Ask HN: Advice for staying in the job market while homeless? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Advice for staying in the job market while homeless?

31 pointsHelpImHomeless11 comments

Hello HN,

I've lived as a "hand to mouth" freelancer for a while and can no longer keep up with rent due to clients shutting down. I have over a dozen job applications under way, but obviously progress is slow and even if I do get an offer it won't pay off until I'm "on the streets".

I do have good friends who will let me stay on their couches for some time. Given the circumstances I'm afraid that I'll be stuck in this situation until my food budget is used up, at which point I don't know what to do.

Frankly I feel like throwing myself into the river right now, but obviously that is not helping anyone.

I have a fairly niche skill set that no one wants. My specialty is building and running complex on-prem infrastructure (in the petabytes and teraflops range), though in the recent years I've been doing DevOps in the cloud like everyone else. I'm also contributing to a wide range of free software projects, but no potential employers seem to care about that.

I don't even know what I'm asking here. A cry for help obviously, but with no room for actual advice! Probably I just want someone to say "it's going to be okay" because I can't see it myself.

Virtual hug, anyone? :-(

My name is Carson (carsonkahn.com/who) and I want to do whatever I possibly can to help you. Text me and let’s see what we can make happen for you: +1 (303) 808-5874. It is all going to be OK — not because of some mystical, arbitrary self-assurance, but because we’re going to put our brains and hearts into it. Don’t “throw yourself into a river”, please; text me. It will be okay.

Just realized you may not have access to texting. Email me instead if you need to. We’re going to make this all work out for you.

I’m not sure what to say except that this post really moved me. We’re living in a strange moment where everything is going to crap for a significant portion of the world. At the same time, we’re seeing an outpouring of kindness and willingness to help from so many people. I think now more than ever there is reason to be hopeful.

I don’t know you, but there was a time in my life where I made a similar type of post on a similar type of website, and I found some comfort in talking to and hearing from others. I was going to private message you, but I have just learned that HN doesn’t have private messaging. Instead, I will put the onus on you: if you ever need an ear to vent to, I am open to alternate forms of communication.

Hang in there.

Sorry, I only just saw this.

I run several websites pertinent to homelessness. I also run r/GigWorks. The Welcome message pinned at the top has a compendium of links to stuff that help you.

Given that this is on HN, probably the most pertinent thing is this list of remote work platforms:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JfNAbUX_lN9K3MCNHO15...

If you do actually end up homeless, this may be important info:

https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2018/05/prepping-to...

But also standard advice from r/homeless and r/almosthomeless is to just keep working at finding solutions and try to not end up homeless. It's much easier to avoid homelessness than to get back into housing from the streets and thus is a bad time to be homeless. They are closing soup kitchens and the like.

https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19-an...

STAY WHERE YOU ARE and make arrangements to make staggered/partial payments at a later date.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE. I work at a homeless shelter and see first-hand how not having a safe place to work from and store your things complicates life and creates undo hardships.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE, especially now with the pandemic when shelters are trying to protect their clients from outside contamination. You may be turned away from even emergency homeless shelters.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE!

Thanks everyone for their replies. And apologies for the desperate and scary message, I was in a bad place yesterday.

Rest assured I'll do my best to stay afloat and keep a level head through this difficult time. I really just needed to vent about it.

Again, thanks for the feedback, it really means a lot! I will contact the landlord and try to defer payment, this possibility had not even crossed my distressed mind.

Love y'all HN. Take care! <3

Evictions take a while so don't leave until you are forced. In this climate if your community is impacted by covid-19 situation (which is basically everyone) it will take even longer. You might also ask your landlord to defer rent payments until you get a job etc... Clearly you are skilled and probably a good tenant. It seems unlikely they would find anyone to rent your dwelling. You might look for some grants / small business etc... a lot of those are spinning up now. You might ask your clients for a retainer as well. Keep applying for jobs. Take some shifts at Amazon or the grocery store too. See if you can stock shelves so you can stay away from others. Wear a mask, gloves etc... Best of luck.

Came here to say this.

Talk to your landlord.

See if you live in one of these localities, you might be able to stay where you are for a while. Even if not, eviction proceedings usually take at least a month.

https://www.fool.com/millionacres/real-estate-market/article...

Everything is going to be ok is too easy for human's life. Just keep in mind that our existance is a blink in the Universe's Eye. Be grateful to yourself and life, no matter what, until you're alive. Don't panic, don't stress yourself, just do your best and anyway everything Will be ok in this Life or another. I hope this could help. A big virtual hug.

Where are you located, at present?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com