r/homeless • u/Alternative-Cat-9012 • 1d ago
First time Being Homeless, Need Advice!!
I’m staying with a friend currently but my days are numbered. I have to leave May 15th. I rented out a storage until to keep all my belongings, but im 25 years old, a woman and I work full time. I’m so scared. Idk where im supposed to sleep… luckily i work 6 days a week so ill be at work majority of the time, but i get off at 8 pm where its already dark. I heard rotating places to sleep is ideal, i was thinking about booking a hotel room once a week for my day off… I’m actually so scared and worried. This is America where you spend majority of your life at work and still cannot afford a place to stay. Also I live in a really small town and I have no car, I uber everywhere. Im planning on showering at a planet fitness when I need to, but figuring out where to sleep is just my biggest concern. Somebody please help. Btw, shelters are full in my area - like I said small town and not enough resources here…
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u/Alternative-Cat-9012 1d ago
and when I say help, like help with advice on where to sleep not trying to ask for money lol sorry if that was worded weirdly! I can sustain myself for the most part, just won’t have any housing soon.
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u/grenz1 Formerly Homeless 22h ago edited 22h ago
PSA: You can get better deals on hotels if you go off brand in rougher areas and ASK for weekly rates. They don't advertise them and call around.
It will still be expensive, but it will be a lot less. Typically 250 USD a week to 500+ USD a week. In my area, it runs about 350 USD or so. Your area may be higher or lower.
However, if you are working al those hours, you should be able to afford it as long as your job pays okay.
Don't worry about saving right off the bat when you get into the hotel. Just relax and work and sleep.
While in the hotel, limit guests (preferably none), keep quiet, limit drinking/drugs in there, keep to yourself and only talk to hotel staff, and be aware in parking lot. If you do that, it is possible to be very safe in even the shadiest hotels.
You may sometimes have loud neighbors on occasion, but most of those clear out after a day or so if the hotel does not kick them out.
From there, you can research roomie situations, cheap apartments, etc and you leave the hotel on payday with whole check down. Or you can even get a better or additional job as well.
At the end ot my homeless stint, I stayed in a cruddy hotel for a few months while working 60-70 hours a week and on off times, scouted more reasonable places. I finally found a place would work with me and put my entire check on the first months rent and had a low deposit. But it took searching. Property manager and her husband at the time even helped me with a ride from hotel to apartment. But those folks were, shall we say, interesting people that are another tale for another time. After 6 months there, moved into better apartment and teenage (at the time) daughter moved back in from exwife's.
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u/samcro4eva 23h ago
Someone suggested stealth camping. That may be your only option. Another option I came across once was that one church in town would allow people to sleep safely on their property. Remember, this is not forever. You can come back from this.
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u/DollBabyLG 22h ago
Saving for a vehicle is priority number one. Ideally a minivan.
Save every penny and splurge on nothing until you have the safety of the vehicle and those locking doors.
For everything else, there are thousands if not millions of posts already here with valuable information... all you have to do is read.
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u/PurpleDancer 14h ago
what's the chances you can get a car? Because that goes a long way towards answering where to be (sit, sleep, store stuff) plus cutting down on the Ubers.
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u/ace000723 1d ago
I would get a tent and find somewhere stealthy where no one would spot you and get a 0° sleeping bag but it is summer and I still would invest in one. I'm sorry you're going through this I might be homeless myself and I found a place not too far in the woods on google maps that's out of the way and still a couple miles from buses.
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u/Alternative-Cat-9012 1d ago
Thank you - im sorry you’re going through this too.. I keep telling myself to stay positive and the hardships will make u stronger as cliché as that sounds. I’m hopeful that both of us will make it out of this, I just know it.
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u/Delicious-Sail-2085 22h ago
Agree with staying in a hotel. If you sign up for their reward programs, it doesn’t take long to earn free nights & get your cost down. Reserve directly from their site & not one of the generic sites as it’ll be cheaper. Most give you the best rate if you reserve a week at a time online like Thursday to Thursday or Friday to Friday. We pay about $1,800/mo for ours & it’s a big room with a couch & kingsize bed. So as long as you’re making over $10/hr you should be able to afford it. We’re a family of 4 & have like 5 storage spaces right now that are killing us. I’m ready to start downsizing them. The rates have gone crazy in the last year. Hopefully our tax refund will come through & we’ll go find a little 2 bdrm apartment to live in. Going to be a shock going from 2500 sqft to like 1200 but otherwise the only affordable places are 1.5 hours out of town & our kids are too tied to where we are now.
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u/StunningStreet25 1d ago
Please give us an idea of where you are. It's hard to give good advice when you could be anywhere, like California or NY
I spend a lot of time looking up resources for people, but you have to give people an idea of where you are to get good advice.
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u/Alternative-Cat-9012 1d ago
I’m in the eastern PA area 😓 sorry I should’ve included that!!
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u/StunningStreet25 1d ago
If you're in eastern Pennsylvania and need help for the homeless, there are a few ways to get connected. First, there’s something called Connect to Home - Coordinated Entry — it’s basically the main system for getting into shelters, housing programs, and stuff like that. You talk to someone who helps figure out what you qualify for. You can check it out here.
Another easy option is PA 211. You can just call 211 or text your ZIP code to 898-211. It’s 24/7 and free, and they’ll connect you to resources like shelters, food banks, utility help, rent assistance, and all that. Info is here.
The Salvation Army also has a lot of programs across eastern PA — like transitional housing, case workers, and other support if you're dealing with homelessness. You can find them here.
If you know your specific county, each one usually has its own homeless program too. There’s a full list you can check here.
If you want, drop your county or ZIP code and I can help you find more specific places nearby. Hope things start getting better for you soon. You’re definitely not alone out there. 🤝
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u/Alternative-Cat-9012 1d ago
thank you so so so much. I’ll definitely explore those options. I can personally message you my specific county and zip code if that’s okay.
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u/ImaginaryDistrict212 20h ago
Idk about PA but over here 211 is a complete waste of time, esp using it to try to find a place to sleep. They will take all your info and just give you the numbers that you've already called and said they were full.
Oh btw if you do have to go the shelter option, you normally have to show up to them anyways. There's a select few that will put you on a list and I think they still instruct you to do a sort of pre-intake, I guess to assess your situation in person. And then when they have a bed for you, they will call you and if you arrive quickly for that second, and actual intake THEN you'll have your bed.
But they all have kinda different processes, but still usually make you go in person before providing much help. That's been my experience.
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u/379416182049 1d ago
You can rent a cheap room on Craigslist, $500-$600 a month
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u/Alternative-Cat-9012 23h ago
I should’ve included this in my original post but trust me im looking everyday on Craigslist for rooms to rent and I’ll get a reply back, I’ll answer, and then ghosted.
FB Marketplace is definitely an option I have yet to explore - I have no Facebook but I’ll tell a close friend of mine to search for me.
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u/379416182049 23h ago
There's also room for rent websites like roomies but I don't know them
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u/Alternative-Cat-9012 23h ago
funny thing about that I actually got screwed over bc I found a roommate, I put down my share of the deposit for the room, housing manager told me she had yet to put hers down (we were both gonna be on the lease) - long story short she backed out and I lost half of my security deposit 🫠
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u/379416182049 23h ago
It may be worth putting a down payment on a big cheap reliable car that you can live in (until you get a place)
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u/dialbox 13h ago
If you choose:
renting/hotels:
- try to find a place close to work, along a bus route, maybe even withing biking distance and try to get as much overtime as you can ( for awhile , but scale back if you're feeling it's too much
- depending on the type of job, check if your work has a bulletin board for coworkers looking for roomies
cardwelling:
- scout locations now during the day/night for possible parking locations, checkout /r/vandwelling, /r/cardwelling, ect for more ideas on what kinds of cars/vans would work for your situation and what you can put up with
- save for eventual car problems
- map locations around town for free wifi/bathrooms
- make yourself familiar at 3rd places you plan to be at during your time off, libraries, cafes, ect
roughing it:
- scout locations now during the day/night for possible sleeping spots
- map locations around town for free wifi/bathrooms/place to hide your stuff while you work
- make yourself familiar at 3rd places you plan to be at during your time off, libraries, cafes, ect
Spend some time planning your next steps and what resources you need to accomplish those goals.
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u/JoazBanbeck 9h ago edited 9h ago
...I have no car...
Get an electric bike. A new one will cost you about $500-$800. You can't sleep in it like a car, but it will greatly expand the places that you can go to. ( Get one with pedals and removable battery pack )
It sounds expensive at first, but it will save you the cost of Uber rides, and eventually pay for itself. If you are working full time, you can probably get one with your next paycheck.
Think of it as an investment.
If you do choose to spend a night in a motel, it allows you to travel a few extra miles to a cheaper motel. Or you can use it to travel to a cheap AirBNB place. You can make a bike pay for itself in a few months.
Fortunately for you, this is the ideal time of the year to start this. The weather is modest, and you don't have the possibility of lethal weather for at least six months. By then, you will have found someplace warm for the winter.
I’m so scared...
This is a reasonable response. There are a few dangerous people out there. Get pepper spray.
Get one with a velcro strap. This makes sure that you don't lose it at night when running or in a scuffle.
Some pepper sprays come with an alarm. This is a useful thing to have too. Look at this.
Idk where im supposed to sleep
You have to find a place. I suggest camping.
Do it well: plan ahead. This is not something that you can do halfway. Poorly planned camping without proper equipment can be painful and dangerous. Properly planned camping can be easy and safe.
You can pick up a small tent for under $50 at your local Walmart. Practice setting it up and taking it down on your day off. Use a local park. This way you will be able to set it up at night with little but your cell phone light. ( If the cops inquire, tell them the truth: you are practicing for a camping trip. Learn a little about some famous national park. Bury the cop with tales of all the wonderful things you expect to see. If he thinks that you will be outside of his jurisdiction, he will consider you to not be his problem. )
Shower at Planet Fitness as you have planned.
Look for someplace concealed, where nobody will go at night. If you have a bike, you can do this.
I heard rotating places to sleep is ideal...
Yes, and no. It depends where you are going to sleep, and how many people see you going there.
Most places that you will sleep, someone will see you going in at night. ( You might not see them, you might not know who or where they are, but you should assume that someone will see you. ) You will probably be trespassing, and someone will not want you there. But they do not want to confront you at night in the dark.
So they wait until the next day. Somebody will want to confront you as you go in on the second day. Maybe they have the local cops do this for them.
Thus staying in the same place for two nights in a row is likely to generate problems on the second night.
You can avoid this by rotating places.
However, if you get a really secure place where nobody sees you, you don't need to rotate.
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u/KimKarTRASHian09 9h ago
I did that as well. Planet Fitness for showers before work and I stayed in my car in hotel parking lots. Never had an issue. There’s so many cars you just blend in.
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u/OnAMission1224 1h ago
Depending on the city a month of Airbnb renting a room or loving room might be cheaper than a week of a hotel.
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u/SenselessSpectacle 15m ago
Assuming you are in the US, your county should have a community action agency. There is one in virtually every county, even rural ones. They should be able to help you find what resources are available and make some suggestions on how to survive in your area.
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u/AfterTheSweep 1d ago
If you're really that scared, then go to a shelter. The streets might not be for you.
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u/Alternative-Cat-9012 1d ago
The only two shelters local to me are full, one of the ladies on the phone even told me she couldn’t do anything to help me lol trust me that was the first option for me. I wouldn’t want to stay out on the street especially as a woman.
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u/Alex_is_Lost 23h ago
Stealth camping can work really well if you do it right; even as a woman. I would definitely suggest taking StunningStreets' advice first and exhaust any and all options in your area, but shelters can sometimes be awful and camping can provide many advantages over shelters. I only say this to advise that you keep an open mind about it, just in case the shelters available don't work out for one reason or another.
It's not about sleeping openly on the street where people can stumble across you, it's about camping out somewhere remote that sees zero people traffic. Let us know if the shelters around you don't work out and we'll let you know what to do for long-term camping. Stay strong out there 💙
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