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Cash will help some homeless people like me. I have endured five years homeless in Los Angeles. Still here, somehow, despite covid, curfews, looters, lack of po

Cash will help some homeless people like me. I have endured five years homeless in Los Angeles. Still here, somehow, despite covid, curfews, looters, lack of police, being shot at twice and attacked more than a dozen times. I managed to setup my hn login last month but have yet to figure out how to follow the comment threads effectively from my phone. Yes Los Angeles. Some call it ground zero of the US homeless problem. It started on a Friday morning in December 2015 when my roommate/landlord rushed me from behind with a knife at 8 am in Santa Monica California. Long story short, police believed my white assailant when he lied and said I made it all up. They put his lie down on the report and lied further saying I was agitated and looked crazy (i was in shock because the attack was a huge surprise, and had I not sensed the attack in time it would have been a 7" henkl straight through the heart from behind). I left next day, homeless day#1, but filled with hope for a better tomorrow with no further unprovoked attacks from behind. I got a job at McD and worked min wage living out of an old chevy cavalier i bought off craigslist for $300. And it took a full year to save up enough to rent a small room. Just as I was calling the first ads, in Feb 2017, an armed forces veteran rear ended me in broad daylight breaking my neck and totaling my cavalier. He told me it was his second accident in two months. Hmmm so i guess he fuct up someones Christmas before messing up my Valentines day. I went to an accident attorney who sent me to a chiropractor who broke my neck further and also broke my back. I was expecting therapy, just as any of you might expect. But I was served pain instead, essentially giving me a replay of the original knife attack trauma. So I was not happy when they next recommended I now needed surgery. It was just to use me as meat to bid up the price of an insurance settlement. The surgeon they sent me to wore makeup. As easy as it sounds now to say no to that...it was hard to say no because I have been in constant pain every hour of every day since that car accident. Arg this is too tiring to type this much with thumbs. From my meager start on hn a part of me feels like it isnt even worth sharing the rest of my story. But I am a social creature and I do not want to be homeless until death which is what the Santa Monica police want at this rate. So consider experimenting more please, and you are welcome to start with me.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
happyconcepts 6y ago
Arrrg and now there is a santa monica police helicopter hovering dirctly over my head for the past 10 minutes after I started writing this (pico blvd and ocean blvd). If you are in the area you can attest. Its hard out here.
- happyconcepts 6y ago
  Ok it's clear the chopper left.
jeremysalwen 6y ago
Why did you refuse the surgery? Do you think it would help with the pain?
- jbob2000 6y ago
  I empathize with this person. It’s clear from his story he does not have a support network. I think many of the decisions you make that are good decisions are helped by your friends and family. When people act alone or without support, they tend to make bad decisions. (Not to say this is always the case, just something I’ve noticed and felt in myself - I make bad decisions when I feel alone) The first mistake he made was not seeking assistance after the stabbing incident. Either he didn’t trust anyone or he simply didn’t have anyone he could turn to to take him in. Many people would be able to go back to their parents or stay with a friend after something like that, but he felt that going homeless was the only option. Even if I wanted to go homeless, I can think of a number of people who would literally drag me off the street and in to their house. Where was that for this person? Surgery is a decision that an individual cannot make alone, it’s too overwhelming, you need support to get through that.
  - teterphiel 6y ago
    i‘ve been watching interviews with homeless people on the Invisible People youtube channel (highly recommend), and one thing that struck me is how skin deep most support networks are. having friends and family vanish the second they could come up with a reasonable excuse seems to be the hardest part for many of them.
    - happyconcepts 6y ago
      Its dangerous to talk to anybody out here. I feel like I am taking a huge risk even posting about it. If someone is close enough to talk to you they are close enough to hurt you. To your point I had reached out to a collge girlfriend after my accident in 2017. She asked for my address and I gave her c/o Chrysalis which is a work help program here in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, she wanted to do somethinf nice so she sent a care package of shampoo and other things but I will never know. Chrysalis kicked me out for 'abusing' their mail service. I never even saw the package she sent to me. I received 2 dentist bills, 0 responses to the resumes i was sending out, and 1 unannounced care package. I am so clearly not an abuser of anything except possibly myself somehow. Thank you. I would upvote your comment but havent yet found out how.
alasdair_ 6y ago
I just wanted to say thank you for posting. I read what you had to say and I plan on reading when you post again. That’s all. Thank you.
wrycoder 6y ago
Kuro5hin redux.
xvedejas 6y ago
I just want to underscore: Chiropractic is a pseudoscience and injures more people than it helps. I have heard too many stories of injuries and paralysis. It's a huge shame that our society allows these frauds to practice and advertize the whole sham as a respectable profession. It is not evidence-based, it's a total sham.
- titzer 6y ago
  A lot of Chiropractic practice is about regaining and preserving good posture and many places employ actual physical therapists and massage therapists. It's true they put too much stock in the spine being the root all ailments, but it's not a total sham. They may not be medical doctors but they certainly do do evidence-based treatments and understand anatomy. From your comment it sounds like you've never been to one and fundamentally don't understand what they are about.
  - davidivadavid 6y ago
    He's never been to one because it's a well-known scam, I would guess? They have no idea what "evidence-based" entails, and rely on the fact that neither do their clients ("Well, I went to a chiropractor and then felt no pain, so it works.").
    - happyconcepts 6y ago
      I thank each of you for your thoughts. And its my fault for not getting to the next part of my story yet. I believe there are good chiropractors despite my experience. I ended up finding a few who I believe have been able to reverse some the damage done prior. To me there are good and bad doctors Good and bad chiropractors Good and bad attorneys Good and bad financial advisors (I was one for a short period into 9/11) Shop around is my advice. To the OP topic I would use any financial assistance first to address my spinal cord injury as opposed to further developing the RTS game mod I am creating. And I guess my segment is no exception...there are good and bad homeless too. We gotta look deeper than the labels!
thijsvandien 6y ago
Thank you for your insider’s perspective. It sounds like you had a lot of bad luck. Just curious: what do you need most at this point to get your life back on track, and if it’s money, how much?
- happyconcepts 6y ago
  Thank you for this question. I don't have an answer with high confidence right now. Still recovering from a trauma from Monday. A year ago was different, with less traumas stacking on me. It seems because a basic evaluation of the extent of my injury has been so elusive. Im not a quitter but since monday im seriously starting to lean toward pivoting from trying to find work to pursuing disability income status.
tomcam 6y ago
What a horrible story. My best to you, brother
padastra 6y ago
Do you believe you’re representative of the population of homeless people (ie are their origin stories similar in nature to yours)? Also, what life circumstances led to you sharing a motel room with a person who, out of nowhere, rushed at people with a knife? Had this person done similar acts prior to you / have they since / was there a dispute / were there drugs?
- xwdv 6y ago
  If you talk to homeless people a lot of them have interesting origin stories.
- happyconcepts 6y ago
  Thanks for your question. I do not believe I am a representative example of the homeless population. But I would venture to say I represent the effects of a culturally biased view of the entire homeless population. A bias that inaccurately portrays homeless as somehow 'deserving' of their miserable situation(s). Drugs, mental issues, stupidity ... after all I have seen out here these are not typical root causes of homelessness. They are typical consequences of being homeless. So i was renting a bedroom in a 2bd apartment. It wasnt a motel. I had been living there several months and there were no known issues although I could tell we likely were not to become friends due to differences in value systems. I suspect he has lied successfully many, many, many times in the past.
forgotmypw17 6y ago
if you ever tired of other places, please come visit shitmyself.com, or sm.chg.pw. friendlier name to come. it has a captcha login, see my profile, but no account is required. i guarantee it works with any device, no matter how old. i have lived on the street before, and many of the other visitors also street.
ransom1538 6y ago
Please. Escape. LA. LA has 66,433 [1] homeless people and there is not the resource system to help. LA has a huge drug culture which creates an aggressive gang culture. Homeless are taken advantage of by gangs. The camps that are allowed are not worth it! It is so bad - Typhoid Fever, Typhus & Tuberculosis are spreading among the homeless encampments [2]. Your best bet is to find a small town in the middle of no where America and pan handle. By the end of the day you will be cleaning someones garage for cash sleeping in a mechanics guest house. No one cares in LA. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2019/06/04/typhoid-fever-typhus-tuberculosis-are-l-a-s-medieval-diseases-coming-to-your-city/?sh=4928037e610d https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2019/06/04/typhoid-... [2] https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/875888864/homelessness-in-los-angeles-county-rises-sharply https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/875888864/homelessness-in-los...
- happyconcepts 6y ago
  I like your thinking. But Its hard to clean even a garage with a broken spine, and yes I have tried. I have been seeking employment out of state too but this the Greater Depression we are in.
stefantalpalaru 6y ago
> (i was in shock because the attack was a huge surprise, and had I not sensed the attack in time it would have been a 7" henkl straight through the heart from behind). I left next day, homeless day#1, but filled with hope for a better tomorrow with no further unprovoked attacks from behind. > [...] > essentially giving me a replay of the original knife attack trauma Sounds like paranoid schizophrenia. First generation antipsychotics might help but, when you're poor in a shithole country, you might not have access to psychiatric care.
la6471 6y ago
Please consider sharing more when you can. Also please reach out to all the government run programs to get all the help you can. At least that way the taxpayers money is put to good use. And don’t give up.
happyconcepts 6y ago
Wow I have had more constructive social interaction communicating here in the past half day than I have experienced in the past two years. Thank you hn! Im overwhelmed in a good way. Even if it just lasts for half a day before I screw it up somehow, it's a welcome change. So please let me express how much I appreciate the responsiveness from each of you who have read my comments and especially each of you who have responded. I get that it isnt easy talking with a homeless person, it isnt easy talking to a new profile on hn, etc. So I very much appreciate the courageous among y'all. Please don't give up on me if you want the rest of the story its just that I didn't anticipate the response. But from comments it's more important to me to say: 1. To whoever posted asking for advice because you are facing an impending homeless situation please do not wait for my response. Take the details you wanted to share with me and instead take those to 1 or 2 people you already know right now its a Saturday and see if you strike some sort of 'partnership' where each gets value and you stay housed. Think outside the box on this. Be sure to approach people you already know but if that number is too low then ask who they would ask for help. You see how your credibility gets thin once you move further from direct contacts so i would say focus on the people you know. Ask for help from those you already know and do it now while you still can. If everyone says no...ask them why not. Perhaps down the road you can come up with a different way they can help, a way that bypasses their previous objection. Geez I sound like a sales manager but its what I would if I were you. Dont give up no matter what. 2. The back-n-forth about chiropractors in the comments seems to illustrate the key bias impeding any real effort to solve the homelessness problem. Not all chiropractors are bad, just as not all homeless are bad. Whether you use Webster's or Michael Jackson's definition of bad I think what I say stands true.
shardinator 6y ago
I might be able to help with the car accident injury. I had a rear-end car accident 11 years ago. I know the pain/suffering. It's like nothing you can imagine till you have it and then it never goes away, worst of all no professional knows what to do about it. The last two years I've read pretty much everything and contacted every researcher/research group working on this. They have some good material, but eventually I had to adapt their work into my own techniques. I'm now about 80-90% fixed and in a few months I think I'll be all good. I've developed an exercise program along with an elastic head sling that supports and strengthens the neck. If you're interested DM me on twitter https://bit.ly/2LTVMMl https://bit.ly/2LTVMMl and I'll send you some info about how I did it, you might have to modify some things but I think the basic ideas will apply.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

happyconcepts 6y ago

Arrrg and now there is a santa monica police helicopter hovering dirctly over my head for the past 10 minutes after I started writing this (pico blvd and ocean blvd). If you are in the area you can attest. Its hard out here.

happyconcepts 6y ago
Ok it's clear the chopper left.

jeremysalwen 6y ago

Why did you refuse the surgery? Do you think it would help with the pain?

jbob2000 6y ago
I empathize with this person. It’s clear from his story he does not have a support network. I think many of the decisions you make that are good decisions are helped by your friends and family. When people act alone or without support, they tend to make bad decisions. (Not to say this is always the case, just something I’ve noticed and felt in myself - I make bad decisions when I feel alone) The first mistake he made was not seeking assistance after the stabbing incident. Either he didn’t trust anyone or he simply didn’t have anyone he could turn to to take him in. Many people would be able to go back to their parents or stay with a friend after something like that, but he felt that going homeless was the only option. Even if I wanted to go homeless, I can think of a number of people who would literally drag me off the street and in to their house. Where was that for this person? Surgery is a decision that an individual cannot make alone, it’s too overwhelming, you need support to get through that.
- teterphiel 6y ago
  i‘ve been watching interviews with homeless people on the Invisible People youtube channel (highly recommend), and one thing that struck me is how skin deep most support networks are. having friends and family vanish the second they could come up with a reasonable excuse seems to be the hardest part for many of them.
  - happyconcepts 6y ago
    Its dangerous to talk to anybody out here. I feel like I am taking a huge risk even posting about it. If someone is close enough to talk to you they are close enough to hurt you. To your point I had reached out to a collge girlfriend after my accident in 2017. She asked for my address and I gave her c/o Chrysalis which is a work help program here in Santa Monica. Unfortunately, she wanted to do somethinf nice so she sent a care package of shampoo and other things but I will never know. Chrysalis kicked me out for 'abusing' their mail service. I never even saw the package she sent to me. I received 2 dentist bills, 0 responses to the resumes i was sending out, and 1 unannounced care package. I am so clearly not an abuser of anything except possibly myself somehow. Thank you. I would upvote your comment but havent yet found out how.

alasdair_ 6y ago

I just wanted to say thank you for posting. I read what you had to say and I plan on reading when you post again. That’s all. Thank you.

wrycoder 6y ago

Kuro5hin redux.

xvedejas 6y ago

I just want to underscore: Chiropractic is a pseudoscience and injures more people than it helps. I have heard too many stories of injuries and paralysis. It's a huge shame that our society allows these frauds to practice and advertize the whole sham as a respectable profession. It is not evidence-based, it's a total sham.

titzer 6y ago
A lot of Chiropractic practice is about regaining and preserving good posture and many places employ actual physical therapists and massage therapists. It's true they put too much stock in the spine being the root all ailments, but it's not a total sham. They may not be medical doctors but they certainly do do evidence-based treatments and understand anatomy. From your comment it sounds like you've never been to one and fundamentally don't understand what they are about.
- davidivadavid 6y ago
  He's never been to one because it's a well-known scam, I would guess? They have no idea what "evidence-based" entails, and rely on the fact that neither do their clients ("Well, I went to a chiropractor and then felt no pain, so it works.").
  - happyconcepts 6y ago
    I thank each of you for your thoughts. And its my fault for not getting to the next part of my story yet. I believe there are good chiropractors despite my experience. I ended up finding a few who I believe have been able to reverse some the damage done prior. To me there are good and bad doctors Good and bad chiropractors Good and bad attorneys Good and bad financial advisors (I was one for a short period into 9/11) Shop around is my advice. To the OP topic I would use any financial assistance first to address my spinal cord injury as opposed to further developing the RTS game mod I am creating. And I guess my segment is no exception...there are good and bad homeless too. We gotta look deeper than the labels!

thijsvandien 6y ago

Thank you for your insider’s perspective. It sounds like you had a lot of bad luck. Just curious: what do you need most at this point to get your life back on track, and if it’s money, how much?

happyconcepts 6y ago
Thank you for this question. I don't have an answer with high confidence right now. Still recovering from a trauma from Monday. A year ago was different, with less traumas stacking on me. It seems because a basic evaluation of the extent of my injury has been so elusive. Im not a quitter but since monday im seriously starting to lean toward pivoting from trying to find work to pursuing disability income status.

tomcam 6y ago

What a horrible story. My best to you, brother

padastra 6y ago

Do you believe you’re representative of the population of homeless people (ie are their origin stories similar in nature to yours)? Also, what life circumstances led to you sharing a motel room with a person who, out of nowhere, rushed at people with a knife? Had this person done similar acts prior to you / have they since / was there a dispute / were there drugs?

xwdv 6y ago
If you talk to homeless people a lot of them have interesting origin stories.
happyconcepts 6y ago
Thanks for your question. I do not believe I am a representative example of the homeless population. But I would venture to say I represent the effects of a culturally biased view of the entire homeless population. A bias that inaccurately portrays homeless as somehow 'deserving' of their miserable situation(s). Drugs, mental issues, stupidity ... after all I have seen out here these are not typical root causes of homelessness. They are typical consequences of being homeless. So i was renting a bedroom in a 2bd apartment. It wasnt a motel. I had been living there several months and there were no known issues although I could tell we likely were not to become friends due to differences in value systems. I suspect he has lied successfully many, many, many times in the past.

forgotmypw17 6y ago

if you ever tired of other places, please come visit shitmyself.com, or sm.chg.pw. friendlier name to come. it has a captcha login, see my profile, but no account is required. i guarantee it works with any device, no matter how old. i have lived on the street before, and many of the other visitors also street.

ransom1538 6y ago

Please. Escape. LA. LA has 66,433 [1] homeless people and there is not the resource system to help. LA has a huge drug culture which creates an aggressive gang culture. Homeless are taken advantage of by gangs. The camps that are allowed are not worth it! It is so bad - Typhoid Fever, Typhus & Tuberculosis are spreading among the homeless encampments [2]. Your best bet is to find a small town in the middle of no where America and pan handle. By the end of the day you will be cleaning someones garage for cash sleeping in a mechanics guest house. No one cares in LA. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2019/06/04/typhoid-fever-typhus-tuberculosis-are-l-a-s-medieval-diseases-coming-to-your-city/?sh=4928037e610d https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckdevore/2019/06/04/typhoid-... [2] https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/875888864/homelessness-in-los-angeles-county-rises-sharply https://www.npr.org/2020/06/12/875888864/homelessness-in-los...

happyconcepts 6y ago
I like your thinking. But Its hard to clean even a garage with a broken spine, and yes I have tried. I have been seeking employment out of state too but this the Greater Depression we are in.

stefantalpalaru 6y ago

> (i was in shock because the attack was a huge surprise, and had I not sensed the attack in time it would have been a 7" henkl straight through the heart from behind). I left next day, homeless day#1, but filled with hope for a better tomorrow with no further unprovoked attacks from behind. > [...] > essentially giving me a replay of the original knife attack trauma Sounds like paranoid schizophrenia. First generation antipsychotics might help but, when you're poor in a shithole country, you might not have access to psychiatric care.

la6471 6y ago

Please consider sharing more when you can. Also please reach out to all the government run programs to get all the help you can. At least that way the taxpayers money is put to good use. And don’t give up.

happyconcepts 6y ago

Wow I have had more constructive social interaction communicating here in the past half day than I have experienced in the past two years. Thank you hn! Im overwhelmed in a good way. Even if it just lasts for half a day before I screw it up somehow, it's a welcome change. So please let me express how much I appreciate the responsiveness from each of you who have read my comments and especially each of you who have responded. I get that it isnt easy talking with a homeless person, it isnt easy talking to a new profile on hn, etc. So I very much appreciate the courageous among y'all. Please don't give up on me if you want the rest of the story its just that I didn't anticipate the response. But from comments it's more important to me to say: 1. To whoever posted asking for advice because you are facing an impending homeless situation please do not wait for my response. Take the details you wanted to share with me and instead take those to 1 or 2 people you already know right now its a Saturday and see if you strike some sort of 'partnership' where each gets value and you stay housed. Think outside the box on this. Be sure to approach people you already know but if that number is too low then ask who they would ask for help. You see how your credibility gets thin once you move further from direct contacts so i would say focus on the people you know. Ask for help from those you already know and do it now while you still can. If everyone says no...ask them why not. Perhaps down the road you can come up with a different way they can help, a way that bypasses their previous objection. Geez I sound like a sales manager but its what I would if I were you. Dont give up no matter what. 2. The back-n-forth about chiropractors in the comments seems to illustrate the key bias impeding any real effort to solve the homelessness problem. Not all chiropractors are bad, just as not all homeless are bad. Whether you use Webster's or Michael Jackson's definition of bad I think what I say stands true.

shardinator 6y ago

I might be able to help with the car accident injury. I had a rear-end car accident 11 years ago. I know the pain/suffering. It's like nothing you can imagine till you have it and then it never goes away, worst of all no professional knows what to do about it. The last two years I've read pretty much everything and contacted every researcher/research group working on this. They have some good material, but eventually I had to adapt their work into my own techniques. I'm now about 80-90% fixed and in a few months I think I'll be all good. I've developed an exercise program along with an elastic head sling that supports and strengthens the neck. If you're interested DM me on twitter https://bit.ly/2LTVMMl https://bit.ly/2LTVMMl and I'll send you some info about how I did it, you might have to modify some things but I think the basic ideas will apply.