have you ever been homeless?
 

never been down on my luck that bad before - been poor and broke but never homeless.

has anyone here been homeless before? tell us about it

wait till ppl will hear about it on the homless internet cafe places, then you'll get some answers :)

thankfully not. I have always had a shelter to live in and loving supporting parents that were there every step of the way

no thank god. i have a good network of family and friends that will always be there for me.

When my husband was a child, his parents, for some insane reason, moved the entire family to Hawaii.

When they got there, the job fell through and they were homeless. It didn't last long, as a family member came through the next day; but, imagine five children standing in a park overnight in a strange place.

I've never been without a home for any length of time; but, I have slept in my car during my college days. 48 hours was the longest.

It was not fun, not knowing where I'd live or if I would find a place.

i was homeless for about 2 hours once when i was 17.
i was living with my father (parents are divorced) and he was a truck driver, so 27 days out of the month, he wasnt there and me being young, i had a few partys (which was a big no-no). he came home one night, saw the place trashed, a few broken things, kicked me out.

i roamed around the streets of my neighborhood for about 2 hours thinking of where i could go. luckily, i ran into a friend of mine and chilled at his place for the night. the next day, i talked to my dad and after getting bitched at hardcore for about 3 hours, i was okay.

but those 2 hours sucked ass!! the feeling of not knowing what to do, where to go, how you're going to eat, where you going to sleep, was enough to scare the shit out of me!!!!!!!!! not fun. :2 cents:

In most european countries you won't end up on the street, in Germany for example you can life pretty good on welfare, the guys living on the street are alcoholics etc.

One time, my connecting flight got cancelled and I had to sleep in the airport. It was rough.

:(

yes when I was about 19. slept in my car for a couple weeks, showered at the truck stop a block from my work every morning before work. Only reason it was for as long as it was was because I had spent all my cash paying rent for me and my girlfriend but the apartment was in her name so when we split I bailed and couldnt find a new place till I got paid again, which was in 2 weeks...lolol... it was a very interesting time. I would have stayed with friends but I was the only one who was living on my own and I wasnt about to move in with a friend that still lived with his mom and dad...lol

I take it no hotels were available? :glugglug

I'm an only child and an only grandchild. With the exception of one grandfather, all the parents/grandparents are still living. So the odds of me ever being homeless are pretty much non-existent.

It was already 11:30pm and I was re-booked on a 6am flight, so there wasn't much point in getting a hotel. :(

Yes, I was homeless for about 2 years.....


and now I'm buying a 2 million dollar house.


funny how shit turns around huh. :)

Plenty of relatives in the states, so I don't have to worry about it, but considering how annoying some of them are, I may opt for the streets.

Yep... for the two weeks after I left my wife in Jan. 1995 She took the house of course, along with everything in it.

I got my car, my dog and a $200.00 Orientel rug. I had to ruff it in a Holiday Inn for 14 days while I found a new place.

It sucked because she had all my money and my checks were direct deposit. She wasnt about to giving my money up either.

It wasnt like truly being homeless I guess, but it still sucked ass and I felt as if I had very few options.

dude that sux.. revenge?? :)

so you have been poor and broke? yet you find it necessar to laught at people who are less fortunate than you are now in many of your posts ? doesnt make sense to me .....

Yea I'd like to hear about that too . Never happened to me ... I would like the experience for a day or two maybe ;)

yep.

When I was 17 I lived under a storm drain bridge for a few months when my mother asked me to leave.

It's an experience I draw from even today and it gave me a great perspective on life. When you find the bottom and have dwelled there it doesen't seem as scary as it is when it's unknown.

Naw... it was along time ago, nearly ten years now. Water under the bridge. It was actually a great thing in the long run.

I sold my 1st home in 1999 and moved into a really small apartment thanks to a bad breakup with the babe I was going to marry....

Even though I had a new apartment, I really was pissed that I had to sell the house...that was my 1 goal to reach and I had reached it and then had to let it go.

I also lost my job a week later after I got the apartment. Things were funky. Luckily, I got a new job a month later in Tech sales right at the height of the tech boom.

18 months later I bought my home I live in now and have been in for 4 years now.

Nothing beats having your own home

:thumbsup

I have been homeless many times....... being raised by a drunken father, we were kicked out of our home more times than I care to talk about........ sitting there watching TV and having someone come in and take everything you have because your dad spent all the money on booze... this happened many times. When I was 7, he moved us into a shack with no glass in the windo panes, no running water and barely any electricity. We had to heat with a wood stove, there wasn't such a thing as food stamps, there was commodities and that's what kept me and my little brother alive for 2-3 years. Powdered eggs, peanut butter, instant mashed potatoes.......... yummy!! When I was 7, he kicked my mom out after beating her to a pulp and then turned around and beat me so bad that Drs said by all rights, I should have been dead, he told them that my mom did it. He slipped me Doan's Pills and went right to the beating, saying he was beating my mother out of me. From the age of 7 til I was 17, if something didn't go right in his life, he beat me, broke my nose many times and I still suffer from long term effects of that..... Authorities couldn't do anything back then because they had to schedule meetings to come into your home...... so he'd cleverly schedule them after the bruises and bones were healed.

When I was 8, I was raising a 6 yr old brother, going to the store to get groceries, I did all the cooking, all the cleaning and if something wasn't cleaned, I got the hell beat out of me. Having to take a drunk father to the bathroom and get him into bed from the time I was 7 til I was 17, this was a norm for me. Under his watchful eye, I was molested 3 times and each time I was beaten harshly for "allowing" this to happen to me.

As an adult, I have been homeless 1 time, it lasted several months, but thank god I had a very supportive family. I lost my mind at the age of 32 and we lost everything we had. My husband and I BOTH had nervous breakdowns at the same time, and I still have no idea how we managed to get thru that, but we did, and quite well, and as a much stronger family unit. His was over the loss of both of his parents within 15 months as well as losing a baby. Mine was over the harsh reality that I had to accept that not only one of but both of my parents would just rather I was dead than to have to deal with me and the loss of the baby.

I don't ever seek or want pity, because I did manage to pull myself together with the help of my husband, who deserves MUCH kudos for having the strength to deal with ME in the middle of his own hell......... I give him 200% credit for having gotten me thru all of this, and without him, I think I would be dead right now. I am much stronger for having dealt with all of this, and a much better person..... it's all taught me how NOT to treat my kids, my family and my friends. I am a fierce protector of ALL of my relationships and that's what all of this has done for me, so I am actually better for having had this kind of life, I have had the horrors, and I know what they feel like. :winkwink:

Yes...I was homeless for 6 months but had a truck. I lived basically in my truck and showered down at the beach and shaved at an Arco.

I could have made the choice to become an alcoholic or become a user like 90% of the shitbags that make that choice or even better, I could have become and act like a democrat and look to sponge from some government program but I didn't.

I took on three jobs from digging ditches in the day, waiting tables at night and cleaning toilets as a janitor during the graveyard shift. I eventually got back on my feet and the rest is history.

What is the point in all this?

No matter how bad things may look, you always have choices and those choices are a true representation of ones character.

I have no pity for the homeless with the exception of the individuals who have some sort of mental disease.

Be responsible for yourself, don't ever depend on anyone.

I couldn't agree more.... :thumbsup

No never been homeless but never been ''super rich'' aswell.

Good living and able to pay the bills and some electronics.

Makes me feel good

Tam, I have tears in my eyes here, not because I pity you but because I admire you and I know personally the hell you went through and the strength it taught you. Your childhood was similar to mine. I had a drunken father that I tried to care for....it was my mother though that was the abusive one. We both had choices, to let it destroy us, or to let us make us stronger. I am glad that both you and I decided to let it make us stronger. We are survivors and we both know in the end, we can get through anything. We might experience hell for a bit, but we know there is nothing this world can throw at us that is worse than what we have survived already.

I dont know how you feel about your dad right now ? maybe he is dead already... if he is not ? I would not have any problem killing him in cold blood

maybe that is wrong and I am no better than him if I would do that , but one thing is for sure I wouldn't feel bad about it

reading this makes me think you are a VERY VERY strong person

many sad stories here

I'll make it as short as possible...

I bought a house when I was 22 years old. Got married, seperated, got a job offer on LA. I leased my house out to tenants, and to keep my wifes mouth shut, I put her in a nice apartment and told her I'd pay the 1st 3 months till she got on her feet since she lost her job.

moved to LA, got a new apartment, after 2 months my tenants arent paying the rent, eviction process took 3 fuckinng months. Meanwhile, my wife decided to bail on the apt, which was in my name. I was so credit cautious and so I paid the rent.

I was paying Rent in LA, paying for a mortgage back home, and an empty apartment, at which time my company went belly up and left us all hanging.

I've never been so depressed in my life, my truck got repo'd, my house was forclosed upon, and my credit took a dive. i was in LA with no car, no more rent money, I miled them for a month before I was evicted, no family, so I grabbed a few things and took off on foot not knowing what the hell Im gooing to do.

I was only homeless for 2 weeks, there was a place near the beach where they rent out tents real cheap, so I stayed there for some time, stayed in isolated places, slept sitting up, couldnt even lay down.

I've had it after 2 weeks, I knew this just wasnt going to happen to me, I got up and called every human I knew and asked for any help to get me home where I would have a place to stay, and so they did. I was on my way home and got my shit back together.

Today I am doing just fine, and I learned to secure myself before I decide to be nice to someone else. also being 22 at the time didnt help at all, I was doing great and thought I was on top of ythe world, you dont realize that 22 years old is NOTHING when you grow up and look back. Sure you can buy a house and have several cars at 22, but that doesnt mean you're making the best decisions.

Wow, impressive

Wow... the fact that you overcame all that is amazing, Tam.

I can relate to the alcoholic father bit. My father was a heroin addict when I was a kid. He finally cleaned himself up, but then became an alcoholic when I was a twin.

He occasionally got violent with my mom and would hit her or throw her around (she's 5 ft, he's 6'4). My brother and I often got hit too (most often for disrespecting our mom, ironically). But there were never beatings, thank god.

The closest I ever came to being homeless was when I was around 16 years old. My parents had a big fight and my dad kicked us all out in the middle of the day. I packed my bag with what was important to me at the time (a change of clothes, my pictures, my phone list and my "memory" box of stuff from my girlfriend) and left home. I hung out in a nearby park with my girlfriend for a few hours, but my dad eventually sobered up and let us back in.

But for those few hours, I was scared as hell and homeless. My mom had no job, no money and I had a meagre McDonald's salary. A hotel was out of the question and I couldn't think of family members that could take in my mom and 3 kids.

My parents have since split up and my dad has been sober for 4+ years.

Hey its not that strange..

Actually, I don't remember it much, but was told by family members that my mother was very physically abusive to me when I was in the area of 1-3. I KNOW she was extremely emotionally abusive to me until I was 32 when I finally broke down about it. When he kicked her out when I was 7, I never seen her again til I was 17, and when I went to try and make a life with her, that was almost if not more hell than with my dad. She let me know in NO uncertain terms that she didn't wish to be bothered by the problems I faced as a child, OR as an adult. She once called my husband's mom and told her that I wasn't fit to raise kids and that I was abusive, which I wasn't....... my mother in law didn't hesitate to hate her and wish to get me away from them forever, and to keep MY kids away from them.

As for what my feelings are about my dad now? They are nonexistant..... seriously. I didn't think about him with anything but hatred for many years. The last time I seen him, I was pregnant with my 4th child and he was being abusive to two of MY kids, that's what ripped it for me, I will NOT tolerate anyone doing this to MY kids... so that was it for me. He and my brother, who has chosen the easy way out and developed JUST like my dad, were trying to have my kids taken away. But it backfired and THEY nearly got arrested, that was the last time I seen either and I don't even think about them as being a part of my life or my kids lives anymore.

The last time I talked to my mom was 8 years ago and her words to me in the middle of MY breakdown were "I'd rather be dead than to have to deal with you and your problems" and that's it for me, never seen or talked to her again either. Naturally I had questions about my childhood in trying to figure out where everything went wrong, and she couldn't be bothered with me and my issues....... she had another kid and marriage and life and didn't wish to deal with me. All I wanted was to get to where the family breakdown was so I didn't make the same mistakes...... but she wasn't to be bothered by it.

YES, it has made me stronger, it's made me a fighter and made me know what's right and not always to take the easy way out, taking the easy way would have been to follow the family traditions and I refused to do this. THANK GOD for my wonderful husband and his parents, because without them, I am 200% convinced I would not be here today.... so YES, I literally owe these people my life.

psyko.... that's great that he has been sober so long, how are the two of you now about this? I hope you managed to salvage your relationship or at least some of it?

When I was 17 and lived with my mom, she and I had an all out war over whether or not my boyfriend's car had broken down and I was late getting home, she assumed I was just out fucking everything I seen...... she ripped me apart, and when my step dad defended me, it got REALLY bad for me and for him. I adored him and didn't want him to suffer over me, so I left, and I slept in a ticket booth at the High School football field for days and days, walked the streets of Kansas City, Mo, which as you may or may not know was NOT safe. But luckily I was fine and managed to get out of that one too...

I'll never forget it, when I moved to Kansas City, I was from a small town and it wasn't uncommon to walk down the street alone, so when I moved there, I didn't think much about it. I had this guy that followed me at about a half a block behind me, and naturally it scared me a bit. This went on for a couple of weeks and finally one day, I turned on him and was face to face with him, he was a huge black man........ and I just knew my goose was cooked. I demanded to know WHY he was following me and what the hell he wanted..... yeah I had balls too. Do you know what that man said to me? He says that it was extremely dangerous to walk the streets alone and he was making sure I was not going to get hurt. He and I never became friends and he followed me around at a safe distance behind me, but I felt more safe with him there. All I knew was his name was Freddie, that's all he told me and all I ever knew. Sure wish NOW that I knew his last name so I could thank him. :winkwink:

Nope but I have lived check to check before and it's amazing how many people are close to being homeless...

thats what family is for sleazy - there have been times when I would have been if not for them, now I am returning the favor when Im doing well and one of them is staying at my home or he would be homeless.

Nope, never been homeless

same here

A few months before I turned 18, my mom decided she had had enough. While my dad and brothers were out of town, she took off to Indiana with another guy.

At the very same time, my dad was doing AA and had just met another woman. Since my mom left, he has supported me and my 2 brothers and has helped his girlfriend raise her 2 children as well. My two brothers and him moved in with his girlfriend roughly a year after my mom left. During that year, there was a lot of family therapy.

My mom has since come back home. Thankfully, I know get along very well with both my parents. My relationship with my dad is better than it ever was. Whatever happened in the past was left there and we don't dwell on it.

Luckily though, my parents really weren't abusive towards me and my brothers (except for the occasional stupidities said while drunk). Overall, they were very supportive of us and our capabilities and talent, even though our home life was so destructive.

I completely understand what you mean when you say you're a better person because of all this. I learned to be very independant at a young age, something I've always been proud of. It's definetly made me a lot stronger too and a lot more impervious to pain or abuse of any sort.

This is awesome, babe.... I love hearing success stories, and yours sounds like one of them. It's great that you get along with them and don't dwell on it, it doesn't do anyone any good. Mine didn't ever want to let anything go, their hatred for one another has caused serious damage for them and for their kids........ very lasting damage. I love it when that can all be turned around and everything works out, I am so happy for you. :thumbsup

In my honest opinion, the ones that know what it is like to have to fight for everything they have, are the ones I respect the most. The ones with silver spoons in their mouths, in MOST cases, never know what it's like to have to fight for what they want or anything. On some levels, I feel more sorry for them. In most cases, the ones that fight thru the hell are the ones with a backbone and know how to survive in times of such hell.

In late 92, I heard from my girlfriend in LA that things were going badly for her.....and she was on the verge of suicide. I begged and pleaded and cajoled my way into an early discharge from the army in Feb 93. When I got back, she perked right up, got a job, etc.....

Unfortunately.... I couldn't stay with her for longer than two weeks because of rules on her lease and her landlady lived next door. I had no money because I had been sending it to her. Part of the money had been meant to pay my storage fees, but was not used for that, so everything I had owned before the army was gone. Unemployment was 14%, so there were no jobs.

I lived in the park, made a deal with the guy that ran the local community pool to take showers in there every day, and used the soap that I would find lying around to clean myself and my clothes. I would hang my clothes on the fence to dry. I would go to local churches to get food, or wait for the hand out trucks each night on certain street corners. I never ONCE begged for money to eat.

I would dig through the trash for the want ads.... walk miles to go to apply for jobs. (I would hide my duffel bag in the dumpster behind a building before going up for the interview).

After 2 months I finally got a job, then got into a center, then a crappy weekly hotel in Hollywood, then worked my way up and out.

2 months after that, I became supervisor, and had the power to hire people, I went back to the park to offer jobs to all the guys that I knew there. All they had to do was show up. Out of the 20 or 25 guys that I offered jobs too, not ONE SINGLE PERSON SHOWED UP.



I've never given money to the homeless after that.

kind of dumb :2 cents:

I don't know if you could call it homeless, technically, but in my early 20's my one apartment lease expired from the place I was moving from and my lease on a condo wasn't starting for 2 weeks later, so I had to move all my stuff into a storage facility and live in a hotel for 2 weeks.

I guess that's not homeless homeless, but nonetheless it was a weird feeling to not have a real home for 14 days.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

i may aswell be homeless i live with my parents i get kicked out almost once every fortnight

Why is it Dumb? I watched those guys get their assistance checks, spend them all on drugs, then steal booze from the supermarkets. Then they would sit around for the rest of the month and scam people out of money for food that they didn't need, because they used to same churches,and hand-out trucks that I did. One of them would get a hold of a wheelchair or some crutches, and they would take turns using them....make $100 in one day, and have a big party in the park that night.

And not ONE showed up for a job that was just being handed to them.

They considered people that gave them money to be suckers. I would watch some of those guys put on the most pathetic preformances, looking so weak and hungry, when I would know that they had stolen a steak and cooked it up an hour and a haof earlier.

Try actually being homeless and then you tell me what you think.

Nope thankfullly not,

Although I have a friend that recently has broken upi with his girlfriend and lost hos job, It has been 3 months now and it's reaaly hard to get yourself together if you dont have a house, becasue that is your primary need........where can you start wiithout a house? He stays at my place sometimes ,and with other friends, still looking for a job and drinking abit to much........... And jst 6 monthss ago everythign went well, sometimes eveerything comes at the same time, adn its hard to get out of the cirlcle..

and all Black people are gangbangers.....

I went down to Melbourne and couldnt be fucked staying in a house or a hotel.

Picked the lock of a bridge, we ported in power from the street lights, and water from the local pipes and lived very comfortably.

Two guys I know have squtted for most of their life - with their own chickens, and everything :D

I think it'd suck to do it if you didn't know how, but there are so many place in the city to do it 'comfortably' and well.

I refer again to my last sentence. Have you ever been homeless? Do you know the many different ways that you can get food WITHOUT begging for it?

Do you have a clue? Or are you just relying on some propoganda that you have read?

I was there..... try it yourself and then come back and tell me about it.