Debts

The advice below is not advocating that you simply starve. My food resources page is as long as it is because keeping my belly full was a very high priority for me. But I did try to prioritize paying down debt with the cash funds available to me, then looked for free meals, etc, if necessary.

So I made debt payments at the start of the month when I got money, then scrambled for the rest of the month to come up with enough to eat. This meant I sometimes didn't eat, but my debts were being paid down so I could eventually get myself back into housing.


How much debt you are carrying does not factor into your eligibility for food stamps in any way. So if you are making debt payments, getting debt paid off or declaring bankruptcy can improve your quality of life even if your income does not go up.

If you wish to declare bankruptcy, you can talk to a lawyer at Neil Good and get a list of pro bono lawyers.

In some cases, student loans can be discharged in bankruptcy. I have always heard that student loans cannot be discharged, but this is not 100% true.

Book recommendation:
How to Get Out of Debt, Stay Out of Debt, and Live Prosperously*: Based on the Proven Principles and Techniques of Debtors Anonymous

In a nutshell, the book recommends that you learn to take proper care of yourself without running up new debt while continuing to pay what you can. This is basically what I have been doing while homeless.

Rather go to bed without dinner than to rise in debt.

-- Ben Franklin

While homeless, I basically adopted the policy that it is better to go hungry for short periods than to run up new debts. I have been paying down debts while homeless. It is one of the things that helps keep me sane because it helps me believe that I have a better future ahead of me -- believe, not hope. Just hoping for something better would not keep me going. I keep going because I am resolving my problems, and that means things are gradually getting better even while I am homeless.

So I am confident that I have a better future ahead of me because I am seeing improvements in the here and now. I am pretty darn certain that things will never again be as bad for me as they were the weekend I showed up in downtown San Diego, nearly penniless and so pathetic that other homeless people were giving me food.


Last updated September 11, 2019.