and he just happened to have a job that he couldn't use anymore and turned me onto it, dishwasher at the Warwick hotel, I got cash after each shift for awhile and great shift meals.
And there was a bus to Issaquah that left at 11:30 just outside the hotel, it passed through Coal Creek Pkwy on the way, so about midnight I would get off the bus, kind of in the middle of nowhere as far as the bus driver might think, after he was gone I would duck into my woods and navigate my way through the dark with my flashlight.
I camped there for two months and pretty much never saw anyone, darkness can be your friend in that sitch, if someone "wants" you then they are going to have to put up some risk too... they are going to have to "work" for it...
In just a few days I had a new routine set up, what a difference a few days and several hundred miles could make!
So I worked the swing shift at the Warwick and that left my days open for finding a job more in line with my skill set and just to explore and scout out the best places to camp... even though the camp I had was pretty good, I wanted to "see what's on the other side of the hill" so to speak.
Not going to wade though your mess and it seems like a lot of self absorbed fiction really-pretty transparently so.
Have fun typing it if you wish: its a form of entertainment that’s allowed here and I think there are a couple here that you will convince. it’s just too long and boring and not related to the problems we are all dealing with . Innocent citizens are being hurt and dying at the hands of these people. ,but,again have fun typing to yourself if that makes you happy. Thankfully another poster showed me how to use the ignore feature and that will save me from having to see it.
Claiming people are lying is cause to get you suspended or booted from the forums, so take a deep breath, relax and try to be civil.
what did you think of places like skid row and Venice Beach?
I might not have had any firsthand experience in those towns, but the whole world has heard of Venice Beach and Santa Monica and their services.
So I can comment on those situations, and along with those in San Diego, San Francisco, anywhere with such going on, my advice is for those homeless folks to wise-up and disperse, those that have enough sense to.
"But where do they go"
Well, they can stay in the same town, the same area, but break up that tent city on the street stuff, "Disperse!"
That is no good for all concerned, it's the equivalent of peeing in your own well water, they are making it harder for everyone, especially themselves.
So they need to do themselves a favor and spread out and stop being so visible... you camp at the outskirt of cities and commute in, you don't camp on the sidewalk in front of the Dairy Queen.
There are no services at night when a mission is full as they always are, and night of course is when it gets dangerous..
Let the predators come out into your dark woods, onto your home field and get you... if they have the guts...
Now, unfortunately and I know, that it's easier said than done, and no community is going to welcome them, and on a practical level, it's up to the homeless to figure this out for themselves, figure out a place to go and act upon it.
If you use the techniques I illustrated previously, from my first post in the thread here, no one will know they are homeless...
Now I did have an idea born out of need for a new type of mission, but I'm going to wait a few more posts to post it because there is actually a bit more to our story.
Claiming people are lying is cause to get you suspended or booted from the forums, so take a deep breath, relax and try to be civil.
The ignore feature did the trick- its all hidden now- thank you for your advice!
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