Homeless, currently.

evanprice(50)

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Homeless.

An LA graffiti artist helps make a homeless man feel more.. at home.

I would hope it isn't.. but it's never generally by design that one becomes "homeless." I found this out the hard way through trials and tribulations of a life that had no true stability even whilst having jobs.. but I digress..

"Homeless"

The term homeless is a broad term. Most take it to mean someone living in a cardboard box house or sleeping on the pavement next to a business, although it has many forms. It's also a couple songs and a documentary, apparently. lol

Homelessness

As you can see, the condition of homelessness (what I and many others endure) takes many forms.

1. Having no true home.

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This is when you've literally got nothing.. you're sleeping on the pavement or in an alley or behind a bench or a bush or in a (luckily for you) unlocked public restroom in a nice community.. whatever it may be.
I find that people in these conditions are the most vulnerable, fragile and suffer the most. That, or they are the polar opposite, it can go to extremes, they may be aggressive, territorial and intimidating as well.
One has to understand that their life is one of the hardest among the homeless and with very little potential for income of any sort, they are generally the most hopeless of cases. It is truly sad to see these people living in such conditions.

2. Having a makeshift/temporary/improvised home.

This is the category I fall under.

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People living under these conditions have some form of "stable" place to sleep or rest that is fairly safe/secure. This may mean they're living like I am, in their car, or they may have one of many options such as a homeless shelter, tent, hotel/motel, friend's house to stay at time to time, etc..

This is obviously not as bad as sleeping right out in the open and most likely in public places, but it can still be unstable and some situations can be unforgiving.

Living in my car is not as bad as it could be.. I've still got some money left from Bitcoin and Altcoin trading and purchases in earlier years that I was able to find the old accounts to.. but it's still not enough to sustain and I have already begun finding secondary methods of income common to homeless people, bottle/scrap collecting specifically.

It's not hard and you don't have to get gross or dive into anything you don't feel is disgusting. I mostly pick clean bottles off tops of trashes and only move clean bags to the side to look around bins. I considered going to neighborhoods on recycling days.. but I'm sure that's probably illegal and I'd rather be homeless than in jail.... especially over something so harmless.

3. The UK's take on "homelessness."

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As you may have read in the above picture already posted, the UK recognizes homelessness as much more than just physical. They look at it far beyond that, in fact. It's viewed as not having any true identity or roots, not having any true sense of belonging or emotional well being. I can somewhat understand this concept, as it makes sense.

Is a house truly a home if you never feel loved?
Never feel happy?
Never feel like you belong?

I don't equate this to true homelessness, as it's almost laughable to some who would call people, more sensitive than others or emotional, names.. but I can understand the feeling. However, I see homelessness, true homelessness, as not having a stable home or the security that it can provide.. the comfort.

My situation.

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How we become homeless is just as important as the fact that we are homeless, I believe..

I didn't become homeless due to poor decisions or a drug addiction or breaking laws.. I became homeless due to circumstance. I could no longer afford rent as I lost a lot of hours when my job hired many many new people for less pay to replace people in my positions. As a result, 35-44 hrs a week became less than 8.

8.

Less than that. How do you expect to live? My car payment alone is 400$ a month and rent was nearly double that for my half, utilities excluded. Needless to say.. I was out of a home. Still had a job, but not for long. Ultimately companies favor the employee who gets paid much less hourly than the other.. it's just "business" to them and they have no problem fattening their pockets on the lives of the less fortunate working class.

Looking for jobs while being homeless is not easy and when you don't have a reliable way to take showers any more and can't afford a hotel room on any consistent basis.. It's hard to smell clean enough to get any real chance. These are things you learn as you go, but in the early on stages of homelessness.. you aren't aware of all the tricks to the game.

Needless to say, jobs became harder and harder to come by. Some would claim they had plenty of hours to give and would end up doing the same thing, but worse. One shift a week at 2-3 places equated to about 10-12 hrs a week. still not enough to afford anything beyond a car payment, gas and food. Things remain that way for a while until I find some old wallets on exchanges and cash out a bit. I now pay my next 2 car payments in advance (just in case.. can't lose my home or have them looking to repo it..) making the smart decision to struggle and budget myself beyond my necessary dues.

I will have to post the rest of the story later on, as I have places I need to be in order to get my money for the day.. but thank you for reading. I appreciate it.

Any tips are welcome and I would appreciate any donation anyone would be willing to give for any of the following coins.. I luckily have a laptop and can use walmart and starbucks wifi to access steemit and exchanges/wallets, so I will be able to make use of anything donated. Also, if you would like, just comment and I can help out some of the other homeless people in my area.. there are a surplus of homeless women.. it's truly sad.. some mothers.. WE would appreciate anything you can afford to give.

Thank you very much..