It’s tough to put an exact number on it, but there’s somewhere in the ballpark of 100 million homeless people around the world. If you’ve ever been one of these people, we want to know about your experience.
Picture: Ben_Kerckx
We want to know what your experience was like and how you recovered from it. What did you learn, and what did do to get back on your feet? What helped most when you were in that situation? Share your experience in the comments.
Comments
5 responses to “Have You Ever Been Homeless? ”
No I was never homeless because I wasn’t a smart ass to my family or chose not to work and got Kicked from wherever I was. If you don’t have a friend’s house you can stay at I’d say there are bigger issues than being homeless in your life
What an ill informed comment. You are completely ignoring that the majority of those that are homeless are sufferers from mental illness. How presumptuous to assume that everyone who ends up on the streets is a bad person.
I had a friend in high school who had just moved to a new city and then was kicked out by his stepfather at 18 years old with no friends or relatives near by. It’s not always the fault of the victim.
Nor were you ever sexually or physically assaulted, born into an impoverished family. And in your case you’re mostly free of mental illnesses.
Though I suspect you would struggle to find a friend to put you if you were kicked out… If your post is anything to go by you’re a horrible human being.
What a really good question!! I found this article that rings of truth,
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/25/how-i-became-homeless-cant-happen-to-you-think-again
I have a friend who was in trouble with the law about 7 years ago. He lost several jobs (one was when he had to declare about a criminal record). Suddenly, the work dried up. Want to volunteer, but have a criminal record from the past? Good luck with that.
Society is very harsh on the homeless, definitely a cause that needs support. I fully support helping those in need, while totally rejecting the idea of giving someone a job because of something silly like they don’t have a penis. I know, I’m a weirdo. ABC news continually disagree with me.
I have been homeless a few times. The first time I don’t really remember too well as Its among my first memories, mum and dad divorced when I was a baby, and mum got custody of my brother (2 years younger than me) and I, as dad was violent, abusive, and threatened us constantly (or so I was told). We were staying in a homeless shelter and until recently I didn’t think it was any different to how other kids lived. There were other kids at that homeless shelter, and those were the kids I made friends with so nobody made me feel bad for being poor/homeless, because everyone was. I’m not sure how long we stayed there, maybe 6 months or so, And then we moved in with my aunt and uncle. we eventually got back on our feet somewhat and mum got a mortgage and we got a house, a run down house, but a house nonetheless. Everything was fairly normal for a while after that (or so I thought). When I was around 19-20, mum was getting more and more abusive, she couldnt hold down a job, and ever since I was about 17, she stopped trying, and I had to support the family financially on my maccas job (and our centrelink). As she was getting more and more abusive and emotionally unstable, I realized that I had to get out of there, so one day she kicked me out of the house (she had done this many times before, but I always came back and she apologized for hitting me, but it always happened again the next day, week, month), so I left. I want to my girlfriends house, and started looking at my options. At this point I was in my second year at uni studying computer science, and I didnt have a job. So i didnt really have any options, but anything was better than being in that abusive household where mum took all my money, so I found a homeless shelter and my girlfriend helped me move what little posessions I had to her place for storage. I spent the next week frantically trying to get a place to rent, talking with centrelink(dealing with centrelink is almost as bad as being homeless), getting a bank account that mum didnt have access to, finding a job that payed me enough to survive, just generally learning how to be an adult. a couple weeks later, I got approval for all the centrelink payments I needed, and moved in with some friends who just had a housemate move out (good timing). I’m lucky I had a girlfriend who could help me out with bills because centrelink was simply not enough to live on. A couple months later I finally found a job as a software developer, Only 3 days a week as I was still studying, but it payed better than centrelink, and i didnt want to mooch off of government handouts, One of my biggest fears is that i’ll turn out like my parents. Since then ive saved, been made redundant, got a new helpdesk job that made me want to kill myself, got fired, got a new software development job. got a car, and car loan, and im slowly saving for a house with my girlfriend. Its a really slow process to recover from homelessness, but i guess its just down to hard work, and a lot of luck. If I had no girlfriend, I honestly would have just killed myself instead of going through all the hardship. I was lucky and a lot of people arent.
I’ve been diagnosed with severe depression and borderline personality disorder, and am seeing a therapist once a month – it helps a little I guess, but for me, I dont think ill ever be at a point where I am not terrifed of being homeless again, i dont want kids, i think its super dumb to bring kids into this screwed up world, I dont think ill ever get over the resentment and hatred i have for my parents, or the resentment i feel for others when they have things handed to them as ive had to work so hard for the little that i have. But at least i have a job, a roof over my head, and food in the kitchen.
The chance to end homelessness has passed, the stinking Rudd and Gillard government was left with a monster legacy by the Howard government $$$$$$$$$, they chose to not stop the Boats which are apparently stopped now, but choose to spend billions of dollars, erecting detention centres, all fully staffed, little Kevy skipped through the daisies giving away baby bonuses etc, all for bloody votes.
I would have preferred my tax money to have been spent building live in, government run fully equipped centres with every requirement needed to rehabilitate the homeless people and get them sorted but no apparently we needed boat people. They get the works and the homeless get a street swag, what a joke.
Don’t get me wrong its all good to help the world but charity starts at home, now our welfare system is being raped by imports while the homeless remain in the parks and under the bridges. Our government selectively blind, it is supposed to be working for the people of Australia but it would appear that they need to import needy people as Australia has none, fools.
Worse than that just look at the state we are in since the Islam boat came in, “we need Halal” ?, now “we don’t want to shake hands with female teachers”, and they get it all, a complete blow to equal rights for women, apparently this is what Australia needed as well, terrorism, child married, treachery.