The Homeless Guy

There's a guy who's moved into a small camper trailer down the road from me. Over the last few weeks I've had a chance to talk with him a bit. One evening he came over to play cards.

The guy was homeless for 5 years and living in Rhode Island. He came into a little bit of money. I'm guessing it was less than $20,000. With that money he purchased a small piece of land with electricity and water, a $600 trailer and a used car. The guy hired someone to tow the trailer next to his lot.

The gravel driveway is too steep to tow the trailer up is so he's had to hire a guy with some heavy equipment to move it for him. He's been busy trying to establish residency, get a mailing address, and all the normal things one does when moving into a new area.

There's been some difficulty as the town laws require a permanent structure on the land before they'll issue a house number. Without the house number he's been unable to transfer his driver's license from Rhode Island to New Hampshire.

The poor guy is a bit overwhelmed. As he put it: for the last five years he's had to make no decisions at all. He's out of practice. One night it got so bad he checked himself into the hospital with an anxiety attack.

It's not easy to get back in the “normal” world. Best I can tell, he got into his situation through a combination of bad luck, bad relationships, and bad decisions. I don't judge. Most people don't realize how easy it is to become homeless -or hard it can be to get back.

I did ask him how he planned on getting through the winter. On November 1st the homeless shelters back in Rhode Island open for the season. Rather than try to stay warm in his trailer he just might go spend the winter in the shelter.

-Sixbears