tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9572260300426338632024-02-18T17:56:01.083-08:00San Diego Homeless Survival GuideUseful information for homeless AmericansHomeless in San Diegohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17161865276955220694noreply@blogger.comBlogger155125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-37293448552305640642017-11-23T15:00:00.005-08:002022-04-14T07:36:40.276-07:00This site is being archived
<p dir="ltr">I have decided to not develop this site further. For now, it will be left up because it does not cost me anything to do that. These days, I only occasionally do site maintenance. The site may eventually be removed from the internet. </p>
<p dir="ltr">There are two things driving the decision to stop updating it:</p>
<p dir="ltr">1. I was in the city of San Diego when I started the site. I was in the North County, which is what locals call the northern part of San Diego County, when I decided to make it a countywide resource. Then I left and went to Fresno. I never included Fresno specific resources. Instead, I began trying to write more generally useful information. My hope was to be helpful to homeless Americans generally, regardless of where in the US they lived. </p>
<p dir="ltr">So, the site started as very specific to a particular place and has gradually become less and less specific to that place, yet the place name is in the site name. The result is that people outside of San Diego routinely respond with the idea that this is not relevant to their needs because they aren't in San Diego. </p>
<p dir="ltr">This has been true for a while, but has become more obviously problematic now that I am living outside of California and reaching out to people locally. People and programs outside of California are especially resistant to the idea that this site is relevant to their needs because of its name.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Thus, I have plans to make a site that doesn't have a place name as part of its name. Trying to convince people that this site isn't just for people in San Diego seems like a huge time sink with little benefit. Just creating a new site without that issue seems like a better use of my time and energy.</p>
<p dir="ltr">2. People who are homeless take the site as a suggestion that they should move to San Diego. This was never my intention and the best solution seems to be to simply discontinue the site. </p>
<p dir="ltr">There are a number of problems with people seeing the existence of this site as encouragement to move to San Diego as a homeless person. They all bother me.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I was initially only aware of a couple of problems with it. Over time, the list in my mind has grown and has finally reached some kind of critical mass or tipping point. </p>
<p dir="ltr">First, it places additional burdens on local resources. I am not comfortable with making the nation's homeless problem a burden to be born primarily by California in general and San Diego County in specific.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Second, if you are poor, traveling a great distance can be a significant burden. I would rather help people find resources and solutions closer to where they currently live, for the most part, or encourage them to travel to a much wider variety of places than just one, if travel makes sense for them as part of their solution package.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Third, there is currently a deadly hepatitis outbreak in Southern California. It began in San Diego and has already spread as far north as Los Angeles. It is impacting the homeless population more than others. I feel it is incredibly irresponsible to promote the idea that homeless people should move to Southern California at this time, no matter how inadvertently I am doing that. The hepatitis outbreak means that being homeless down there is currently a potential death sentence. I don't want to end up feeling like I have someone's blood on my hands. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Fourth, the cost of housing in California is insane, so there basically isn't any affordable housing anywhere in California. It does not look like this will improve any time soon. So moving to California as a homeless person may well be a recipe for remaining homeless for years to come because the barrier to entry for housing is so high, and this seems unlikely to change.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Fifth, the dry, temperate weather that has historically made homelessness in San Diego County relatively tolerable may be a thing of the past. Recent weather in California has been generally both hotter and wetter. Some studies suggest that hotter, much wetter weather may be the new norm for California thanks to global warming. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Last, I have been spending more and more of my time trying to convince people that this site is not intended to encourage homeless people to move to San Diego. (In fact, my stance is that I would like to actively encourage homeless people and poor people to leave California.) I am at a point where I feel that is taking time away from actually writing about useful information. So, I think just starting over with a different site would be a better use of my time and energy than continuing to fight this uphill battle. </p>
<hr><hr>
<p dir="ltr">On 09/12/18, comments were closed and hidden. Although I get comment notifications, I had somehow failed to notice them for several months. All new comments were spam. This had not always been true. So keeping comments seemed like all downside, no upside.
<p dire="ltr">
On that same day, I did a number of other site updates, including finally changing the site to a mobile-friendly theme. I had been hesitant to do so because changing the theme sometimes breaks formatting. My biggest concern is that new themes sometimes use very large text for block quotes. If there are very lengthy block quotes on the site, this can result in an unreadable wall of giant text.
</p>
<p dire="ltr">
If you notice any problems of that sort or have comments, you can always email me.
</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-40413709829318639312017-11-15T13:43:00.000-08:002019-09-10T23:47:05.170-07:00Address Verification Challenges and Modern SoftwareSomeone left the following scaremongering, histrionic comment on my <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2015/12/how-to-get-street-address-for-your-mail.html">How to Get a Street Address for Your Mail</a>
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<i>The USPS now offers psychical addresses. However, there are now computer softwares used by creditors and also cell phone carriers when activating a phone, that have the ability to recognise a physical RESIDENTIAL STREET ADDRESS vs a SPECIFIC physical BUSINESS ADDRESS. If you do not provide an "acceptable PHYSICAL RESIDENTIAL STREET ADDRESS," your appl will be rejected.
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Some ppl are even saying their bank made periodic verification of their "residence" address while they were on extended vacation abroad, and sent them a letter to provide their "current residence" location or their acct would be closed in 30 days!
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Apparently, banks and other businesses must comply with Homeland Security anti moneylaundering and anti terrorism enforcement laws.
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Things have changed. You either live in brick n mortar and be forced to choose between rent and food, or never get credit not even.a loan to repair or replace your four wheeled "house."</i><hr>
I am currently off the street. I got off the street a bit over two months ago. Ironically, when I tried to apply for a store credit card after getting off the street, my application was rejected because the apartment building I live in could not be verified to be a residential address.
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When I was still homeless and using a street address from a mail box service, my Starbuck's account clearly stated the name of the business where I rented my mail box. However, I never had a problem with my bank.
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I am not saying there is zero merit to the above comment, but I am deleting it from the page in question because I don't feel it is really helpful. I feel it is more like a scare tactic. I don't know if this is a homeless person who is upset and can't figure out how to make things work or if this is some homeless hater just trying to crap on people who are homeless. Homeless haters do exist. I don't get it. I can't imagine being that warped. But whatever.
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So, be advised that you may run into issues with a mailing address, but it isn't universal. Some organizations readily recognize that a mail box is actually a mail box and not an apartment. Ironically, some government organizations I dealt with did not appear to have this capacity. Starbuck's was the most up to date organization I ran into with regards to this issue and they did not care that it was a mail box and not an actual home.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-73563715061709164142017-11-07T11:34:00.003-08:002022-04-14T07:45:53.025-07:00Bank AccountsIt is possible to get a bank account while on the street. Here is <a href="https://www.ecnmy.org/engage/getting-a-bank-account-can-be-tricky-when-youre-homeless-so-heres-how-i-did-it/">an article I wrote</a> about how I did that.
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I established a new local bank account on the street after establishing a mailing address. My son did so using Neil Good (a homeless services center in downtown San Diego, California) as a mailing address and phone number and he just asked them to send everything via email, not snail mail. We haven't had a problem.<br />
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I had a bank account with a fee when I was first on the street and it was $17/month. That's painful when money is so tight. I established a free checking account with a different bank to eliminate that expense.
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I never told my bank that I was homeless. I did all I could to downplay that while I was on the street whenever I had to interact with a bank, the writing service I work for, etc. I always made sure I had some kind of street mailing address, not a PO box. I kept a cheap phone to keep an active phone number as well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-77005617274313434702017-10-28T15:53:00.001-07:002017-11-09T22:54:59.414-08:00Creating a Future for Yourself from the Street<p dir="ltr">My <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2017/10/spread-word.html">last post</a> here inspired me to update my writing site with a post with information pertinent to someone trying to <a href="http://writepay.blogspot.com/2017/10/writing-under-difficult-circumstances.html">write for money while homeless</a>. Making money writing for an online service was a great a fit for me while homeless and I still make money that way, among other things. </p>
<p dir="ltr">But it was a great fit for me for reasons beyond the fact that I happened to be homeless at the time. It was, and is, a great fit for me due to a personal issue that was a root cause of my homelessness: My chronic health issues. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Long before I became homeless, I completed the online college class <i>Homelessness and Public Policy</i> through SFSU in San Francisco. So, I have not only firsthand experience with homelessness, I also have pertinent education. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Most people who are on the street have intractable personal problems, such as health issues, mental health issues or addiction. These difficult or impossible to resolve issues are always a major contributing factor to the fact that their lives have come unraveled. </p>
<p dir="ltr">My personal opinion is this: If you can treat it with medication and get results, it is a physical health issue. Mental health issues can have social and experiential components, but to the degree that they can be managed with medication, I believe they are at least partly physical health issues. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I also believe that most cases of addiction likely involve undiagnosed underlying health issues. Addiction is often term "self medicating," but the term is an ugly term. It does not get used to mean that people are proactively taking care of themselves via some means other than prescription drugs. Instead, it gets used to mean they are using drugs or alcohol as a crutch and it is viewed in very negative terms. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Making money online works well for me because it means I don't have to be exposed to so many people and their germs, cigarette smoke, etc. It has allowed me to gradually get healthier by allowing me to avoid those factors. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Although I do not have a mental health diagnosis, when I am extremely ill, there are substantial somatopsychic side effects. This is a fancy word for mental health side effects caused by a physical ailment. It is a nice way of saying you are kind of crazy from being sick. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Making my money allowed me to grow gradually physically healthier. This helped make me more mentally and emotionally stable. </p>
<p dir="ltr">This is what allowed me to raise my income and get back into housing. I kind of suspect it has potential to be similarly constructive for people with other physical ailments, including (to my mind) both addiction and any mental health issue that can be treated with medication. </p>
<p dir="ltr">My condition is genetic. There is no cure. But I have grown healthier and more functional. This has helped me create a better life for myself. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Whatever personal issues you have, I hope you also find ways to accommodate them such that you can begin creating a future for yourself, in spite of being imperfect. No one is perfect. Some people just seem to fall more readily into answers that work for them. Just because you have to work to arrange it does not mean it is necessarily "special accommodation" to the degree that the world may want to make you think. </p>
<p dir="ltr">My two sons are both kind of Aspie. Their father is too, though he has never been labeled nor gotten special accommodation. </p>
<p dir="ltr">But he had white male privilege out in the world and he had primary breadwinner privilege in our family and he had "I'm an adult and can do things the way I happen to prefer" as his means for accommodation. So, his life worked and people didn't view him as "special needs" (the new polite way to call some a retard or crip). </p>
<p dir="ltr">People who are Aspie are often bad with faces and don't deal well with changing their clothes constantly. My ex was career army. He wore a uniform, as did all his coworkers. So, he wore the same thing to work everyday because he was required to, not as "special accommodation" for his issues. But it worked for him. </p>
<p dir="ltr">All the uniforms had last names sewn onto them. So, he didn't need to be good with faces to function at work. It wasn't required and he didn't particularly stand out. </p>
<p dir="ltr">So, figure out what kind of work situation will work for you and try to arrange it. Don't let people tell you that personal preferences such as not working around other people is somehow bad or something you should get over. In some jobs, that is just how it works. No big. It is only a big deal if you want something that runs counter to the needs of the job (or you work in a big organization that is inflexible). </p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-18656748291699267052017-09-23T20:13:00.000-07:002017-09-23T20:32:28.716-07:00PSA: Homelessness and California<p dir="ltr">There is currently a deadly Hepatitis A outbreak in Southern California. If you are currently homeless in Southern California and simply cannot leave, please get vaccinated.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The <a href="https://sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/sep/08/stringers-plastic-bag-ban-led-hep-health-crisis/">San Diego Reader</a> says:</p>
<blockquote>
<hr><i>The county is giving away the vaccine at no cost, and it’s available at the </i><i><a href="http://www.fhcsd.org/clinic-locations/">Family Health Centers</a></i><i>, the </i><i><a href="http://www.syhc.org/find-a-location/">San </a></i><i><a href="http://www.syhc.org/find-a-location/">Ysidro</a></i><i><a href="http://www.syhc.org/find-a-location/"> Health Center</a></i><i> and </i><i><a href="http://health-centers.healthgrove.com/l/3934/Vista-Community-Clinic-Vale-Terrace-Clinic">Vista Community Clinic</a></i><i>, and </i><i><a href="https://www.lamaestra.org/city-heights/default.html">La</a></i><i><a href="https://www.lamaestra.org/city-heights/default.html"> </a></i><i><a href="https://www.lamaestra.org/city-heights/default.html">Maestra’s</a></i><i><a href="https://www.lamaestra.org/city-heights/default.html"> City Heights</a></i><i> and</i><i><a href="https://www.lamaestra.org/el-cajon/default.html"> El Cajon</a></i><i> clinics.</i><hr>
</blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">If you aren't absolutely, positively stuck there, please consider leaving. It would be the best way to protect yourself from contracting hepatitis. Also, if even one or two percent of homeless people leave, this might help put a stop to the epidemic. </p><p dir="ltr">Epidemics thrive on crowded, dirty conditions and tend to run like wildfire through concentrations of poor people. Crowding makes it harder to keep things clean. Etc.<br></p><p dir="ltr">I do realize that the large military base north of Oceanside is a physical barrier to trying to leave San Diego County on foot. I also realize traveling can be expensive. Here is a previous post on this site detailing how to get to the High Desert or Central Valley cheaply (it is the route I took to leave):</p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative; font-weight: normal; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 22px; line-height: normal; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2015/05/oceanside-to-victorville-for-1525-in.html">Oceanside to Victorville for $15.25 in bus fare (or less)</a></h3><p dir="ltr">Parts of the High Desert and parts of the Central Valley are generally more affordable than San Diego County and the Los Angeles area. They are retirement destinations for some people from those areas. In both Victorville and Fresno, I ran into people who left the Los Angeles area after retirement to make their retirement check go further.</p><p dir="ltr">If you want to leave and aren't sure where to go, check out this previous post:</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2016/03/relocation-research-basics.html">Relocation Research Basics</a></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;">TLDR of the rest of this post:</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><i>Going to California as a homeless person may well be a great recipe for remaining stuck on the street. Leaving California may help you get back off the street, especially if you have any kind of portable income.</i></span><br></p><p dir="ltr">From what I have read, California seems to have a lot more long term homeless people than most places. I am sure that one factor is the high cost of living, especially the high cost of housing. But, I suspect another factor is the very dry, temperate weather in large parts of the state. </p>
<p dir="ltr">San Diego County, the Los Angeles area and San Francisco have a lot of homeless. Those three areas also all get less rain than most parts of the US and are generally pretty temperate. Los Angeles can be hot in summer, but all three areas tend to not have freezing weather. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I became homeless in Georgia and intentionally returned to California. I had lived there previously, and I knew from firsthand experience that the climate on the West Coast was better for my health than other parts of the US.</p>
<p dir="ltr">While homeless in downtown San Diego, I ran into other homeless people who took homelessness as a good opportunity to relocate cheaply. In other words, some people who are homeless in California became homeless elsewhere and decided to move to California while homeless. I did that and I am not the only person to have done that.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I recently left California and got back into housing. I am writing this post to suggest that other people who are homeless in California also try to leave these high cost, dry areas and try to get back into housing someplace cheaper, if possible. </p><p dir="ltr">This does not necessarily mean leaving the state. Some parts of the state are more affordable than others. But, there is currently an exodus of poor people leaving California. <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article136478098.html">California is exporting large numbers of poor people.</a> If you are homeless in California, consider joining them. It may even be a means to get back into housing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Sleeping in a tent in temperate, dry weather is not a terrible experience. But, this past rainy season saw deadly record breaking rains in California, and some <a href="https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/07/08/another-benefit-of-warming-california-projected-to-get-wetter-through-this-century/">climate models are predicting</a> that global warming will cause wetter weather to be the new norm for California.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This was a factor in my decision to leave the state. The urban areas of the state are not designed to handle that kind of wet weather. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Downtown San Diego has a five story open air mall. It is cool and looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book (and he lived in San Diego County, so this may be no coincidence). But, it is not practical in wet weather. It only makes sense because San Diego gets 10 inches of rain annually. If it gets a lot wetter there as the new norm, such designs will no longer make sense.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There are sidewalks in California that get dangerously slick when wet. They are perfectly safe to walk on in dry weather. They are a falling hazard in wet weather. This, too, will be a big problem if things get a lot wetter as the new norm.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There are lots of sidewalk cafés in the state, especially in downtown San Diego. These, too will make a lot less sense if the state gets a lot wetter as its new normal, thanks to climate change.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The current hepatitis outbreak started November 2016, after the California bag ban went into effect. The bag ban is statewide. I believe it is a factor in this deadly epidemic. </p>
<p dir="ltr">However, another thing that started in November 2016 is the record breaking rains. The wetter weather may be another contributing factor. A lot of infections thrive in damper conditions and rain can spread fecal matter where homeless people have been using the streets as toilets.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Practices that were not so problematic when things were dry may now be helping to spread this deadly infection. This may be getting magnified by the lack of free bags. In fact, I suspect it is. </p><p dir="ltr">The bag ban is statewide and the state as a whole may be getting wetter as the new norm. Thus, some of the conditions that may have helped foster this epidemic are statewide. </p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;">The deadly hepatitis A outbreak in Southern California started in San Diego. According to a Los Angeles reporter who recently interviewed me, it has now spread to L.A. It may not stop there.</span><br></p><p dir="ltr">I believe that two of the factors that account for high rates of long term homelessness in California are:</p><p dir="ltr">1) The dry, temperate weather, which makes camping out not terribly burdensome.</p><p dir="ltr">2) The high cost of living, especially housing.</p><p dir="ltr">I think the weather actively attracts homeless from other states. But the lovely dry weather may already be a thing of the past. The high cost of housing in California is actively an obstacle to getting off the street. There is zero reason to believe the extreme lack of affordable housing in the state will be solved any time soon.</p><p dir="ltr">Traveling to California for the lovely weather while homeless only to find it is impossible to find affordable housing may be part of what keeps some people long term homeless in California. My firsthand experience fits with that. I could not get back into housing in California. To my shock, I left the state and promptly got back into housing in just three days.</p><p dir="ltr">The situation in California is sort of a perfect storm for creating long term homelessness: The weather plus high housing prices work together to keep you trapped on the streets. The weather makes homelessness in California not too horrible to endure while housing costs make it especially hard to get back into housing.</p><p dir="ltr">But, it is a reversible process. You can also leave California -- or even just leave the most expensive parts of it -- and look for affordable housing elsewhere. <br></p><p dir="ltr">This is especially doable if you have any kind of portable income. This can include a retirement check, social security, alimony or disability. </p><p dir="ltr">If you do not currently have portable income, you can make that a goal. You can develop a portable earned income, even while homeless. That is exactly what I did. </p><p dir="ltr">I have alimony and I do freelance writing online. It empowered me to relocate to a cheap small town and get back into housing.</p><p dir="ltr">If you are homeless someplace else in the US and thinking that California sounds like a good place to go, think again. There is a deadly hepatitis outbreak. The state banned free plastic bags, which means you have to pay for bags at grocery stores, et al. The dry weather may not be coming back. The egregiously bad affordable housing issue seems unlikely to be solved for the foreseeable future. </p><p dir="ltr">Because of the crazy high housing costs, going to California as a homeless person may well be a recipe for staying stuck on the street for years to come. If the weather is getting wetter (and hotter), this may be much more miserable than the laid back, hippie style van living you might be imagining.<br></p><p dir="ltr">Also: In the many years I lived in California, both as a housed person and as a homeless person, I never found that laid back hippie vibe for which the state is famous. Instead, I discovered it elsewhere when I left California earlier this month.</p><p dir="ltr"><br></p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-20247060480137698632017-09-21T14:03:00.001-07:002020-12-07T03:40:40.996-08:00For the Record<p dir="ltr">This blog was recently mentioned in a <a href="https://sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/sep/08/stringers-plastic-bag-ban-led-hep-health-crisis/">San Diego Reader</a> article about Hepatitis A in the homeless population. It lists me as a <i>homeless man. </i>While I was still homeless at the time the reporter contacted me, I am not male.</p>
<p dir="ltr">It also quotes me as saying <b>“The outbreak was completely predictable — it's why I left San </b><b>Diego.”</b> This is a fabricated quote. I never said that. The exchange was via email. I have a written record of it. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Some things I actually said to this reporter which may have inspired the made up quote:</p>
<p dir="ltr"><i>I wanted to vote against the bag ban, but failed to manage to vote due to being homeless.</i></p>
<p dir="ltr"><i>I was in downtown San Diego for about six months. I then went to </i><i>La</i><i> Jolla for a while and later to the North County. I spent a bit over 3 years total homeless in various parts of San Diego County. I also had a class on Homelessness and Public Policy at San Francisco State years before I became homeless. As part of that class, I did an internship at the homeless shelter in </i><i>Vacaville</i><i>.</i></p>
<p dir="ltr"><i>If it matters to you, let me tell you up front I left San Diego County over two years ago and I left California yesterday/today. I was still in the Fresno area and still homeless when the bag ban began. </i></p>
<p dir="ltr">So, no, my departure from San Diego was not related to the bag ban. Though the fact that the bag ban was passed was a factor in my decision to leave the state entirely. I think it is a very problematic policy and especially burdensome for the poorest of the poor: those who are without housing.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But, yes, I did feel ahead of time that the bag ban was a bad idea. This is why I wanted to vote against it. No, I did not psychically predict that it would specifically cause or exacerbate a hepatitis outbreak amongst the homeless. </p>
<p dir="ltr">However, I am also not shocked by this turn of events. It certainly does not surprise me to see the passage of the bag ban followed promptly by bad health news in the homeless community.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2017/09/get-well-get-well-off-get-off-street.html">stated previously</a>, the author of this blog is no longer homeless. I left California earlier this month and managed to rent a cheap room.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-71491152575449296562017-09-17T12:07:00.001-07:002017-09-17T12:07:38.044-07:00Paid Campsites<p dir="ltr">While homeless, I sometimes spent the night in a hotel or booked a cheap paid campsite to have access to showers, electricity, etc. I have no car and was camping in a tent, but that isn't the case for all homeless people.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Today, I tripped across this website for helping people find paid campsites: <a href="https://www.hipcamp.com">https</a><a href="https://www.hipcamp.com">://</a><a href="https://www.hipcamp.com">www.hipcamp.com</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">Some stuff on it is pretty pricey, but some is not. </p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-81353503619283414682017-09-08T17:20:00.001-07:002017-09-12T08:49:15.376-07:00Get Well, Get Well Off, Get Off The Street<p dir="ltr">So, the title of this piece has been my plan in a nutshell all along. After being evicted from my apartment, I left my job to try to solve my personal issues so I can try to get a life that works for me. </p>
<p dir="ltr">After five years, eight months and one week, I am back in housing. As of today, I am no longer homeless.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I did not want to go through the shelter system. It seems to be a revolving door for a lot of people. It doesn't necessarily help you actually resolve the problems that led to homelessness to begin with.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If you are homeless, the odds are good that you have one or more intractable problems, such as health issues, learning disabilities, mental health issues and/or fleeing an abusive situation. Yes, there are people who have such problems who aren't homeless. Homelessness usually occurs when the number of issues outweighs the number of resources. In other words, when you have more problems than solutions.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Those problems will not magically go away just because you have a roof over your head. A real home is about more than mere physical shelter.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I have spent my time on the street:</p>
<p dir="ltr">Getting healthier.<br>
Paying down debt.<br>
Developing a portable online income.<br>
Untangling myself from some bad relationships. <br>
Ditching some "professional victim" type behaviors that women are routinely inculcated with.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I wanted a portable online income in part because of my health issues. Working online helps reduce my exposure to germs, etc and generally have more control over my environment. </p>
<p dir="ltr">But I also wanted it so I would be free to live anywhere in the continental US. That detail allowed me to repeatedly move to cheaper places while homeless and, ultimately, to go to a small town where I was able to find a place with cheap enough rent to get off the street.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I ran up my credit card while traveling here, but I expect to be able to work more consistently and earn more money now that I have stable housing. The whole thing was a big adventure and it accomplished some important goals, but I am very glad to have it all behind me.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This is the first day of the rest of my life. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I have no idea if or how much this blog will be updated in the future. But it will certainly be left up as a free resource for those still coping with homelessness.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-75613593905482255802017-07-28T14:07:00.002-07:002022-06-09T08:40:44.160-07:00Finding the Food You NeedMy last post got some pushback from homeless people who basically scoffed at the idea that a homeless person has money or that a homeless person would worry about nutrition. I currently have earned income, and I do worry a lot about nutrition. I am not the only homeless person who has some kind of income or worries about proper nutrition.
<br><br>
But I have gone through periods in the past when I had a lot less than I have now. At one point, my bank account was locked up for 30 days by one of my creditors. I basically was limited to found money that month, though I did have food stamps and I was in downtown San Diego with access to food pantries and the like.
<br><br>
So, I do realize that there are homeless people who have no money at all. I suggest you start by checking out the <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/p/money.html">Money</a> page on this site, plus the <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/p/food.html">Food</a> page. If you are in San Diego County, the Food page has some listings for local meal sites and the like.
<br><br>
But, this page is being written on the assumption that:
<ol><li>You aren't in San Diego County</li>
<li>You don't have food stamps, can't get them or they simply aren't enough</li>
<li>You currently have no cash and no ready means to get any</li>
<li>You probably have dietary restrictions due to health issues</li></ol>
<h2>Where to Get a List</h2>
As I said in a previous post about <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2017/03/finding-services-you-need.html">Finding the Services You Need</a>, when I was going to homeless services five years ago:
<blockquote><hr>the state of the art for getting information into the hands of actual homeless individuals was word of mouth and paper handouts. <hr></blockquote>
I was able to find a paper handout with a list of local food resources at places like:
<ul><li>Food Pantries</li>
<li>The Welfare Office</li>
<li>Homeless Services Centers</li></ul>
So, if you can locate any of those things in your city, go ask for a list of meal sites and other food sources. It may be part of a more comprehensive list of resources or it may be a stand alone list.
<br><br>
<h2>Food Pantries</h2>
I used to use the food pantry services from Catholic Charities. They were really good and gave you some choices. You filled out a form that let you check mark one of two to three choices per listed category. This helped me get things I was more likely to actually eat, given my dietary restrictions. They provided about three days worth of food. You could go once a month, about eight months out of the year.
<br><br>
<h2>Churches</h2>
Churches sometimes have free meal sites and other services. If they do a free hot meal, the norm seems to be once a week. Some of these are good and some are not. If you have no idea where else to start, go find out what is available from churches.
<br><br>
<h2>Free Meal Sites</h2>
If you are in a big enough city, you should be able to find free meal sites. In addition to churches, these are often served at homeless services centers and sometimes found at parks or at places where homeless people are known to gather for some reason. Keep your eye out, ask other homeless people, ask for info at whatever services you can find.
<br><br>
<h2>The Big City</h2>
Wherever you live, if you are really destitute and you are in some small town or mid sized city with little in the way of support services, go to the nearest big city. They will have more homeless services and more meal sites. This is exactly why I spent six months in downtown San Diego when I was first homeless and at my most destitute. I left after I acquired food stamps and was generally in a little better shape.
<br><br>
<h2>Bread and Produce</h2>
When I was homeless in downtown San Diego and really destitute, I was initially getting a lot of free bread and drinking water from water fountains. Word to the wise: This is a great way to wind up horribly constipated. Once I knew that, I began trying to make sure I got bread and produce. Since I do have dietary restrictions, the meal sites were often not a good fit for me. But I applied for food stamps and I began learning where I could get bread and produce about once a week. Once I had mapped out enough places to reliably get bread and produce (plus a good breakfast site), I generally had enough to eat, without having problems like severe constipation.
<br><br>
<h2>Middle Class Free Food</h2>
I also use discount cards, reward programs, etc. I still participate in Microsoft Rewards (formerly known as Bing Rewards) and I get free Starbuck's gift cards that way. I have a Starbuck's membership and I get free items for participating in that. There is a website/email list called <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2017/03/free-food-guy.html">Free Food Guy</a> that tells you about promotions at restaurants and the like where they do free items periodically. Even while dirt poor, it is sometimes possible to get some freebies from the middle class route of promotionals, reward programs, etc.
<br><br>
So, find out what food resources are available where you are at and do your best to use the ones that meet your needs. If you can't get your needs met where you are, consider going to a bigger city which is likely to have more resources.
<br><br>
But, also, take it upon yourself to begin working on solving your problems. If you don't have an income, you need to develop one. I have spent the past 5.5 years doing the following:
<ul><li>Getting healthier</li>
<li>Paying down debt</li>
<li>Developing a portable online income and scaling it up</li></ul>
The fact that my income is portable allowed me to leave San Diego County and move someplace cheaper. I may also eventually leave California entirely and move someplace cheaper. I hope to be able to afford housing again sometime in the not too distant future.
<br><br>
<h2>Warning</h2>
I am aware that some homeless people get food and other items out of dumpsters or eat out of trash cans. I have never done this. My entire plan for solving my personal problems hinges upon the need to get well first. I am very big on germ control. Dumpster diving and digging in trash cans runs counter to that plan. When you are homeless, it can be impossible to get properly cleaned up again after exposing yourself to something like that.
<br><br>
Part of the point of this website is providing tips on how to get your needs adequately met such that it preserves your path back to a middle class life. Eating well and staying healthy are a big part of that.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-65018731674430743252017-07-18T17:03:00.000-07:002023-12-06T14:13:19.884-08:00Where to Get Bacon, Eggs, Butter and Affordable, Quality Beef While HomelessLike a lot of homeless people, I have health problems that come with special dietary needs. I blog elsewhere about <a href="https://atypicalcysticfibrosis.blogspot.com/">managing my health problems </a>largely with <a href="https://nutrientdense.blogspot.com/">diet</a> and lifestyle. But what I don't typically talk about on those blogs is the fact that getting specific foods that I needed while homeless came with special challenges.
<br /><br />
If I need something like beef, I need to find a place that serves it cooked because I have no cooking facilities. It also needs to be affordable for my constantly strained budget and it needs to be high enough quality for my health needs. Here are some of the things I periodically need that can be hard to find on the street and how I handle that:
<br /><br />
<h2>Bacon and Eggs</h2>
Bacon and/or eggs can be surprisingly hard to find, plus bacon can be surprisingly expensive. Both are easier to find now that McDonald's offers breakfast all day. You can get a bacon, egg, cheese biscuit for under $4 any time of the day if you are near a McDonald's.
<br /><br />
You can get bacon and eggs 24/7 at Denny's. Some of the breakfast items include bacon and are affordably priced, such as the Value Slam. Though if you get the Value Slam and want bacon, tell them "all bacon." Otherwise, you get a single slice of bacon plus a sausage. When you say "all bacon," you get two slices of bacon.
<br /><br />
Taco Bell has breakfast items until 10:30 or 11 a.m. that can include bacon and/or eggs. A Bacon Breakfast Burrito from Taco Bell is one of the cheapest ways to get both bacon and eggs.
<br /><br />
Sometimes, grocery store delis sell things like breakfast burritos and there are other restaurants with breakfast options. But these are the ones I typically rely upon. They are reasonably "homeless friendly" and affordable.
<br /><br />
<h2>Butter</h2>
Butter does good things for my condition. Among other things, it seems to provide good support for bone marrow, which is a critical part of the immune system. I used to buy sticks of butter and a roll or two and make butter sandwiches when my pain was real bad. I haven't done that in a while. I don't need as much butter as I used to.
<br /><br />
Although butter is on the expensive side, it is covered by food stamps and it will keep for a few days without refrigeration, especially if you are someplace with a mild climate (like San Diego).
<br /><br />
When I do get food from Denny's, their breakfast items typically come with a small tub of butter. That is the primary source of fresh butter for me currently. I do sometimes stick it in a Ziploc bag and hang onto any unused butter, because it does keep for a bit.
<br /><br />
Alternately, I read labels and buy bakery items made with real butter. This can include sugar cookies or loaf cake.
<br /><br />
<h2>Beef</h2>
Beef is a good source of protein, plus it is high in iron and B vitamins. I and my oldest son sometimes desperately need beef to get an adequate supply of those nutrients.
<br /><br />
My go-to answer for affordable, high quality beef is Chipotle. They have two kinds of beef: Steak and Barbacoa. I typically get a barbacoa taco. I am missing a lot of teeth and the barbacoa is very soft. It is basically shredded beef.
<br /><br />
If you have never eaten at Chipotle, the menu prices can look pretty intimidating. The listed price is for three tacos. If you get just one taco, it should be under $3.
<br /><br />
Yes, this is still a lot more money than a taco at Taco Bell. But I don't eat beef at Taco Bell. I mostly eat vegetarian options there, plus the occasional item with some shredded chicken on it.
<br /><br />
If you don't want a taco, you can just get a "side" of beef in a bowl. It will be over $3 for a single scoop, or around $6 for a double order. Compared to going to a steak house, this is still a bargain.
<br /><br />
When we were first homeless, we sometimes would get take-out from a steak place, like Outback's. That usually ran us around $20 or more because you have to order an entire meal. You can't just get a steak by itself.
<br /><br />
Beef jerky is another option. Some beef jerky is pretty decent quality. It also keeps well and can be bought with food stamps.
<br /><br />
I also sometimes go to Panda Express. They have at least three beef dishes that work for me, including Broccoli Beef. But their Angus Steak option is made with higher quality beef than their other beef dishes and that is the one I typically purchase.
<br /><br />
It is an extra charge. So I am paying a bit over $8 these days for a 'bowl,' which is one main dish plus either rice or noodles. That still is vastly more affordable than a place like Outback's and vastly better quality than a hamburger from a fast food place. I almost never eat hamburgers. Because of my health, I am very picky about meat quality.
<br /><br />
If you have special dietary needs and are homeless, it generally makes more sense to try to find a means to meet your special dietary needs than to ignore them. Ignoring them can lead to very serious health problems and this can be miserable, debilitating and can lead to substantial medical bills.
<br /><br />
It can take a bit of research, but I have been able to take good care of my health while homeless. I am actually growing stronger and healthier, and this is part of my plan to eventually get off the street and get my life back.
<br /><br />
Last updated December 6, 2023 to keep links current.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-80096251741009811242017-07-12T15:03:00.000-07:002018-09-30T09:48:35.270-07:00Homelessness, The Law and Pragmatic Personal Choices
<hr>
<i>I have been homeless for 5.5 years. I have seen online comments where people justify theft by homeless people as the only option available to them. In 5.5 years, I have not taken to stealing to feed myself. I have always sought out legitimate resources of some sort, such as soup kitchens, food stamps and earned income.
<br /><br />
I am not some Paladin-like figure and I draw boundaries a little differently than I used to. For example, I am a bit more "finders, keepers" than I used to be. In my youth, I tended to go to ridiculous lengths to return found items to their "rightful owner."
<br /><br />
I still will turn over wallets, debit cards and ID cards to a librarian or cop in hopes that those items make it home. But I also will just toss items into the trash or step over them, not my problem, if it is no use to me and also not something along the lines of a wallet.
<br /><br />
I want a legitimate income because I want to eventually return to a more conventional life. I did once have someone imply that they had shoeboxes of ill gotten cash and hint that they might be willing to give me some as a means to launder it. I thought it over and decided to end the friendship.
<br /><br />
My thinking is that if I want to continue sleeping in a tent and living outside the bounds of normal society, then a shoebox full of dirty money might make some kind of sense to give me food security. But I wouldn't be able to use such funds for a down payment on a house.
<br /><br />
Since my desire is to buy a house and return to a more conventional life, I decided taking dirty money made no sense and would be actively counterproductive. I have seen TV shows about bank robbers who camped in a swamp or lived in a trailer because they were on the run. I am already camping, without also being on the run from the law. I am trying to figure out how to stop camping. Laundering money seems to not fit with that goal.
<br /><br />
Now, if they had simply PayPal-ed me the money without telling me it was dirty and then asked me to not tell anyone who gave it to me for privacy reasons, that would have been different. But with telling me upfront that the money was dirty, taking that money and hiding the origins would make me complicit.
<br /><br />
So, I have lived for a long time in circumstances that other people openly state would be justification for illegal activities, like theft or money laundering. I have not concluded that makes sense. In fact, I have concluded that falling into a life of crime would help keep me trapped in homelessness. It would actively serve as an obstacle to getting my life back.
</i>
<br /><br />
<a href="http://feministslacking.blogspot.com/2017/07/highlander-episode-lamb.html">Highlander Episode: The Lamb</a> -- Feminist Slacking
<hr><hr>
The long quote, above, is from a different blog of mine (which is no longer online). So, yeah, I wrote that. And I decided to post it here and add a few remarks because after writing it, I thought, you know, that's a good line of thinking. It is something I have spent a lot of time thinking about and maybe it will help someone else on the street think through a few things about their own life and the choices available to them.
<br /><br />
I get it, life on the street is hard and it is nigh impossible to get through the day without breaking some law. I no doubt commit petty offenses on a regular basis, if only by sleeping someplace I am not supposed to be.
<br /><br />
But a lot of the things I do are things routinely done by non-homeless individuals and no one really cares. If you are homeless, jay walking can become a good excuse for a cop to cite you, but they very often don't bother to cite non-homeless people.
<br /><br />
In many cases, it is a form of anti-homeless policy. Some jurisdictions figure if they can get you to move on, that is in their best interest.
<br /><br />
It is lost on them that if that is everyone's policy, a homeless person winds up with no place to go and then things become truly desperate. If there is no place you can even walk down the street without being hassled, that is a point at which simply existing is illegal and you no longer have any reason whatsoever to try to cooperate and be a law abiding citizen.
<br /><br />
So, I get it, the odds are stacked against you and no one cares and society is pretty shitty about how it treats homeless people. But I feel okay about sharing my thoughts on this aspect of homelessness in part because the whole purpose of this blog is to try to help people on the street get better access to legitimate resources.
<br /><br />
I am not trying to lecture you and make your life harder. I am trying to help you make a distinction that can be lost when you are homeless a long time.
<br /><br />
That distinction is this: While it may be impossible to not commit petty offenses on a routine basis while homeless, you should resist the temptation to let that become a slippery slope to greater crimes because those greater crimes can interfere with your ability to get your life back. Going to jail can make it even harder to get a job, rent a place to live, etc. Once you go that route, it gets really hard to escape from being either a career criminal or permanently homeless.
<br /><br />
So, okay, go ahead and jay walk because it is shorter and so much of the world is not designed to work well for pedestrians. But don't let that convince you that "You are already breaking the law on a routine basis, so what's a little petty thievery?" or similar.
<br /><br />
I do all I can to seek out legitimate resources not due to some abstract ideology and sense of morality, but for very practical reasons.
<br /><br />
Jay walking or other petty offenses like that may not interfere with your ability to get your life back (assuming some cop doesn't use it as an excuse to bust you, so maybe try to not jay walk when the cops are around). But if you decide that a life of crime is justified because you are homeless, well now you are a criminal. And that can be a huge obstacle to returning to a normal middle class lifestyle.
<br /><br />
That's part of why this blog exists. My hope is that I can help you find legitimate resources so you can start solving your problems and eventually get your life back.
<br /><br />
Make your peace with whatever petty offenses are impossible to avoid given your circumstances (and they vary from person to person and place to place), but do your best to not let that take you down a slippery slope where you think you don't need to bother to abide by any rules ever, because it just won't matter. It will matter and it will generally tend to help keep you trapped.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-38439046142768302492017-07-01T15:45:00.000-07:002019-09-10T23:50:54.699-07:00Gender and HomelessnessSomeone left this ugly <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14679248">comment on Hacker News</a>:
<hr><i>Again, biology has predictive power in the realm of IQ distribution by gender. The bell curve for male IQs is wider but flatter than female IQs, which could explain why there are more men than women in physics, a profession with the largest demands for exceptional intelligence. It also explains why there are more homeless men than there are homeless women. </i><hr>
So, yeah, no, this is not remotely why there are more men than women on the street. Here are some of the facts:
<br /><br />
Women tend to get custody of children. Relatives and all of society try to keep children off the street. This helps keep the custodial parent off the street as well. The custodial parent is much more likely to be female than male.
<br /><br />
Women are much more likely to be members of the hidden homeless rather than outright "street people." They are much more likely to be doing things like couch surfing rather than camping out.
<br /><br />
There are complex reasons for this. Part of it is that friends and relatives are much more concerned about a woman being out on the street. Part of it is that women tend to have a much harder time on the street, so they do their best to avoid it.
<br /><br />
If a woman is still young enough to be menstruating, this is a pain to deal with while homeless and something men don't have to deal with. Women are at increased risk of being raped while homeless.
<br /><br />
Women tend to make less money than men, generally speaking. Men who are on the street often seem able to come up with some money to keep themselves fed and have some beer. Women who are street people seem to generally have a much, much harder time getting the resources they need compared to relatively able bodied men on the street.
<br /><br />
There is also an element of agency in play here that is hard to explain. Men have more freedom of choice than women. This means that to some extent going and being homeless instead of putting up with an abusive situation (for example) is something men are more empowered to do.
<br /><br />
In some sense, me being on the street is a choice. I wish I had better choices available to me. I don't. But I have had worse ones available.
<br /><br />
I have had a few people offer me a place to stay, either women acquaintances offering me something that would have harmed my health (and I am on the street to get myself well, so no thank you) or men basically looking to make me their bitch. Men who figured I was so poor, I would even consider sleeping with them in exchange for a place to stay. They were wrong.
<br /><br />
I did briefly know another homeless woman in downtown San Diego who only spent a few days on the street because she rapidly arranged to find some man to move in with. At least, it is my understanding she was homeless only a few days. She told me she would soon be off the street because she was moving in with a guy. I did not see her again after that.
<br /><br />
Generally speaking, this is not an option men on the street have -- or it is less of an option. Both my sons were offered a place to stay, but by an elderly gay man. Neither of them swings that way and turned him down.
<br /><br />
It's complicated and there are many factors. But, no, it is not that there are more retarded men than retarded women and that's why there are more men on the street. The very lopsided ratio of male to female homeless individuals is mostly about sociocultural factors and a little bit about how female biology is damnably inconvenient on the street. Even just peeing in the bushes is more complicated for a woman than for a man.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-50046599036226825652017-06-18T15:30:00.002-07:002017-06-18T15:35:39.216-07:00Keeping Cool in the HeatWhen it is hot outside, the library is welcome reprieve from the heat because it has air conditioning. But it isn't open 24/7.
<br /><br />
When the library closes early and it is hot out, we dally on our way to camp. Camp is in open area that gets a lot of sunlight. Three bodies in a small tent really generates a lot of heat, which we count on to stay warm in winter with minimal bedding. But it gets problematic on hot days.
<br /><br />
So, if we can avoid it, we don't want to all three of us to be there baking in the sun for several hours before sun down. We hand out in shady areas in the park and walk slow on the way home. I tend to dally even more than my sons and go home after them. If I have money to spare, I may also go to Panda Express and/or Starbuck's and get home more than an hour after my sons.
<br /><br />
The last couple of nights, we have left the rain fly off the tent in early evening. Last night, we left it off all night.
<br /><br />
The tent was initially set up in the shade of a tree. After nightfall, we decided to move it to the other side of the tree so that we would be in the shade of the tree at sun up. With today being Sunday, we wanted to try to sleep in a bit, if possible. Come morning, we were really glad we had moved the tent.
<br /><br />
We slept okay last night, but tonight is supposed to be even hotter. Then nighttime temps are supposed to start coming down some.
<br /><br />
We plan to repeat the same tricks we used last night to keep things as bearable as possible tonight. We may also buy extra drinks, including Gatorade. Staying hydrated is important. That involves more than just getting enough fluids. You also need to stay on top of your electrolytes when sweating more than usual.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-81323638093964922472017-06-16T12:42:00.002-07:002017-06-16T12:47:00.283-07:00The Hepatitis A outbreak and some thoughts on hygieneA reporter emailed me yesterday about the deadly Hepatitis A outbreak currently happening in Southern California and asked for my feedback on how this may be happening in the homeless population. There have been 160 confirmed cases and four people have died so far.
<br /><br />
Homeless people are at more risk than average and quite a few of these confirmed cases are among homeless people. About 80 percent of the afflicted have had to be hospitalized.
<br /><br />
Here are a couple of pertinent articles:
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<a href="https://patch.com/california/carlsbad/third-person-dies-hepatitis-outbreak-san-diego-county">Third Person Dies From Hepatitis A Outbreak In San Diego County</a>(May 5, 2017)
<br />
<a href="https://patch.com/california/san-diego/san-diego-county-hepatitis-outbreak-linked-santa-cruz-strain">San Diego County Hepatitis A Outbreak Linked To Santa Cruz Strain</a> (June 15, 2017)
<br /><br />
Someone had suggested to this reporter that the California plastic bag ban may be related to the outbreak. I think this is plausible. I linked him to a Reddit discussion of how homeless people often use plastic bags to dispose of human waste when they need to relieve themselves under conditions where they have no access to a bathroom, which often occurs at night.
<br /><br />
I have never pooped into a plastic bag and dumped it in the trash can. I have been homeless nearly 5.5 years. I am getting healthier on the street, not sicker. I do it by eating carefully and exercising stringent germ control practices and policies because when you are homeless, the best answer is to just not get germy because you face greater than average challenges in getting clean again. Here are some of my germ control practices:
<br /><hr><br />
I carry both <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2015/04/spray-peroxide-and-hand-sanitizer.html">hand sanitizer and spray peroxide</a>. I use them liberally to keep clean. We particularly use them to clean our hands after peeing or pooping outdoors.
<br /><br />
I don't dig in trash cans. When I did recycle, I picked up recyclables from the ground. I usually did not dig in trash cans. When you can't get showered and can't routinely launder your clothes, the best answer is to just not get germy to begin with. There can be no hope of getting it off. If I did pull stuff out of trash cans, I typically changed my shirt afterwards. You can get t-shirts for as little as a dollar from places like the dollar store and Walmart clearance racks.
<br /><br />
I have always camped in areas with greenery, even when I was in downtown San Diego. I have never slept in an alleyway behind a dumpster or anything like that.
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I make sure I know where all the public bathrooms are and I also find bathrooms in stores where I shop regularly. I do my best to not defecate outdoors. I do pee outdoors routinely, but I do my best to defecate in proper facilities and then wash up afterwards.
<br /><br />
When I get new clothes, I try to clean up and throw the old ones out when I change.
<br /><br />
I carry disposable plastic cups and I never share germs with someone else when sharing a drink with them. I am homeless with my two adult sons and we never drink from the same cup or bottle. We pour drinks into cups and throw the cups out after we are done. This is a small expense that goes a long way to protect us from communicable disease.
<br /><hr><br />
After the exchange with the reporter and discussing this issue with my two sons, I suspect homeless people are digging plastic bags out of trash cans to get them for free. They no doubt use them for various purposes, possibly including disposing of poop.
<br /><br />
Please do not dig plastic bags out of trash cans to use for any purpose. If you get food stamps, <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-california-plastic-bag-ban-and-food.html">you are exempt</a> from paying for plastic bags. You can get your bags for free.
<br /><br />
I realize the bag ban is just one more "fuck you, homeless people" policy. I would have voted against it had I managed to vote, but being homeless got in the way. I realize that germ control on the street is a huge challenge and that the list of practices here probably sounds quite challenging. It isn't even comprehensive. There are other things I do to control germs.
<br /><br />
But homeless people have a lot of health problems and being homeless can have a terrible negative effect on your health. If you are to have any hope of getting your life back, you need to practice strict germ control.
<br /><br />
With getting gradually healthier, my freelance income is going up. I have also paid off debts while homeless. I hope to get back into housing in the next few months. This would not be true if I were not very careful about germ control.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-62089305578128428242017-05-26T14:55:00.002-07:002019-09-02T19:52:24.681-07:00Lessons Borrowed from Intentional DisappearancesI spent part of my day today reading the following three stories:
<ul><li><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39849458">Eddie Maher: How I took my family on the run for 19 years</a>
</li><li>
<a href="https://www.wired.com/2009/08/gone-forever-what-does-it-take-to-really-disappear/">Gone Forever: What does it take to really disappear?</a>
</li><li>
<a href="https://www.wired.com/2009/11/ff_vanish2/">Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here's What Happened</a></li></ul>
If you are homeless, it can feel kind of like you are on the lamb, even though your only crime may be dire poverty. On the other hand, I have talked to enough homeless people online and off to know that some are having personal drama of a sort that causes some people to do things like those in the stories above, such as try to fake their death and start over. Some homeless people have spent time in prison. Some have mental health diagnoses and are not stable. Etc.
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I am posting the above articles because I was struck by the fact that many of the tactics that work if you are trying to hide your identity also work if you are homeless and maybe don't have an address or an ID card. Things like cash, gift cards and pre-paid phones are your friend.
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If you are having personal drama, being homeless is perhaps one of the best ways to fall off the radar and sort of disappear without actually going into hiding. As a homeless person, there are serious barriers to making friends and socializing in the usual way.
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I do most of my socializing online. Even there, I see other people make real friendships that elude me. Even though there is no real reason they couldn't share some of the same things with me that they share with other internet friends, they simply don't. With each other, they become twitter pals or they share with their friends other spaces they hang out or they swap phone numbers and sometimes even meet in person. I am consistently left out.
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It isn't like I haven't tried to make real friends online, but it never really clicks. They can't really get past the fact that I am homeless in order to connect to me like a real person. The one man who did seem like a real friend for a time turned out to have an agenda to get me to move in with him and no doubt help raise his kid as he was a single father.
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When push came to shove, he wasn't really any different from the guys who have offered me a place to stay based solely on my looks and my obvious poverty. It is a perhaps polite form of intended human trafficking, an attempt to take advantage of my incredibly vulnerable position. Color me unimpressed with the polite fiction that makes them comfortable with such a goal.
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If you really want to drop off the radar legally and quietly start your life over legitimately and you happen to be homeless, this is probably your best shot at doing that. A lot of your so called friends will want nothing more to do with you. You can up and leave and go elsewhere with just a backpack far easier than if you needed to pack up and move a household. If you have any sense, you eventually learn to keep your mouth shut and quietly avoid subjects that you just don't want to call attention to, like the fact that you are homeless.
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Sure, lots of people can infer that I am homeless. But I rarely tell anyone in meat space. I am open about it online. But, these days, I am not so open about it in person.
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I very much enjoyed reading the above stories. It made me feel kind of like I pulled off a successful disappearance in plain sight, under my actual legal name.
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I encourage you to read them. Maybe you will enjoy them, be able to identify with them and also take some inspiration from them on how to re-establish a legal identity, mailing address and so on. Perhaps it will make you feel more like your life on the street is a great adventure or you can imagine yourself as being like an intriguing character in a wild story. Or if your story really is that filled with drama, you can preen and feel good about disappearing legally, in plain sight, under your own name.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-16991758151655126672017-04-16T15:49:00.001-07:002019-10-05T18:21:17.948-07:00A Good Library<p dir="ltr">I spend a lot of time in libraries. They serve as my office. Here are some thoughts on how to find a library that meets your needs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">You can start your research online. Google up library information for an area you are interested in. I like looking for a library system where some branches are open 7 days a week. I have also found that if their shortest day is 5 hours instead of 4, that helps make sure I can keep charged up.</p>
<p dir="ltr">You may also be able to find information online concerning things like number of public PCs and usage policies. Some libraries are more flexible than others.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But some information cannot be found online, such as how many outlets are available and how friendly the staff is. Some library staff actively look for BS excuses to evict homeless individuals. Others are genuinely supportive and considerate.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So, at some point, you need to physically go to different branches and see how well it works for you.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If you have a laptop, tablet or smartphone, you should be able to plug in (assuming they have outlets -- some do not) and use the Wi-Fi without a library card. You can also read books without checking them out without a library card.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If you want to check out materials (I do not) or use the public computers (I do), you will need a library card. This typically requires ID and an address. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Some things that can be problematic:</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Libraries that are not genuinely public property.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">I have been to a couple of branches (one in Oceanside) that was renting space in a shopping center. This is problematic in part because security is more likely to run you off while waiting for it to open.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Unfriendly staff.</b> </p>
<p dir="ltr">We referred to one library as "(head librarian's name) Dungeon" because she was so awful. Her staff hated her too. We figured this out after she basically ran us off from her branch because it was just one branch of a system where the staff rotated around the system to other branches. Once staff in another branch figured out she hated us, they were even nicer to us, apparently to get her goat because she had far less power there than on her home turf.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Not near food.</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">Since we spend all day at the library doing freelance work and developing our projects, etc, we need to eat lunch and do snacks. A good library will be near eateries and shopping that work well for us.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>Bonus:</b></p>
<p dir="ltr">If it is near food and has good outdoor spaces conducive to doing lunch conveniently, this is awesome. It is also nice if it is not overly far from a good camp site.<br>
</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-76682718260957532162017-03-26T15:30:00.000-07:002017-03-26T15:30:03.500-07:00Finding the Services You NeedIt is really hard to Google the information you need with regards to homeless services. I have had a college class in online search, and I spend a bunch of time online regularly and have for years. I still have trouble trying to Google up information I need when I am in a pickle or trying to find information for someone else who is homeless when I am answering questions in various online forums.
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Websites for charities and homeless services tend to be donor-facing. In other words, the website exists to tell well-off people "We do good work. Please support our mission. Here is how to give money or volunteer here, etc."
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Such websites tend to NOT be a very good source of information about services available on the ground that you, as a homeless individual, need to access. Even if they do say "We do X," they very often have a phone number and that's it.
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You then have to call to find out when and where you need to go. When you do physically show up, they may not have the thing you thought they had based on what you read online or heard over the phone.
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When I was homeless in downtown San Diego, the state of the art for getting information into the hands of actual homeless individuals was word of mouth and paper handouts. The handouts were full of errors and it was problematic for many reasons, starting with the fact that they can get wet and then you can't read it.
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It is all kinds of terrible. This is why I ended up starting this website: To keep track of the information I needed for myself. Then, to my surprise, it attracted organic traffic.
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That is the entire reason this site exists at all: Because it is so hard to find the information you need online if you are homeless. In fact, it can be hard to find it even by phone or by going there in person.
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But, my point is that what you need to do is find out where there are homeless services, physically go there and talk to someone and tell them what you need and get their paper handout with information about what is locally available.
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You may be able to start by asking another homeless person. They are sometimes the best source of information on what services exist in the city in question.
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There may be a service that can help you. But you probably can't find out the name and address of it and the hours that they do this <i>on the internet.</i> Generally speaking, the way that you get that info is you physically go to some place with services and you talk to people and pick up handouts and follow the bread crumb trail until you find the right agency that does the thing that you need done.
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Welcome to the 21st century.
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Generally speaking, you will have better luck finding services in big cities. This is part of why you see high rates of homelessness in big cities: Because that is where the soup kitchens and services are. So, some homeless individuals travel to the big city in order to access services, then they stay because they don't have resources for commuting and they may not have anyplace in particular that they need to be.
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-32995117859550825102017-03-25T16:09:00.000-07:002017-10-17T07:25:45.172-07:00Are You Living in Your Vehicle in San Diego County?If you are living in a car or van, <a href="http://www.dreamsforchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Outreach_Flyer_2013_092413_.pdf">Dreams for Changes (PDF)</a> may be able to help you find safe parking.
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That PDF is a San Diego specific resource. Here are a few more general tips:
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You might also benefit from checking out <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/vandwellers/">/r/vandwellers/</a>. Most Walmarts allow overnight parking. If they are open 24 hours, this gives you bathroom access overnight.
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Some highway rest stops allow overnight parking. Look for at least three places to park and don't spend too many nights in a row in the same spot.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-44568758166857125932017-03-12T14:50:00.001-07:002017-03-12T15:05:08.592-07:00Free Food Guy<a href="http://www.freefoodguy.com/">http://www.freefoodguy.com/</a> is a website that announces promotional giveaways of food, such as a free coffee at a particular chain or a free burger at some other chain. You can sign up to get notified by email.
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If you are so poor that you are eating regularly or periodically at soup kitchens, this would be a vastly better way to get some free food into you. Soup kitchens tend to crowd dirty, sick people together and the quality of the food tends to be low. I and my sons do all we can to avoid going to soup kitchens, and we haven't been to one since we left San Diego County nearly two years ago.
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Going to soup kitchens was a great way to expose me to germs, cigarette smoke and marijuana smoke. I am allergic to marijuana and I have life threatening respiratory problems. Eateries, restaurants and other market based solutions generally serve my needs much, much better.
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I use loyalty cards at some of my favorite stores to help me stretch my budget. My favorite grocery store sometimes gives away a free food item to reward card members. I absolutely check that out to see if it is a thing we can use and I have been known to grab it even if I can't use it and then just give it away.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-59448407828572348492017-03-01T12:21:00.001-08:002017-03-01T12:49:42.002-08:00The Cost of Replacing Documents<p dir="ltr">We had all of our birth certificates replaced five years ago. At that time, a homeless services center handled it for free, including providing a temporary mailing address. We are doing this a second time out of pocket, starting with the priciest document. Here are the direct costs:</p>
<p dir="ltr">Money order: $50<br>
Processing fee: $1<br>
Printing: 10¢<br>
Envelope: 15¢ plus tax, total: 16¢<br>
Stamp: 58¢<br>
Notary public: $15</p>
<p dir="ltr">Total: $66.84</p>
<p dir="ltr">That should probably include at least 10¢ more. I think they failed to charge me for the photocopy of the ID. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Hidden expenses: We need a mailing address and, for this item, a phone number to list. My mailing address is $15/month. I paid that today while taking care of this. I also bought a new phone today because I have not had one for two months. That cost me another $37.35. </p>
<p dir="ltr">All told, I spent $119.19 today to get this process started. </p>
<p dir="ltr">We need to do this twice more. The next two times should be substantially cheaper, in part because the $50 fee for the document is unusually high. The fee is usually closer to $25. Also, I will already have a phone.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But I wanted to list all expenses accurately while I can. If you need to do this on your own, there can be lots of little expenses that add up quickly. This list should give you some idea of what those might be. </p>
<p dir="ltr">The total cost shown here should represent a "worst case" scenario, not an optimistic one. It isn't intended to scare anyone. My hope is that it will help other homeless people avoid nasty surprises that they can ill afford. </p>
<p dir="ltr">I think it is problematic to only show a best case scenario with the lowest possible fees. Hopefully, when you add up your costs compared to mine today, you will be pleasantly surprised instead of freaking out.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-27918933494495274942017-02-08T14:59:00.000-08:002017-02-08T15:06:06.363-08:00Assistance with Replacement DocumentsPeople on the street often have lost their ID, birth certificate, Social Security card and other documents. This is a barrier to receiving services, getting a job or renting an apartment. Here are some places that help with that:
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San Diego: <a href="http://pumsd.org/index.html">Presbyterian Urban Ministries</a> Also mentioned elsewhere on this site: <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2012/04/triple-cross-trying-to-get-id.html">Getting ID</a>; <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2012/10/presbyterian-urban-ministries.html">Presbyterian Urban Ministries</a>; <a href="http://sandiegohomelesssurvivalguide.blogspot.com/2014/01/pics-of-urban-ministries.html">Pics of Urban Ministries</a>
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Arizona: <a href="http://azhomeless.org/birth-certificate.html">Homeless ID Project</a>
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Article: <a href="http://www.startribune.com/homeless-but-not-nameless/151462395/">Homeless but not nameless</a>
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The article provides the name of an organization: Project Homeless Connect. Googling that gets me hits for various local events. If you need ID in your area, googling "Project Homeless Connect" and the name of your state, county and/or city may help you find the nearest event.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-82777640561394184112017-01-29T15:58:00.000-08:002017-01-29T15:58:09.886-08:00Staying Clean, Dry and WarmOne of the challenges I face in winter is staying clean, dry and warm. My experience is that I am colder if I am not clean, but the process of getting clean can make me incredibly cold. If you are using park bathrooms to clean up, there may be zero hot water available and tap water is much colder in winter.
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One bathroom I currently use a lot has no paper towels nor hand dryers. so, I often use toilet paper to dry my hands before leaving. Getting my hands dry before going outside again makes a big difference, even though this bathroom has no heat and the windows and door are basically just openings in the walls. (The windows are lattice brick arrangements. I am not sure what to call it.)
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I also use a lot of hand sanitizer. In winter, I habitually try to "towel off" the hand sanitizer with paper towels. Letting it air dry seriously makes me cold. (Wiping someone down with rubbing alcohol is an old fashioned way to break a fever. Hand sanitizer is mostly alcohol.)
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When I can come up with the money, I try to stay in a hotel to get a proper shower under circumstances where I have warm water and will be indoors for the rest of the night. I also generally keep my hair short, even though I am a woman. Long, wet hair in cold weather is not a good thing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-87409727833957719502017-01-27T14:24:00.001-08:002017-01-27T14:24:43.471-08:00If You Are Homeless, Cloud Storage is Game ChangingI don't think I actually know what "cloud" storage is, but I am talking abut storing stuff online in some format or another. This has been hugely important for me and my sons while homeless.
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In fact, it is why I started this website. I had some websites already, but they were on a paid hosting service. It was late March or early April. My hosting service was expiring in May. I had been homeless since December 31st (Happy New Year to me) and I was absolutely not going to be able to afford to pay for my hosting service.
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I was getting lots of paper handouts from various services. I have health issues and I was a lot sicker at that time than I am now. Holding on to papers had lots of problems in terms of trying to keep them dry and legible. They were also making me sick.
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They were also full of errors. They had inaccurate addresses or they claimed there was a meal at x place at x time and, no, there was no such meal and never had been.
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So, this website started with the idea that I needed a place to keep information that I could continue to access even after I could no longer afford to pay for hosting. I wanted to start making a record of actually accurate information concerning services that I found actually useful. Because I was so sick, my memory was terrible.
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But, I also typically do my taxes online and that has been enormously helpful while homeless. I keep track of to-do lists and what not via email and my sons both have accounts with Good Old Games.
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We try to keep everything important to us backed up online in some form or another. Given how hard our lifestyle is on electronics, it has repeatedly saved our butts when a tablet, laptop or phone has died. We were okay because we could still access all the important stuff from any computer, even a library computer if we didn't have one for ourselves (and sometimes we didn't have a computer at all for a while).
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The first time one of our tablets started getting wonky, we had to make an effort to back stuff up before it died. But this has become more of an ingrained habit. The last couple of times a tablet or laptop died with essentially no notice, the fact that there was no time to back anything was not a serious problem. We already had all the important stuff backed up.
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Games from <a href="https://www.gog.com/">Good Old Games</a> are not terribly expensive to begin with and you can download them to a new computer when your old one dies without having to pay any additional fee. My sons are both big into computer games and video games. We would need a separate backpack for all their games if we had to carry physical copies. For various reasons, this would absolutely not work for us.
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But, with a Good Old Games account, we can just re-download the games we want to the new laptop. We lose our saved files from games in progress, but we still have access to the game itself.
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For my sons, "Games are life" and all that. It also helps us stay sane while homeless to have a means to occupy ourselves when offline and confined to battery power in the evenings. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-48344030510387118852017-01-11T15:32:00.002-08:002017-01-26T17:13:26.741-08:00Finding Public Pay PhonesI am currently between phones and I don't know when I will have the money to get a new phone. And I kind of need to call my mom to let her know I am fine and was holed up in a hotel during the terrible, deadly storm we recently had in my part of California.
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Wow, Google Maps will not do this. I am shocked, confused and aggravated.
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So, I found the following article with helpful tips:<br />
<a href="https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-find-a-pay-phone">How to Find a Pay Phone</a><br /><br />
The article lists the following two directories: <br />
<a href="http://www.payphone-directory.org/">http://www.payphone-directory.org/</a> I did not find this terribly helpful.<br /><br />
<a href="http://www.payphone-project.com/numbers/usa/">http://www.payphone-project.com/numbers/usa/</a> This was vastly more useful to me. But it is just a list with no apparent mapping function. This makes it challenging to determine which phones might be near me. I was using Control F to search the list for street names and place names near me. That has turned up one hit so far.
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<b>Addendum:</b>
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I managed to contact my mom not long after posting this. I have just been too busy to do an update. Thanks for the concern. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-957226030042633863.post-55103446968593127172017-01-06T20:01:00.001-08:002017-01-06T21:45:48.989-08:00The Coming Storm<p dir="ltr">I am in some dive of a hotel for the next three nights. The month looks pretty scary financially, but I got up this morning and my walk to the library revealed that two of the three camp sites I use are already under water and another three inches of rain is coming this weekend. </p>
<p dir="ltr">One of the sites already under water is beneath a bridge. It is where I have previously hunkered down to get through bad storms. I would have to wade through at least fifty feet of water to reach the spot we have previously hunkered down in. So there was no safe, sheltered place available to camp.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This is one of the worst storms in decades for California and I was seriously concerned about living through the weekend if I were camped out in it. If you are homeless in Central or Northern California, I hope you can find shelter and safety.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I am between phones and I don't know how to let my mother know I am safe. I also just have no freaking clue how I will get through the rest of the month. But my morning walk made it clear that I need to just worry about getting through this weekend.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So, here I am, holed up in the cheapest dive I could find and trying to get the management to get the heat on in my room. Yay.</p>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com