Living the Life of a Homeless Person - Interesting Experiment from a Well-Known Personal Finance Blogger

NevBlog is in the middle of an interesting finance experiment... he's finding out what it is like to be homeless first-hand. He's been sleeping on the streets of Austin for the past few days.

Link

The mean streets of Austin. How will he ever survive?!

Asked and answered.

http://freesleeping.blogspot.com

BlueEyesAustinTexas said: While these sort of experiments are interesting (like the woman who worked a bunch of working class jobs and wrote a book about it) it is simply impossible to capture the feeling of being stuck in the underclass.

It also does not replicate the mental illness that many chronically homeless people suffer from.

curvesahead said: BlueEyesAustinTexas said: While these sort of experiments are interesting (like the woman who worked a bunch of working class jobs and wrote a book about it) it is simply impossible to capture the feeling of being stuck in the underclass.

It also does not replicate the mental illness that many chronically homeless people suffer from.

Or the drug and alcohol addiction.

sorry, forgot the link..

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/03/05/Miche...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/03/michelle...

yourlefthand said:
]Too bad that isn't an iphone. It looks like it might be a blackberry, which still isn't cheap, though.

Maybe it is a cheap camera phone??? I don't know. You can tell I don't have any of those though.... I am just wondering how much it costs to pay for the phone plan and to send out these lovely photos that he can brag for years to come among his friends...

RushnRockt said: It certainly costs more than simply assuming that he is homeless. Imagination is your greatest entertainer Exactly -- how do you know it isn't a fellow volunteer? I used to work in a downtown area with many homeless people, and most of them didn't even have lighters to light a cigarette they bummed off someone. The stories of homeless people having nice cars, gadgets, etc. are overblown, at least with the homeless people I have encountered.

BTW, you really don't have to be wealthy to have a camera phone these days. Hell, you can have a Tracfone with one. It isn't as much of a luxury as you pretend it to be.

This experiment is nothing more than a week of urban camping.

geebeebee said: BTW, you really don't have to be wealthy to have a camera phone these days.

Gosh, I must belong to the old generation. I put food on the table first, before I even consider buying a camera phone for myself or my kids.

mimi6789 said: geebeebee said: BTW, you really don't have to be wealthy to have a camera phone these days.


Gosh, I must belong to the old generation. I put food on the table first, before I even consider buying a camera phone for myself or my kids.

And I thought old generation knew that most homeless people do not have the niceties of life others do and are homeless for damn good reasons.

Homeless and on the web link

gtalum said: How do you know the guy in that photo is homeless?They don't. It's the FWF "shoot-first, ask questions later" method that is extremely popular, especially when referring to the down-and-out.

Could You Survive on the Streets?

Put a check by each item you know how to do.

_____1. I know which churches and sections of town where I can go for meal.

_____2. I know which grocery stores’ and restaurants’ garbage bins can be accessed for thrown-away food.

_____3. I know how to physically fight and defend myself physically.

_____4. I know how to keep my clothes from being stolen.

_____5. I know how to live without electricity and a phone.

_____6. I know how to live without a checking account.

_____7. I know where to go when I am sick

_____8. I am physically able to walk up to 10 miles a day

_____9. I know what areas of the City to go to where I can look for work

_____10. I know what businesses or property that I can cross over or enter without having the police called.

_____11. I know where I can get a drink of water in the heat of the summer

biglittle said: I remember this past Christmas there was a drive to collect items for a family in "need". On the wish lists, all the kids wanted cell phones.Well, yeah....what kid wouldn't? There were probably video game systems, toys, and bikes on there, too. Do you expect a KID to ask for food?

mimi6789 said: geebeebee said: biglittle said:

I remember this past Christmas there was a drive to collect items for a family in "need". On the wish lists, all the kids wanted cell phones.

Well, yeah....what kid wouldn't? There were probably video game systems, toys, and bikes on there, too. Do you expect a KID to ask for food?


Gosh, next time when I write a big check with many 0s to soup kitchen, I better make sure that my household does have these items for what my kids WANT... Did I just say that I am wearing a shirt that I have been wearing for twenty years?So, poor kids shouldn't be allowed to WANT a video game system? Yep, how dare they, because it's their own fault that they're poor, even if they're nine years old.

Furthermore, because they WANT them, it means they GET them? Wow, have you taken a course on judgmentalism lately?

mimi6789 said: geebeebee said: So, poor kids shouldn't be allowed to WANT a video game system? Yep, how dare they, because it's their own fault that they're poor, even if they're nine years old.

Furthermore, because they WANT them, it means they GET them? Wow, have you taken a course on judgmentalism lately?

Food first? Toys first? Video game first? Clothes first? Eduction first? Shelter first? Cell phone first? Shoes first? shower first? Blanket first? Underwear? Cut my nail? Haircut? Ice cubes? Camera phone? What should I do first? Decision, decision, decision, decision.....Apparently, you don't remember being a kid. It's ALWAYS fun first, and I would imagine that's even if you're hungry.

geebeebee said: Apparently, you don't remember being a kid. It's ALWAYS fun first, and I would imagine that's even if you're hungry.

It is called entitlement.

When I was a kid, I lived by with many homeless people. We would go hunting for mental with a stick and sold these mental for food. I told myself that this was not the life I wanted... So, I worked and saved and I donated to charities. But the entitlement mentality is what is killing this society.

The young generation just does not know how to distinguish "want" from "need".

skrangeo said: the temperatures here in TX have been rather decent.

I'd like to see him do this for a month in January. As it is, he's saying "it's nice, wish I had a hammock"
He should come to someplace actually cold in January, or try it again when it's 100+.

Mimi, does it strike you that a homeless person looking for work and with no permanent address might very rationally buy a prepaid cellphone to have a phone number where they can be reached by a prospective employer/addiction counselor/social services agent? That they might want to be able to call around for potential job/work opportunities instead of traveling all over the city by bus at $1.50 a stop (especially with so few payphones in continued existence)? What better first step toward obtaining clothes, education, shoes, etc. than to save up to get yourself a phone? Might the person have a family member who, though so far unable to help them with their alcoholism or mental health issues, cares enough to give them a phone so as to have a way to know whether the person is living or dead? Might a homeless guy -- if that's what he is -- not be inspired at meeting the first lady of the United States?

As to the blog itself, I have mixed feelings. I find it admirable that Nev seems to want to gain some understanding of how people very different than himself live. But he does seem to view it as a lark or an adventure, a personal challenge or growth experience, a bizarre vacation rather than anything deeper. And he keeps saying how easy it it. Sure it is, if being homeless is optional, if you didn't have to really experience the final crisis (and the series of crises leading up to that) that makes most people homeless (eviction, illness, layoff, divorce, domestic violence that's so bad that you finally leave), if at any minute you can go back to your 4,000-square food loft and take a shower, and if that's what you do after four days. When you know you have a college degree and a good job. If he wanted to improve himself, it seems like he may have found a way to get involved to help homeless people in Austin in some way. I've read the whole blog, and I haven't seen any inclination toward that yet, though he did seem to gain some understanding of the people he met. He just acts like he's proud he finished a difficult pack hike or something.

It would also be nice for him to at least donate $50 or whatever to the shelter where he stayed to try to make up for moral transgression of crowding a truly homeless person out of a bed that night he stayed there. But he didn't mention that, either.

These threads are always amusing because they really bring out the bats. Going back to the original complain about a indigent person with a camera in their cell phone here are a few points:

1. The 'free' phone I got with my cellular plan is a Palm treo with zooming camera. In fact they paid me 50 dollars after rebate.
2. As far as services go, cell phones represent a huge boon to the indigent population. Prospective employers can call back applicants. Without a cell phone an indigent person can not be contacted for work (aside from the indigent person sitting next to a pay phone).
3. Even if 100% of government benefits paid to indigents do not get spent in a manner that everyone would like - that is no reason to rail against the entire system. That's an argument for oversight not removing the programs. The argument seems to always go like this: why is that EBT person buy potato chips? I shouldn't have to pay for their snack food. Well is it okay if they're buying flour and butter? Or do they have to purchase raw milk and sheathed wheat in order to pass muster? After all they have nothing better to do all day other than grist their own flour.