If you were homeless, what would you do?

[Aungia lolu]

I've been out of work for 14 months now. I live in S. Florida and while alot of rich people live here there are no jobs for 50 or older w/o some kind of qualified skill in a specific field that reaps $50,000 + a year.
I live on unemployment - 3 times this year I've come within 5 to 12 days of being thrown out into the street to become homeless and while it's mostly warm in S. Florida there's virtually no woods or Shelters here.
I have no car to crash in and w/o $ coming in your definitely screwed.
can't find a job if you can't get cleaned up, shower etc...
So, what would I do if I because Homeless ? Until for faced with the actual
knowledge that you are going to be, you have NO idea just how fragile and unforgiving life really is. it's a stark wakeup call.
So, I don't give a rat's ass, if you have a job, no mater HOW MUCH you hate it, Stay there ! at least for the next 2 to 5 years or until the US is back on it's feet.

[Niri Te]

There was a time when the Veteran's Administration "conveniently" lost the records of a couple of thousand seriously disabled Vietnam Veterans. The result was that a number of them predictably went off the wall, and as a result, MANY were killed by SWAT Teams, many more were either sent to jail for a year or two where the V.A. would NOT have to pay them, or V.A. long term shrink wards, where they were, and probably still are psychotropic LAB RATS for the American Pharmaceutical company's.
Those of us that kept our cool, did not fall into any of those prepared traps, and several months later, received a back pay check for all payments not received, and resumed getting our monthly disability pensions.
What did I do at the time? When this happened, I was renting in Tampa, Florida. I went and spent the last 200 dollars that I had in my bank account, and before I was thrown out of my apartment, I used my electricity to build a small twelve foot long, four foot wide sailboat with a "cuddy cabin" long enough for me to get my entire six foot tall frame into. I had no money for a motor, and I had to make the sail out of lightweight canvas that I stitched myself, but I had a friend with a pickup take me down to the beach on the Courtney Cambell Causway, where I stuck it in the water on the south side of the Causeway. Before I did that, I registered it as a home made sailboat, and while there are laws against camping on the beach, there are NONE about living aboard your properly registered boat. I was living on the top of the worlds biggest free supermarket there on Tampa Bay. I NEVER went hungry, and dined on some pretty good food. I found an Oyster bed that I anchored over, and would hop over the "Gunnel's" of the boat wit my snorkel, mask, and fins on, and twice a week, would dine on a couple of DOZEN Oysters on the half shell.
It's all about knowing how to "Rough-it" SMOOTHLY.
Niri Te

[Sight Unseen]

Originally Posted by taylorcraftbc65

There was a time when the Veteran's Administration "conveniently" lost the records of a couple of thousand seriously disabled Vietnam Veterans. The result was that a number of them predictably went off the wall, and as a result, MANY were killed by SWAT Teams, many more were either sent to jail for a year or two where the V.A. would NOT have to pay them, or V.A. long term shrink wards, where they were, and probably still are psychotropic LAB RATS for the American Pharmaceutical company's.
Those of us that kept our cool, did not fall into any of those prepared traps, and several months later, received a back pay check for all payments not received, and resumed getting our monthly disability pensions.
What did I do at the time? When this happened, I was renting in Tampa, Florida. I went and spent the last 200 dollars that I had in my bank account, and before I was thrown out of my apartment, I used my electricity to build a small twelve foot long, four foot wide sailboat with a "cuddy cabin" long enough for me to get my entire six foot tall frame into. I had no money for a motor, and I had to make the sail out of lightweight canvas that I stitched myself, but I had a friend with a pickup take me down to the beach on the Courtney Cambell Causway, where I stuck it in the water on the south side of the Causeway. Before I did that, I registered it as a home made sailboat, and while there are laws against camping on the beach, there are NONE about living aboard your properly registered boat. I was living on the top of the worlds biggest free supermarket there on Tampa Bay. I NEVER went hungry, and dined on some pretty good food. I found an Oyster bed that I anchored over, and would hop over the "Gunnel's" of the boat wit my snorkel, mask, and fins on, and twice a week, would dine on a couple of DOZEN Oysters on the half shell.
It's all about knowing how to "Rough-it" SMOOTHY.
Niri Te

[Isard]

Originally Posted by Human No More

Swimming pools might be cheaper than gyms.

Swimming pools will notice. Gyms will not care.

[Niri Te]

Neither does Tampa Bay, The Gulf of Mexico, or the Pacific Ocean.
Niri Te

Originally Posted by Isard

Swimming pools will notice. Gyms will not care.

[auroraglacialis]

Originally Posted by Советский меч

Even on minimum wage you can afford a small apartment. Around here anyways.

Here not. There is no official minimum wage and small appartments can be starting at $400 a month (and you need also food of course and transportation to the workplace which is about $150 and $80 around here for cheapest supermarket food and the minimum public transportation card. The bigger problem is to actually find an appartment. Even I had problems when I was a student. Stood in line with 30 other people to register for an appartment and got turned down over and over until I finally got one that is more expensive ($700) but not much larger and I only got it because my dad signed that he will bail me out if I should not be able to pay.

What works better is shared flats. There are plenty of those for students and one has not the worst chance to get in if one has a job and is a nice and social person.

However(!) as long as the social state is clinging to life here (despite it being under attack from neoliberals and conservatives) there is a state welfare system that will give you a minimum wage even if yours is not enough (so they will give you enough money to meet minimum standards if you are below that because you get paid not well or because you have no job - and as long as you show that you are trying to get a job they will keep doing so indefinitely). Plus there are aids for paying rent, so if you cannot pay your rent and really are poor, you will get money to pay the rent, though they may request from you to look for a smaller flat or move into a state owned housing project. In any case, there are still strong measures to preotect against people actually becoming homeless. Most homeless peopl ehere are so because of some other problem - usually a mental problem, addictions or a refusal to accept charity, some even because they prefer to be homeless and free to being subject to government agencies demanding of them to find and take any sh!tty paying job they can find.

Originally Posted by Human No More

Swimming pools might be cheaper than gyms.

I think that is country specific. Here there are public pools that charge as low as $3 for an evening of swimming and using the showers. There are also public gyms that are as low as $100 a year and one can go there play games, do sports and use the showers. One usually can also sneak into these without paying at all as they usually do not have any checks. Private gyms owned by companies are a different thing though (starting at $60 a month and rigorous checks) and big public or private pools are also expensive and are strict in their policies. Those are usually in the big cities.
In some cities, there are still leftover public bathrooms. And I mean really bathrooms with a bathtub and all. Those are from the times when not all people had a bathtub or shower in the house. They are being dismantled though - same with publich laundromats.

Originally Posted by taylorcraftbc65

I went and spent the last 200 dollars that I had in my bank account, and before I was thrown out of my apartment, I used my electricity to build a small twelve foot long, four foot wide sailboat with a "cuddy cabin" .... there are laws against camping on the beach, there are NONE about living aboard your properly registered boat. I was living on the top of the worlds biggest free supermarket there on Tampa Bay.

Marvellous - Not only surviving but actually living good and free, thats great. I heard someone proposing something like that as a solution for some people who fear "peak oil" - to get a sailboat and move onto that. Well they are thinking of sailboats large enough for a family with a real cabin of course, but yeah - if it is done right then no rent and few fees and free food, shelter and transportation along the coast

[Niri Te]

Auroraglasialia,
From what you say, I am glad that I lived in Germany when I did, from 1970, to 1982. I have German friends that say that I should cherish the memories that I have, and never come back, because if I were to see what Germany has changed into, especially after reunification, it would break my heart.
Here in the states, things are different from state to state. The State of Texas honors it's Military Veterans in many ways. One of them is that if you are Combat disabled as I am, and you are buying your own house, then the house that you live in, plus the land that it sits on, up to twenty acres, is tax free. If you die before your mate does, then they still live there tax free. The state also has programs that loan you the money to buy your own home at very low interest rates, and you can "homestead it, which means NO ONE can sue you, and take it from you.
We have 80 acres with our own private airstrip, and the first twenty acres with the house that we built ourselves, is completely paid for, the remaining sixty will be paid for in four years.
Because the State of Texas treats us this way, it is a safe bet that the two of us will never be moving out of Texas. The State even has a provision where you can deed a small section of the land as a "Family Burial Plot" and you can be buried on your land. When both of us are gone, the land will be deeded to my niece, also a pilot, my love and I will be buried next to the runway, and the property will remain in the ownership of the family as long as there IS a family.

[Mika]

Two song's when considered together, make one wonder

The first may not be familiar, its an old Chris De Burgh

The second is more familar, "What If God Was One of Us!"


just a bit of Mika's Musings ~'~