Homless possessions

[datzenmike]

I imagine nearly everyone has had to pass near or through a homeless encampment. I walk into town on the RR tracks and in the woods beside WallMart are a half dozen camps... more actually. Truth be old it's hard to say if abandoned or active but either way there is litter everywhere. I can see having propane bottles, tarps, skids, food wrappers and bar-b-cues for shelter and food but what strikes me as odd it the shit they collect that has no obvious use. So, yesterday there's the ubiquitous over turned WallyMary cart of belongings and there's a long coil of air hose. WTF would you want an air hose for? I can't remember half the crazy stuff I see. Anyone else see weird possessions of the homeless? 

[a.d._510_n_ok]

I was homeless for about three months in the fall of 1994 (got out of the army, partied waaaaaay too hard, lost my house, car etc) and the only possessions I was left with were my dog tags and an empty wallet containing a suspended driver's license. A lot of these new homeless folks seem to be not entirely destitute but simply unable to afford housing. They do what I never dreamed of doing and accept homelessness as permanent and begin to accrue possessions for their living areas. Hell, working homeless folks are pretty common now. They shower wherever they can then pull a shift as a cashier at a gas station or a fry cook. I truly hate that for them but I guess it's better than just totally withdrawing from society. For the record, a friend discovered I was homeless, hunted me down, dragged me home with him and helped me unfuck my life like peeling away layers of an onion (loaned me money to pay fines, make warrants go away, got the car I'd almost paid off back from the finance company and helped me enroll in college with my GI Bill). I swore id never be homeless again and so far I haven't. Spending the night on a overpass in sub zero weather or deciding if you're hungry enough to chow down on the 1/2 eaten Big Mac the frat boys hurled at you through the window of their Camaro is a pretty strong motivator not to ever be back in that position. 

[thisismatt]

I'd say it's pretty common and simply part of the mental disorder they are dealing/living/suffering with.  Why do some people hoard so much stuff that they can't walk around their house save a narrow passageway through mountains of what most people would consider garbage?

[john510]

The air hose was probably stolen and worth a few bucks.

[wayno]

I was homeless for over 2 years, but I just decided to live in my car/van because I was only home 4 days a week anyway, the other 3 days I was camping/hanggliding, I joined a gym to work out 4 nights a week and have a place to shower, this allowed me to actually have money to buy things I needed as I had no rent anymore, the cold winters finally got to me and I found a guy who rented out rooms in a house, 8 years later I bought the house from him.

 

Where I live in Vancouver WA(near Portland Oregon) there are homeless people everywhere along the freeways and near stores/shopping centers, it was not like this until the Democrat politicians started flexing their buying power with their ill-gotten special interest money, and their plandemic, there is only one door to point at on this subject, have you heard about the concentration camps they are planning for the homeless in Portland Oregon?

[datzenmike]

Good!!!!

[angliagt]

4 hours ago, a.d._510_n_ok said:

I was homeless for about three months in the fall of 1994 (got out of the army, partied waaaaaay too hard, lost my house, car etc) and the only possessions I was left with were my dog tags and an empty wallet containing a suspended driver's license. A lot of these new homeless folks seem to be not entirely destitute but simply unable to afford housing. They do what I never dreamed of doing and accept homelessness as permanent and begin to accrue possessions for their living areas. Hell, working homeless folks are pretty common now. They shower wherever they can then pull a shift as a cashier at a gas station or a fry cook. I truly hate that for them but I guess it's better than just totally withdrawing from society. For the record, a friend discovered I was homeless, hunted me down, dragged me home with him and helped me unfuck my life like peeling away layers of an onion (loaned me money to pay fines, make warrants go away, got the car I'd almost paid off back from the finance company and helped me enroll in college with my GI Bill). I swore id never be homeless again and so far I haven't. Spending the night on a overpass in sub zero weather or deciding if you're hungry enough to chow down on the 1/2 eaten Big Mac the frat boys hurled at you through the window of their Camaro is a pretty strong motivator not to ever be back in that position. 

 

           Good for you - I wish that the current homeless felt the same way,

& would want to better their lives.

          Sounds like you are very fortunate to have a GREAT Friend.

[thisismatt]

My biggest mistake in life was not buying a house in 1985 when I was three

[datzenmike]

By the time I was eleven I had moved at least 6 times. When I was 19 at my first job, the first year there a co worker/friend bought a house!!!! I mean what directly the fuck???? I had to learn to want a house, and I still barely 'get it' but my dear wife knew better and I went along trusting her judgment. So I hardly believe I'm a land owner and this includes some trees. Just imagine owning a tree and grass and shit. Well you all probably take this for granted.

 

A was home less, but did live in my '79 Bronco for almost 10 months. This was in Onterrible and the winters are severe. I had a job but.... one night the po po woke me up in a blizzard at 2 AM to check I was ok. Eventually a co worker had an intervention with me and gave me a phone number to call to rent a room. Guy I talked to was to be my future wife's separated, and later ex, husband. Yeah the one that got me into a home years later.

[bottomwatcher]

Man I used to live in the back of my 720 in the camper shell in Hood River oregon during the summer. All I did was windsurf and mountain bike everyday. The marina had showers for $1 and one year I lived in an abandoned gravel pit with a bunch of other like minded individuals. It was harmless. I had a coleman stove that I would fill with gas by disconnecting the Weber and running the fuel line to the stove tank and let the electric fuel pump run for 30s. I was good for a week. I ate krusteaz pancake mix with free blackberries gathered from the side of the road. Life was good! I graduated to a "sniper camper" a windowless commercial astro van that allowed the windsurfing gear to be hidden out of sight. I could park it amongst sprints telephone trucks and had an in town apartment where nobody ever bothered me.

[thisismatt]

I know a guy that lived in his minivan for a while at the Y parking lot (with membership so he could shower and whatnot).  Did it by choice to save money...worked out pretty well for him, and got some interesting stories like waking up in the night to someone rifling through his center console

[datzenmike]

I had a $6 an hour job and child support so I was really making less than $4. I had given up and was coasting along.

[thisismatt]

$6 an hour?  That's like $60/hr these days!

[sick620]

Next time I drive into oregon I am going to take note. I know I too have seen some funny random objects. In Idaho we don't have quite as many of them. I assume our police force ends up picking them up for one thing or another before long (public intoxication, trespassing, loitering etc.) We don't have quite as many and the ones we do have try to keep a much lower profile, (so they have less weird random things) 

 

As soon as you cross into Oregon there is A LOT. They all also seem to have a shopping cart full of stuff too. 

 

The only thing I can think of is last time I drove through Oregon we stayed in a hotel in bend. There was a whole homeless camp behind the hotel, they were listening to early 2000's hip hop and smoking weed late into the evening, and first thing in the morning you could smell they were cooking bacon and making coffee. I thought it was so crazy that they had so many amenities. We do have one little homeless camp in Boise, but they are forced to stay in that small area and it is right by the homeless center. They do not have near as many luxuries as the Oregon bums. If I am ever homeless I will probably have to become a liberal. 

[datzenmike]

There are price stickers and labels from stolen stuff but stupid stuff like toys? Maybe they trade for what they want. 

[frankendat]

5 hours ago, thisismatt said:

I'd say it's pretty common and simply part of the mental disorder they are dealing/living/suffering with.  Why do some people hoard so much stuff that they can't walk around their house save a narrow passageway through mountains of what most people would consider garbage?

Mental disorder is a harsh way to look at it. I live in a bit of a "narrow passageway" house. I can admit some of it is junk, I find value in what many consider garbage (junk). Years back, our old clothes dryer died in the winter. I didn't have the coin for a new to me one, it was a lean time. Over the next year or so, I watched the salvation army and the classifieds, picked up a spare set. I do that for as many things as I can.  I've said it before, sometimes I will pass a farm with an acre of broken old trucks, machines and equipment and think "If I ever won a lottery....." Problem is I haven't won anything and my house has about 1200sq ft of living space on .12 of an acre. It's hard to find room for redundant systems. Wife gets on me from time to time, I am only allowed 2 non running vehicles on the property, but she is a good sport. There is a broken air conditioner in the back yard that I haven't thrown away, because I don't like to throw stuff away, before harvesting fasteners, long strips of wire, copper and any magnets. It's been out there since July and I am just starting to catch hell--like I said, she's good sport. 

[datzenmike]

I used an air conditioner condenser for a custom heater core for my 521. Another time the Dodge Omni I had lost the rad. All there were were manual radiators with no way to cool the automatic. Again I strapped an air conditioner core in front of the radiator and drove across Canada. The end often justifies the means.

[thisismatt]

3 minutes ago, frankendat said:

Mental disorder is a harsh way to look at it. I live in a bit of a "narrow passageway" house. I can admit some of it is junk, I find value in what many consider garbage (junk). Years back, our old clothes dryer died in the winter. I didn't have the coin for a new to me one, it was a lean time. Over the next year or so, I watched the salvation army and the classifieds, picked up a spare set. I do that for as many things as I can.  I've said it before, sometimes I will pass a farm with an acre of broken old trucks, machines and equipment and think "If I ever won a lottery....." Problem is I haven't won anything and my house has about 1200sq ft of living space on .12 of an acre. It's hard to find room for redundant systems. Wife gets on me from time to time, I am only allowed 2 non running vehicles on the property, but she is a good sport. There is a broken air conditioner in the back yard that I haven't thrown away, because I don't like to throw stuff away, before harvesting fasteners, long strips of wire, copper and any magnets. It's been out there since July and I am just starting to catch hell--like I said, she's good sport. 

 

I would hope that you can admit that there is a point, though, at which it becomes a disorder.  You don't have to feel bad about getting rid of stuff, and a lot of times it's a mental relief to no longer be burdened by it. Sell/give it away for scrap if you don't want it just filling a landfill.  There are always cheap/free dryers (and other things) on the various online classifieds.  We've been using a dryer I got for free for the last year...just needed $30 in parts (actually it was working when I got it, but the front bearing & guides were shot so I went ahead and replaced that).  The only TV I've owned in the last 15 years is one I got not too long ago and repaired.

[frankendat]

5 hours ago, thisismatt said:

I'd say it's pretty common and simply part of the mental disorder they are dealing/living/suffering with.  Why do some people hoard so much stuff that they can't walk around their house save a narrow passageway through mountains of what most people would consider garbage?

HA, I thought of a better example that proves not mental disorder--preparedness. There was a government equipment auction I checked out on Monday because they had  a small back hoe attachment that I would have liked. The attachment was used, but bidding went into the quadruple digits, not more than it was worth, but more than I had. While there a case of disposable X-large gloves went up for auction with few bidders. The kind of gloves auto parts stores charge around 8 -10 bucks a box, so I usually just use soap and water. I bid and with auction fees and tax it was $2.50 a box for the 12 boxes in the case. Should be a lifetime supply, but now I have to find a spot for storing 1200 gloves

[frankendat]

20 minutes ago, thisismatt said:

 

I would hope that you can admit that there is a point, though, at which it becomes a disorder.  You don't have to feel bad about getting rid of stuff, and a lot of times it's a mental relief to no longer be burdened by it. Sell/give it away for scrap if you don't want it just filling a landfill.  There are always cheap/free dryers (and other things) on the various online classifieds.  We've been using a dryer I got for free for the last year...just needed $30 in parts (actually it was working when I got it, but the front bearing & guides were shot so I went ahead and replaced that).  The only TV I've owned in the last 15 years is one I got not too long ago and repaired.

Not so much a point, rather a line and I walk it.  

At that Monday auction there were a number of industrial bearings and valves. I have no use for them, but realize the precision and machining necessary to create these item and they were selling for under $100 some under $50. But, I know from past experience that depending on the age of this type of equipment, even unused can be out of certification and not viable for resale. Some of these bearings and valves would have been thousands new and awesome overkill for any project I might envision (a heavy duty lazy Susan?)  I couldn't justify and walked on by, but it was hard. 

[sick620]

46 minutes ago, frankendat said:

Mental disorder is a harsh way to look at it. I live in a bit of a "narrow passageway" house. I can admit some of it is junk, I find value in what many consider garbage (junk). Years back, our old clothes dryer died in the winter. I didn't have the coin for a new to me one, it was a lean time. Over the next year or so, I watched the salvation army and the classifieds, picked up a spare set. I do that for as many things as I can.  I've said it before, sometimes I will pass a farm with an acre of broken old trucks, machines and equipment and think "If I ever won a lottery....." Problem is I haven't won anything and my house has about 1200sq ft of living space on .12 of an acre. It's hard to find room for redundant systems. Wife gets on me from time to time, I am only allowed 2 non running vehicles on the property, but she is a good sport. There is a broken air conditioner in the back yard that I haven't thrown away, because I don't like to throw stuff away, before harvesting fasteners, long strips of wire, copper and any magnets. It's been out there since July and I am just starting to catch hell--like I said, she's good sport. 

 

 

you do live in Boise so 1200sq feet on .12 of an acre is going to be worth a million one day soon, if it isn't already so you are richer than you think 😉

Edited April 6, 2023 by sick620

[frankendat]

38 minutes ago, datzenmike said:

I used an air conditioner condenser for a custom heater core for my 521. Another time the Dodge Omni I had lost the rad. All there were were manual radiators with no way to cool the automatic. Again I strapped an air conditioner core in front of the radiator and drove across Canada. The end often justifies the means.

No, no, no Datzenmike, your giving good reasons to save more of the air conditioner ---

[frankendat]

1 minute ago, sick620 said:

 

 

you do live in Boise so 1200sq feet on .12 of an acre is going to be worth a million one day soon, if it isn't already so you are richer than you think 😉

Don't kid yourself. The only way I come out ahead is if I sell and move somewhere no one wants to live. I'm getting old to live in an area without basic services. When you run the numbers, it doesn't work out. The old school plan was to pay off house, car, loans, cut expenses, and ride out old age. But, evening selling for a million, after taxes and the price of a place to live there won't be enough to live without working and then whatever new problems a new place would bring. So, I either I don't retire here or I don't retire somewhere new. I like my little hoarder house and don't want to move and my wife couldn't find work similar work in a smaller town. This is negative and is not directed toward you in anyway, talking about my impending eviction brings out my grumpy old man.

[thisismatt]

[sick620]

1 hour ago, frankendat said:

Don't kid yourself. The only way I come out ahead is if I sell and move somewhere no one wants to live. I'm getting old to live in an area without basic services. When you run the numbers, it doesn't work out. The old school plan was to pay off house, car, loans, cut expenses, and ride out old age. But, evening selling for a million, after taxes and the price of a place to live there won't be enough to live without working and then whatever new problems a new place would bring. So, I either I don't retire here or I don't retire somewhere new. I like my little hoarder house and don't want to move and my wife couldn't find work similar work in a smaller town. This is negative and is not directed toward you in anyway, talking about my impending eviction brings out my grumpy old man.

I hear ya . I realize all of these things as well. Who wants to leave here and move to kentucky or somewhere sounds horrible. I lived in puerto rico for a couple years and It was pretty cool and cheap just no jobs. But houses are crazy cheap and no capital gains tax so you could buy a few houses or do some airbnb rentals or something, so there might be a couple diamonds in the rough like that but yeah mostly shitty places with no jobs and bad economies.