This is plausible. At the end of my teen years, I was totally broke. I'd moved to "the city" to follow my job - the company lost the contract where I lived, and

This is plausible. At the end of my teen years, I was totally broke. I'd moved to "the city" to follow my job - the company lost the contract where I lived, and they promised to keep me employed if I moved. So I did, and got about a year of work before that company went bankrupt. The Employment Insurance was barely enough to pay rent and food. To get my feet back on the ground, I moved in with a friend for about 6 months. They lived on university campus, so I wasn't living in the basement like the guy in the article. People just assumed I was a fellow student, since I was in the typical age range. The floor don knew I was a transient guest and didn't say anything. They just assumed it was a romance thing. Times were really different back then.