30 People Tell Us What Homelessness Is Like | Hacker News Reader

30 People Tell Us What Homelessness Is Like

nytimes.com

32 pointswoodruffw29 comments

Hello, homeless person here, living in a Minivan for the last 3.5 years on Disability with Schiozaffective Bipolar Disorder. I was a network engineer at Cisco Systems until 2000 when my mental health took everything away from me.

Feel free to ask me anything.

okay, so how do you get disability without a home address?

reason I ask is because I know this is a problem and I'd ideally like to figure a way to solve it.

my life goal is to create a tiny home park for people that need a place to live with a nice low rent.

tiny homes constructed like via habitat for humanity type scenario would be super cool..

and then some people can work at the tiny home park for small things to keep rent low.

> okay, so how do you get disability without a home address?

I use a friends home address. But I was not homeless when I first obtainded disability.

> my life goal is to create a tiny home park for people that need a place to live with a nice low rent.

Nice goal! Good Kamma!

I have seen this in many areas, they are doing it at a low level in Port Townsend, WA. https://www.ptleader.com/stories/local-volunteer-group-seeks...

Yeah, also you stay at any tent cities? There was. documentary about tent cities on netflix awhile back and it was just so neat.

the city near me had people staying in tents under the bridge and then they had to move cause the city claimed it was an eye sore. Some of the people there had jobs.. they just had issues/rent was too high.

Bear in mind that this was exactly the idea behind trailer parks and mobile home parks when they first started popping up -- a "leg up" for impoverished people, and, well, the results sort of speak to some problems that came along with that agenda.

Not saying don't do it, but perhaps take a peek at the historical issues that arose when making sure your good intentions don't lead straight into an inferno.

Yeah, I will do. I am not in a position yet if doing this, so I've got time to try and not repeat history.

0. I'm sincerely sorry to hear about your mental health situation and the effect its had.

1. What has your experience been with shelters / housing programs and / or mental health assistance programs?

2. What factors keep you living in a vehicle?

3. How do home owners / business owners / neighborhood residents generally respond to your presence?

NOTE: I wish I could respond to all of these questions right now but HN is telling me "I am posting too fast." IS THERE ANYWAY TO STOP THAT FROM HAPPENING?

1. What has your experience been with shelters and / or housing programs?

Fortunately I went right from an apartment to living in a van. I had no ability to get into a shelter in my area since they were all full.

2. What factors keep you living in a vehicle?

Rent is too damn high. Cannot afford to save for a rental deposit. It is much much cheaper to live in my van and it gives me greater agency.

3. How do home owners / business owners / neighborhood residents respond to your presence?

Never had a concern expressed to me because most do know notice my presence. I am kind, clean, and respectful so that helps.

Those responses are really illuminating thank you. And thank you for being a kind, clean and respectful neighbor.

Are you in a high or low cost of living are? If high, have you considered moving to a cheaper area?

Do you currently make any income from working? What kind of workplace accommodations do you need in order to be able to work effectively?

I assume you are surviving off charity organizations. What in your opinion would improve the effectiveness of these organizations? More gov fundings? Better oversight? More training or planning?

>when my mental health took everything away from me.

can you expand on this?

I HAVE BEEN FLAGGED AGAIN FOR "POSTING TOO FAST". :/

I will finish these question so keep coming back.

I started dropping into mania, psychosis, and paranoia and then a deep depression that made work impossible and put me in the hospital. My girlfriend of seven years who I put through vet school left me (thanks!), my work gave me a mutual separation with 6 month severance. I sold my townhouse and rented a room for $350 a month and sold nearly everything I had to get by.

Can you envision what help would look like for you? What would have been or would be a good way of helping you get into a better situation?

Thank you for sharing. Do you have any thoughts on self-medication, and public awareness around it?

What has been the biggest impediment to finding permanent housing? Do you prefer to live in a van?

Can you share the root cause of your mental health problems?

Do you think therapy could be effective to your case?

I have been in therapy for about 15 years, and as well I am an accomplished mediator. Therapy only helps with coping with the illness and with undoing the crap from my childhood living with a bipolar mother and brother as well. But when I am unwell it is like telling someone on meth to "remember their therapy skills". It is just useless.

The root cause of my illness is a genetic sensitivity to several environmental factors. My main issue is with ion channels (specifically with calcium ion channels) and an inhibition of my Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase gene (NOS1AP).

High Omega 3 and very low omega 6, limiting my dietary intake of phenols, limiting EMF exposure, mediation, have all helped me end my dependence on meds except for low dose klonopin or ethanol when I am exposed to an unforseen trigger.

we don’t really know what causes bipolar disorder, it’s an issue with neurotransmitters that can sometimes be hereditary - sometimes it’s triggered by psychological trauma

it can be managed by varying degrees with therapy and medication, but efficacy varies quite a bit from person to person

How do you survive?

What does a regular day look like to you?

What are your hopes for the future?

Which kinds of things make you happy during a typical day?

What have you done for income over the last 23 years?

There years after my collapse I was placed on disability while in the psychiatric hospital.

I have recently acquired food stamps to help cope with the inflation.

What's your worst fear?

Probably my van breaking down and not being able to fix it because money.

For a college educated, white-collar view of the issue, I highly recommend the Priceonomics article about David Raether. He wrote almost 100 episodes of the TV show Roseanne, only to wind up living in a van. It wasn't due to drugs, alcohol, or mental disease. Just an unfortunate turn of events.

https://priceonomics.com/what-its-like-to-fail/

There was a comment that was deleted about yelling or spraying homeless near people's homes and I had started writing a reply, then the comment was deleted. I thought I'd share some thoughts as someone who has a number of homeless individuals living within 10 feet of their single family home.

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Recently had a homeless encampment constructed next to my house. It is not great but at the same time it's a strange social situation to be thrust into. The encampment started out fairly orderly and clean but over the past two weeks I've found needles, human feces and other trash on my property. I have a small child and more small children use the path where this homeless encampment is so I've taken it upon myself to keep it needle and feces free.

I've never considered spraying the people who live in the encampment or even yelling at them but I have asked if they need any services or if there is anyone they would like me to contact. Most of the time the response is "no thanks" or "I'm already talking to services". Sometimes I get asked for specific things, "I have a heater that runs off of alcohol or something and could use some more fuel". Sometimes it's as simple as asking for their water jugs to be refilled. I am happy to oblige those human needs requests but for the fuel I will typically offer blankets as an alternative.

Still, I am frustrated, mostly with the city and county that they have allowed this to happen. I don't fully know the answer but I know that what is happening now isn't it.

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