How many of you Duers have ever been homeless at some point in your life?

[Jilly_in_VA]

I have. I was 21 at the time and had been evicted from my apartment for "having a pet". It wasn't mine. It was a cat I'd borrowed from a friend for 3 weeks to get rid of the mice the landlord refused to get an exterminator for. After the 3 weeks were over there didn't seem to be any more mice so I returned the cat to his owner with many thanks (after said cat had left a number of "offerings" buy my bed and on the rug). Nonetheless, I was homeless, crashing on one couch after another and wondering where I was going to sleep next while perusing the want ads for someplace to rent. I was also working at the time. I finally found a tiny place, third floor walkup, about 6m x 3m I would guess, with a shared kitchen and bathroom, but at least it was mine and I didn't have to worry about where I would sleep. Yeah, I was kinda depressed when I was homeless for those 6 weeks, but I was NOT mentally ill, nor was I at all violent nor a criminal.

Blow it out your ear, Eloon!

[H2O Man]

1. Recommended.

I was as a teenager.

[ibegurpard]

2. Me

Briefly at the same age as you.
I lucked out and found a job and a place to stay after a month of no luck with job hunting after moving to a new place.
I'd run out of places to crash and was sleeping in my car.
Could've easily gotten much worse and things are far worse now.
This was in the very early 90s.

[Ping Tung]

3. When I was a kid. For brief periods we were homeless and hungry and spent the occasional night in the car.

[True Blue American]

8. We never forget,do we?

[SomewhereInTheMiddle]

27. We ended up in an evangelical run homeless shelter. The car, if we'd had one, might have been better.

[New Breed Leader]

4. What did Elon say about the homeless?

nm

[True Blue American]

5. Not completely but close.

I did not eat for 3 days. Teenager,too proud to let my Dad know. But I found another job. One room apt. They were hard to find back then
I quit because a boss doubted my word. He tried to get me to come back. I had another job.

[Midnight Writer]

6. 19 years old for two weeks.

Roommate left town, I got fired from my job and could not pay rent, got kicked out of our apartment, ended up sleeping under a bridge.

Finally, my roommate came back to town, loaned me his car and enough cash to drive 1600 miles to my mother's house. I got a job at a gas station, and my Mom rented me a spare room for about 6 months.

My roommate was my best friend, really stuck with me and helped me out. He passed away a couple years ago from COVID. Nicest guy ever.

[Iris]

22. I'm so sorry about your roommate. Good friends like that are few and far between

[lame54]

7. I'll check back with you in a few months

[Codifer]

9. When it counted

I was down to a van and a dog

[redstatebluegirl]

10. Twice when I was in college.

My Mom had died and Dad did not think I needed to go to college so I supported myself. I had three jobs. Once I got sick and couldn't work and lost my apartment. Another time I had taken in my sister and had trouble paying all the bills.

Both times were short but memorable.

[Coventina]

11. Me and my family were homeless from my ages of 8-14.

My parents and my two siblings (both younger than me).

We were not violent or on drugs. Just poor.

Seattle was a very expensive place, even back then.

Landlord kicked us out of the only place we could afford.

After three years of squatting in a church basement, my dad moved us to Phoenix.

Spent three years homeless there, before my parents could get enough work to scrape together the money to get a POS rental.

Given the option now, I'd much rather be homeless in Seattle.

[Cirsium]

12. Yep n/t

[rampartd]

13. what's the difference between divorce and a tornado?

not much, eithr way you lose the trailer.

mine was a divorce.

i was the last to know. she ran up as much debt as possible and cleaned out the joint accounts.

i did have a car to live in. a gremlin of all things,. it took me a week or so to get a paycheck and a &50 a week motel room. several months of ramen noodles. not as bad as a tarp under the interstate, but still cold and scary.

[meadowlander]

14. I couch surfed and lived in motels for a year and a half but was never completely out on the streets or in shelters.

I quit my job the day before the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and then the new job I'd had lined up fell through.

Spent a year applying for 750+ jobs including working at McDonalds and only got one interview for a temp job delivering UPS packages during the holiday peak period (didn't get the job because 400 people applied for 10 positions). That was despite having two Masters degrees and 15 years experience in my field.

So I completely understand how fast and easily your life through no actual fault of your own can go from comfortably middle class to deciding if you can afford to buy feminine hygiene products or not .

[Hekate]

15. KnR

[hunter]

16. I ended up homeless the second time I was "asked" to take time off from school...

... for mental health issues.

I tried going back to my parents but I wouldn't tell them anything of my life and ended up fighting with my dad and punching him in the face. My parents already had crazy people living with them, most especially my grandparents, so it really wasn't a healthy environment for me. And there was no way in hell I was going to burden them with my own troubles, or tell them of the violent situations I'd found myself in.

My car broke down near the university and I was sleeping in it when the police threatened to tow it away. That was a huge threat to me because it had all my tools and everything else I owned in it.

I hadn't quite burned all my bridges and arranged to park my car in a church parking lot.

People offered to help me but I was too psychotic and paranoid to accept it. I was completely feral and didn't have much trouble finding food or anything else I needed in dumpsters, etc..

A Vietnam War vet broke through to me and offered me space in his garden shed. That's where I pulled my mind back together and I started helping out on geology field trips and so on. I also started getting paid work again, enough to buy parts and get my car running. Eventually I was allowed to return to school, a dear professor helped me do that, and this third time I managed to stick it out and actually graduate without too many problems.

All in all it took me nine years to graduate from college.

[Iris]

23. I admire your perseverance.

I have a free make friends with similar stories ago made it through college despite a lot working against them

[drmeow]

17. A very, very short period of time

My lease ended and I hadn't been able to find any place in Santa Barbara that I could afford. Finally found a place out at the very edge of (at that time) new developments (past Isla Vista). Can't remember how long I was without a place to live - no more than a few weeks. I was working full time at the time.

[Chellee]

18. I stayed on a friend's couch for 3 months.

During my divorce my ex-husband told me he would burn the house down with me and my daughter in it if I didn't get out. I believed him. I took my daughter about an hour away to my grandmother's house and she lived there. I needed to be able to be close to work so I slept on a friend's couch.

I was able to buy a very old, postage stamp of a house even though I'm pretty sure I probably didn't qualify for the mortgage. I think the woman doing the paperwork pushed it through, pulled some strings, called in favors to get me into a house. My ex showed up at her office one day and was so threatening (because she was helping me) that they had to call the cops. She told me that she would do whatever it took to get me into my own place. She even offered to let me store my furniture in her garage.

[DET]

19. Close

I came to DC for my first professional job in my mid 20s. Had roommates for about a year, then found my own studio apartment - which I was so proud of. Lived there about a year before contracting mono, followed by Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - which hadn’t even been discovered yet. No one knew at the time that a serious viral illness could trigger a long term illness like CFS (similar to COVID and long COVID, which resembles CFS).

I couldn’t walk outside my apartment for about six months without collapsing. No one understood what was wrong with me (especially doctors) and I was threatened with being fired (understandably). Fortunately, an acquaintance in the building occasionally brought me groceries. No one at work offered support and my boyfriend dumped me. I thought I was going to lose my job and my apartment, with no resources to fall back on. But I finally started getting some strength back and slowly returned to work, although still very weak. Continued to have symptoms for several years. Still have PTSD from that time. That was as close to homeless as I ever want to be.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

20. I Only Avoided Homelessness Because I Had Family Who Bailed Me Out

I was 28 years old with a law degree and a job with a small law firm (it was literally just the attorney with his name on the door and me). I also had a mountain of student loan debt. Since the firm I worked for started experiencing financial instability, my boss would often come to me and say, "Um, we can't afford to give you a paycheck this week." So I started living off my credit cards and soon amassed a mountain of credit card debt too. Then I lost my job.

I hadn't paid my rent in months (or really any of my other bills, for that matter). I was being threatened with eviction and repossession of my car. I came home one night to find both my electricity AND my heat shut off. I was clinically depressed and borderline suicidal. If I hadn't had a family with the wherewithal to help me out, I definitely would have been homeless.

Ever since I had that experience, I have identified with the homeless, because I know how close I came to being one of them. I also got very disillusioned with the whole "American Dream" bullshit. They tell you, "Work hard, get an education, get a good job, and you'll have a great life." I played by their rules. I worked hard, got the fancy degree, the supposedly cushy job. I still was this close to living on the street. Imagine if I had had no family to bail me out (because a lot of people don't). That's when I realized the Republican version of the "American Dream" was a lie. And no amount of "bootstrap pulling" would have saved me.

[haele]

24. Twice. I was lucky though, I anticipated and was able to prepare.

First time, I was moving from Port Hueneme to San Diego on orders around 1985, and a shipmate was selling his banged up, barely running1976 Chevy high top camper van cheap - $500. I spent another $500, got a transmission tune-up, replaced the carbonator and radiator, all the seals, replaced the brakes, front u-joints, the propane fittings, the interior marine batteries and the plumbing.
It was pretty decent, 22ft long x 7ft wide, that a 6'2 person could comfortably stand in, with a "loft space" in the back; 6 x7x3 ft that could double as another sleeping area, a swamp cooler in the middle of the van, lots of storage, a wet shower/ toilet, a comfortable kitchenette table/bed with a mini-fridge/freezer and I updated the mounted toaster oven. And it had...an 8-track player.
An ugly gas hog, but comfortable 6 months living for a young NCO who could park it in a new co-worker 's driveway for a "mailing address" while waiting to get BEQ approved (you had to get permission and then move off base before you could apply at that time) and enough for a deposit saved up.
And I was easily able to sell it as soon as I could get into a new apartment; there was a waiting list for single NCOs looking for a place to live while waiting for BEQ approval. Over the next five years, I saw it had at least that many different owners (or users) before someone actually bought it as a camper van for his (or her) family.

The other time was losing a roommate the same time I changed employment, so I moved out, put the stuff I wanted in storage, and couch surfed with a Reservist buddy who had to deal with a temporary furlough (fire damage to her employer's shop and they were rebuilding) and needed help paying her rent until work picked up again. Win, win - I could save money for my own place again, and she could stay in her little apartment she had spent the last ten years in.

It wasn't scary, but there were those other times working as a contractor where work was way too slow for several months in a year, rent (later mortgage) started getting paid late or it took two payments in a month to pay the rent in full plus late fee, and a lot of savings disappeared while waiting for that good paying work to pick up again.

Haele

[Mike 03]

25. Thanks for sharing your experience. Since reading the book

"Evicted" by Matthew Desmond, I have so much respect for people who have experienced this or episodes like it. I now know what people in dire situations, trying to find a home, go through and I felt, after putting that book down, that I wouldn't last one single day. Suddenly finding yourself homeless is like a domino that when it falls it takes nearly every other aspect of a person's life in some unforeseen direction. And it can start with one single bill you can't pay, or a complaint by a neighbor about something that never even happened. It's wrong that the richest nation in the world has such a large population on the verge of financial ruin on any given day if just one thing goes wrong: car breaks down. Child has to go the ER. Fired or laid off. Have to miss work for jury duty. on and on. In fact, given the wrong set of circumstances, it could be me or someone in my family.

[Ontheboundry]

26. After my marriage

My ex wife made sure I had very few options financially.

I had a good job, making about 80k a year in a southern state, but this was the first year of Obamacare, and my companies insurance was like 325 a week for the 'Good' plan, plus child support of 1400 a month and oddly alimony of like 600 (she was an en but quit about two months prior to her filing paperwork)

I was left with like 490 a week (or there abouts) and still had my bills to pay. After the dust settled I had about an extra 500 a month to play with l.

The good part for me was I had a small kitchen and shower at work, and was using a crock pot in there constantly and the shower.

This went on for two years til some dna tests proved that she had done some paternity fraud to trap me into the marriage (first kid, other two were mine)

So it relieved the pressure of no alimony and reduced child support and one of the other kids came of age

I slept in my car for this two years except when I had the kids, id rent a motel for the weekend.

I eventually dug my way out, and ended up better off for it

[TexasTowelie]

28. Me.

[Johnny2X2X]

30. Not sure I agree

If you've spent any time working with the chronically homeless you know that every single one of them has similar stories to what you're reading here. They all had a story about losing their apartment, or having a parent or spouse die, or crashing on couches for a few weeks or months before having to sleep outside. Maybe they had a car to sleep in until it got towed by the police or by some business owner who didn't want to see it parked near their business.

There are people sleeping under bridges or in encampments in parks or near the river in almost every city in the United States. Very few if any people just decided to go sleep in thse places one day. Crashing on couches is in fact homeless, so is having a tent and camping out of necessity.

And serving these people you get to hear their stories and it's eye opening to anyone. There are people on the street right now from all walks of life, you'd be surprised. Sure, there are substance abuse problems, and there is mental illness, but those cases aren't everyone. And I don't think the average person realizes how close they are to homelessness, what would you do if you couldn't work anymore? What if you didn't have friends and family to fall back on because you'd moved to a new city or you had a small family that are gone?

We absolutely need to do a better job with homelessness in this country. And criminalizing their very existence is the opposite of that.

[happybird]

31. Yes.

I lived in a Ford Bronco with another human, 2 dogs and 2 cats for 18 months. We spent a lot of time outside at a large, lovely park. His parents helped us to move into a hotel (they paid for one month upfront), where we then lived for over two years. I worked two jobs within walking distance of the hotel and we were eventually able to rent the finished basement of one of my coworkers, mainly because she didn’t charge a deposit or do credit checks. We ended up moving about once a year after that, renting from one, shitty slumlord after another who only cared that we had cash for rent.

[markie]

32. lost live-in job

because of accident... 3 kids... we lived in tent and bathed in the nearby brook... fortunately it was a rural area, and no one bothered us

...not mentally ill and certainly not a criminal... I had been residence hall director for college, supervising staff and students

musk is a 1st class idiot and asshole

[MarineCombatEngineer]

33. I've never been homeless, but that being said,

every time I run across a homeless person on an off ramp or on ramp asking for money, I'll stop and offer them a $20 bill to help them out.

[Sympthsical]

34. Nearly a month when young

I decided to move across country. I had arranged to room with two other people in an apartment I found online. Crossed the country with all my stuff, arrived, and discovered one of the roommates found someone else without consulting the other. I didn't know anyone there, didn't have any options, didn't have a car, and didn't want to spend money I needed for an apartment on a motel, so I more or less spent three or so weeks chilling outdoors with all my possessions. During the rainy season, so that was not great. Rummaged up some large cardboard pieces from behind a grocery store and made do under some trees as best as one can.

It was not great. I found a job and had clean clothes packed with me. The night before my first day, when I still didn't have a place, a guy came at me out of the blue in the middle of the night and tried to rob me as I slept. I woke just as he was rushing toward me. Maybe I heard him. Fought him off with a hard kick to his collarbone. He stumbled off. Not sure if drunk or drugs.

Anyway, I didn't realize my face was banged up when I showed up to work, and I was too embarrassed to tell my new boss what my situation was when he asked, so I made up an excuse about a skateboard. Once I knew I had income, I used computers at work to find a room, and everything sorted itself out.

But not one of my fondest months.