How American Homeless Stay Wired 287
theodp writes "San Franciscan Charles Pitts has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs a Yahoo forum, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. Nothing unusual, right? Except Pitts has been homeless for two years and manages this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge. Thanks to cheap computers, free Internet access and sheer determination, the WSJ reports that being homeless isn't stopping some from staying wired. 'You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper,' says Pitts. 'But you need the Internet.'"
Re:And yet (Score:5, Interesting)
More tips for the homeless: Trader Joe's [thecorsaironline.com] is a popular place for gourmet dumpster diving. University cafeterias also throw away things like packaged sushi when it hits the expiration date. Chinese food is the best to eat out of a trash can because the containers are often in tact and the abundant MSG preserves the food well. I love remembering Panda express' customers gasp in horror when I walked in and started fishing food containers out of their bins. It's also a good reminder of how much in America goes to waste. Go for the heavy ones
Shouldn't somebody ask... (Score:1, Interesting)
this guy [slashdot.org]??
Re:And yet (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And yet (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:And yet (Score:5, Interesting)
I finally got fed up and lived out of my car for a summer. I had more spending cash since I was employed, and I even went to school while living out of the car. Not worrying about a place to live is about having one less thing to worry about and more disposable money to save or spend.
Of course, that lifestyle is a very lonely one, so I see why the man has adopted the internet as his support system. He may not be a shiftless bum - sometimes, people who've had enough just say "fuck it". And it's very liberating. But I don't recommend living that lifestyle long-term.
Brought back memories (Score:4, Interesting)
I was homeless between Aug-2003 to July-2004. One day I had no money to buy two rice cakes which used to cost less than .25 cents. I just drank a water and I made a promise to myself to avoid such a bad condition. It was bad, cold and at one point I thought I'm just gonna die out. At the end of 2004, I brought old P5 with 64MB RAM and 10GB hard disk with mono monitor loaded with Window 95. I used the same computer to write students CS assignments and complete their projects in the night time for the money. I had a small job at the Internet cafe. I learned about SEO, forums, creating website and making money by selling ads and doing aff marketing. Today, I make my living by running over 80+ websites and forums. Even, in this bad economy, I doing good. So if you in a bad time, just hold on a while. May be think out of box and you may survive to see another beautiful day. I learnt a lot from my bad days and it made me a better person.
Hope this helps and cheers someone out there seating in cold night and wondering about the life...
PS: English is not my first language and I've only 10th grade school education.
Re:And yet (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:And yet (Score:5, Interesting)
I am all about individual freedom and I am last person in the world who would be in favor of anyone interfering with you living out of your car if that is what you desire to do in anyway beyond why I am about to say here. Consider this just friendly advice for a third party who's lack of personal affiliation with you might afford them some objectivity. Do not consider it in away a condemnation of your life style or an attempt to deny you it if it actually brings you happiness.
That said you, admitted that its a lonely life style. You also apparently value your comfort as you cited the jacuzzi not being functional as a reason for leaving your apartment. You also apparently have some desire for the social pattern of cohabitation with a member of the opposite sex most others do.
Not worrying about a place to live is about having one less thing to worry about...
That is a very odd statement on its face. Most people have a pretty basic need for someplace to call home and when they don't have that there is little else they can think about until they do. That is one of the things that keeps so many people homeless. They are so preoccupied with being homeless and needing some place to call home they can't attend to the activities that would elevate them economically so that they could get a home.
Obvious you were quite functional during that period. I just wonder if you were not experiencing some other medical condition that radically altered your socialization when you decided to get up a live out of your car for a time. You might want to see a medical professional before you do that again. If they tell you that your perfectly healthly and you feel like you want do it, then I would say go for it man! If they think something might be wrong then you might consider that for a time. I might not tell them you are planing to go live out of your car, something that radical might bias them as it has me. Since this about you and not the bias of others there no reason to tip hand.
Re:And yet (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:And yet (Score:4, Interesting)
Existing conditions, if any, will be exacerbated by the instability. Drugs or Alcohol make it worse. Any person who's seen homeless people talking to themselves on the street realizes that. That's why I made it a point to mention that I didn't do it for very long - I decided that enough was enough when I began to talk to myself and urinate in public. My job and my life were not worth tossing out like that, and now I live a comfortable life in a place with a functional jacuzzi
Re:And yet (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Guess I shouldn't... (Score:5, Interesting)
When you're in the shit it always looks like everyone else has it "easy", just human nature.
Slightly OT but many people are uneployable and living under bridges because the sex offenders list includes offences such as streaking or urinating in a public place. Why? - Because the peodophile who pushed the list [wikipedia.org] wanted a dragnet that he hoped would trivialise his own behaviour.
Re:And yet (Score:3, Interesting)
bad numbers like that make me a bit suspicious of their methodology.
You should be more suspicious of your assumptions. The actual quote is:
The problems are really more ones of logistics than the actual food. Sure, we produce too much food and much of it goes to waste. But getting the food to the right people at the right time is the hard part.
Re:And yet (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides which, with the abundance of soup kitchens and charity groups out there, I find it difficult to believe than anyone has to go dumpster diving for food. People who do so usually have some mental issues, and wish to avoid the social interactions which are involved with seeking charity.
Actually, a lot of people dumpster dive because you can get really good expensive food for free. The fancier the store/restaurant, the more likely they are to throw out perfectly good, often still packaged food, because of a minor defect. I turned this [ranprieur.com] up after just a few seconds of searching, I'm sure you can find more information if you look.
Lots of dumpster divers aren't homeless at all, and those who are probably do it because they get better food than at a soup kitchen.
You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness ..... (Score:5, Interesting)
Until You've been homeless. I know. I've been there. With all my progressive thinking, I knew nothing about it.
In 2000-01 I was making 6 figures working as a Senior Developer in Los Angeles. I lost my job after Bush and 911. I sent out over 300 resumes in a 3 month period - not one single response. I had 6 months income saved . By month 7 I was sleeping on friends couches. Previously I had been able to get a new contract within 2 weeks tops. I borrowed several thousand from friends to keep me in monthly hotels - I was good for it. I always had been working right?
By month 12 I was sleeping in my car. I took temp jobs driving buses and I took temp IT jobs doing data entry at 10 bucks an hour. You know how well you can live on 10 bucks an hour in CA when you have no more money? Not very well. Get an apartment ? With what? 10 bucks an hour?
By month 22 I was starting to live in shelters. And I saw things. Things I would rather not ever have seen. I saw people in bloody bandages, terrible dirty and out of their mind being laughed at and made fun of by city shelter workers. I saw it took over an hour to get in line to take a shower. I drug addiction, mental illness and hopelessness standing right next to me every single day. I saw my self confidence die along with my job prospects. Most importantly I saw that nobody really cared.
You think there are State run programs to help people out there. I am here to tell you you are so so wrong. It;s all a sham. There are a very few. Very few. Most are fronts just to make it seem like something is being done. Nothing is. I've seen it. I've been there.
You haven't seen it. You don't know.
There are very few programs out there and by using the library internet I found one for Women Vets. I got small IT jobs and was able to keep them now that I had food shelter and safety. I worked my way back up the ladder again. Now I make about half of whay I used to - but we all are now - unless you're a banker.
Friends, Family?? I left home at 19 and an Ivy League University - joined the military to continue college. My family were bad people. Rich, but very bad. How Bad? I begged to sleep on a couch with one of them. I told them I slept behind a church last night - in the open. My family refused. Good luck. Don't assume all families are like yours. I assure you they are not.
There's a lot more I could say. More that needs to be said. But I've said enough. It's the rich greedy sons and daughters of bitches who think nothing of others and thing only how to get more to themselves that post about how homeless people bring it all on themselves. Well some do. And some are just broken down by the process. Those people need help. Where is their help?
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:And yet (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know about his specific situation; but, I can speak about mine. Homeless in the late 80's as a teenager. It's damn hard to get a job when you can't fill out the home address on the application -- they HR droids throw away "incomplete" applications. It's also hard to get called in for an interview, when you have no phone (we didn't have cell phones available in the '80s like we do now). At the time, the area I lived in had a very low homeless rate; so, if you tried to explain you were homeless some seemed to believe you were lying. I had strangers say to me, "Surely you have a place you can stay." A couple companies indicated they would not hire me because they could not believe I would be a reliable employee. It certainly didn't help that I was young. In the end, I worked day labor and temp jobs until I could get back on my feet and get in to college.
Ended up coming "home" early because of things my parents did to my credit while I was away, which prevented me from renting an apartment or obtaining student loans. That put me back into the same unstable situation I was in before. Lost at least one job to the background check. Probably others as well. Ended up taking a job at an amusement park for a summer, then a temp job at a manufacturing plant. It took a looooong time to get completely out of the hole and isolate myself from my parents, who put me there the first and second time. I essentially lost a decade to this.
Re:And yet (Score:4, Interesting)
the abundance of soup kitchens and charity groups out there, I find it difficult to believe than anyone has to go dumpster diving for food
Before my wife got her work permit in the US she did serve food at a local church. Some people do not want to go there because you have to comply with the "moral" rules. My wife actually stopped volunteering there because she was getting yelled at by the 'good christian' manager. Now she is only volunteering for causes that are not "I have morals because I believe in deity" based.
I know that some homeless people refuse to go to shelters because of the other bums that snore, fart, steal and even attack you during the night.
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:1, Interesting)
I would like to believe your post, in fact I would have believed it were it not for the fact that it was cut and pasted verbatum from a 2006 post on this page from someone called "GI Joe:
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=37;t=001063;p=1 [snopes.com]
(do a find on " Brentwood VA in California" when you get to the page)
Same Exact Post
You astroturfed a meme.
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:2, Interesting)
Comment above:
I left home at 19 and an Ivy League University - joined the military to continue college.
Article:
Mr. Ross figures he has been homeless for about 15 years, surviving on his Army pension
What is it about this correlation between being in the military in the past and being homeless later? Forgive my ignorance, I am not from the US and I have not been in the army (any army). What does army do to people that they have problems living "normal" lives later? Or, were these people "different" from the very beginning and army was an interesting option for them (unlike "regular" jobs & lifestyle)?
Re:You Don't Know Anything About Homelessness .... (Score:5, Interesting)
I need to answer your question in another way as well.
You asked: What is it about the military that leads to homelessness and not having a normal life.
I'll tell you what that is and you will not like the answer.
Me, I worked in a combat medical field unit as an Operating Room Technician and a Field Medic. It was the only thing I was comfortable doing in the Army. Helping people - saving lives. I did a lot of both and although I am NOT a military supporter I am proud of what I did.
Most people in the military , especially men, go into jobs that involve killing people.
Let me say that again - Killing people. Killing people is Job #1. Even in the Medical Corps we were told again and again "You are soldiers first and medics second" ( we gave the people telling us that the finger behind their backs of course)
We are all brought up to believe that killing people is wrong. Thou shall not murder.
The military has a way around this by creating a culture of dehumanizing the enemy du jour - and other ways.
Killing is a part and parcel of Army culture.
You ever see the shirts that say "Join the Army , Travel to interesting places meet interesting people and Kill them"
You might think that's an interesting snarky comment on military culture.
It is not. The infantry people I saw who wore those shirts were 100% percent serious about the message.
Not Snark. A way of life
That's what it's like being in the Army.
And God forbid you actually end up in a war and have to go meet interesting men women and children and kill them - you are in a culture that tells you that you did nothing wrong. In fact it rewards you - Hooo Aaa!
And all that is well and good until you return to civilian life, laws and the Ten Commandments again and it hits you:
"My God, what have I done!"
And you can tell no one because no one outside of the military could possibly understand. And you can't wear your T-shirt anymore either.
So you turn to alcohol or drugs and you can't sleep at night and you go slowly crazy. And you can't hold your job and you realize that you were not the person that you used to think you were. And you never will be again.
That didn't happen to me.
But I saw it happen over and over again to people that I knew. People who shot other people. Who killed interesting people. How can you go into Church ever again you wonder?
Oh and by the way - That war. It was all about the oil anyway.
So that's the problem - that's why so many American military people end up the way that they do.
Re:Puhleeeeeeze... give me a break with the rhetor (Score:1, Interesting)
Are you arguing that we shouldn't try to improve the efficiency of engines and solar panels?
Re:And yet (Score:1, Interesting)
In my opinion, psychologists tend to fuck up more people than they help
In my experience, psychologists tend to fuck up more people than they help. Not deliberately, the patient is often too concerned with the status quo - being a docile, controllable, and boring human. The patient has been conditioned to believe that they are "defective" because they have fantasies about S&M or they're dissatisfied with the state of the American banking system.
The truly sane have convinced themselves that they are insane because of their observances coupled with the media. They could not be more wrong - they are sane and everybody else is insane.
Re:Look into it. (Score:1, Interesting)
> RMS genreally buys people on the street food if they ask him for money
RMS? Huh? What the hell does that have to do with anything?
Don't forget the annoying bible thumpers (Score:2, Interesting)
Also I'd presume a lot of homeless are like most of us in that they don't want to be preached at. And I'm sure perspectives regarding belief or religion isn't going to change just because the money is gone. The problem with this is that the majority of charitable services are ran by organized religions. The thinking among some homeless is, "I'd appreciate the food/shelter, but I'd just wish that you STFU already!". So instead of putting up with that all day, they'd just rather stike it out on their own while enjoying (relative) peace and quiet.
Maybe if there were more charities that were secular in nature instead of pushing some religious aspect or another, the inclination to stay on the street and dumpster dive would be much less. And who says philanthropy has to be tied to some religion?
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Facebook status: "LIVING UNDER A BRIDGE! HELP" (Score:1, Interesting)
There's a gentleman who asks for change on the weekends downtown when a lot of people are out bar hopping. One time, thanks in part to having consumed some liquid creativity that evening, I decided to offer to buy him a shot instead of giving him $1. That's what he's going to spend it on anyway, I thought. (Probably not the most sensitive thing to do, but again I wasn't exactly sober at the time.)
He took me up on the shots over the $1 without hesitation. He got a couple shots. I got some straight talk from a beggar. He told me he had an apartment down the street. He doesn't have a job because he makes more money begging than he ever did working. He has been doing it for years and it is a true art to get the tone of voice just right to maximize success. He also only bothers with times during the week when he knows people are off work and enjoying restaurants and bars. The people who roam the streets during the work week don't have any money to give him, and the revenue per hour is very poor.