Chapter 3: Who are the homeless?

In later chapters I will do some interviews with various homeless people around the Denver, CO area and include those interviews in this book. For now though I wanted to share some personal experience on the many homeless people I have met over the years. Call this perspective for the rest of the book.

When I was 14 years old I became homeless, for the first time. I was a ward of the State of Georgia at age 13. At age 14 I found my dad and had my custody transfered to Texas so I could live with him as a "foster child". We had been apart for 10 years at that point and things did not go well. So I ran away from home. I had no job, no money, no identification and no where to go. I hoped in the first semi truck that would give me a ride and that is where I went. From 14 to 19 years old I spent on the streets, hitchhiking from one city to the next. At 20 years old I went into the US Navy. Upon getting an OTH discharge from the Navy at age 20 I found myself once again homeless. I hitchhiked for a few years, losing my possessions and Identification agian until I wound up in South Florida (Fort Lauderdale). I staid there from age 22 until I finally got off the streets at age 25.

Twenty years later, at age 45, I again became homeless. Now on the surface it would seem that I am what many call "chronically homeless". Generally speaking the chronically homeless are homeless by choice. They can not handle responsibility, or choose not to. They find it easier to exist, in society, when they exist outside of normal society. I will admit that I have some serious social anxiety issues and I do not make/keep friends easily. However, unlike the "chronically homeless" my first two stints being homeless where not of my choice. I was in a very bad situation with my dad and needed to escape. Being homeless was my only option at that point as I had no where else to go. When I got out of the Navy I hitchhiked to California and before I could find a job and a place to live everything I owned was stolen, including my identification.

From my experiences with the homeless I would say that more than 75% of the homeless people I meet are homeless (still) because of lack of identification. It is virtually impossible for a homeless person to get their identification back with no home, no address, no money and no job to get any of those things. They can't work with out identification. They can't rent a house/apartment/motel/post office box or anything else without identification. This plaqued me for years, both of the first two times I was homeless. Often times they find themselves homeless hundreds or thousands of miles away from where they where born which makes getting their Birth Certificate difficult and that is the first thing they need when they are trying to reclaim their identities. To add insult to injury you can't get a Social Security card re-issued without 3 forms of identification. You can't get a photo id (state id or driver license) without 3 forms of id and proof of residence.

To say getting your life back once you become homeless is difficult would be a vast understatement. Even those lucky enough to hold on to their identification while homeless are met with massive resistance at every turn. If they "panhandle" trying to earn enough to get off the streets, so they can get a real job, they are treated like lepers. Often timed screamed and cussed at or having stuff thrown at them. If they try and find a job while homeless it almost always ends the second they say they have no address. If they lie and use an address (that isn't theirs) they are soon discovered, usually before ever beginning work, as homeless and told they are "not needed".

I experienced just that myself a few days ago. The hotel up the street from where I am crashing has a help wanted sign up. I went in and talked to the front desk clerk who gave me an application. He confirmed they were hiring for multiple positions. Before I could leave the owner, an older asian woman, showed up. I told her my situation, that I was living in my van and that I would work just for a place to live (no money) and she told me "we no hiring, no job here"....no I am not being racist, that is literally what she said word for word.

Even those homeless who manage to keep id and find work are rarely paid a descent wage. They are most often paid under the table and below minimum wage. So trying to save up enough money for First/Last/Security plus utility deposits is impossible. Even trying to save enough to move into a weekly motel is next to impossible as they can't get steady (40+ hours a week) work and even if they stumble upon such work it rarely lasts more than a few weeks and them being homeless will cause it to end, one way or another.

I have personally spent over 10 years of my life homeless, I actually recall one time in Fort Lauderdale, FL I had been there about a year. I had managed to find places to shower (on the beach with cold water at night) and was working at two different bars. Once bar I worked as a bar back and another I worked as a dancer, yes a male stripper. I was making great money. However, I had to work like 15 hours a day and my only time off from work was during the daytime when sleeping on the streets is impossible. So I would get a hotel room every few days (when I had a day off from one or both jobs) and catch up on my sleep. When I wasn't staying in a hotel I would sleep under a bridge on the Inter-coastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale, during the daytime. It was shady and breezy under there and I could cover my head and get some rest. One day I was arrested by the Marine Patrol and transferred to Fort Lauderdale police custody. They arrested me for trespassing (it wasn't posted), vagrancy and public disturbance (what they charge homeless with who aren't drunk or on drugs). At the time of my arrest I had over $3,000 cash in my pocket. I had been saving for months trying to get a place to live. It was summer time and the cheapest place I could find was $1200 a month with First/Last/Security and Electric/Phone/Gas deposits. It was going to cost me $5000 to get into an apartment and off the streets. Thankfully, I had made friends by this point and as soon as I arrived at the jail the Chief of Police met the transporting officer in booking and told them to process me out immediately and let me pay just a small fine for vagrancy. The other charges where dropped before I was even booked into jail. I paid the $45 or so fine and was out of jail an hour later.

It would take me almost another two years after that to finally get off the streets completely. It wasn't until I got (back) into computers that I finally became stable. Then in 2000 when the tech stocks crashed so did my computer business. I tried for three years living with friends/family in both Florida and Texas to earn a descent living doing computers. Then in 2003 I became a truck driver. Now I should have never made this mistake, not with all the injuries and problems I had physically already; but I did, I was determined not to become homeless again. So for 14 years I drove a semi truck, I hurt myself even worse on a daily basis, I worked 80-100 hours a week most weeks and continuously got screwed over and cheated out of pay. Finally, a few weeks ago I said enough and I went back to being homeless. I have been out of computers so long that there is no chance of making a living there anymore. Trucking is literally killing me quickly and I have no other discernable skills.

Well not until I discovered I could write and photograph and make money doing it. Thanks to a special place called Steemit.com I discovered I could share my story, my photography, my writing and my poetry and make money. I am still homeless (actually staying in a weekly motel as of writing this chapter) but I am making progress that few other homeless people get to make. I am re-inventing myself and earning money doing it.

Through my adventures in homelessness I have had the fortune to meet lots and lots of people from numerous ethnic groups, age ranges, countries, religions, and prior financial situations. I can actually remember meeting Jean Claude Van Damme back in the 90's when he had fallen hard into drugs and lost everything; living on the streets in Hollywood and West Los Angeles.

I have met lawyers, doctors, policeman, fireman, construction workers, hackers, geeks, nerds and just about every other type of profession or personality living on the streets. Homeless knows no bounds, it does not discriminate, it doesn't play favorites or take sides. Everyone can become homeless given a few minor and seemingly meaningless misteps in their lives. No person on earth is immune from the possibility they may one day wind up homeless.

There is no group of people, culture, ethnicity, sex, religion or financial status that is immune. Under the right conditions and circumstances you and everyone you know could wind up living on the streets.

I hear well off people say "I will never be homeless, I have friends or family I can stay with". Well I got news for you, if you are "crashing" with someone else you are HOMELESS. Not only that but very very very few people will house you for more than a few days. What will you do when you run out of places to crash?

On that note, if you ever want to find out who your real friends are, loose everything and then ask them for help. You will discover real quick that no matter how long you have been friends, how close you are with them; once you are homeless you are no longer a friend, you are a thorn in societies side. You are now the problem with society and no longer worthy of their friendship!

I recall a bag-lady I met who lived in a shopping cart in Hollywood, CA back in 1993. She was an ornary old coot on a good day but her and I became friends. She taught me how to get shopping carts (without getting arrested) and how to go around collecting bottles and cans to sell at the recycling center. It was a hard job but she had been doing it for over 40 years. Within a few days I was making $100+ a day. One day she wasn't at the recycling center when I went in so I went hunting for her. I found her in her makeshift camp, sick as a dog. She had already collecting her money for the day but was too sick to go to the bank and deposit it. To my surprise she asked me to take her money to the bank. When I arrived at the bank a few miles away I was met by the bank manager. Again I was surprise when he called me by name. I had never been to that bank in my life and had never met this man. But he knew who I was, she called ahead and told him I was coming. We struck up a conversation and he told me about the old lady. She had been married to some rich guy and when he passed 40 some odd years ago she had gave away everything and moved onto the streets. He then handed me the depost receipt and asked me to take it back to her. As I walked back to her camp, I couldn't help but look at the unsealed receipt in my hand. This lady had like $18 million dollars in her checking account. No telling how much more money she had stashed in other accounts or deposit boxes. I don't know what ever happened to her but I am pretty sure she was a bag lady until her last day on this Earth.

If you haven't started to get the point of this book yet I truly feel sorry for you. It isn't the homeless people in this world that are the problem. It is people who can read this far into this book and not have a clue that they are the problem. That's right, you sitting there reading this, you are the problem. You are the reason so many people wind up on the streets and rarely ever leave them. Your clueless-ness about how life really is, your mentality towards homelessness, your coldness/brutality towards those less fortunate is the problem.

Like the Late/Great Michael Jackson said "If you wanna make the world a better place take a look at yourself, then make a change". For most people who become homeless, the streets become their only option. They have no other choices in life and it is because of people like you who aren't homeless that they seldom if ever make it off the streets. Now I am not saying go find a homeless person and move them in with you as that is crazy. But you can help, you need to help, you owe to those less fortunate to help.

If you are a traveler, homeless, vagabonding, couchsurfing or just have the spirit of a Nomad then join us over at #teemnomad on PAL Discord here: https://discord.gg/SgJfQkH

"Freedom is living, living isn't freedom!" - by Richard Colbert (aka @venuspcs)

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