has anyone here been homeless before?

[Urtripping]

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I've shampooed my hair in a waffle house bathroom.

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Sounds like a line in a Sheryl Crow song

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I tried not to laugh but I couldn't help it. I was thinking more like Alanis Morissette.

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I wore a ball cap going in and coming out. It's not like you can go in with a bath towel. I had to to be quick and dried my head sufficiently with paper towels. My hair smelled like vomit from not being washed in a few days all while skateboarding almost daily.

Definitely not trying to poke fun at the struggle, just that particular sentence, when read in Sheryl Crow or Alanis Morissette's singing voice, is funny.

I have been privileged to have never been in that sort of position and I'm sure it takes a lotta strength to get through it. Shalom to you and everyone else sharing their experiences!

[Chavo]

Kicked out at 14. I mostly stayed at different peoples houses, slept on a bench at a church, and briefly at a shelter. For survival, stole food from groceries, raided tip jars to buy food at same restaurants, and eventually found a morally acceptable solution: ate uneaten food at McDonalds. This is the period in which I perfected the one minute full shower by using the bathroom at peoples houses.

Long term effects: unhealthy eating patterns that would lead to adult obesity; had almost no material items until about 27 years old (everything packed in a duffel bag, even for long term living situations); slept with pants with keys and wallet well into my 30s; general pessimistic outlook on life due to seeing the worst of humanity; failed relationships due to previous problem.

[TheLurper]

Just to add a bit on this topic, these are a few good books I've come across on homelessness.

Needed by Nobody: Homelessness and humanness in Post-Socialist Russia
https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801475931/needed-by-nobody/

Hobos, Hustlers, and Backsliders
https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/hobos-hustlers-and-backsliders
(I met the author of this book randomly, she is this awesome British hippie lady who is super cool and super friendly.)

On Hobos and Homelessness
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo3636851.html

and, Down and Out in London in Paris
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/385323/modern-classics-down-and-out-in-paris-and-london-by-george-orwelldervla-murphy/9780141184388

[Mystical Leader]

I've been in this situation a couple of times in my life.. All that decadence and livin' in the free world, was nice in retrospect and it made me but for sure it took a toll on my mental health..

First time I lived on peoples couches for like  18 months. I should have ended it earlier but kind of got used to it. Hardest part for me was the constant uncertainty about my sleeping arrangements and being broke as fuck. Luckily I had a friend who let me sleep on his couch most of the nights. I managed by thinking this is the skate life, no worries, day by day, "Arto, Arto wake up let's go skate man" all that bull.

The second time was a bit rougher as I lost my job, apartment and broke up with my girlfriend in the span of 6 weeks. I had no life savings or anything to hold on. Basically I was alone in the city, had lost most of everything I had in life. This let me to a dark twisted life for three months in the dead of winter(-22F to 32F). Had a lot of unhealthy encounters with women at time. On a later note I feel like I had sex and relationships with these people for very selfish reasons. I was this filthy stray dog and these upper class women would try to "save" me with their daddys money and I was all in to be "saved". I kind of felt like it was the only thing going on for me at the time so I felt I had to do it.  I still feel bad for some of them and how I couldn't give them what they deserved.

I still occasionally think about leaving all this materia and responsibility behind to go back to being a nomad haha as if life was simpler back then.. Certainly it's more stable now and also boring.

Nice to read about your experiences too. Taking a bath at the gas station and scavenging for food brings back memories of a life lived.

[AitchBeeGayBuh]

For a few years In my late teens/early 20’s I worked in the forest service n the rest of the year lived outta my car the rest of the year till I got called back. Couch surfed with friends from high school who moved away, went to shows a lot, skated any spot I wanted to go to in southern ca at the time, drank/smoked reefer all day every day, basically living like a modern day pirate.

Have found it easier to hang out with strangers when I’m by myself rather than a friend or two. Maybe because I’m an only child, I dunno... Because of that I would sleep on the streets with rad gutter punks I just met or party with people I met during a show n crash at their house for a day or two.

One move I useta do was wait at night for somebody to go into a gated complex n go right behind em, park in any visitors area, then good night. Would always wake up whenever the sun came up cuz my car would instantly turn into an oven during the summer, go to the nearest fast food restaurant, take a bird bath/mexican shower whatever u wanna call it, then go to whatever skatepark was in that town then repeat. At that time in my life I was all about going to shows. 

I remember the year before I moved here I was in my car thinking how rad it would be to live at the beach. Been here for 15 years...

Lots of good memories from that era of my life.

[Frank]

i was couchsurfing the heck out of my circle of friends from 16 to 18, but i wasn't really homeless, just didn't want to stay at my parents.

then when i moved to my current city i used to have connections to crash but in the summer i would just sometimes sleep outside. it was a thing where i had stashes of clothes in various friends apartments so it wasn't like all my stuff could get stolen. my first summer in this city was just being outside with my skateboard, drinking and smoking and just passing out wherever. come winter i moved in with a dude i knew from work.

basically wasn't really homeless, i could always have crashed on someones couch if i wanted to i guess, at the time i found it an interesting experience tho.

[Uncle Flea]

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I managed to keep an apartment or room from 2004-2016.

In the end I tore my acl and was used by 3 kids or more while I was gone.

Tann Eddy and that fucking asshole girl who worked at max hesh who was NOT supposed to be there at all killed the house.

I fucking hate them. I have been civil with the fucking bitch who worked at the skate shop but only because she's a stranger and I can't deal with her flexing her privilege.

I hope all Three of them die a horrendous death after reading this post.

Fuck you. I still haven't been able to replace all the shit I lost in this deal

FUCK YOU

Her name is Stephanie.

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how'd they get your place? sublet to them?
assflea carried on w/ his same old stuff
w/ stephanie like a whammy he pressed his luck

Nah my sublets sublet to them behind my back while I was away  doing volunteer shit.

My acl was torn so I only came back to make sure the rent was paid.

I came back and Stephanie started being an asshole.

They hung around a while but left without saying anything.

Took me almost 2 months to clean the house up to the standard of the court alone on crutches.

Then I went to free up the escrow. They had taken back there money.

I do not believe in tanking people's houses. These upper middle class yuppie punks suck.

They are all privilege and are counter revolutionary cucks

Fuck you 3.

[layzieyez]

Kicked out at 14. I mostly stayed at different peoples houses, slept on a bench at a church, and briefly at a shelter. For survival, stole food from groceries, raided tip jars to buy food at same restaurants, and eventually found a morally acceptable solution: ate uneaten food at McDonalds. This is the period in which I perfected the one minute full shower by using the bathroom at peoples houses.

Long term effects: unhealthy eating patterns that would lead to adult obesity; had almost no material items until about 27 years old (everything packed in a duffel bag, even for long term living situations); slept with pants with keys and wallet well into my 30s; general pessimistic outlook on life due to seeing the worst of humanity; failed relationships due to previous problem.

That's so messed up. I couldn't imagine kicking either of my kids out of the house like that. Although experiences like this are reassuring to know you are a survivor because you've made it through, it's terribly traumatic and scarring. Even in the relative safety of sleeping in a locked vehicle, my brief vagrancy would have me shook up with the sound of gun shots a few blocks away regularly. I can't wrap my mind around the idea being without any shelter.

It was tricky enough finding somewhere to sleep where the cops wouldn't bother you so of course it had to be in the hood and not the suburbs. Eventually, I got used to sleeping in the backseat under blankets and looking like a pile of dirty laundry. I had to crack the windows even though it a freezing winter because the fogged up windows were a dead giveaway someone was inside. I would sometimes have to move from a spot if a crackhead or other street people found you in there to harass.

[Uncle Flea]

Yah we have NEVER repeat the mistakes of our parents/us rule in place.

We will never kick out the kids no matter what.

I got kicked out the 1st time in 7th grade and bounced back and forth till I was so far gone it took 20 years for me to get something together...

[EdLawndale]

I bought an inflatable bed and slept in my office for about 3 weeks while I was in between places in my mid-20s. When work got out, I would go find things to do for about 4 hrs while the cleaning staff did their thing, then sneak back in and inflate the bed. Then, I would wake up at about 6, deflate the bed, go take a shower in the gym and go to work before repeating the whole process each day. I was on pins and needles...but made it work.

[Matze]

Never experienced total homelessnes but I grew up in critical circumstances. My parents didn't have a home for themselfes when I was born so we lived in a small two bedroom apartment with my grandparents for some years. When we moved to Germany we lived in shelters for asylum seekers for some months until the government rented a hotel room for us.

Big hug to everyone who struggles or struggled!

[TracersOnlyfans]

Yup, 16-17yo, in NZ at the time if you wanted to get unemployment money from the government you had to be over 18, or get your parents to say they didn't want / couldn't have you at home. At 16 ihad a job and a room but lost the job and the house, my mother didn't want me at home but was too proud to sign the form, and I had problems with my stepmother so didn't want to stay with my dad. I could occasionally tick some drugs off a friend of a friend at a high price, and make enough for a little food, but mostly survived on my friends leftovers. I was skinny as hell. I had friends who would let me crash most of the time, I'd get a shower here and there, but occasionally I'd leave things to late to sort somewhere and I'd end up crashing in some random garden shed that I'd spot over a fence or something. Was caught once or twice, but never got arrested or my ass beat. Once crept into what I thought was a friend's house and crashed on a sofa, woke up to strangers staring at me. They were surprisingly nice about it and let me just get my things and leave.
i was terrible at keeping up with my laundry, in particular my underwear got pretty stinky, and I'd just cycle through 3 or four pairs in my backpack when the pair i had been wearing got too bad. I had a friend at a shitty clothing store who would look the other way when I needed a clean tshirt. All up it could have been much worse, i was lucky to have some support. When I hit 18 I got that government money and cleaned up enough to land a job, but eventually moved to another city for a fresh start.

This is the first time I've spoken or even really thought about this in almost 20 years, i kinda blocked out a lot of these memories. It feels cathartic, thank you for this thread.

[layzieyez]

I'm glad for your catharsis. It is quite a bit of stigma to being homeless and it looks like some of us had a lot of understanding and generous friends. In my times of plenty, I was happy to let friends have an extended stay rent free with the only stipulation is they pay for long distance calls they made until they got on their feet.

I also wanted to clarify that I was homeless in Atlanta. Athens, Georgia in that time frame had five different police departments that would patrol the city because of the large college population. It made finding a place to park overnight on a regular basis to sleep near impossible.

[franzfeuer420]

i served a few tours of duty. a combination of no adult skills, not much parental guidance and a romanticization of bukowski, jack london, my own private idaho and lots of other references from books nobody would get.
are you doing a survey or looking for tips?

bukowski really do make a mofo want to be an alcoholic bum at times

[Jehoshaphat Augustus]

I slept in my dodge stratus from November 2008 to February 2009ish. I kept my clothes in a garbage bag and slept on whoever's couch that would let me. Most of the time it wasn't awkward if we weren't already skating/hanging out, but it got weird to ask to use the shower.

I was a fuckin dumbass and paid $10 EACH TIME to use the shower at a truckstop, but in hindsight (this may not have been available at the time) I should have gotten a "gym pass" at some hotel. Some hotels have excerise equipment/pool that goes unused during the week, so you can pay to work out, swim, & get a shower in thereafter.

If I did sleep in my car, i slept in my backseat with a down comforter & pillow. because it was winter, usually around 3-4am i'd have to start the car to get heat. Id sleep in Walmart or university or skate park parking lots & listen to books on tape to sleep.

Not having a kitchen or a shower is absolutely terrible and after a while people stopped hanging out because while id be buying food/booze/etc to hang out with people, they knew it was coming out of the funds I should have been stacking for a residence.

One night, I had to take a shit so fucking bad, but didn't have money/time to go to a restroom, so I pull over at George Webb and shit in the middle of two dumpsters. Unfortunately, i didn't look what I was doing and shit right in my pants & underwear. I was wearing an Undertaker- American Badass Shirt that I stripped off and used it to wipe my ass, and left all of the soiled garments behind as I ran completely nude back to the safety of the dodge stratus & the $10 truck stop shower

[El Fapinator]

I use to go to REI  load up on a bunch of outdoor shit and just walk the fuck out, no chase policy. I 'd grab a subzero sleeping bag single eye stove light. Random dodads and caribieners and tarps.  Whole foods was great for deli foods especially if you could get them on EBT.