Homelessness is arguably one of the most challenging and heartbreaking experiences one can face in modern-day society. Homeless people have to go through a lot – staying outdoors during challenging weather conditions, food shortages, even harassment, and these are just some of the few things that make being homeless a scary situation no one deserves to be in. However, people end up homeless all the time, and for numerous reasons, which sometimes don’t even fit the stereotypes like alcoholism or drug abuse.
According to the US department of housing and urban development, more than 326,000 people experienced sheltered homelessness in the United States on a single night in 2021. That might not seem like a lot, but these are very real people going through the unknown every single day. On the r/AskReddit subforum, a user asked people who were formerly homeless to share unwritten rules or codes towards other homeless people that most people would likely not be aware of. A heartbreaking number of people responded to the question with their insights and stories. The post collected 2.8k upvotes and prompted 5.6k comments. Scroll down to find out more and consider leaving a comment!
More info: Reddit
#1
I’ve been technically homeless about 3 times before the age of 15, but you would not be able to tell just by looking at me or conversing briefly. Average looking white, 20yr male college student. Without explaining a ton of other stuff and including many sad stories, I’ll get to the meat of the question. For my family, I remembered that we would go to the library everyday for several hours at a time. It’s a place where extended stays aren’t particularly unusual. Additionally, you have ac/heat, internet/computer access, water fountains, bathrooms, lounge chairs, and nearly endless educating vessels surrounding you in the form of books. TL;DR If you’re ever homeless, go to the library
Image credits: ReadHomeless
#2
When dumpster diving, if you find a pair of shoes and they are not your size or clothes then leave them neatly by the side of the dumpster for the next diver.
Image credits: T0mmyGun
#3
I was homeless for about 4 months in Las Vegas. Rules I learned in the area: (I’m a girl BTW :))
Don’t walk around without some sort of knife, because drunk, stupid people like to pick on homeless people.
Search each machine you can for loose change and vouchers. Also, if you spend a dollar at the penny slots and need a drink, you can get free ones on Fremont Street, which is also a great source of free entertainment when you’re bored.
If you find a friend, make sure one watches while one sleeps.
Make use of shelter money. In Vegas, there is a social service run by a church outfit that provides you with housing vouchers if you are one of the first 10 people in line in the morning. You can find a friend, double up on the vouchers in some places and get a weekly rental for an entire month. This is awesome during the summer when it’s 120 degrees outside and you need AC and a shower. This is also cool if you find a job with a telemarketing company or something that requires you to shower daily.
If you get involved in drugs, or have a gambling problem, and you’re already homeless, you’re pretty much destined to remain homeless in Vegas.
If you have food stamps, share. I once had a homeless man buy me a sandwich, and it was the most humbling experience in my entire life
Image credits: dianamo11
#4
If you’re trying to run away from good parents, and are underage, we will make sure the police find you.
Kid was 15, and after talking with his friends, we heard no reason for him to be running away. (teenage angst) Made sure the police took him home, and left my cell phone number in case he ran away again.
Just because I was homeless, that didn’t mean I didn’t work 2 jobs. Would work about 56 hours a week at a gas station between 2 stores, and then did the usual selling papers on the streets in the morning.
Image credits: Kishandreth
#5
If you’re female and it’s late fall/winter/early spring. Wear a mans padded jacket, sneakers, sweat pants, and a woolen hat. Make yourself as masculine as possible. Don’t sleep on roadsides or alleyways, find a rooftop with somewhat of a difficult entrance to navigate.
Always give the illusion that you’re a small man or young boy. You’ll be left alone more.
For personal hygiene use showers at a local swimming centre, gym, or make an arrangement with a few friends to use their shower once or twice a week.
For somewhere warm I bought a note book and a pen to the library and spent the day ‘studying’ and ‘taking notes’ from literature. It’s easy access to bathrooms and drinking water fountains too.
For food, I figured out the times bakeries threw away the days sandwiches. 30mins after they had thrown a trash bag full of still fresh sandwiches and cakes in the dumpster I was unsealing the bag and having a feast on a rooftop somewhere.
Source : spent December homeless when I was 17, my grandmother was in hospital and my nMom didn’t want me.
Image credits: deleted
#6
This was London in the mid 90’s. I was a teenage girl. I stayed out of the ‘homeless scene’ and only rough slept for 3 weeks, the rest of the time was squatting so I don’t know if I can speak with any authority but…
Try not to be attractive.
Avoid other homeless people of the male gender.
Avoid other homeless people full-stop
Avoid squats and drop-ins
Do not go into the shelters.
Shower every day (pools, gyms)
Learn how to shop-lift well so you’re not beholden to anyone for food or clothing.
Keep changing your clothes
Don’t hang about looking useless. If you are walking somewhere walk with purpose. Sit down in places where normal people sit down i.e. benches not the floor.
Carry a book. It’s what normal people do
People see what they perceive to be a homeless young female and they think drugs and mental illness. They also think victim and sexually exploitable. For this reason you must do all you can to not appear homeless.
Image credits: deleted
#7
Be wary of items given to you by other people. My cousin counseled homeless youth for a few years, and one of his favorites got sent to jail for accepting a “gift” of a cell phone. The phone ended up being stolen out of the owner’s car, and had GPS attached to it. The police found him with the phone, and arrested him on the spot. My cousin was called in as a character witness to testify on his behalf. Not sure what happened after that though.
Image credits: Phishmcz
#8
Don’t steal each others food, be friendly to one another, and only steal from those who have to much. That was the code back when I was homeless.
Image credits: Skyrim-Dovah
#9
I was a traveler kid around the Pacific Northwest for a while, many years ago. The culture I was a part of is hard to describe to people that have never been involved in it, but I’ll try to list a few things.
There are different cultures of homeless people, and they don’t all overlap. I was a traveling punk (a kind of derogatory term is ‘crusty punk’, and we tended to keep to groups, crash at punk houses or in parks, hitchhike, hop trains, and have a radical political bent (anarchism mainly). We made fun of ‘oogles’, who were more like juggalo types. We called older travelers hobos and city homeless homebums, and we respected them but didn’t really hang out with them.
We had quite a few rules of conduct. Stealing from stores was expected but stealing from friends/other homeless was not ok. If you’re crashing at somebody’s house, do some dishes or dumpster-dive some food for them to pay them back for their hospitality. Share your booze. Keep the dumpster areas you take food from as clean or cleaner than you found them. Don’t ever hop a train alone. If you are hopping trains, look out for the number of engines on the train. A train with four engines is usually going a long way; trains with two engines are usually local. Don’t just look for boxcars; grainers (grain transport cars) have a “porch” on either end and cubby holes that you can hide in to not be seen by the bulls (train cops). There was a photocopied homemade magazine (zine) called the crew change guide that you wanted to snag a copy of that would give you directions to train yards all over the country and tell you where the freight trains were going! When someone gave me one for the first time, I felt like I had been given the keys to every city in the whole world.
That’s all I can think of for now, but there’s plenty more.
Image credits: unifactor
#10
Look out for each other and be good to each other. We’re all struggling, so let’s make it as good as we can for each other.
When I was homeless we paid for each other’s food, clothes, and any other essentials if one was truly in need.
Image credits: PatchesJHollin
#11
Share what you have with your group. What goes around comes around. If there are a group of you, each person can stand on a different corner to beg and make far more than you would by yourself.
Image credits: theriddler41
#12
Don’t beg on someone’s corner if they are already there.
Image credits: theriddler41
#13
Save every penny. Buy a tent. Put your tent next to a river. Go to the library every single day. Spend as much time as you can applying for jobs. Take the first job you can get. Keep bathing in the river, and working until winter. Do not spend a dime on booze. Once winter comes get an apartment, and keep working. Apply to your local technical college, and get a job in IT. Stop being homeless. Worked for me.
Image credits: deleted
#14
If you walk around and eat food and drink from Walmart that is under 30 bucks, they don’t call the police, they just kick you out.
Image credits: deleted
#15
Former homeless person here. Don’t trust a single word any homeless person says to you. They figured out a long time ago that empathy is the most efficient way to get money out of you.
Don’t give money to homeless people at all. Its not helping. Its enabling!
Edit I made another comment but it won’t be seen as much as the following….
As much as people despise religion online, religious people are by far the most compassionate about the homeless. A good church will do everything it can to help you, without trying to force its faith down your throat.
Edit 2: If you want to help the homeless give them your time not your money. Volunteer at a shelter. Donate clothing to goodwill or whatever the second hand store in your area is called. Donate money to the salvation army. They are by far the largest advocates for the homeless population. Here’s an idea instead of just passing them by and going on your daily routine, stop and ask them their name. You have no idea how this small token will be appreciated by someone that is passed by thousands of times a day without so much a look in their direction. Offer your phone number, say if you want to talk call me. You don’t need to be a psychologist to show compassion. Start a group activity that welcomes homeless. Recreational sports league? Invite him/her to come play.
Image credits: woodsbre
#16
Find a popular area and claim it. Make sure no one else can claim it and you should be able to live well off in terms of food.
Image credits: gucci9ers
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