Reply #78: Was homeless once.

[uppityperson]

I was voluntarily poor when I was in my mid-20s, but have been truly homeless once. I moved and thought I could find a place to live, affordably, but couldn't afford anything. I lived in a friend's kids playhouse (4X8 ft) for a month while searching for somewhere I could afford to rent (first & last were really hard to come up with). If I had had credit cards I could've charged rent, but I didn't have any. Yes, I had a friend who let me live in kids playhouse, in late fall. I thought I was better, but suddenly realized how fast and easy it was to fall. No drugs, no alcohol, just not enough money to rent a place. I applied for foodstamps and they gave them to me for 3 months. Then they discovered they had made a mistake and sent me notice I had to repay them. Crying to the case worker "I was honest and told you everything. I can't afford to pay them back now. If I WAS able to afford to, I wouldn't have applied." Caseworker kept repeating "it's ok, it's ok" to which I could only reply "it's NOT ok". We settled on paying back $5/month forever.

I found a place to live on only first month's rent, got a job, paid back foodstamps and realize how fast and easy it is to fall, even without having any "problems".

Happy holidays.