Been on the streets for five nights now. Not a great deal of fun.
Just found out that I can't even *apply* for any kind of cash assistance until the end of July, and then the very most I'll get is $50 a month for three months.
It's taking me 1/8th of a tank of gas just to get from the Wal-Mart parking lot to the jobs center here where I can look for work. I've burned through roughly $120 since Wednesday just going from point A to point B to point C, filling out applications, checking ou tthe homeless shelter, and getting back and forth to the jobless center weekdays to send resumes. I'm driving a minivan that is loaded down with everything I own - I'm getting less than ten miles to the gallon. Everything is in-town driving. I'll cheeruflly confess to having purchased one envelope of tobacco.
I've got $11 in my PayPal account, and ZERO cash. And that's AFTER gifts totalling $35 on Fri/Sat (my heartfelt thanks to those who sent the gifts).
It is absolutely outrageous that I'm in this position...and I'm afraid that if I'm in it much longer, I'm going to have to start naming names, pointing fingers, and letting the world know just exactly who these people are, what kind of game they've played, and what they look like. The bottom line is, I can NOT survive out here. Can't do it. Maybe if I was some schlep who had nothing to lose, I could, but I'm not. I have a lot to lose, including the equipment that I had to pull a tire-iron on a dude to save early Sunday morning. (Takes a lot of guts to try to break into a car that has someone sleepng in it. Doesn't take much brains though.)
I refuse to sell my vehicle - which isn't worth much - or my tools just because a couple of lowlife, manipulating, sub-humanoid dickheads think it's okay to dump someone on the streets to meet their own screwed-up high-school drama games. I've had it.
In the mean time, I've been inspired by my situation to start filming raw video for a documentary on homelessness and 'street life' here in the good ol' US of A. There are so many things that amaze me about the way people see the homeless, and much of that has been brought into sharp focus recently, for obvious reasons. I've already met some people, and hope to have a meeting with the director of the homeless shelter today to see if they'll let me use a room to do interviews.
Meantime, I'm on a borrowed computer ATM that I need to be using to find work, so I'm gonna do that. Be good to yourselves and those around you, and I'll be back soon as I can.
PS: Please - if you can help, do so. Things are even worse than I originally thought :(