Slashdot Mirror
How American Homeless Stay Wired
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.'"
Except Pitts has been homeless for two years and manages this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.
That's some sick battery life right there!
Been there, done that. Except that I had jobs while I was homeless. I got my fix from internet cafes and, better yet, university libraries -- for free. Uni internet library computers often run windows so they can be "tricked" into installing small programs using inconsistent enforcement of restrictions.
;)
More tips for the homeless: Trader Joe's 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
If you can reach friends and family, can't you ask for help? Maybe I grew up in an environment where homelessness was not an option because I'm sure that I could chill on someone's couch until I worked my way back into an apartment. If you can't reach anybody on the internet who is willing or able to help you out while you're living under a bridge, perhaps you should re-evaluate your ongoing communications with those people. I realize that not everybody will be able to work up a western-union order for bus fair in a week or a cross-country plane ticket in a month to help their friend, you'd have to be pretty low on my list of acquaintances for me to not help you out, and I make sure I hang out with people that would do the same for me. This is really sad, while yes, its good that they can stay in contact, this is a case of communication without value.
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
I get like zero bars in my dumpster.
...from his residence under a highway bridge.
Sometimes you just gotta hand it to a troll for sheer dedication. (+1, troll?)
I am not sure you realize how bad the "human resources" movement people are at finding talent that doesn't fit into a distinct mould. There are tons of good people out there who have true talent who can't get jobs because they don't strictly fit into some H.R. drone can't easily label them or because H.R. is playing games with H1-Bs or whatnot.
People like Charlie Pitts deserve chances. Not every homeless guy is the "bum" stereotype we see so much in our media, and many have genuine talents and can contribute a lot. It's just that we don't manage our available talents well in the US at all right now.
For some people(who often have jobs or keep some responsibility), being homeless is about freedom. I'd just exited a bad relationship with the woman I lived and then left another place to live because the management didn't fix shit (my pet peeve was that the jacuzzi was always cold, damn them).
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.
For some reason he dose not want to work.
Internet connection, doesn't want to work, according to TFA some of them can't read or write : how about a job as a Slashdot editor?
It's easy to shower without friends or crash-pads. Go to the local university or junior college because you get get into the locker room and shower without hassle. The phenomenon described in this discussion is actually widespread, in fact, the JC I was showering at(a popular one in Los Angeles) was known for people sleeping in its locker rooms and even classrooms after lights-out. This was back around 2005 when the economy was decent.
Before I thought of that, I would rub my body down with body wash (while wearing boardshorts) and find an apartment complex with a pool or jacuzzi, then I'd get in and bathe in them! Scrubbing with fingernails exfoliates skin and the bromine keeps you clean while the body wash keeps you fresh, though just the bromine will suffice if you scrub with your fingernails.
Just make sure you have more than one towl and do a drying rotation. In locker rooms I've seen bums showering who didn't even have a towel, and they used half a roll of paper towels from the dispenser to dry their body off! xD
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.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
3,304 pounds of food per second. 263,013,699 pounds of food every day. 1.5 tons of food per year for every person in America.
A couple of decades ago, Harry Chapin said something like "In a country where we produce enough food to feed the entire planet 6 times over, it's unthinkable that anybody shouldn't have enough to eat". Not much has changed in the interim.
1 in 4 Maine children in struggle with hunger.
I've seen bums showering who didn't even have a towel
But that's the most important thing to have !!! I means there is a whole series of books about how important it is to have a towel.
"For some reason this article makes me angry. Its been ten months for me and I can't find a job either, but if I was laid off 2 years ago, it would have been alot easier."
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 wanted a dragnet that he hoped would trivialise his own behaviour.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
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?
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...
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.
----- In Your Cubicle No One Can Hear You Scream...