What’s even funnier is the Southern Poverty Law Center actually funded the Klan. Until they got caught (literally) in bed with them just a short time ago…

I’m going to sell iptoilets and call my store ipfreely…

I’ll give you my “recommended” list – for less than $200 it provides a world of comfort for a much longer time and costs less than a night or two in a hotel!

Thermal Sleeping Bag https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBHDHVFH

2-man tent https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F14K7BGS

Cot https://www.amazon.com/Sutekus-Portable-Ultralight-Backpacking-Mountaineering/dp/B09TQWR9G2?refinements=p_36%3A-7800

Glad to read that you’re doing well. A car makes all the difference in the world, so stay current on the maintenance!

And having a community behind you definitely helps. Nice to be in a hotel for 5 nights straight, but make sure you get a tent / cot / thermal sleeping bag. A cot inside a tent is a lot more comfortable than a car (unless you tear out the backrest of the backseat entirely and convert the trunk/backseat into a sleeeping space), and campsites are far cheaper than hotels. www.freecampsites.net is also a decent resource (iOverlander is another) for finding free places to camp. Some are truck stops, other is BLM land, other is dispersed camping on Forestry land (there’s different “Boondocking” groups on social media, tons of resources on where and how to camp legally for free). I’ll be doing that when my SSI comes through. It’s actually kind of fun, I just go from campsite to campsite every few days and see the country. A car is the difference between tolerable and intolerable for a homeless person.

Sorry to hear about your friend, sad but true that most friends really aren’t your friends especially when things get difficult. What will be amazing is the real friends you discover that either 1) you didn’t know you had or 2) you never thought you’d make.

Sounds like you have everything handled as best as you can! Again, glad to help and feel free to ask questions. I can’t say I know everything but after 13 years of being homeless (with and without a car) I do know a few tricks. Take care.

According to the experts – this will lower the cost of housing, food and fuel by incredible amounts…

Yeah, the worst part is the beginning (anxiety). But once you have food stamps loaded up on your card and you find a few safe places to pitch a tent (far away from downtown areas), you’ll have a little taste of stability. It gets easier from there.

Remember to avoid grassy areas (think public parks) when camping. Water sprinklers tend to come on at 3 am and that’s no fun…

I’ve been homeless for 13 years, so I’ll give what advice I can –

First off, you will live through this.

I’ve had zero luck with shelters. They’re dangerous. Theft, drugs, disease and violence. Maybe the shelter near you is better, and I hope so, but if not you’ll need to have a backup plan.

Hotels will drain you dry. DO NOT spend your last dollar on one. In fact, leave now. You need your money for survival. A hotel will eat the dollars you need to survive.

Make sure you have one large duffel bag and a large backpack. You’ll need a 1-man tent and sleeping bag (thermal). Keep those and your clothes in the large duffel. Keep toiletries, paperwork (ie: birth certificate), laptop, phone, chargers, etc in the backpack. Get a $15 pocket stove from a Walmart, a $6 small pot, and a $10 can of fuel so you can cook. Get on food stamps and Medicaid ASAP. Do not wait on that. You’re homeless, you’ll get both, and you’ll need both. EBT is roughly $300 per month in food, and you can use it in all 50 states. Make a cardboard sign that says “HUNGRY” and keep it in your backpack. You’ll get food and cash. You just need to learn where to fly it.

Winter is coming, and if you’re in the DC area it’s not a good thing. Cold, wind and rain/snow are your enemies. And DC is not exactly “homeless friendly”. Winter is coming, you’ll want to relocate. Don’t get too caught up in the “red state vs. blue state” balogna. It’s more like “can I survive this place for X amount of time?”. I do Colorado for summer, and Houston for winter. For your situation, you’ll need to find LGBTQ-friendly cities. Texas may sound hick and redneck and all things conservative, but Austin is about as San Fransisco-y as it gets. Shop around, travel around. Chase the weather.

Places to avoid is basically any place that’s popular for homeless. Florida. Don’t go there (it sucks for homeless people because there’s just too many). Same with SoCal. Same with Frisco. Same with Salt Lake City (they’re actually in the process of warehousing homeless people against their will, stay the hell away from that!).

I’ve usually hichhiked between locations, but I’ve also done the whole panhandle --> short bus ride to nearby town/city --> panhandle for the next leg. It involves swallowing your pride a little, but it’s better than going hungry. And don’t be afraid to put down “NEED TENT” or “NEED BUS TICKET”. You’ll be amazed at the help you get.

Stay away from other homeless you see. Visible homeless are almost always guaranteed to be on drugs and willing to steal your stuff. Avoid them like the plague. After a while, you’ll learn which homeless people you can trust. And you won’t meet those people on street corners.

Avoid downtown areas. Safest places to camp are almost always on the outskirts of cities that still have public transit. Camp out of sight and out of mind. Tent goes up after dark, get some sleep, and take it down at sunrise. Eventually, you find a spot where you can leave your tent up for a while and actually find work. It doesn’t happen immediately but it does happen.

In all honesty, the entire Northeast and DC areas are the absolute worst places in the country to be homeless. If things don’t start working out, plan an escape to somewhere (literally anywhere) else. No matter where you go, libraries are your friend for charging electronics and using wifi. Showering can be difficult depending on the city. In Phoenix there’s municipal pools for just a few bucks that have showers. Houston’s parks all have showers for 75 cents. Florida has beachside showers, but a massive homeless population and an overburdened social services system.

That’s about all the help I can give right now. It’s completely doable, so keep your head up. Keep a very open mind to traveling, it’ll likely be your only way out. Feel free to ask if you have any questions, I’ve been doing this a while.

FYI – I’m still waiting on my disability case. But in the 13 years I’ve been homeless I’ve managed a 735 FICO score, 4 major credit cards, a ham radio license, and I do house-sitting. Still camp when I need to. It’s not as bad as it seems, and when I started I literally had nothing more than the pair of shorts I was wearing and a t-shirt. In December. I had been teaching English in Asia, lost my passport, and was repatriated. Started at zero. If this idiot can manage that, you’ll do far better. Good luck!

In 40 years, GenZ will be the new Boomers. They won’t understand the new Generation D (for “dummy”) that’s too lazy to make their own bowl of cereal without a robot doing it for them. GenD will call GenZ out of touch because they choose to bathe themselves alone rather than shower with a bathing robot. GenZ will reminisce about the brief time they drove their own car, how this new generation just doesn’t understand, and the few remaining GenX’ers will one-up them from the retirement home with talk about stick shifts. Oh, how that new lazy generation knows nothing about the hellscape of manually vacuuming the house. Or having a job. GenD will put down GenZ about not knowing how to live in a fully-automated world, while GenZ quips back about how they were the ones that built that fully-automated world. The big generational debate will be on whether or not to elect robots to Congress or just have AI run the country. And that GenD should liquidate and redistribute the wealth GenZ is hoarding. I hope I’m still around, and I hope there’s popcorn!!! :-)

Both political parties suck.