Former Homeless People Reveal Unwritten Rules of the Streets | People Stories #4

former homeless people of reddit what unwritten rules codes are there if any towards other homeless people that most people may not know about serious when dumpster diving if you find a pair of shoes and they are not your size or clothes then leave them neatly by the side of the dumpster for the next diver look out for each other and be good to each other we're all struggling so let's make it as good as we can for each other when i was homeless we paid for each other's food clothes and any other essentials if one was truly in need my dad told me about the time he had to live homeless for a week for a class he was working toward being a catholic deacon he has lots of stories from it but the one that stuck with me was his first night of being homeless he woke up covered in layers cardboard with a rock on top to hold it in place the other homeless took care of him his first night on the streets when i was in college my sociology professor gave us the option of being homeless in a big city for a weekend for extra credit i wonder if anyone ever took that particular assignment be wary of items given to you by other people my cousin counseled homeless youth for a few years and one of his favorites got sent to jail for accepting a gift of a cell phone the phone ended up being stolen out of the owner's car and had gps attached to it the police found him with the phone and arrested him on the spot my cousin was called in as a character witness to testify on his behalf not sure what happened after that though i wonder if the thief saw himself as a robin hood type and didn't think it through or if he was really just such a base butthole that he wanted to get a homeless person in trouble share what you have with your group what goes around comes around if there are a group of you each person can stand on a different corner to beg and make far more than you would by yourself i lived on the streets in seattle in 2000 and lived in shelters and transitional houses for many years after that i was 15 at the time and there is a pretty big homeless population here we had some weird rules i mostly lived on broadway and each homeless group really had their own rules there were also the ab rats who lived up by the university they had a whole political system people were at the top and people were at the bottom you could also get kicked off the ave and most those kids would end up on broadway almost everyone on broadway was a junkie or gay and there were the downtown kids mostly young foster runaways or kids with mental issues lots of jugglers down there so i guess we were sort of the crazy group the big one i remember is that you always take off your shoes when you sleep and if you sleep outside sleep on top of your bag and tuck your shoes under it sometimes my bag was way too packed to pull that off comfortably but people would take your shoes just to frick with you they would call the annoying or new kid zoogles but they wouldn't ever kick someone out of the neighborhood like avratz just too much age going around really to have that type of control probably the most offensive thing you can do is finding out where someone who's homeless lives if you follow them they will stop and talk to you and if you just enter a squat uninvited well it's really dangerous it was respectful to pretend like you didn't care where your friends went at night at any point you can get uninvited too and you'll just be locked out that night they do not give a crap about where you are staying this isn't a pity party broadway is pretty small too just about seven blocks long so people would panhandle right next to you all the time if they weren't at least two shops away they were probably doing it to pee you off or it's just their normal spot like i always camped out in front of this mexican place because they had awesome leftovers but it was absolutely uncool to sit or lie down around other homeless kids or stand on the side of the sidewalk that the stores are on it's illegal on broadway and doing that just attracts the cops i remember her asking other homeless kids to stand all the time just because i was sick of getting picked up by the cops lots of theft too no real like idea the moral code at all there although people would share their drugs with you all the time that way they had someone to bug about sharing back when they didn't have any cash later on i lived a tent city and still got stuff stolen from me quite often even though they have a decent community too hey i think that's about all that i can think of right now p i hope you are doing better these days thanks for sharing if you're trying to run away from good parents and are underage we will make sure the police find you kid was 15 and after talking with his friends we had no reason for him to be running away a teenage angst made sure the police took him home and left my cell phone number in case he ran away again just because i was homeless that didn't mean i didn't work two jobs would work about 56 hours a week at a gas station between two stores and then did the usual selling papers on the streets in the morning backstory time i had moved down to florida with a friend almost on a whim had about a thousand saved up at the time but he was going down to get out of this state and meet up with a girl who he later caught cheating on him and i had just recently broken up and wanted a good escape from minnesota after two months we were no longer welcomed at our arranged place to stay and i hadn't yet landed a job we had an apartment lined up but at this time i was a few hundred short of the deposit check which had been written to secure an apartment already i had already met a few people my age who were homeless and knew of an abandoned apartment complex with screened in porches i had paid my phone bill three months in advance and had something around 120 dollars of credit on the bill old candiba phone minimal texting and a low minutes plan but unlimited on nights and weekends that made it pretty easy to stay in contact with people and very essential for getting a job come to find out later my friend never replaced the rent check which means i should have just stayed with him but i only found that out after one of my former roommates up here had convinced me i needed to come back and whip the boys in the apartment into shape i had paid her a full month's rent before moving out just so she would have some backup in case her boyfriend and the other roommate had issues still on the lease and hurricane katrina was coming those 90-degree palm trees i shipped what i couldn't carry on the bus back to my place and hopped on a greyhound my brother who is mentally ill was homeless on the streets of dc he says the other homeless people got him food and forced him to eat it when he looked like he would starve because the voices in his head were telling him to avoid all food they also made sure he had shelter and generally kept his completely helpless butt alive for almost a year god bless you your brother and all these people who helped him i never had a problem with food like someone else said anyways one find a group of people you can trust not easy to do and stick with them 2. don't be the guy with the sign asking for money ever if you must ask for money state the reason why and if someone says instead of giving you the money i'll just pay for it myself and give it to you don't turn that down freaking ever three people think all homeless people are on drugs because that's the stereotype they are presented with do your best to not blend in with those people you will be amazed at what people are willing to do if you're making an honest attempt at getting on your feet and you do your best to present yourself that way 4. don't do anything stupid to get money freak crime you will regret it 4.1 also don't be a freaking rat that crap will get you killed remember a lot of the people in your world are off the grid five if you are getting nowhere in the city you are in get out of there there is always someone headed your way six never ever turn down a chance to do some work never that may be an opportunity to get you started again seven even if you're not religious if a religious family offered you a place to stay sometimes if you go to church with us but not always don't turn it down 7.1 don't do anything to them such as steal or rob them that's how reputation gets started eight you never too good for anything if you think you are that may be why you're out there to begins with nine yay those cloths may stink but at least you have some 10 americans if you're young enough the military may be your best option money food bed and job and all you have to do is show up 11. stay off drugs that again may be why you're there and could very well cost you a chance to get off the streets i'm sure that's not what you were asking but it's been over 20 years since i got back on my feet and those are the things that have stuck with me source homeless for two years i would like to help someone in chicago if you are in chicago and need help and for whatever god dang reason or on a computer to see this pm me and i will do whatever i can homeless for five years here since i was 18 here's a few i noticed prison and jail culture bleeds into the homeless community watch your words words normal people get to say can have serious meanings on the streets one example saying be to someone might get you assaulted but watch your mouth or you won't last long no one's pressing charges or calling the cops if you get into a fight with someone it's all he said she said balls everyone takes it and conflicts resolve themselves everyone you're around is homeless you gotta stay in that shelter with them every night you'll share the same public spaces that everyone who's homeless has two you don't have a choice keep to yourself don't mouth off don't frick with anyone else or you'll get fricked with you six are everyone else's cigs everyone on the street smokes if you got m you're probably going to end up sharing them i've been technically homeless about three times before the age of 15 but you would not be able to tell just by looking at me or conversing briefly average looking white 20 years male college student without explaining a ton of other stuff and including many sad stories i'll get to the meat of the question for my family i remembered that we would go to the library every day for several hours at a time it's a place where extended stays aren't particularly unusual additionally you have achieved internet computer access water fountains bathrooms lounge chairs and nearly endless educating vessels surrounding you in the form of books tl dr if you're ever homeless go to the library if you're homeless previously homeless volunteer with the homeless or in danger of being homeless please join us over at our homeless i was homeless at age 17 but lived in a shelter and not on the street my experiences may vary from yours don't freaking trust anyone the women in my shelter would befriend you and backstab you just to laugh at you when you get kicked out is there general prostitution in the area chances are some of the women in the shelter are a part of that problem mental illness mental illness everywhere doesn't have to be severe but there are a lot of messed up people be careful who you confront especially if you're unsure of their mental capacity do you own things of any value welp better keep them to yourself because some butthole will try to steal them and resell them do not frick with people's children seriously you don't know who is friends with who and might freak your crap up also don't make comments about their baby daddy as if it's very obvious they have several touchy subject usually don't steal each other's food if you do they will hunt you down and find you i once saw a woman have drugs planted on her so that she'd get kicked out once they found out she was stealing food i used to do food not bombs in dc we serve meals every sunday for several years and i got to know a lot of the homeless people in the city i saw quite a bit of mental illness afflicting some seriously brilliant people one guy would pull out photocopies of the shroud of turin trying to convince us that jesus had no genitals and go on a rant from there another homeless guy once cut him off by saying he's trying to lobotomize jesus between the legs the latter guy ruled he'd quote thomas aquinas and lived for a pat a little hug my experience taught me two things the first is that the group we dealt with were often super grateful for the food we brought because it tasted good it's sort of how i learned to cook had lots of vegetables and we didn't preach to them about religion i remember one of the guys saying i don't need you to try and save me before giving me a stale bologna sandwich the other thing is that the people we served almost never begged for money they would quietly try to make things work it tended to be the addicts who would beg that said there was this one dude who would ask for money whenever i saw him around the city and i'd offer to buy him food he jumped at the offer twice and went nuts at a 7-eleven and a breakfast place respectively he was who were angry there are some butthole homeless people but there are some butthole people with homes that's the long and short of it i have a bunch of stories but i'd say that if you have the time to stop and talk with the person for a minute you can learn a lot and measure whether it's worth helping them out many of the people we helped would avoid shelters because of the fighting stealing and chance of catching tb something to consider when you tell yourself that there are options for the homeless it's complicated save every penny buy a tent put your tent next to a river go to the library every single day spend as much time as you can applying for jobs take the first job you can get keep bathing in the river and working until winter do not spend a dime on booze once winter comes gets an apartment and keep working apply to your local technical college and get a job in it stop being homeless work for me i was kicked out of the house at summer after my first year of college i was a freak up i had gotten a 0.68 gpa and i was just a drunk so my folks said no partying while you are staying here i happily complied but when my dad found my bong which i wasn't using bill had buried deep in storage he kicked me out in his defense i have two younger brothers who are seven and eight years younger than me and he had them to think about too so he gave me the boot i shuffled through a couple buddies places until my dad convinced their parents to kick me out for my own good all i had was a car i did some odd jobs and made a couple bucks to get a tent i grew up in wisconsin on the mississippi so i was lucky enough to be by a massive river and plenty of other fresh water sources also i am not alcohol dependent i just am from wisconsin we drink more than any other state besides alaska it is just part of the culture so i would clean and groom by the river i still use my parents place as a mailbox knowing they haven't locked their doors in 30 years and i could easily grab my mail while they were at work i got a job at a call center and save some money i got an apartment with the guys whose parents also kicked me out i partied my butt off after i signed the lease i enrolled in tech school worked my butt off 4.0 enrolled in real school worked 30 hours a week with 18 credits and graduated with a 3.5 i had an easy homeless stint i was not addicted to anything i do not suffer from any mental health issues i have a nike of 136 i had a healthy strong farm boy body i knew how to fish build fires and cook on those fires i am not your typical homeless man i am not saying it is this easy for everyone most folks will find it much much harder i am just saying if you are a smart healthy person and you find yourself without a home don't sweat it you will be fine i work at pizza place in downtown houston i've been homeless a few times so i have convinced my shift leaders managers to let me distribute the pizzas that we don't give to the homeless but i've been doing this for about a year everyone is so appreciative it's a very rewarding act you get what you give if you act like and butthole to the people around you they'll treat you like one especially when you're in tent city just because a crew is homeless doesn't mean they don't have a community you can either be part of it or not but if you treat people harshly expect it back at you don't frick with street family street kids most people don't want to acknowledge you exist i'd say don't get frustrated with that but it gets old really fast just find a way to make your day a little brighter and be careful with what people give you there's a lot of buttholes out there regardless of what the police say no you're not going to get your things back oh and don't argue with them they'll beat the crap out of you for no reason in a lot of cases because you don't have anybody standing up for you politically so expect to be woken up really early randomly and be searched and then told to move unless you have a crew watching your stuff don't leave it out in the open someone else will take it some of them are people who need it just as bad as you do others are just jerks little caesar's pizza throws away good crap hits them goddamn dumpsters their crust is so spongy that it never deteriorates is it offensive to give homeless people my leftover food i know there has been a time or two i walked out of the mall with leftover jamba juice and panda express and gave it to a homeless guy sitting outside he seemed really thankful and didn't mind that they were leftovers is it just being polite i was homeless not in vegas but close i had a gold gym membership it was open 24 hours so i could shower every day and had a place to hang out away from the heat i tried to spread myself thin so i won't attract attention in a middle-aged woman with two college degrees pretty sad what happened to me and i didn't look the part people could sense my being distraught at night and that was dangerous i spent my days at the depth of labor applying for job after job at the university or library or computer lab in the evening and at the gym or in the casino at night i wanted to kill myself i was so appalled and upset but i got through it i ended up on disability i had a nervous breakdown i am one step away from winding up homeless any day but i guess i can survive it just like before i hope this info helps someone in a freaking panic and scared like i was y'all are in my prayers all of you homeless protips make friends it's not like you have anything better to do and ultimately this is what will get you off the streets don't look like a hobo go to goodwill and get some nice looking clothes a button-up shirt and some slacks makes a huge difference even if they are a little dirty cops are not your friends the closest thing there is to a hobo code is that you do not cooperate with pigs sometimes a dog is a good idea make sure it's a cute one and keep it well trained road dogs are actually treated much better than most house dogs and are far better behaved and never frick with a man's dog is one of the other hobo rules kick someone's dog and you can bet you'll be in a ditch by morning get some good gear military gear is best because it's cheap durable and camouflaged well enough that you can camp near cities a good us g sleep system will keep you warm down to -40 collapses down to a cubic foot and costs about dollars 100 no tent required comes with a camo bivvy sack that you could use to camp unnoticed on the side of the road a comparable system would cost you upwards of six hundred dollars at rei and it would be flimsy and colored near orange be friendly with other hobos but don't turn your back on them many of them are awesome people many more are addicts or criminally insane watch your pack it is valuable and if someone steals it you're freaked and at least once in your life drink a hobo slam i was a traveller kid around the pacific northwest for a while many years ago the culture i was a part of is hard to describe to people that have never been involved in it but i'll try to list a few things there are different cultures of homeless people and they don't all overlap i was a traveling punk a kind of derogatory term is krusty punk and we tended to keep to groups crash at punk houses or in parks hitchhike hop trains and have a radical political bent anarchism mainly we made fun of vogels who were more like gergallo types we called older travelers hobos and city homeless home bombs and we respected them but didn't really hang out with them we had quite a few rules of conduct stealing from stores was expected but stealing from friends other homeless was not okay if you're crashing at somebody's house do some dishes or dumps to dive some food for them to pay them back for their hospitality share your booze keep the dumpster areas you take food from us clean or cleaner than you found them don't ever hop a train alone if you are hopping trains look out for the number of engines on the train a train with four engines is usually going a long way trains with two engines are usually local don't just look for box cars greeners grain transport cars have a porch on either end and cubby holes that you can hide in to not be seen by the bulls train cops there was a photocopied homemade magazine zine called the crew change guide that you wanted to snag a copy of that will give you directions to train yards all over the country and tell you where the freight trains were going when someone gave me one for the first time i felt like i had been given the keys to every city in the whole world that's all i can think of for now but there's plenty more do any road folk in tennessee make your way to hippie hill and cristiano it is near manchester they will feed you and set you up with a tent or trailer to stay until you get back on your feet all they ask is for a little bit of help around the land ask for hippie or mama not so much code between homeless here are some rules in the homeless community that most don't know about spanking flying a sign asking for change maintain a distance between other people spanking don't encroach on others territory and it's a first come basis also if you're spanking in a good spot that is frequented by spangers don't camp out all day tobacco boost drugs if offered some don't take a lot take a swig or split joint if they have more they will offer sharing is big thing and it gets you places never ask for someone's last swig or cigarette if someone asks you for a smoke and it's your last one give them shorts also if you don't want to share don't advertise it nothing sucks more than not having and opened watching someone shoot up without sharing trading trading is huge don't be a dong when it comes to trading squats a squad is an abandoned property that has been broken into and is is semi-livable if you have one and it's bad weather invite someone for the night if you're spending the night be respectful quiet treat it as if it was actually their house you don't want to ruin it for them being homeless sucks but generally you use a golden rule don't let people walk all over you though if you are new to the channel you can subscribe i publish new videos every day until then check another video bye for now

Channel: Updoot Studios

Views: 115,348

Rating: 4.9288454 out of 5

Keywords: homeless, homeless people, homeless man, homeless rule, homeless rules, what people don't know, unknown, need to know, #updootst, updoot, updoot reddit, updoot everything, reddit on tap, toadfilms, pewdiepie, reddit, askreddit, funny reddit, reddit stories, top posts, reddit top posts, reddit cringe, comedy, reddit compilation, /r, r/askreddit, top posts of r/, askreddit reading, best reddit posts, top posts of all time, people of reddit, askreddit question, ask reddit, subreddit, sub

Id: 6aOY02K6PNA

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 21 2020