Head Relocation Services

[akirlu]

Well. My head is in a totally new place. I've just spent quite a bit of time reading my way through The Homeless Survival Guide, a completely fascinating and information dense blog I stumbled on in the list of links over at Anita Rowland's Website. The guide is what it claims to be, a guide to surviving homelessness. The information is good, thoughtful, and copious. It has suggestions that I was already hip to (that the homeless have not yet discovered the permeability and freeness of college gym locker-rooms, as a source for showers), and ones that would not have occurred to me (that if you're sleeping in your car, having a car cover over it reduces the amount of hassles you'll get for doing so, though not to zero). The passages about why homeless shelters are for someone else are evocative of what George Orwell had to say about homelessness in Down and Out in Paris and London. I guess not much has changed for the bottom-out-of-sight crowd in the intervening years.

Except cell phones, and pagers. And the ambience and relative cheapness of cars. Oh, and let's not forget George Foreman grills (do be sure to listen to the audio). Which is not to say that the worst of homelessness is not as awful as ever. No, but in the meantime, it seems that a lot of means for disguising and ameliorating homelessness have evolved. And this guy will tell you about them. It seems he's working on compiling it all into a book. If that seems like a worthwhile project to you, he accepts donations.

Comments

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Given how relevant I've found the section on working in a kitchen of Down & Out In Paris & London (in general terms if not detail) I wouldn't be surprised to learn the same of his experience in homeless shelters.