Survival for Homeless People and After Catastrophes

Publisher Marketing: The hardest part about surviving, is fear of the unknown. This book is intended to help you do that. Military and civilian survival courses start by charting a path into the unknown. This is useful. Knowledge and experience can calm anyone facing a crisis. A range of people fall into the ranks of the homeless, with variation in resource access. There is a very simple, though not easy solution to homelessness: build affordable housing. The government has allowed housing costs to get way beyond what they should be. When my father got his first apartment, being married, in 1958, he paid 15% of his income for rent. Nowadays, people pay more than 30%, and some, over 50%, which is ridiculous. While we wait for politicians to wake up, which may take forever, homeless people have to survive, somehow. If cities had the lockable sleeping booths that Japanese train stations have, with space enough to sleep and keep a duffel bag, that would help greatly. Few people plan to end up homeless. Yet even some middle-class folks have had to deal with it. A number of celebrities had periods of homelessness. Homelessness has affected a broad range of society. It also generates a subconscious fear, which can drive compulsive behavior. This book assumes the reader is without regular lodging, in a city or town. Wilderness survival is very different from urban survival. Perspective is everything. A major catastrophe for one person can be an adventure for another. Most homeless people seem to be on what Joseph Campbell called the Hero's Journey. Read at least the Wikipedia notes on that, so you have meaning for your life. Disasters, including arson, blizzards, brush fires, chemical spills, civil unrest, hurricanes, mudslides, power outages, radiation leaks, tornadoes, water mains breaking, water shortages, and wells going dry can change one's lifestyle drastically. In my area, the power was out, after a storm, for 10 days. We slept in a shelter, visiting the apartment only during the day. We started it on a full tank of gas, and after 5 days, we were able to fill up again. We also had water. We ate the perishables quickly, before they went bad. I was very glad I had extra blankets. If you anticipate a problem, why not practice surviving for days, even weeks, with just the supplies on your back? Or just a weekend, here and there? Then adapt that to an urban environment, in a sort of roving home lifestyle. You could call this being an urban nomad, as you get what you need, but just in a wider range. It would be useful to do this prior to being homeless, when one still has resources. An alternative might be to attend wilderness survival courses. Wilderness survival requires a higher skill set, which is easily adapted to the urban environment. Think of this as an adventure. Maybe you won't ever be homeless. The confidence, foreknowledge, and peace of mind, from practicing, will benefit you greatly. Your mind will seek out paths to survive, and prosper, instead of wallowing in fear. You will realize you can survive a winter outside. Reindeer herders in Siberia live and sleep outside, in -40 F. weather. If they can do it, with some animal skins, you can survive under less harsh conditions. Lesser problems, like a furnace breaking down, seem much smaller. Backpacking and camping are a lot easier, and more fun. You'll see much more. Soldiers have slept outside, in winter, and yes, even Russian winters, often with inadequate gear, and have for a few thousand years. They did it. Think of yourself as a scout, or a nomad, doing non-central, distributed living, which at least makes you feel better. The Navy SEAL lesson is to ignore what you can't control, list what you can control, prioritize, and deal with these, one at a time, no matter how tired one is. This is a good life lesson.