homeless

[crackonchief]

Yes am thinking live out of town and just do foraging trips to town ...

[Jimmy69]

Thank you for your encouraging words guys - sorry its taken me so long to write on this post again. I've actually started writing some of it down and other bits keep coming back to me. I'll post some when i've done a bit more.

Turns out its actually good therapy getting it all down on paper lol!

[tadpole]

I’ve been homeless, spent months sleeping on friends floors before moving on to living in abandoned building or during the summer in a tent and after a while, just trying to get warm and dry was all you thought about. But that was a long time ago.
In most of the major towns and cities, every night there are vans and cars filled with groups of people, admittedly mostly from churches, that hand out hot soup and sandwiches to homeless people. Some like the one I belong to offer bedding tents and first aid treatment and re-dressing of injuries. The homeless people I see, and talk to are not the kind of people you’d expect to see homeless. Ok There is a small number of “tramps" the few habitual drunks who 30 years ago would be kept safe and warm in a mental institute, where they would be protected from society and society protected from them. Mostly now its migrant workers who have been abandoned by the gang bosses who brought them over to work, and when their income failed they were just dumped in the first major town and left to get home however they can. Families who are in shelters but are left with no money for food heating lighting and clothes. And saddest of all, there are the kids and young adults, who have no hope, young girls for whom homelessness is 100 times better than home life, and young boys who are dumped on the street when their mother gets a new boyfriend or can no longer cope.
Town or city, wood or parkland to them it matters not, they are shell-shocked by the brutality of living outside of society, where every day is a struggle just to keep going, and to walk from one handout to another is all that they can do all that can see in their future is cold and wet and pain. Even the people, who are just like them, are their enemy, for there is no honour or hope.
For those homeless there missing the one thing that we all think we have, it’s a small thing, one word that for us sitting here now would think least important, but for them, its lack is what makes their life even more hopeless, they have no choice. There is no freedom to choose. It is their lot and there is nothing they can do about it. To move they have to have help, and it has to come from outside, for with hopelessness come inertia. and that is habit forming.
In the three plus years I’ve been doing the “soup run” I’ve met two people who had the mental wherewithal to have made a choice, and they, like some on this thread, picked living in the wood land and walking every day the three or four miles into town to find food and somewhere warm and dry. The rest are stumbling from one crisis to then next, not knowing or in some cases not caring what happens next.

[cuppa joe]

Homelessness is a flippant thought, or a small wrong step away from hopelessness ..without people who care about you you're in for a hard hard time and anyone considering a homeless existence should forget any romanticism's about life as a Hobo....make no mistake Britain has restocked its compliment of predators..they are feral products of our society's indifference to consequence..... personal safety should be given an equal share when considering provision of Food and water ,shelter ,warmth .

[Ben Casey]

I think if you got a group of like minded people together in the same situatiion you could build a nice place in the woods. There was a programme on TV the other night about homeless in America and a few had built some small sort of villages. In the few times I have been down on my luck I had family to fall back on but now I feel a bit more secure I would probably find some where quiet and set myself up taking things from fields and wherever I could get it.

I think it is one of the good things bushcraft can teach how to use and recycle stuff and sort of make do and mend

[cuppa joe]

I’ve been homeless, spent months sleeping on friends floors before moving on to living in abandoned building or during the summer in a tent and after a while, just trying to get warm and dry was all you thought about. But that was a long time ago.
In most of the major towns and cities, every night there are vans and cars filled with groups of people, admittedly mostly from churches, that hand out hot soup and sandwiches to homeless people. Some like the one I belong to offer bedding tents and first aid treatment and re-dressing of injuries. The homeless people I see, and talk to are not the kind of people you’d expect to see homeless. Ok There is a small number of “tramps" the few habitual drunks who 30 years ago would be kept safe and warm in a mental institute, where they would be protected from society and society protected from them. Mostly now its migrant workers who have been abandoned by the gang bosses who brought them over to work, and when their income failed they were just dumped in the first major town and left to get home however they can. Families who are in shelters but are left with no money for food heating lighting and clothes. And saddest of all, there are the kids and young adults, who have no hope, young girls for whom homelessness is 100 times better than home life, and young boys who are dumped on the street when their mother gets a new boyfriend or can no longer cope.
Town or city, wood or parkland to them it matters not, they are shell-shocked by the brutality of living outside of society, where every day is a struggle just to keep going, and to walk from one handout to another is all that they can do all that can see in their future is cold and wet and pain. Even the people, who are just like them, are their enemy, for there is no honour or hope.
For those homeless there missing the one thing that we all think we have, it’s a small thing, one word that for us sitting here now would think least important, but for them, its lack is what makes their life even more hopeless, they have no choice. There is no freedom to choose. It is their lot and there is nothing they can do about it. To move they have to have help, and it has to come from outside, for with hopelessness come inertia. and that is habit forming.
In the three plus years I’ve been doing the “soup run” I’ve met two people who had the mental wherewithal to have made a choice, and they, like some on this thread, picked living in the wood land and walking every day the three or four miles into town to find food and somewhere warm and dry. The rest are stumbling from one crisis to then next, not knowing or in some cases not caring what happens next.

Its a sad situation for anyone to find themselves in....I think your point on the word Choice was very accurate ...well said.

[Silverback]

....make no mistake Britain has restocked its compliment of predators..they are feral products of our society's indifference to consequence..... personal safety should be given an equal share when considering provision of Food and water ,shelter ,warmth .

Aint that the truth brother !

[Jimmy69]

I’ve been homeless, spent months sleeping on friends floors before moving on to living in abandoned building or during the summer in a tent and after a while, just trying to get warm and dry was all you thought about. But that was a long time ago.
In most of the major towns and cities, every night there are vans and cars filled with groups of people, admittedly mostly from churches, that hand out hot soup and sandwiches to homeless people. Some like the one I belong to offer bedding tents and first aid treatment and re-dressing of injuries. The homeless people I see, and talk to are not the kind of people you’d expect to see homeless. Ok There is a small number of “tramps" the few habitual drunks who 30 years ago would be kept safe and warm in a mental institute, where they would be protected from society and society protected from them. Mostly now its migrant workers who have been abandoned by the gang bosses who brought them over to work, and when their income failed they were just dumped in the first major town and left to get home however they can. Families who are in shelters but are left with no money for food heating lighting and clothes. And saddest of all, there are the kids and young adults, who have no hope, young girls for whom homelessness is 100 times better than home life, and young boys who are dumped on the street when their mother gets a new boyfriend or can no longer cope.
Town or city, wood or parkland to them it matters not, they are shell-shocked by the brutality of living outside of society, where every day is a struggle just to keep going, and to walk from one handout to another is all that they can do all that can see in their future is cold and wet and pain. Even the people, who are just like them, are their enemy, for there is no honour or hope.
For those homeless there missing the one thing that we all think we have, it’s a small thing, one word that for us sitting here now would think least important, but for them, its lack is what makes their life even more hopeless, they have no choice. There is no freedom to choose. It is their lot and there is nothing they can do about it. To move they have to have help, and it has to come from outside, for with hopelessness come inertia. and that is habit forming.
In the three plus years I’ve been doing the “soup run” I’ve met two people who had the mental wherewithal to have made a choice, and they, like some on this thread, picked living in the wood land and walking every day the three or four miles into town to find food and somewhere warm and dry. The rest are stumbling from one crisis to then next, not knowing or in some cases not caring what happens next.

Very compelling and thank you for sharing.

I have to admit that i find it difficult talking about much of my past - not something i would like to re-live every day. In my situation i choose homelessness as at the time i thought the only other choice was the end of my life. It’s hard to articulate how terrified i was sleeping those first few times literally on the street. Eventually i only got some sleep because my body decided for me. Being woken up by a stranger roughing me up was a horrific experience – i can still remember being able to heart my heartbeat in my head.

I have to confess though that i didn’t feel shocked at living outside society – once i decided to leave the populated areas and head to the country i had feelings of freedom and relief; interspersed with loneliness and guilt at leaving behind a few people i cared about. I left not caring whether i lived or died as the alternative was a definite one way route – perhaps this would end in the same way.

I can understand though why people would want to stay close to civilisation and be trapped , as you say, stumbling from one crisis to the next. I guess in the end i just didn’t want to stay around people – solitude was what i craved. Letting go of it though was much tougher than i could ever have imagined. Walking out of town i had many doubts and knew that there was a good chance i wouldn’t survive; i almost turned back several times. But part of me pushed on.

I don’t regret doing it – although i eventually realised that i couldn’t maintain myself indefinitely, it would always be an option to me to get away from the nightmares in my life. It is not my intention to romanticise it in any way, but out in the mountains i was free, however the price of freedom was cold, wet, hunger and pain – it was worth it!

After a while i also succumbed to the lethargy of wondering what’s the point of going on – but it would come and go...

[cuppa joe]

Very compelling and thank you for sharing.

I have to admit that i find it difficult talking about much of my past - not something i would like to re-live every day. In my situation i choose homelessness as at the time i thought the only other choice was the end of my life. It’s hard to articulate how terrified i was sleeping those first few times literally on the street. Eventually i only got some sleep because my body decided for me. Being woken up by a stranger roughing me up was a horrific experience – I can still remember being able to heart my heartbeat in my head.

I have to confess though that i didn’t feel shocked at living outside society – once i decided to leave the populated areas and head to the country i had feelings of freedom and relief; interspersed with loneliness and guilt at leaving behind a few people i cared about. I left not caring whether i lived or died as the alternative was a definite one way route – perhaps this would end in the same way.

I can understand though why people would want to stay close to civilisation and be trapped , as you say, stumbling from one crisis to the next. I guess in the end i just didn’t want to stay around people – solitude was what i craved. Letting go of it though was much tougher than i could ever have imagined. Walking out of town i had many doubts and knew that there was a good chance i wouldn’t survive; i almost turned back several times. But part of me pushed on.

I don’t regret doing it – although i eventually realised that i couldn’t maintain myself indefinitely, it would always be an option to me to get away from the nightmares in my life. It is not my intention to romanticise it in any way, but out in the mountains i was free, however the price of freedom was cold, wet, hunger and pain – it was worth it!

After a while i also succumbed to the lethargy of wondering what’s the point of going on – but it would come and go...

There is a lot of love on this thread ...I can feel it ....it strengthens my belief that Bushcrafters are in general sensitive beings.
You have a way with words there lad...not a bad thing to have...it can often be a form of release to put pen to paper and expel one's woe's ...I too had a series of situations occur which changed my whole outlook on life..after 19 assaults at work the last an attempt on my life my mind decided enough was enough and waived a white flag .
A year and a half later I am a changed man ...for the better I feel and my interest in all things outdoors has blossomed....onwards and upwards.

[char4chocs]

A mate of mine isnt a tramp he has a caravan, But when i joined him on his nightly scavange you would be suprised how much stuff if chucked out in cities and large towns, We went to the back of Co op where they chuck away meat,day old food, and the fresh stuff, and I have eaten this food theres nothing wrong with it (its all disposed of in polythene bags and most is still in packaging). we then went to the local industrial area and recycling centre collecting scrap metal/bikes and resaleable items, after all this I have a large amount thanks for my life and my situation. I'm lucky along with many others that people support me, help me and give me what I need. for my mate there's no one and nothing for him, to me he out of all of us is the Survivor and the king of living in the bush