Guess what? You already know someone who WAS homeless.

[Tyler Durden]

ME.

In late winter 1974 I called the cemetery on The Hill, Central Campus, University of Michigan in Ann Arbor home.

I was lucky. I still had my backpacking gear which was colored for winter use so nobody noticed there was something that looked like an extra boulder in the graveyard. I always kept my alarm clock set so I could pack up and be out before dawn.

Security was so lax that I could cop a shower, and sometimes a meal in the dorms, so I could save enough from panhandling to keep my clothing and gear relatively clean.

How do you do that if you aren't a young looking 22 or have a family? You don't.

As well as I was equipped to survive in my City of the Dead, I did everything short of light candles at the cathedral to hasten spring.

I forgot about the rain.

Couch surfing in the dormitories (if you're young enough and clean enough to fake it as a passed out resident), filching food from the cafeteria...I've never been so depressed in my life.

Why do I tell you all this? To remind you: It Can Happen To You. I went from Assistant Manager of the Automotive Department of Rink's Bargain City to HOMELESS in 3 weeks.

[LWolf]

1. I have also been homeless.

The first time, when I ran away from home and high school when I was 15. I slept in the back of my boyfriend's pickup truck. It lasted for 6 weeks before I gave up and went home.

The next, when I was a young mother working part time and going to school part time. I didn't make enough money for the rent, so when the spouse drank and drugged the rent money away, we ended up in a tent in a membership campground. My mom had a membership, and put our name on it. We could only stay for 2 weeks at a time, so we'd leave and camp in empty desert for a week, then go back to camp where there were showers. All the time, trying to tell my boys that it was an "adventure."

There were many times when we weren't actually homeless, but had little money for food; we haunted church socials and potlucks. There were also many times when all of the utilities were turned off, and I snuck my children into restrooms in fast food places and gas stations to use toilets and bathe them from the sink.

Conditions like that continued, off and on, until I divorced my first husband. I have not forgotten what it's like, even though it was more than 20 years ago.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. And it is likely that there will be many more

as this depression deepens. I'm hoping that we will have our house built of recycled materials by next year; then we'll have the cabin to give to someone in exchange for helping out around our place. I like helping people out.

[Donnachaidh]

3. it can happen in a flash

An earthquake in California, a flood anywhere - or a fire from a carelessly dropped match.

We've been through it, and even after a decade of rebuilding our lives we still have a fund we call *the other shoe* - because when an emergency hits, and you are dependant on *emergency* services from our government - you're basically screwed. Even more so now. After Katrina I would NOT hope for HELP of any sort from the government.

[raccoon]

7. Or disability, illness, or accident.

Because as I'm sure some of you know better than I do, even if one does get on disability, it's a fight to get on it.

[femmedem]

4. I know quite a few newly homeless people in my city.

They are homeless because they lost their jobs, or because their relationships ended and their jobs don't pay enough for a one-room apartment, or because they have mental health problems which make them unemployable, but aren't visible enough for them to get disability or supportive housing.

They are sleeping in cars, on friends' couches, or in commercially-zoned studios where they will be evicted if their landlord catches them. They are not going to the shelter because they are afraid, or because they are proud, or because they don't really think of themselves as homeless, even though they are.

[annabanana]

5. (on the streets of Hell's Kitchen)

in abandoned buildings, or between cars in lots..

It was brief, but vivid. And a long time ago.

[Richard Steele]

6. You're not the only person I've known who's been homeless.

And I've come close myself, a time or two.

Recommended

[Tyler Durden]

8. There's an empty apartment building in Lansing, called OLIVER TOWERS.

100 units of low cost housing for seniors, closed since a fire in an elevator 8 years ago.

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080221/NEWS01/802210335

Now I'm all for a Library and Science Center Extension, but I won't see one family out in the cold or living in a car for it.

The same thing is happening all over Detroit and Flint. HUGE old homes, HISTORIC apartment buildings, boarded up and empty. If we let the homeless suffer......

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Empty houses in just about every subdivision and town in this

state.

[Tyler Durden]

10. If there is a single family going homeless, with a single boarded up house in that area....

Well...I don't know if you believe in God (I don't) but may God Forgive Us. I wouldn't.

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. I stopped believing in God in August.

I agree with you.

[Tyler Durden]

17. Why do you think my name is Tyler Durden?

[Carni]

13. How bad is the economy in MI currently?

I ask because we moved from there about two years ago when things started to look ugly...is it really as bad as what has been portrayed?

Additionally...is that wonderful bastion of repukes *Oakland County* being effected AT ALL? It typically isn't!

[Tyler Durden]

16. Oakland County is doing JUST FINE, may they rot.

All of the Grosse Points appear fine, the gated communities from the far West Side to Novi seem ok.

Flint is a scene from "I am Legend" ("The Omega Man" for us oldies). In Owosso, my home and a community of 20K, there were almost 200 houses FORECLOSED AND IN BANK HANDS. This does not count the others in various stages of foreclosure, those bought up already out of foreclosure for a song, those owned by real estate companies....and they are putting in LUXURY LOFTS in a factory that used to build some of the finest furniture in the WORLD (numerous pieces from that company are in the White House). Go Figure.

In Detroit, if you get off the beaten path, the shock is almost visceral.

We all wish to thank the Rich Auto Execs, AND the American Public that wouldn't BUY anything from the American Auto Companies that wasn't almost as big as a HUMMER since the late 80's.

If anyone thinks we'll forgive and forget being abandoned by the rest of the country...guess again.

[gateley]

12. K&R

[Subdivisions]

14. I was also homeless both in my 20s and in my 30s.

I'm 43 now but when I was 21 I had already dropped out of college because my family couldn't afford it. Not wanting to go home after quitting college, I decided to just float and see what would happen. For a time I made friends with people my age who I would bump into, perhaps because they looked "cool". "Cool" people knew where to get good ganga, which once scored provided the best icebreaker for weazling my way into a night on some stranger's couch. When there was no cool people to bump into and no couch, it was life under an overpass or other bridge or a comfortable spot next to a river or stream where I would hunt berries, pecans, and sometimes even squirrels, rabits, and fish if I was able to fashion a trap or snare respectable enough for such animals to oblige. I roamed the south, Texas mostly, where winter would be tolerable or avoided altogether. Then, one day, I decided to visit mom and dad and they convinced me to stick around and get a job. I had been homeless and floating for about 2 years.

Lather, rinse and repeat for my early 30s, following the loss of a job due to injury and the subsequent divorce. I was with her for six years and had two daughters. Her dad drove the wedge that broke us up, telling her that if she stayed with me (he hated me) and continued to refuse to be with the man he wanted her to be with, she would lose all the things he had planned to give her including a paid-for brick home, some prime real-estate, and lots of money. She went with the house and money. I went back to the streets.

I've been up
I've been down
Take my word
I've been around

But I ain't askin' for much!

[Avalux]

15. I was homeless with 3 small children after losing my job about 10 years ago.

Part of it was my fault; no money in savings but then again, I didn't have any to save because I lived paycheck to paycheck. Fortunately I had good people who helped me and I wasn't homeless for a prolonged period of time.

Yes, it can happen to anyone.