Archives for May 2009

For the upcoming Homeless Experiment I can’t go living on the streets and telling everyone I meet, “I’m not actually homeless, I’m just trying it out.”

That makes me a bit of a target and probably won’t inspire trust.

So I’ve made up a story for myself. It will be easier to stick “closer” to the truth since it’s much harder to lie. I’ll be using places where I actually grew up instead of other places in the off chance someone may know the area.

So if I somehow get involved in a long conversation about this, here are the story details I will give:

My name is Nev. (I’ll go by my full name if asked, but “Nev” seems nice, short and easy to pronounce).

I grew up in Houston but in recent years my family moved to upstate New York…I might also say they’re divorced just for added drama (but they’re not in real life). I moved to Austin recently and was working at Radio Shack selling phones. I recently lost my job and couldn’t pay rent for the last few months so I was evicted from my apartment.

I don’t have many friends here, and the only ones I know are in school, but they’re gone for the summer. I have a friend who I’m going to live with, but he moves into his new apartment in about two weeks, so for now I am living on the streets till he gets back into town and gets his apartment. From there I will stay with him and find another job.

I went to HCC (Houston Community College) for a few semesters but didn’t go all the way through.

I had a car in Austin, but I got in a wreck a few months ago and it was totaled. I didn’t have insurance and can’t afford a new one. I’ve been walking and taking the bus everywhere for a while now.

SO that’s what I’ll be telling people if they ask. I made up this story because it’s how I believe MOST people end up homeless….through a simple sequence of unfortunate events. For the most part homeless people are NOT the dilapidated looking bums you see on the side of the road holding signs. Those people are in the minority, however they are the most visible, which is why people think all homeless people are like that (I learned this pretty clearly when I would do work for homeless shelters…even homeless people don’t like THOSE homeless people).

Most of this stuff relates to some experience I’ve had or someone I know. For example I had a temporary roommate who worked at Radio Shack selling phones, so if someone proceeds on that line of questioning I can deliver believable answers.

This will also be the pretense for the whole Homeless Experiment. That I’m just a 20-something guy down on his luck for a little while and has no place to go for a few weeks. I feel this story will allow me to freely ask questions about homeless life, instead of telling people I’ve been homeless a long time and asking dumb questions about it. It won’t sound congruent if I told that story.

I’ll probably also try to “dumb down” my speech a bit just for effect depending on the person or situation I am speaking with. I’ll play it by ear as I know for a fact not all homeless people are dumb bums like some may think.

So there ya go: I am Nev the Bum.

During the upcoming Homeless Experiment there’s a couple of things I want to try out. Now since I don’t have a defined plan of how I’m going to acquire food, shelter, water and other basic necessities of life…there will obviously be a massive amount of variables in how much free time I get to do some of these mini-experiences.

Here are some things I’d like to try:

• How much money can I make in an hour holding a sign asking for money?
• How much money can I make holding a FUNNY sign?
• How much money can I make holding a SERIOUS sign?
• How easy is it to get food on the street corner by asking for it…perhaps holding a sign that says, “Don’t want money, food would be great.” I personally think this would work pretty well as a way of procuring food or leftovers. Since I’m walking out of my house with no food or money, this will probably be one of the FIRST things I need to do.
• Where exactly will I sleep? Parks, benches, under bridges, homeless shelters, under a tree, in the woods?
• What if it rains?
• Access to restrooms. I can always pee in the bushes, but what about….?
• Can I just show up at a homeless shelter and get a place to sleep? I already partially know the answer to this: At most homeless shelters you have to “reserve” a bed, but they’ll often let you sleep inside on the ground if it’s not too crowded.
• Can I take a shower somewhere and get a clean change of clothes?
• Where can I get a decent meal? I’m purposely not researching where the soup kitchens are located in order to make this experience more authentic.
• What are most homeless people like? I kind of already know the answer….most are just like you and I. The VAST majority of homeless are not the crazy looking bums on the side of the road. I’ve had some experience talking to a wide variety of homeless people, but not AS a homeless person. I’m wondering if their perception or attitudes towards me will change much.
• Can I get a temporary job at one of the day labor camps in downtown? How much money can I make like this?

There’s a lot of experiments I want to try, but time is a factor. I still think doing THIS would work well:

Suggestions?

Update: There are several easier ways to read this whole experiment:

• The Homeless Experiment Category with all the posts.
• Go to the Timeline, scroll to May 2009 and click each post
• HTML viewing version: Follow in chronological order on your web browser.
• Word Doc: If you prefer reading it in a Word file.
• PDF Format: Download as an e-book to read anywhere.
• Amazon Kindle Format: Read it on your Kindle.

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Experiment:
Leave my house in Austin, TX. and live on the streets for 5 days and 4 nights.

Purpose of Experiment:
There’s simply not one solid reason for performing this experiment, but several:

1. To learn what it’s like at the bottom rung of the socio economic system
2. I’ve studied how many successful people get successful…it would be interesting to see how some people have “failed.” Getting to live directly with these people would be a great way to learn.
3. I’ve always considered myself pretty spoiled. Not in the spoiled brat kind of way, but in the fact that I’ve never once in my life really have been worried where my next meal was going to come from or where I was going to lay my head down at night. It seems important that every once in a while I give myself a good whack over the head to realize just how good I’ve got it, and that all those opportunities I have should be utilized to their full potential.A few examples stick out in my mind:
   -It was weird as a little kid going to India and visiting relatives and seeing the things they treasured or worked for as opposed to what I did. For example: a magazine subscription to National Geographic. This was just something that showed up in our mail and often sat unread at home. However over there it was a relatively big deal to have, and to absorb all that information. Books, magazines and other literature were thoroughly read and reviewed.

   -I went on a two week hardship hike when I was a Boy Scout to Philmont, New Mexico. You load up with gear at the home base (which itself is 6,000 ft. above sea level making every physical activity much harder than normal), they load you up in a bus, drive you way the hell out in the country and leave you. The whole trip is definitely a physical and mental strain.

   When I got back to base camp, I remember two experiences I had which I can still remember crystal clear: 1.) I sat down in a chair…and this regular everyday chair just seemed like the most comfortable thing I’ve ever sat in. The closest thing I had to a chair in the last few weeks before that were perhaps a stump or rock. 2.) I bought a $0.75 Coca-Cola from a vending machine, and remember thinking it was the BEST thing I had ever tasted. It was cold for one, and two it was sweetened. We weren’t allowed to have sweetened things because bears would smell the containers and try to eat them. I remembered thinking I would’ve paid $75 for the Coke.

   SO the last few years I’ve been a little spoiled and haven’t done anything like that. Even if you go backpacking, it’s usually pretty clear where you’ll sleep and what you’ll eat. You end up going with enough resources to make it through pretty comfortably. You’ve got the tent, high quality sleeping bag, energy bars, GPS and all sorts of other stuff which make the trip safer. This experiment will force me to actually seek out shelter from either homeless shelters, in the woods or other places where city officials won’t force me to move. It will also force me to beg for food.

4. Ostracism. I’m Indian, but have never experienced any real discrimination that I know of. If I walk into a fine hotel to use the bathroom, I’m always allowed based on my overall appearance. However what if I was disheveled looking, carrying bags, looked like I was dirty and smelled? It might be a different story. I personally discriminate against these kind of people who come up to me on the street. It’d be interesting to see what it’s like on the other side.
5. I’ve always wondered: If someone got kicked out of their apartment, had no money and no friends/family to stay with…what would they do?

So on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 I will officially begin my Homeless Experiment and start living on the streets for 5 days and 4 nights.

More info to come.

I’m trying to look disheveled/old as possible in my upcoming homeless experiment, so I stopped shaving and here is the progress after only 12 days:

Front view:

I’ve pretty much stopped maintaining anything on my head, and it looks pretty messy when I look in the mirror. It actually doesn’t look all that bad in these webcam photos from my Mini.

Seeing if I can successfully make a post to my blog via my phone.

Sent from my iPhone.

Starting today (May 15th, 2009) I am going to stop shaving or cutting my hair in order to get a nice scraggly look in preparation for a “homeless experiment” I’m doing soon. Just trying to document this day with this post.

I was going to do this about 3 years ago but it got put off.

More on that later.