Sleeping under a bridge

Some months ago, an online friend made a comment about how he worried about me and my sons. He framed it in terms of imagining us sleeping under a bridge. I assured him that we had never slept under a bridge. Those areas tend to be moldy and we have serious respiratory problems and allergies. So that was always a big fat "no."

Last month, just shy of the four year mark on the street, we finally felt pressured into sleeping under a bridge. The weather was extremely wet and cold, often down around freezing or even below freezing. So, we spent two weeks or so setting up our tent under a bridge.

Unlike most homeless people, we do not leave our tent set up. We break it down every morning and take it with us, then set it back up at night. We can manage this in part because there are three of us, so we each carry a bag, and in part because we intentionally travel as light as we can manage to arrange. We buy small tents that take about ten minutes to set up.

While we were camped under the bridge, a homeless couple moved in under the same bridge. Unlike us, they made no attempt to be discreet or stealthy. We were setting up away from the heaviest foot traffic with good visual cover. They just laid all their belongings out directly on a heavily trafficked foot path. Initially, they slept out in the open in a pile of bedding. Over time, they eventually set up a tent. The tent is huge, like a small house, and it took them days to get it completely set up.

As soon as weather permitted, we relocated. We still routinely walk past their tent. They have added some kind of hanging light and their belongings cover yet more of the foot path. They appear to have started a bag of garbage, which smelled strong enough for me to notice it the last time I had no choice but to use that particular foot path. (In case you do not know, we carry garbage out every morning. You would not know we were camped there by seeing the campsite. Garbage piling up is a health hazard. If you can smell it, you know it is unsanitary.)

We expect this couple to eventually get rousted and possibly ticketed for "illegal housing". In the mean time, they both seem to have a cough that is getting worse. My health was worse when we were under the bridge in December. I was relieved when we were able to leave. I began feeling better and getting more done after we relocated.

If you need to sleep under a bridge in order to stay warm and dry in potentially life threatening weather, go ahead and do that. But I do not recommend you do it habitually. The underside of bridges are moldy places and not good for your health. Given that homeless people generally lack adequate access to showers, laundry facilities and medical care, it is more important than usual for us to operate on the premise of "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."