How many of you have been homeless?

Never been homeless. I guess if you were...you could access the Internet at the public library.

I've come very close to it, but luckily never made it there

Never been homeless, never been poor, never will be homeless, never will be poor.

Life is good

yeah, tell me about it ... the dumbass had it made, was personally taking home over $100k per month, had a fucking awesome profit margin on a growing business worth at least a couple of million bucks, two houses, a lot of cars, and several shit-stained diapers under his bed!

don't know why he would do the shit he did, but I guess that's what lunacy will do to ya.

I ran away when I was 15- so I squatted, but I was under 18, so I don't think that has the same street cred as an actual homless adult.

What did he do, what was "the shit" he did that made him homeless again?

I've seen this happen to many in this biz. not all in millions but close

I was homeless after my divorce (lived in my car) I could have ran home to Mommy and Daddy but I refused to. I parked my car at the beach at night to sleep and actually had to stand in front of 7-11 for food. I never asked for money, just food to survive. That only lasted a few months until I got someone to hire me without a phone or address and then I picked myself up from there and got back into the "swing" of life. It was a humbling experience.... I learned a lot from it and appreciate everything I have or anything nice that someone does for me now more than ever! I won't give homeless people money, but I will buy them meals or give them clothing if they are wearing torn up/dirty stuff.

wow, how old were you and how old are you now ?

I offered to buy a homeless guy some food here a couple of months ago ... took him in to the store, said "what do you want" .. the guy bought bottled water and a 4 pack of reese's peanut butter cups.

went up to the cashier, as soon as my card cleared, he grabbed the food and walked out the door without saying "thank you" ... he's approached me two times more for $$ since then and I tell him each time that I won't give him anything because he didn't say thanks to me.

Lived in my car in 1990 for 3 weeks including thanksgiving. Got out and convinced the manager of a parking garage downtown (where all our nightclubs are) to lease me space during the weekend. Started a valet parking service and got an apartment. Kept hustling and here I am. 3 kids in primo private schools, 180k home, etc. I'm not rich by any means but we are comfortable. Never give up!

I was 23 and I'm 32 now, why? (Yes, I got married way too early in my life and had to juggle college and a husband, it was a stupid mistake, but it was almost a decade ago and I turned out just fine.)

Same here.

At age 17 yes I was homeless. I fucked around at home doing drugs and shitting on my parents until they kicked me out. I lived on the beaches of Hatteras Island in North Carolina. I washed my clothes in the sound and had a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant in Avon called The Froggy Dog. I took showers at the local KOA campground. I lived like that for almost 2 years. Living like that will teach you alot about life and about people in general. It made me grow up. You either sink or swim when you're living like that. Luckily I was smart enough to swim.

still waiting

never was..
never will =)

He moved half the company to russia, while keeping a skelaton crew in seattle. While in russia, he ran out of medication, called brett & I, told us to fire the entire crew in seattle.... we refused.. blah blah blah .... found out he was getting involved with a child-for-sex-by-mail ring, so brett and I hit the road, swearing to him that we'd put him out of business =)

13 months later the sexhound.com domain was no longer resolving, their hosting company had a lein for $95,000 against them, his cars and houses were repoed, and he fled russia to mexico somewhere ... rumor has it he's back in ellensburg, wa starting a dog breeding company (those of you who knew chris and the blue dog, would get a kick out of this).

Never say never, anything is possible.

I am homeless right now.

I came close to being homeless. Thank goodness I had friends who let me use their couch till I got on my feet. i moved from couch to couch for about 3 months till I saved enough to get a place of my own. Learned alot about life and people.

Been there done that......

And it SUCKED!!! I will NEVER forget it..... Happened to me once when I was a kid - and once as an adult .....

And if you think it could never happen to you then you better think again...... No matter how much of your life & effort you have spent climbing into your current situation you wouldnt believe how short the fall is from having everything to having NOTHING at all.....

My family was homeless in 97/98, bounced around from place to place, state to state looking for work, only to find out a year later the reason he couldn't find work is because the one job reference he thought was solid was crashing all attempts at work...... we LIVED a real life case of Fatal Attraction from his ex-boss for almost 2 years...... We had lost both his parents and a baby JUST prior to this, and had JUST had another baby (93) when he started working for this chick in 95.... brought home damn good money too. We BOTH had a breakdown at the same time so neither was strong enough to handle the other's breakdown, as a result, we lost everything we had and spent all of 97 homeless and no way to get jobs........ We spiraled from 93-97 with all that was hitting us in the face. In late 96 is when the breakdowns started and in January of 97, was when we lost it all completely....... spent everyday til October 31st, completely without anything.

We found out in late September why he couldn't get a job, ANY job, he was very over qualified for everything he applied for, but to no avail...... then I asked one point blank what the hell was going on and he told me he was getting a REALLY bad reference from this chick.... she had complete control of our lives from 95-98 and we didn't even know it.... burned her own house and said my husband did it, trashed us, harrased us, stalked us... and NO ONE would do a damn thing about it.... I was pregnant at the time we were going thru all of this in 97 so no one wanted to hire ME...... health risks and pregnancy wasn't exactly what any employer wanted to deal with.

It was in late 97 that we FINALLY caught a break and moved into Government housing to put my kids in a home...... while in Texas, we were told we couldn't get housing aid because we were white and it wasn't going to happen...... this was from the lady that ran the whole thing in that area, so THAT was hopeless... our only hope was to move back home to Ky where we were from and there we got help with housing..... he found a job and I set out to find something to do on the internet...... it was in mid 99 that we watched a thing on TV about how much money could be made in Porn..... and NOT having ever even watched a Porn Movie, I was a little shaky about it..... BUT.. with TONS of help from a LOT of awesome people, and they know who they are, we managed to make it and moved out of their 2 years before our goal which was 5 years..... we were trying to buy a house on land contract because of bad credit from the breakdowns, but that fucked up..... so we bought this place we are living in now and are doing fine...

And YES, I live in a trailer, a big one, and a damn nice one, but after what we have been thru as a family, we are all DAMN proud to be called trailer trash....... we have a home and it belongs to US.....

So yes I have been homeless....... as a child a few times when my dad was being a fuckup, and only once as an adult. While I NEVER want to go thru that again, it DID teach me a lot and we are stronger as a family for having had to go thru it, we know what's important.

Damn, I went longwinded again, sorry.... LOL

DAMN, I should take short and sweet lessons from you sometime.... you didn't get as longwinded as I did....... LMAO

For the record, anyone that doesn't know, this is my husband.......... LMAO

Never.

After I got out of the Army in 93. I was 30 years old. I had been sending my money to my girlfriend, and she decided to spit with me when I got out. Unemployment in LA was at 14%, and I had no money. (since I had been sending it to her). I ended up sleeping in the park for two months, made a deal with the guy that ran the local community pool to take showers, dug through the trash to get want ads. I would walk miles to go to interviews, hide my stuff in a dumpster behind the buildings, then walk back to the park. I finally got a job, got a weekly hotel/flophouse to stay in, and worked my way up and out of it.

Not judging it, but i am sure most people who were homeless are from the US.
I cannot imagine an EU citizen saying "I was homeless for 6 months and it teached me many things about life, but now it's all cool, i am succesfull and just bought a new Porsche" or something like that.

In the rest of the world once homeless = in 99% of cases forever homeless and spending one's life at the railway station


At least this is what homeless means to me...

I was kinda homeless for a few weeks when my house burned to the ground in '97. Luckily my sites were doing very well at the time and I got a new place soon after. Had to live in my mom's guestroom for a few weeks till things got sorted out.
That was the closest I have ever come.
Can't imagine not having a shower, A/C, and a web connection available when you wanted it.

As long as GFY exists I will always have a Home

Yes, we are from the US..... and once homeless doesn't have to always mean homeless, you just have to have the will to fight your way out of it and a WANT to..... ANYONE can find a job, and I am convinced of this, you just have to figure out how much you want it and figure out the best and fastest way to do it... it's all in how badly you want it here, or at least for us. We had 4 reasons to fight thru it...... 2 boys, a girl and one on the way.... that was all the reason we needed.

No way man, never.
The business has been good

Holy shit Tam - congrats on making it through such rough times, it takes a very strong will to get through that!

yep, been there done that on numerous occasions when i was younger and it was really fucked up
guess thats what being young is about - learning life hard

After 6 divorces I would have to say I have been homeless to an extent. Living in hotels until rental applications went through. etc etc.

Living with a roommate is just like being homeless as well.

Well if not for my husband and kids, I couldn't have done it... we did it as a team.. my husband and I have been thru some really wicked shit, but we always come thru it.. because we CARE, not just there for the ride til it gets rocky.

I have never been homeless (luckily), and I am not generally religious, but I always say that god only does things to people who he KNOWS can handle it....strong willed people. I have the highest respect for people who pull themselves out when they are in deep!

Yup, very bad/tough & poor childhood I went through.

Me and my mother lived in her 1985 buick century in parking garages for about 6 months in 1992.

I remember having to steal food and sweeping peoples porches for .50 just to buy food.

I was 10 years old.

Reallly made me learn ALOT. Although i hated it and don't like to talk about it, it was an excellent learning expierence.

nope, can't say that I have

Woah tam ... I knew you for years but didn't know that ...

I would probably suicide myself if I become homeless one day ...

I'm not sure suicide is a verb .... ;-)

It seems a lot of people have been homeless in the past in this business. I didn't have an idea about it till now.

Tam definitely you are strong person



but we already knew that

if it makes anyone feel any better, and maybe inspire/motivate people, fantasyman@cecash was bankrupt when he was 21 he told me once... now he's richer than God... that's what i call ambition.

God has no wealth.

Wouldn't that be because most of Europe is Socialist and there are tons of programs to catch people from becoming homeless. If you're homeless in Europe you've failed to pick yourself up while receiving decent amounts of government money and help.

was never actually homeless but i did have to stay with my brother for a few weeks one time when i gave up my groovy log cabin to live with the "psycho" ex..he beat me up while i was preggo and I left. I was glad that the girl I leased my cabin too wanted a roomate...so I got to move back in...thats as close as I have ever came.

Right now, i wouldnt mind selling everything I have and moving into the mountains for a few years..I can survive quite nicely out there ..hubby and the kids won't go for it though..fuckers

No you wouldn't have...... you know why? Because when you need to, you find the strength to get thru shit.... I know you and know you aren't one to lay down and take shit, you are a fighter, same as any of the rest of us. You THINK you will do this or that, but you don't when it comes to it, you do what you have to do to survive....

Soul_Rebel... thanks babe... I don't know if it is strong or a determination to succeed...... or desperation... but it came from somewhere. LOL

There is no shame in being homeless at all.. the only shame I see is STAYING that way when there are so many other options.

I was homeless off and on for a few years when I was young in the middle of a couple Indiana winters. Picked up and left Indiana for Missouri, lived in homeless shelters, got lice, the whole nine yards.

I got out of the cycle by joining the National Guard, getting my GED in basic training and then testing into college. It took years to get my head together. It's a fucked up thing, being homeless in your hometown.

That's one of the reasons I was so against the bumfights thing, other than the fact that it's brainlessly cruel and arrogant. I was homeless, Rorion Gracie was once homeless, a lot of good people have been homeless at one time or another. That doesn't make you fair game for snot-nosed pricks to come and fuck with you for entertainment. I wish to fuck one of those bums they tied up would have prosecuted them for assault and kidnapping, it would have stuck.