When You Become One Of The Homeless

When You Become One of the Homeless

By Joseph Parish

We all dread the potential nightmare where we may lose your job, and ultimately your home, causing you to have nowhere in which to lay your head at night. Unfortunately, for many American's this is an actual daily reality. In any large city you can readily discover a vast number of homeless folks living under bridges, or nestled up in other abandoned spaces, hoping to be left alone to finish out their lonely life in solitude. Naturally, the local police will try to round-up these homeless folks, and direct them to one of the local shelters in order to make their life a bit more bearable. This is not the unusual situation any longer, but rather the expected, and we can only look forward to things deteriorating at an even worse level.

That's right, I expect the situation to get even worse as the economy continues to drop to lower levels, and public confidence becomes completely destroyed. During this economic decline, many people will lose not only their means of livelihood, but their homes as well. Many families will be forced to join efforts, and perhaps move together, or face the same fate as those homeless in the streets. America is quickly making its way back to households with three or four generations under one roof.

Let me pose a hypothetical question your way and see what your response would be. If the economic conditions were to deteriorate to the worst possible scenario, where would you really go? If you suddenly become one of the homeless statistics, what would you do? Would you seek out some abandoned land with a small home on it, and homestead there until you were forced by authorities to move? Suppose for a moment that you are able to move deeper into the local woods where neither the police nor the land owners are able to bother you, would you still be able to take advantages of the public programs being put forth? You may be too far out of the city to participate in charitable programs, such as soup kitchens or community food handouts, so you would likely be totally on your own.

There are several responses at your disposal if and when the above disaster strikes you and your family. Naturally, the simplest solution as mentioned above is to move in with relatives. I will warn you now, that such an action would not be easy and has its own downfalls, but it certainly would beat living on the street, especially if you have children.

We have already discussed option number two living in the woods. The hazards here are plenty and unless you owned the land your chances of being tossed out by the owner is great. We now come to our third choice, and that is to live in a vehicle of some sort such as a camper, a van or a car. Many people take this route and sleep in truck stops and rest areas. I stayed in a camper for several months at a time, and it really is not too bad. Gasoline permitting you could travel from one Walmart location to another to remain in the parking lot overnight.

The next choices are not as pleasant as the first selections, but will serve in an emergency. You would need to locate a safe urban location where you could set up a temporary homestead. This could be under a bridge, in an abandoned warehouse, or some other undisturbed location. Some people in the larger cities have even set up residence in the subways, or in train stations, although I suspect their period of occupation there was rather brief at best. Abandoned railroad cars offer a bit of rest, but you may encounter roommates at any moment.

Regardless of which response you select for this emergency, you must always remain vigil and on your toes. Life can be extremely dangerous for those on the street, and you will always encounter people more than willing to take advantage of you. Beware is the word of the day!

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