Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was homeless with two children years ago. Lived in campgrounds. I worked though. I received food stamps but not welfare. But it was very very hard. I did use food banks and free clothing banks.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
7,646 posts, read 9,950,661 times
Reputation: 16466
Several times. First time I was 18 and my families business failed. We ended up living in campgrounds or just hiding in the forest for about 5 months back in the 70's. Next time I'd built and lost a small real estate empire in the later 80's. I ended up living in a VW camper for about a year as I got on my feet.
Some years later I built a small software company that got "killed" in the dot bomb bubble of 2001. I lost nearly everything, again, and was living in a motel room (well OK it was a suite at the Marriott) but I was three days from moving into my car when some money came in and I was able to rent an apartment on Christmas day.
I am now a millionaire again, (third time around) with a house by the beach in SoCal. I am hoping the third time is the charm because I'm really too old to go through that again.
What is the old saying, "I've been rich and I've been poor, and rich is better."
My husband was homeless for a short while, literally sleeping on park benches and wherever he could. He had a job so he found a place that allowed people with very low incomes to stay there. It literally was like maybe an 8x8 room and there were a few bathrooms per floor. He started working as a dish washer in a restaurant so he could eat one meal there a day (which he did).
Eventually he was able to save money and get out of that situation, but man did he learn a lot from it!
These stories are amazing. I probably wouldnt last a month.
My experience was I didn't know what to do, or how to deal with it until it was there. It was the boogie man in the night. Then it was there, and this incredable clarity hit. You might surprise yourself since unless the clarity wasn't needed before you probably didn't know about it. Everything but the things of immediate need to be taken care of are temperarily banished.
I dont see it as a boogieman but more the worst case scenario, the bottom, and to reconcile myself to this as a (very real) possibility in my life given my situation. Yet, for all the thinking that I am mentally prepared for it, I think I am not.
One of the things that I think I would perhaps be tougher, pschologically, is to shed the cocoon of "stuff" that surrounds me. Not just the apartment and furniture, but things like keepsakes, favorite books and pictures, old snapshots, stuff that connects me to memories and other people.
I dont see it as a boogieman but more the worst case scenario, the bottom, and to reconcile myself to this as a (very real) possibility in my life given my situation. Yet, for all the thinking that I am mentally prepared for it, I think I am not.
One of the things that I think I would perhaps be tougher, pschologically, is to shed the cocoon of "stuff" that surrounds me. Not just the apartment and furniture, but things like keepsakes, favorite books and pictures, old snapshots, stuff that connects me to memories and other people.
To have nothing but memories. Hmmm.
I lost all of that. I was too concerned with a place to sleep and eat at the time. I did save my dogs and that did matter. I had a few things in the car, but most of it is only memories.
I don't 'feel' anything about it maybe because its too hard to go there. But when they kept talking about a tornado possibly heading our way I looked around and thought that except for pets and computer (more precisely, the writing files on said computer) all the rest could be replaced. Photos are all digital so that wouldn't even be a problem with a back up.
I find 'stuff' doesn't mean what it used to anymore and that its also a standard that 'stuff' has to be something I have an actual use for or will enjoy.
When I was a Kid we was running from the Law. Lived in abandoned Buildings and stole Food and many other things.
When I was older I wasn't Homeless but lived on Government land for a year. Hunted, Fished and Foraged for food.
brushrunner
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
