>>2577030I was homeless for a year and a half. It sucked. There was a certain freedom to not pissing all my income away on rent and shit I need to get to and from work. I read a lot of poetry and philosophy, tried to figure out where it all went so wrong. Wasted time online. Got some lifelong injuries from getting attacked local thugs. Did a little Mechanical Turk for Amazon at slave wage rates(wish I had know or even did know something better in case it happened again that I don't need a home for). Eventually got a shit job that didn't care home homeless I was and a mediocre roommate who didn't pay his half of the rent half the time because of his mental illness.
99.9% of people out there aren't homeless because of some bad happenstance. Its mental illness, drugs, medical problems, felony criminal record, or straight up laziness.
Bring hand sanitizer, a full sized manual can opener, unscented wetwipes, a hygiene kit, a boo boo kit with a small amount of commonly needed medicines, lighters, 2 penlights, a compass, a folding knife, a pistol and a slashpro top is encouraged, small laptop in a sleeve, enough containers to contain half a gallon of water, bottle of multivitamins, clothes system that allows you to wear it all at once to ward off the cold, good compact sleeping bag(wear it like a blanket in all but the most cold situations, mini notebook with pen pencil and marker, NO SLEEPING MAT(this makes you look like a hiker/tourist) instead use a double layer of folded up cardboard, and a daypack for sorting your dirties into and using as a pillow.
Jansport Trans or Carhartt's 35L bag work fine.
Some Men's Classic Truspec Pants will give you cargo pockets without the stigma. I also suggest a tartan button up top that goes with it. Blend in most places you'd want to go anyway. Might be wise to scuff your shoes a little bit so they don't look quite so tempting to steal.
Sometimes I miss it but that's just the weight of responsibility weighing down on me.
