Q&A for How to Survive Homelessness

A good place to begin is to visit the US Dept of Labor’s website for federal programs for people experiencing homelessness, https://www.dol.gov/general/audience/aud-homeless. The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Homeless Assistance Program (HAP), https://www.hud.gov/topics/homelessness/localassist, for chronic homelessness also provides vocational services. Contact the local homelessness coalition, https://www.hud.gov/hudprograms/continuumofcare, to find other programs that are available, such as Goodwill, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and services from other religious or poverty organizations that offer employment services. All of these programs have websites that explain what services they provide, who is eligible, and how to contact them.

Call Social Services, or go to the nearest school and see if they can help. If you are in the UK, you can call Childline.

It is best not to have animals when you are homeless. Give them up for adoption or put them temporarily in a friend's care.

It can be hard. In my area, there are 3 essential documents: driver's license or state-issued ID, birth certificate, and social security card. I had a friend who lost all of these after a robbery. She knew her driver's license number and date of birth, so I was able to go online and change her address to the day shelter that accepted her mail, and then order a replacement. Getting her birth certificate meant she had to know where she was born and her parents' names (one friend didn't know and couldn't find her birth certificate as a result). I was able to request this online as well. With those 2 docs, she could make an appointment with the Social Security Administration to get a SS card.

Dress older, but not attractive, especially if you are a girl. Try to find boring topics for times that require talking. Act not interesting at all and this will help, as people think you are just sort of odd and they will leave you alone more. That way, you can work more on getting your own stuff together, instead of having other people getting too involved in your life. This is important, because too many people trying to get involved can lead to all sorts of issues, like danger from strangers who pretend to mean well, but who have other intentions, or if you're a boy, other grown men will try to fight you in order to get you in trouble with the law. Try to focus on a solution and make friends, but not enemies.

Go to your local food bank and get food and access to the best social workers. Try not to get annoyed when people ask stupid questions like, Do you have any family that can help you? I know you want to say, Oh gee! Why didn't I think of that? and then roll your eyes so hard it hurts. This is usual what people say when they won't be helping you, so it's better to just walk away. Go to a liberal place. Do some research. Often you can get bus fare from one city to another from a shelter for the purpose of finding work and housing, so if you can't get housing, try a city with a better homeless prevention plan. Go somewhere warm.

One solution can be that, if you have your own house, maybe you can invite her to stay in your place. And get her medical attention.

You can park it in public parking lots or one of those big parking garages.