Nothing shuts down a bougie conversation like "well, when I was homeless—" Nothing. It's one and done. They are fucking taken out. The conversation is dead. Done.
"there's enough charities in place to help our homeless population"
Well I was turned away from every single one in the area because I was a non Christian trans person. Not that there were many I could make the walk to, to be fair.
"if someone is homeless, they can just forage for food! Probably eating healthier than we are har har har!"
I was homeless in winter. And yeah, sure, I knew how to use pine needles to make tea and boil bark but. Come on. You think every homeless person has that fucking knowledge or resources? And I was homeless on a mountain. What about people who are homeless in cities? What are they going to forage? Gravel? And what about areas where foraging is illegal? You want them to get arrested? In a police state like this?
"well as long as they don't get into trouble, there won't be trouble!"
You make laws criminalizing their existence. The "trouble" they make is surviving. I got the cops called on me because I went for a walk. I had a stick I was using to help me walk because I have a limp and couldn't afford a cane. A fucking white couple saw me and called the cops and told them I was walking "with a rifle" and was "very threatening". I got DAMNED lucky that a Light horseman found me first and told me what happened. Laughed a little. Told me not to worry about it, he'd call it in as bogus, and have a talk with the couple. But again. I was lucky. If that had been a state cop and not a rez one, I could have been fucking shot. For walking.
Honestly, if you are not for the liberation of homeless people, if you are not for decriminalizing homelessness and all aspects of it, if you say things like, "now I support those people, but I wish I didn't have to see it, because it makes me uncomfy," you have swallowed the propaganda pill. Congrats. You were not immune to it and now you are sick with it.
I was homeless for three months and petrified about it the entire time. I went from state park to seedy hotels to wherever I could. I was lucky I had a car at the time, or I would be dead.
I'm technically homeless now. I'm in seedy hotels again, so I can be closer to my job, so I can try to save some semblance of money to maybe even dream of an apartment. Gods only know if I'll manage it with my shit credit score.
I've had men try to break into my hotels. I've had people try to get into my car. I've had people stare at me in disbelief— "You? Little white girl? Homeless?"
It sickens and horrifies me that people think homeless people deserve less than the right to live. I was incredibly suicidal during that time. I cried heavily on the phone to my best friend because I genuinely didn't see any way out and was so achingly tired. I wanted the suffering to end but I didn't want to die to get it.
Just three months. I was so petrified about ending up that way again, I fell right back into that depressive hole. I called my sister— who I hadn't seen in literal years— to bail me out of a very scary situation, just so I wouldn't end up in the dirt.
The dirt was preferable to being homeless again.
It's hard even now, even though I can go back to my sister's house and pretend everything is fine. This hotel sucks. The area is terrifying. I want a home. I deserve a home. Everyone deserves a home.
I am so ungodly tired of there being people out there who says we don't deserve one.
Donate. Raise awareness. Stop offering shelters as a fix all— I called fifteen fucking shelters, even ones far out of state to me at the time— and all are fucking full. There are waitlists. Stop it.
Just let us survive until we can find a place to live. That's the literal least you can do.
