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21 Homeless People Confess The Hardest Things They Have To Go Through

5.

There are two kinds of people I learned to avoid very quickly- groups of young men/teenagers, and fellow homeless men. If someone’s gonna f*ck with you, they’ll fall in one of these groups, and people may watch disapprovingly, but they won’t do anything to help you.

6.

It’s less important to most people that you be somewhere safe or with a bit of shelter from the weather, than it is that you be where they don’t have to see you. Most of your interactions with people such as the police, who in normal life you consider to be concerned primarily with your safety, when you’re homeless are more about making you less inconvenient to others.

7.

When I was 12-13 I use to have to avoid home due to a parent using meth and the people that it/they brought by. So I use to sleep in our childhood tree fort the first few times. Up into the woods about a half mile off the road, and up a hill, it was a good vantage point in case I heard anything. One night I woke up and looked out to just see a guy staring up at the fort and I froze and held the gaze and slowly laid down onto my back. I heard him walk closer and just thought to yell, “Dad wake up someone’s coming up!” He darted off into the woods but had I not thought to say that who knows. It was the only bluff I knew to yell. From that point on I found a friends attic loft and told him my life situation so he let me stay there at times.

8.

Everyone is gonna try to steal from your ass so watch your shit. Keep your mouth shut and find a good place that is desolated from nocturnal animals and assholes.

Written by Alex Cogen

Alex is a New Yorker currently living in Austin. She loves cats, grass, and latex but unfortunately is allergic to all 3. She makes mom and dad jokes more than she cares to admit (jk she'll admit it loud and proud). She isn't as funny as she thinks she is. She is the founder of thelazygurl.com.