Homelessness is one of my future fears, I truly feel for you, but raises some curiosity out of me. How do you obtain steady food? Do you use cafes for internet? Also, how do you play Smash Bros then?
I never wanted to go with food stamps. Growing up I always looked down on people who choose not to work and collect food stamps. It's not good that I looked down on people at all, but I'm just being honest with you. If it meant starving to death, would I still avoid food stamps? Dunno. Haven't gotten to that point yet. I might, but I doubt it will get to that point. There are places I could go to get meals and lodging if I truly felt like I had no
hope options left. But, as Zachmac mentioned, shelters can fill up, as can church programs and such.
Right now, I live in my car. I don't drive it much because 1. I don't have money for gas, and 2. when it's in drive, it gets stuck in 2nd gear, meaning I can't drive faster than 35mph. I dunno what's wrong with the car, but I have zero money to get it looked at or fixed.
Food? I got a lot of gift cards at Christmas. I had a little money left over from when I was working, but that's gone now. Sometimes family will invite me out to eat and pay for my meal, or they'll invite me over to their house and we'll eat together, etc. That doesn't happen a lot, but I'm always grateful when it does happen. Right now I'm on my last two gift cards. If I don't get a job soon, I'll have nothing but charity to fall back on.
I won't beg on the street. It's not so much pride as much as it is unnecessary. I'm not incapable of working. I'm not disabled. And I'm not a liar, so I don't want to pan handle and guilt people into helping me. The people who help me just want to do it. I never ask anyone for help unless I absolutely have to. Whether that's a character flaw or not, I'll let other people decide.
Internet? Free wifi and library PCs here and there. McDonalds is nice, since the people that work there don't really care if you sit in a parked car for hours on end as long as you're not right by the entrance and doing anything weird. My father's business has a decent wifi signal. Sometimes I'll park in his parking lot after hours to get online. A lot of the time when I'm on Smashboards, I'm sitting in my car parked somewhere... killing time... until it gets too cold. There are other places, like hotels, but they can be very wary of people hanging out. Got the cops called on me once. You don't go to places like Starbucks to use internet because then you have to buy something and they usually have tiny parking lots. Some malls have food court wifi.
I use my New3DS to get online. It's like my laptop. The browser on it is surprisingly capable compared to the old 3DS that I used to use. It can't handle certain things, like serious javascript, HD Oddshots, HD gfycats, and there are some horribly optimized websites that will crash (like default settings Smashboards), but it's adequate.
I have a phone (most of the time), but it just texts and calls. I'm fine with that. I don't want a smartphone.
Smash? I play on my N3DS. Sometimes single player, or with amiibo, or online For Glory/For Fun. The worse my situation gets, the less I play, though. I prefer to play with people I know or can talk to. I used to have a co-worker I played with who used Rosalina. Those were my best times playing Smash, honestly. Nowadays I talk about smash more than I play it. I like analyzing things, deconstructing how things are done, watching skilled people play, etc.
I don't know much about homelessness, but I've read articles on it and the like.
Seems a lot of homeless people end up in that position partially because of bad luck - and I hear that once you get homeless, it's extremely difficult to pull yourself out of that situation. Having no place to clean yourself up apparently makes it very difficult to find a job, and you can't exactly tell them you're homeless or they might think that you only ended up that way because of laziness or whatever. Homeless shelters are also apparently very crowded and inadequately funded in a lot of places. I also hear the boredom is the real killer, and that it's very difficult for the homeless to make friends.
Luckily, I think I'm not at much risk of becoming homeless. My parents - particularly my mom - would aid me if it ever looked like I was going to end up without a job or a home. But everyone's situation is different, and I don't believe every homeless person actually deserves to be homeless.
Pretty accurate.
It's hard to get out of homelessness by yourself. Used to be I was roommates with my older cousin, but when he lost his job, I lost my place to live, too. Yes, you cannot bathe, brush your teeth, or go to the bathroom anytime you want/need to unless you have access to certain kinds of places. You can get free memberships to the YMCA if you can prove that you're poor. Truck stops have big bathrooms, and you can get a shower for $13.
In my case, my father has a filtered shower/sink in his business that I helped him build; he lets me use it after hours most of the time, unless we're on bad terms. I have a key to his building that I should have given back to him a long time ago, but he's never asked for it back, so... and he knows I have it. I feel dishonest using it, though. As broke as I am, if I gave him back his key, I'd have to look for someone who would let me live with them or I'd end up like those homeless people on Reddit who end up with their socks becoming fused with their feet and such...
I was living with my sister for a while, but she got married (to a great guy) and I had to move out. My other sister just got engaged. My only other family in this state is my uncle (my aunt already kicked me out of their house once, and they're already housing my older cousin), and my parents. And I'd rather freeze out in my car than live with my dad again.
I am bored and lonely all the time. Thus I end up online a lot.
I dunno what the future holds for me. Some of my situation was just "bad luck," some (a lot) of it was poor decisions on my part, some of it was my father being who my father is. Regardless, I'm slowly trying to get my feet back under me. I'm hoping God will make a way for me. I've tried to do things on my own, my own way, for too long now... It hasn't gotten me anywhere.
I don't drink, I don't do drugs. Never so much as smoked a cigarette in my life. I'm not your typical homeless guy, and trust me, I've helped a lot of them in my short 30 years. But this year I did meet one nice lady who was kinda like me. I think she's in her 70s? I never asked her how old she was.
