I try to find a site with good plant cover. I think it is safer, cleaner and more comfortable. I have been homeless for over a year. I have never once slept on a sidewalk. Plant cover tends to make things cooler in summer and warmer in winter. I try to go in once late in the day and go out once in the morning. For security reasons, I don't like other people knowing where I sleep. (Actually, I am not on the street alone. There is safety in numbers, so it can make sense to stay with other homeless people you trust. But I don't like other people knowing where I stay.)
Hills can also provide cover visually and from wind and San Diego county is plenty hilly. However, in the rainy season, a hill can turn muddy and treacherous. It can be a big problem. I have on occasion moved elsewhere when this became too big of an issue. Also, if you expect rain, be mindful of where water flows. Getting caught in a stream that did not exist when you went to bed is not only miserable but a potential serious threat to health (or even life): Being cold and wet can lead to hypothermia.
A note about trash: I find it appalling how so many homeless people trash out their campsites. I realize that people with housing aren't necessarily any cleaner and neater than homeless people but when they trash their house or apartment, it hides behind closed doors. So it is possible to wallow in filth in your own home without people knowing about it and it may also have less negative impact on your health if you have proper shower facilities, laundry room, etc., which are very hard to come by while homeless.
On the street, if you are sleeping amidst trash, you are advertising your presence, giving locals and authorities a good reason to want you gone, and harming your own health. A high percentage of people on the street have medical issues to begin with. Having expensive, unresolvable medical issues is one of the factors that helps push people into the street. (It is the primary reason I am on the street.) Making your health issues worse is not going to help you get off the street. (I am getting well and I am confident that, in the long run, that is my ticket out of here.)
Some tips about handling trash:
- If you buy something or get free stuff, go to the nearest trash can and go through it to remove excess packaging and the like. Everything you carry burns precious energy, energy you need for problem solving if you are ever going to get off the street. Carrying stuff you have no use for actively undermines your ability to work on getting off the street. Carrying around something you are only going to trash later is an obvious waste of energy, easily resolved. Just trash things sooner rather than later. Additionally, waiting until later makes it more likely that trashing your campsite will seem like the most convenient solution.
- Take trash out of your campsite in the morning when you are leaving anyway and dump it in the nearest trash can. It doesn't take much energy and your energy levels will go up if you stop sleeping amidst trash.
- Keep empty grocery bags handy specifically to remove trash in the morning. Unless you are someplace that charges for plastic grocery bags (like Solana Beach), they are free.
- Make it a habit to consume snacks, drinks or sack lunches near a trash can and then dump your trash there when you are done eating and drinking. This works better than taking food back to your campsite first and then having to either trash your campsite or make an extra trash run.
- Plan an evening or nighttime snack that is clean, convenient and only generates a dry wrapper which is easily carried out in the morning. Snacks that leave your fingers sticky, that require utensils to eat or that generate sticky or moist trash cause problems. Among other things, keeping sticky wrappers or partially eaten snacks on site can attract insects or animals. I had one tent chewed apart by probably a raccoon that was determined to get at the food inside. The tent had to be replaced and money is always a problem.