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Amazing.
Also, dishwasher gigs are always in high demand and Chefs DNGAF if you’re down & out, 9 out of 10 times if there’s an opening you get a shot, show up on time, do the work, what you do on your own time is up to you. Not the most ideal job for some, you’ll figure that out soon enough. but it gives you some time to get your shit together.
I’ve been in the kitchen for 35 years and still spend my time in the dish pit (but now the dishes are MINE).
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It’s a good zen kind of work, you spend alot of time in your own head.
Most of the guys I knew took care (to go/family meals) of thier guys (outdated phrases but fuck that “team” bullshit. Brigade is also acceptable)
Chefs DNGAF if you’re down and out
Nothing ever changes (literally Orwell!)
Holy shit dude. These are real as fuck answers. I have done a few of these while going through hard times. 💯 on the need to project the right image into some people’s pity systems to get what you need from them. They don’t want the truth or to help you, they just want to feel good about themselves. Same for hygiene and creating the illusion of legitimacy to access resources. There’s a strategy for every level of life - and you need to know which to use once you move up or down.
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The main takeaway I got was All Cops Are Bastards.
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Out of curiosity, how are things for you now?
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First I would start spiraling deep into depression and lose all hope. This would only be reinforced by the realization that very few programs exist to help with this situation and even fewer that are properly funded enough to be able to help. The slope would only get more steep as you get more and more entrenched into being homeless, not that you want to, and realize that people in general don’t really care either. You’ll start to stop thinking of yourself as a person or an individual and just as a problem that gets in everyones way. No one else will look you in the eye so why should you look yourself in the eye? You give up asking for help eventually. After being rejected at every other program and being outright ignored, stepped over, or given sandwiches made of dogshit you will just sort of collapse. Drug use will seem more and more appealing because you’ve lost everything, there’s nothing left to lose now right? You’ll slip and slide further and further until hope is a distant dream that you’re pretty sure was invented, not one you had yourself. Eventually you’ll end up in a position where the weather outside is too extreme and it’ll force you into a homeless shelter. You haven’t stayed here in years, not since you last had your wallet and shoes stolen from you while you slept, but it’s either die or this. So you go inside and you’re lucky enough to meet a cute staff worker who actually looks at you and treats you like a person and actually looks you in the eye. First time you’ve really felt like a person in years. He offers a sandwich and something to drink and you have a breakdown. First time you’ve felt like a person in a very long time. He gets it. Not the first time he’s seen it. So you go back every now and again hoping to see him but you run into some other staff. A lot are horrific people who are miserable pieces of shit who genuinely don’t deserve to even breathe but a lot of other people are the kindest souls on the planet. People who are trying to help. So you ask for help. For the first time in years. Yet while everyone else ignored you, these people smile and are happy because they’ve been waiting for you to ask. And they help. They know about the programs that are barely funded and barely known about. They hook you up with a doctor who is able to finally diagnose what the hell is wrong with your head (To no ones surprise after years of trauma from homelessness, and even more from your own life, you have CPTSD) and start getting assistance. They know of another program to help subsidize your rent costs to get you out of homelessness and within 6 months you’re moving into your own place and looking back at these staff astounded and amazed that they helped you. They’re treated like trash, screamed at, paid fuck all, told to go to hell, and actively attacked but they still push and help when no one else will.
Source: Experience.
Thanks for sharing this.
i dunno, the premise of this question seems to me like homelessness is a riddle that homeless people just have not figured out. im pretty sure that if the answer could be crowdsourced in eight hours from eighty sysadmins on the toilet, it wouldn’t be such an intractable problem
eighty sysadmins on the toilet
I’ll be damned if that isn’t the most succinct and accurate description of Lemmy that I’ve ever seen.
… so that’s why shitposting is such a huge deal on lemmy.
Homelessness is never a choice. It is always circumstantial (i.e. very very bad luck and nobody to turn to for help) or based on something like a mental health or substance abuse disorder.
For me, my homelessness was caused by being abused and then abandoned by my family members and the resultant depression.
I am incredibly lucky that I have had people come through and support me and give me a place to crash and distractions from my misery long enough for me to process it until I could get back to a decent working mental order.
On a purely financial basis I’m doing really fucking good. I made a little over $150,000 last year, I live in a three-story home, I drive a relatively new car and things are generally pretty good for me in that aspect, but I also have practically no friends and very few people that I can rely on that live anywhere near me and there are unseen costs attached with reaching those levels of depression and misery that I don’t have the ability to express in text format.
But yeah if it had just been on me none of that shit would have ever happened in the first place. It wasn’t that I was lazy. It wasn’t that I was miserable. It wasn’t that I was useless. I didn’t have issues with drugs.
I was my high School valedictorian.
I did everything that I was supposed to do the way I was supposed to do it.
I still got to experience several years of homelessness because the people who chose to bring me into this world also chose to use me as a punching bag and then throw me away when I got old enough that if they continued to beat me mercilessly they would go to jail for it.
It took me a total of 12 years to pull myself up out of that funk and get back on solid ground again.
Glad to hear that you’ve done so much better. Hoping that you can surround yourself with people that bring you peace.
It seems like 100% the problem is a lack of support. Substance abuse is tied quite a bit to having a lack of support and connections to healthy people. It’s why things like AA help people, they have access to a real person who cares about their recovery. Bad home life, being abused, mental health leading to homelessness, it all sounds like ways of saying “unsupported and left to the elements.”
I’ve met enough homeless people in San Francisco who live that way on purpose to know that first sentence isn’t 100% true.
Everything we put up with in life is a choice, even if the only other option is bad (i.e. suicide). People in a bad situation may say that they choose it, only in order to maintain a sense of control and personal agency. It’s not really meaningful to say that some homeless people choose to live that way, unless we know what their alternatives are. And if they have options that most people would consider better, I’d argue that they’re not what most people mean by the homeless problem.
No, I mean they have told me they like living like that; not by consequences of their own actions. Like modern day Diogenes. Just a super minimalistic lifestyle that includes not having a home. There is a scene for that kinda thing in San Francisco.
Hey! I’m not on the toilet.
right now…
If you live in a blue state, then you get in touch with the housing first types who will get you into a small home and off the street. Then you rebuild your life.
If you live in a red state, you hitchhike to a blue state and do the first step.
Go to the library and look up government assistance programs. There are usually some programs to help you, even if you have to jump through miles of hoops.
In the U.S. I would also advise calling 211. It’s a hotline that connects you directly to qualifying government resources.
Very important post. We need solutions, not judgements or moralistic catchphrases that are impossible (bootstraps)
The dirty hippie should get a job.
Don’t be daft. Hippies are smelly. Commies are dirty. Did you not read your Capitalism For Dummies handbook?
I did this pretty much, except I did have a car and family, but I was stubborn and refused help from my family, so really just the car.
Get to a bigger midwest/ rust belt city (Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Cleveland) cost of living is low which is good for you, and in my experience not many people are moving there so tons of people are hiring at jobs with no requirements (I got a job in like 2 days). Try and get two jobs close to each other, probably downtown. You’ll save up money way quicker and have less time to deal with living on the streets.
Find a public park, preferably one with those grills and a water fountain. You can cook food over a fire on thee grill, simple things like oatmeal or ramen. The one I stayed in had bathrooms that were open during the day (at night I just did my business in the woods, used a bag for number 2). It also had an old public building that was closed down but I could climb on top and sleep under the eaves out of sight and the weather. I kept my stuff in my car but I could have kept it there.
For electricity charge you’re stuff at work, and get a backup battery, they’re only like 30 bucks and it’s super important. Libraries are a godsend for a million things, electricity and bathrooms chief among them. After 3 months you should be able to save enough for a shitty apartment and have the job history. Lie if you need to, they won’t check more than your current job 9/10 times.
did I forget my current skills or they are just not in demand anymore? have govenment programs improved? hows my health?
The point of stating “no in demand job skills” was that I did not want someone who has been a web developer for 20 years write something like:
“Easy! I’d just go to the library and get on Upwork.com and start doing freelance gigs”.
ok then.
I am barely holding it together in my nice, comfy life. In that scenario the first thing I would do is look for a nice, high building with roof access.
Not the best thing to suggest to anyone who may be in this situation…
I am not suggesting anything, I answered the question of what I would do.
I realize that. It’s still not a great thing to put out there for those looking for input.
You are allowed to think that.
The prompt was “what would you do” not “what would you advise”
Crime. I’d do crime. I’m too old to join the Navy, too poor to get some debt. So I’d do the same thing the overwhelming majority of Americans who find themselves in the situation do: Crime.
Which crime? Well, the likelihood of this actually happening to many people who are currently gainfully employed and financially stable is uncomfortably high, so some cards I just have to keep close, and you should too.
No war but the class war.
Air Force and Space Force max enlistment age is 42 now. Not for everyone but they do come with skills that are usually marketable outside, respect from random people, and of course room and board. That is not a short term solution though, it can be be months before they send you to basic training, they are also picky about current health, medical history, ASVAB, etc.
Bluntly, I find my current life more than difficult enough with 4/5 of that (I discount the CC and car as not strictly necessary), so I’d start planning my suicide. That’s obviously not meant as advice, it’s what I would do.
I’m 57 years old with bad knees. I won’t make it. First thing I do is go somewhere quiet and kill myself.
Try to find a job. Like any job. I’ll clean or do manual labor, no shame in that. I’d also try and look for government programs for re-education so I can learn whatever skills are in demand and the moment.
Americorps, baby! Get those positions with applied housing. I guess I’d make use of shelters and the local library first.
First up, go to one of the available help centers and register for welfare. This will give me a monthly income that’s enough to cover most of my daily needs. Housing will be more complicated. The state would cover my rent but I’d first need to find a suitable flat in the first place. If I’m lucky, there is social housing available. If not, I’d have to sleep on the street or in shelters for a while. No idea how I’d handle that. Once I have a roof over my head, I can start looking for a job.
