We have had survival threads about the things that would be on our necessary list of items,but a more realistic happening would be a situation where you became homeless.
Most here I would think have some family or friends you could stay with but this isn't about that.

This is a hypothetical game of what you think you would do in a strange city with no family or friends and your on your own.

Of course you would think of getting a job,but this is not a option in this for at least two weeks and these two weeks you must live on the street or in a rescue mission.

The first situation I will ask you about is that you have arrived by bus in a strange city,with just your pack,and forty dollars or UK equivalent ,what items to you have in your pack,and what is the first thing you do after getting off the bus at the terminal in the downtown area of a large city.

There may be interest is in this or not but it could be very informative as to what you think it would take for you as a individual to deal with such a situation.

The questions and situations will intensify and even dangerous situations will confront you,I will set the scene,and ask for your reactions..

Rick wrote:
Well if I end up in any city east of Colorado I would immediately hitchhike to South Florida.

Anywhere west of Colorado I would take a day to see what the weather is like and find shelter.

RealAmerican wrote:
I will ask you a individual question about your reply and the next question I have for you,as your own game events continue.

What do have in your pack?

I've been homeless and also done a lot of travelling with nothing other than what I can carry and no money behind me.

Sleeping is easy.
Food is easy in some places, not so easy in others.
Keeping away from the eyes of the law is pretty crucial (although the odd night in a cell for vagrancy can come as a welcome bit of relative comfort at times ).
In my pack, I'd tend to have around two changes of clothes, plenty of socks, a firesteel, billy cans, a mug, an army issue sleeping bag and poncho, cord and a knife as the essentials.
I've always had either a guitar or a ukelele. The ability to sing a few songs has gone a long way for me. Busking works in a lot of places and I've walked into a bar and left many hours later, fed and watered on numerous occasions Often with a little something for my pipe too

dubmeup wrote:
You sound experienced my question to you is.
Your leaving the bus station alone and with all your belongings on your person, it's dark out and your walking down a lonely side street,you hear someone calling to you from a alleyway, do you stop and confront this person or keep walking away fast?.

Rick wrote:
I had just this sort of experience at a bus Station in Madrid. I had hitched to Madrid from Santander, heading for Andalucia. I planned to get an overnight bus South but got there after it had left. I thought I'd kip in the Station for the night but the security were having none of it and booted me out. I started walking to try and find a park and became convinced that I was being followed. I took a few deliberate turns and the person was still behind me so I went around the corner of a building and stopped. The guy following me came round the corner and walked straight into me. I started off on the "what the fuck are you doing following me" tack and it was pretty obvious pretty quick that the guy didn't speak English. He then gestured to his pack and sleeping bag. That was when I realised that he wanted to find somewhere to kip too. In the end we walked together and found a little group of trees that we could secrete ourselves under in a square somewhere in the South of Madrid. We walked back to the Station next morning, shook hands and parted.

As for answering the call of someone in an alleyway as I passed. It's unlikely that I'd do that. I'm not ruling it out though depending on the circumstances. I did have something similar happen in Algeciras and I got the hell out of there. You don't fuck around in Algeciras I also had something silmilar happen in Hackney where a chap came up to me and said you look like you need a smoke, come with me mate and I can sort you out. Like a twat I did and ended up being told to wait in an alley between high rises. I watched him go into a flat and next thing all these other guys appeared on the balcony above me. It's fair to say that I decided discretion was the better part of valour and legged it

Very interesting stories there Dubs, please, continue, I want to hear more. Can you tell us why you were homeless? No job/money? Or did you do it for having some adventure in your life? This living without a permanent shelter and travelling with just yourself sound very interesting...

Hexhammer wrote:
As a teenager I had no responsibilities to others, no desire to live a "normal" life and was feeling rather trapped and disillusioned. That's the crux of it I guess. I was craving the open road and looking to broaden my horizons by going with the flow. I grew up in an area where there were many many Travellers and Gypsies and due to not having an exactly great home life had lived in a caravan from age 14. I had many older friends that lived on sites and in benders in the woods so I spent a lot of time with them and tagged along for the free festivals in the mid to late 80's summers sleeping under busses and stuff (My first real insight into how the plod are used as the vicious enforcer of what the State wants ).
Going proper homeless was a natural progression for me. A very different one from how a lot of people end up homeless it has to be said. I had a cycle of trying to be "normal" then going homeless in one way or another, sometimes travelling, sometimes living in a bender or squat, then trying to be "normal" again, pretty much right up till my first child was conceived. At that time the mummy and me were living in a bender in Cornwall. We thought the right thing to do at that time was to get somewhere to live and I've been pretty much housebound ever since. Save a few months living in a car when the kids mum and me split up. Living in a car sucks

What would be the very first thing I did? Hightail it out of the city as fast as I could, walk, hitchhike...run! Lol, can't stand cities so would not be an option of "staying" in the city, especially if I was homeless.

What would be in my pack? My survival knife (has compass on it), change of clothes (extra pair of socks/shirt/pants), map. Hm...could probably fit a pair of gloves in there too.

dubmeup wrote:
Another person here on this thread replied that they would get out of the big city as fast as they could.

My question for you is ...
Do you think it's easier to be homeless in a big city as for personal survival, or is it better to leave and go to a smaller town or rural area?

StarsChildren wrote:
You are hungry and see a small cafe as you leave the bus station.
My question for you is
Do you spend some of your small amount of money and eat a meal at this cafe?

Rick wrote: I wouldn't personally go near the inner cities other than on a busking mission unless I could find a squat. Hackney and Stoke Newington in London for example in London always had plenty of squats when I was there and there were a lot of fantastic people squatting there at the time. Personally I don't really see squatting as being homeless exactly though. As you get further out towards the suburbs, the opportunities for sleeping outside safely increase and you can find places where you can have fires. I like fires All that said, for me as a country boy born and bred, the country is where I prefer to be. Either with a roof over my head or not.
The question of whether it's easier to survive homeless in a city or in more rural areas revolves around the individual. It depends on their daily needs if you get my drift.

dubmeup wrote:
You have ended up with a group of fellow homeless people in a rural setting these people are strangers to you

My question for you is this.
Do you spend your money and pitch in to buy food for your fellow homeless strangers,or do you keep silent about any money you may have and just take what is offered to you?

Oooh...this is a bit like Dungeons and Dragons, ain't it? Great idea for a thread, Rick!

So, I've just got off the bus and in my bag (which is sturdy and made by my own fair hand...kind of...when I still had my trusty machine and a roof over my head) are the following items:

A box of matches.
A knife/can opener.
A sleeping bag.
A tin cup.
A bar of soap.
Some nudey mags.

Right, what next?

Rick wrote: This is one of the things I like most about the lifestyle. People do pitch in. For sure there are some selfish barstewards (though they will often have pressing reasons for being like that) about but on the whole there's a lot of camaraderie and solidarity. I have and would chip in anything I had as others have and would do for me

Ab Origine wrote: You have left and bus and are in the terminal and you wonder what to do next,
My question for you is.
You are allowed to ask a stranger one question about this new city you have arrived in, what will your question be?

I don't want to play along, just add my two cents; I think if someone found themselves living on the street, they should observe what other street people are doing in terms of locating food, clothing and shelter, and use that as a guide.

Rick wrote:
I would ask someone if they know where the local government building is located. My reason for this would be if I asked anything else, like do they know where the shelters etc are, they may in fact not know, or may just scoff and walk off, thus I have wasted my question.

If I can find out where the local government building is, I can get all this information from there.

Rick wrote:
*Figi water, trail mix, deodorant, toothbrush, fresh clothes, asics nimbus, and of course*

---

What my natural side tells me to do.

*I would head off to a low key beach destination staying very in tune with nature trails*

*If betrayed by the system I would join an occupy group and protest the Military–industrial complex

What my practical side tells me to do.

(I would ask the first nice girl I see at the bus station to let me use her cell phone.)

(I would call some people that I have not seen for years from my past that I know would take care of me.)

ronisron wrote:
Or you might want to leave the same streets were the other homeless are at.

Some city's are way more dangrous then others.