Practical Tips to Survive Homelessness

In this article, we’ll look at some practical tips to survive homelessness, but why? It’s not as if you’re about to lose your home & get on the streets, or are you? Keep reading anyway.

The average American is a paycheck away from ruined finances. Yes, as we’ve seen times without numbers, Americans are not financially prepared as they should be, & just one extreme medical bill can lead you to absolute financial ruin. And when this happens, homelessness may become a reality before you know it.

If there is any advantage to homelessness, it improves resourcefulness & skillsets since you’ll be living basically on what’s available & not what you want. This increases the odds of homeless people when SHTF, so maybe picking a thing or two from these people won’t be a bad thing. We never know when we may be forced out of our homes.

5 Practical Tips to Survive homelessness

Clothing Layer is Key

As you may expect, it is important to stay warm when on the streets, which necessitates the fact that you have to dress in layers. 

Usually, three layers of clothing are okay. The first is closest to the skin, then a second layer to provide insulation & the third serves as a shell offering protection from rain, wind & snow. 

Choose the clothes you wear wisely — which should be possible since your clothes won’t be destroyed too. You can use what you wear for other purposes, such as making a rope, shelter, bandages, or collecting water. Obviously, there’s a use for everything you wear.

Contrary to what most people think, a bulky winter jacket isn’t a smart pick. You’re instead better off wearing plenty of lightweight jackets, which you can take off whenever necessary. These jackets can help to construct a shelter & will dry quicker too.

Newspapers are Your Close Friends

A popular movie titled Day After Tomorrow shows the usefulness of a homeless man in SHTF scenarios. In the movie, there’s a scene where many people are huddled in a library & are desperately attempting to stay warm. They were unable to until a homeless man among them taught them how to insulate their body by stuffing newspapers into their clothes. Pure genius idea. 

Newspapers have a lot of uses. Apart from serving as insulators, they can serve as blankets, pillows, shelters, toilet paper & fuel for fire-building. What’s more, they are readily available & cost nothing to acquire. So, know where to look when the poop hits the fan.

Sleep in the Right Place

One of your biggest challenges, if not the biggest, as a homeless person is working out where to rest or sleep when night comes. For a start, there are abandoned buildings or shelters specifically built for the homeless.

However, if you’re settling for an abandoned structure, you have to be sure that it isn’t a hazard. Your safety has to be prioritized. So, if you aren’t assured of safety in that spot, lay under the support beam or close to an exit. 

Most pertinently, you really don’t want to be alone throughout the night. You have to help your predicament by seeking out other homeless folks. With a sizable number of sleepers, there’s less likelihood of the cops disturbing you, plus you’ll be safer with others. Criminals can’t possibly attack a group.

Note that it is advisable to be sure of the territory you’re encroaching on before doing so. Some homeless people guard their territories jealously & may make trouble if they find you wandering. However, it is also risky to sleep alone — that’s like a free invitation to robbers, rapists & killers. So, you will have to pick your battle wisely.

Stay Warm

You have to stay warm in the streets to survive. This is because a large percentage of the energy in you is dispensed on keeping you warm, & that’s about 50% of your calorie storage. This means that you get hungrier the colder you get. Now, that’s not good at all. 

To keep warm, you can start with the use of newspapers & dressing in layers, as we mentioned above, but you can try out other tips, including:

• Sleeping on cardboard, as this will provide insulation;
• Using a survival jacket to hold in a lot of heat. These blankets are portable & fit well in a survival pack;
• Wear gloves & socks. Both are necessary to avoid frostbites. A hand warmer will do the job nicely too. If there’s no warmer or gloves, pour hot water in water bottles & hold tightly, with a towel wrapped around your hands.

Practice Cleanliness as Much as you Can

With no regular access to a shower, this can be a difficult tip to keep to, but trying as best as you can to be clean is very helpful. You don’t have to bathe three times a day but make the conscious effort to be clean. For a start, you can store wet wipes in your survival bag. Then, there are public toilets to use. When you stop at one of these, there’s access to goof, hot water, which you can use to clean yourself properly. 

Baking soda remains a very versatile cleaning agent when it comes to personal hygiene. By mixing it with water, you get a solution that will serve as soap, toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant & even more. You can get a box of baking soda for less than a dollar, so getting it should not be a problem.

See, maintaining cleanliness may not be a big deal, but it helps with morale & confidence, which matters a lot. People will treat you better if you dress nicer or do not carry a pungent smell about. You are more likely to get help when it matters too. Also, keeping personal hygiene lowers the risk of suffering infections (which you may not have the money to treat). 

Concluding The Practical Tips to Survive Homelessness

There may be other practical tips to survive homelessness, including having a first-aid kit & using what you have to create what you need. These, too, along with the tips above, are more than enough to survive on the cold streets. Of course, you may not do week as a newbie, but it’s only a matter of time before you own a territory.