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I spent several nights on park benches, abandoned car, and subways, fending off sketchy characters in the middle of the night. As dangerous as that was, it was still safer than the shelters.
Very true. This is the reason why I don't give money to homeless people. I have been known to offer them a meal and run through the drive-thru getting what they wanted. I also gave a pair of gloves away that I was wearing and had to buy another pair. Atleast I know it is going towards a good purpose.
My hubby was asked for money for a phone call. He offered to loan the guy his cell, (I'd think twice about that one darlin'!) and the guy swore at him and stalked off. He was asked for money for food, gave the guy directions to a soup kitchen and again, was abused for his trouble. He just thought about people being resourceful instead of just taking handouts. Each to their own. I was homeless when I did the rebellious 15 year old thing of running away from home. Didn't think that through too well and got into a whole sack of trouble. Could've been worse though, at least I'm here to write about it.
I dont ever want to be homeless. I think i would probably rob or steal before that happened to me. Most likely i would wind up in jail before being homeless. I see all these homeless people in the winter freezing their butts off and starving and i never want to live like that. I really feel for people that have to live that way.
I have yet to hear of a homeless person starving to death in this country, it's not even imaginable to me, or in Mexico, for if the international media learned of it, they'd cram it down our throats!
If this country had a year-round comfortable climate, like large parts of Central America, that would help erase the fears of becoming homeless and our homeless population would swell, as a result of it. Any number of borerline types might join the homeless voluntarily, and lift that huge burden of trying to eke out a living off their shoulders once and for all.
Some of the craftier homeless people, bypass jails, and merely get into the habit of self-inflicted injuries. I once encountered an obsese younger woman at my medical facility, (no one could prove it but the suspicions ran rampant)
that she deliberately got struck by a car. Happily, might I say, permanently disabled with a nice secure income for life. Sure beats being homeless!
I started this thread and im sorry i havnt had time to post yet, I will soon... I grew up homeless living as transients for nearly 20 years...12 with my family and then just worked on the road for the rest... ill post later thanks everyone...
I pass a shelter everyday on my way to work, and also a food bank. There are more and more people lining up all of the time. Plus there are more schools offering breakfast programs. I have never been homeless, but I do think homelessness can happy to anyone; in this economy, who knows. There are people out there benefitting from other people's hardships, and that is the saddest thing of all.
Ok, short version... my family left Minnesota in march of 1980, we came to Montana, we lived in the woods.. my dad got a logging Job, there was still alot of snow in the little belt mountains so we had to move into town, White Sulphur Springs.. rented a little house, then moved to Reed Point Montana, we stayed out by the yellowstone river in a camper the same one we stayed in when we first got to montana, it was 16 feet long,there was five of us.. Dad was trying to log in reed point also, then we moved to Springdale Montana, rented a house there for a couple months.. now it was november 1980.. Mom and Dad rented a u-haul for one days use and we Left Montana with the U-haul, headed for yuma arizona, after the hard trip from Montana to yuma AZ, my family got a job picking Lemons, Then it was all History, we traveled picking fruit and bumming all over the U.S. I say bumming becouse many many times that is how we made it from place to place, Mom would take me And My little sister into churches in any little town or city, she would say, we are from montana and traveling trying to find work and a place to stay, do you have any work we can do or any way to help us?? Never did a church turn us away!! Some times only 10 dollars for gas but always something.. we stopped in marfa texas trying to get help, by this time my oldest sister had a baby, she was 17.. me and my other two sisters were riding in the trunk of our old buick electra, Mom and dad were inside and also our oldest sister and her baby, and another Homeless couple we met in Mission texas.. The Sheriff In marfa Told my parents to Leave Marfa Texas And never come back.. he gave us some gas and a food Voucher at the Grocery store.. we hardly ever went to school, i had a sixty percent hearing loss in both ears..
Nickle Diming food stamps was common for us kids, if you Know what nickle Diming means.. My parents would give us each a dollar food stamp, we would buy a 5 or 10 cent piece of candy and bring them the change.. I dont care if I ever see a food stamp again!! after a few years of this, my parents started trying to be swapmeet vendors selling mostly junk... so from 1980 to 1992 we lived in a car, maybe an old school bus when we were lucky.. slept on picnic tables on the ground etc... we had scabies head lice etc... ate from the trash once in a while, but mostly ate comoddities government cheese or what ever the food banks gave out... poached a deer when we would make it back to montana.. in 1991 i met a 16 year old homeless girl at a homeless camp in the imperial valley of southern california,called Slab City.. a few months later she and I ran away, my parents new we were, and where we were going.. alot went on after that, but in a few months we were with my parents we all made it to montana and were living and working in the woods.. in march of 1993 I got a job custom harvesting, traveling driving truck and harvesting all over the country.. did this and worked on a road crew as a truck driver untill february of 2000, I wanted to move to minnesota.. My lifelong dream was to get back Home to Minnesota and Make My home there have a small farm and be a long haul trucker and build a small trucking company...
My dad always detered me for some reason and i always listened to him, he would say Minnesota is no ****tin good.. so i never went!! when the trucking company I worked for paving roads went out of business, i was working in arizona,I told dad i wanted to go to minnesota.. he said go to montana my sisters Lived there, so i listened.. Dad was still tramping around, He lived in an old van.. mom had passed in 1996, we went to montana bought an old trailer house in townsend, I got a job driving.. our trailer house burned down two weeks later.. that trailer was the first house, if you want to call it a house. 8x40, it was the first house I lived in since 1980, 20 years.. And the 16 year old homeless girl I ran away with in 1991, we had a son he was four.. dad died in 2003, My wife and i have been married 18 years now, our son is 16, we adopted twin baby girls they are four now.. I was under the influienc of my dad for so long, always felt so guilty if I was not there if he needed me, even though he was not a great dad, I always felt guilty if I didnt do what he wanted.. he was 50 when I was born and twenty years older than mom.. mom passed in 1996 she was 53, dad passed in 2003 he was 80 and still living in a 77 dodge van., would be 87 now and im 37, I still want to Live in Minnesota and am determined to do it.. after years of building up our credit,, while trying to pay for funerals, I made sure my parents were together, In White Sulphur Springs Mt..Dad and I had the same name, and over the years alot of dads debts and U-haul trailers and medical bills, caught up with me, and with everything we had to file for bankruptcy in 2008.. that put my minnesota dream on hold.. we are determined to do it..
I have done well I think, I drove over one million Miles in a semi without an accident..
have a house in Montana..
Have a wonderfull 16 year old son..
adopted twin baby girls..
have completed two multi million dollar projects in a platinum mine in Montana, i was the lead man on an underground railroad project and an underground road paving project...
made sure my parents were laid to rest together.
but most of all been with my wife, the 16 year old homeless girl for almost 20 years..
We are still determined to live in Minnesota, and im never giving up on My own Trucking Company... thats my Short long story.. I have been working on writing two books since 1996 but get Discouraged or upset and throw them away.. im trying it again now... Thank you...
Last edited by virgil tatro; 12-03-2010 at 08:42 PM..
My wife, roommate, and I will be converting a van or school bus into a living space so that we can avoid homelessness. Some of the homeless people I worked with in D.C. were excellent at creating living spaces. There was one bridge/overpass that housed about 3 or 4 people. It kept cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It was pretty impressive!
My daughter tried to help a guy out once, she was coming out of Burger King with a bag of food and he asked fro some money 'to get something to eat'. she felt sorry for him and because she only had a 20 in her wallet, she offered him the meal that was in her bag instead. He got so mad and threw the burger and fries out in the parking lot and started cussing at her and yelled that he 'wanted some money, not the food'. After that she went back inside to tell the restraunt manager theres a panhandler in the parking lot bothering everyone for money so they could make him leave. She was so hurt by the fowl language and cussing ...all because she tried to help someone....she swears (and I dont blame her either) that she will never help any beggar again, like that. Ever. I wouldnt either!
Strangely, she noticed, that hie sure had a nice (maybe even new?) pair of shoes on, and was pretty clean shaven for a homeless guy. Not too bad for a homeless man.
I have been lucky enough to have a loving family who has helped me out in these hard times..
There have been no monitary handouts of the sort, but a roof, a clean bed and food is all I need.
I have been surving otherwise on money earned and saved over the years, that goes to pay for car insurance and gas to keep looking for steady work..
That is even mostly used up.. I look back now and see all of the frivolus things I have bought over the past few years..
Like a second car, Because it was my "dream car".. My way of thinking at the time was I worked hard for it..So I did it..
Kicking myself for that now..
My daughter tried to help a guy out once, she was coming out of Burger King with a bag of food and he asked fro some money 'to get something to eat'. she felt sorry for him and because she only had a 20 in her wallet, she offered him the meal that was in her bag instead. He got so mad and threw the burger and fries out in the parking lot and started cussing at her and yelled that he 'wanted some money, not the food'. After that she went back inside to tell the restraunt manager theres a panhandler in the parking lot bothering everyone for money so they could make him leave. She was so hurt by the fowl language and cussing ...all because she tried to help someone....she swears (and I dont blame her either) that she will never help any beggar again, like that. Ever. I wouldnt either!
Strangely, she noticed, that hie sure had a nice (maybe even new?) pair of shoes on, and was pretty clean shaven for a homeless guy. Not too bad for a homeless man.
my wife and I have had the same thing happen to us, we would try and give food and certain ones get mad.. I have seen it all, the ones we see everyday on the street we dont give to them, unless you can physically se that they are disabled! the ones Hitch hiking traveling I always give to them...
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