Hi everyone, Thx here, 
I am former homeless, was outside on and off from 1991 to about 2003 I guess when I finally found a room in a rundown hotel, since then I have moved to a cheap apartment I have been at for 7 years now.
I was recently a member of another homeless forum and that one just disappeared.. like a hobo in the night.
Anyway, I started out in Southern California, spent a few months there and decided if I were homeless I'd rather be in a place with more trees than telephone poles. So I applied for general assistance in El Monte Cal., got my check and headed for Seattle. That was one of the best moves I ever made, I love it up here and have recently bought a piece of property at Hood Canal WA. right next to the Olympic National forest and about a quarter mile from the beach.
My thinking is to save up for a trailer or build a tiny house and retire to the life of a simple wood gatherer.
Gather deadfall all around my neighborhood to form an additional fire break and utilize the free wood.
Not unlike Frank Morgan's character "The Pirate" in Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat:
I used to be an electronic technician, had good jobs designing robotics and automated production lines.
It was great until our company went from 240 employees to 45 in two years. (Dominican Republic took many of our clients, labor was 25 cents an hour.)
After that I tried to get work in my field, eventually any kind of work, but after months of looking and ending up on the streets I gave up.
But, eventually I started doing landscaping and ended up with my own company: Sons of the Soil and am now semi-retired in my early 50s, I never in a million years would have guessed that, even at the widget factory I thought I'd be punching a time clock 'til I was 65.
So I hope my story demonstrates that homelessness might last for ten years, but it doesn't have to last forever and there is hope for each of us.
I wouldn't trade my outside time for anything, my "wilderness" period, everyone should experience the taste of genuine freedom at least once in their lives.
Oh, and I am a busker too, did Nashville a few years ago, I play 12 string guitar and sing, I play 60s and 70s pop hits, the songs everyone wants to hear, lots of Beatles.
Well, that's Thx in a few paragraphs, great to be here!
Thx
I am former homeless, was outside on and off from 1991 to about 2003 I guess when I finally found a room in a rundown hotel, since then I have moved to a cheap apartment I have been at for 7 years now.
I was recently a member of another homeless forum and that one just disappeared.. like a hobo in the night.
Anyway, I started out in Southern California, spent a few months there and decided if I were homeless I'd rather be in a place with more trees than telephone poles. So I applied for general assistance in El Monte Cal., got my check and headed for Seattle. That was one of the best moves I ever made, I love it up here and have recently bought a piece of property at Hood Canal WA. right next to the Olympic National forest and about a quarter mile from the beach.
My thinking is to save up for a trailer or build a tiny house and retire to the life of a simple wood gatherer.
Gather deadfall all around my neighborhood to form an additional fire break and utilize the free wood.
Not unlike Frank Morgan's character "The Pirate" in Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat:
I used to be an electronic technician, had good jobs designing robotics and automated production lines.
It was great until our company went from 240 employees to 45 in two years. (Dominican Republic took many of our clients, labor was 25 cents an hour.)
After that I tried to get work in my field, eventually any kind of work, but after months of looking and ending up on the streets I gave up.
But, eventually I started doing landscaping and ended up with my own company: Sons of the Soil and am now semi-retired in my early 50s, I never in a million years would have guessed that, even at the widget factory I thought I'd be punching a time clock 'til I was 65.
So I hope my story demonstrates that homelessness might last for ten years, but it doesn't have to last forever and there is hope for each of us.
I wouldn't trade my outside time for anything, my "wilderness" period, everyone should experience the taste of genuine freedom at least once in their lives.
Oh, and I am a busker too, did Nashville a few years ago, I play 12 string guitar and sing, I play 60s and 70s pop hits, the songs everyone wants to hear, lots of Beatles.
Well, that's Thx in a few paragraphs, great to be here!
Thx
