Homelessness is horrible and scary. So it’s understandable if one doesn’t want to be homeless. The article focuses on why and how to avoid homelessness like a plague.
Why You Should Avoid Homelessness
Homelessness is nothing like you would imagine. It’s adverse, deplorable and hellish. Most homeless women and homeless girls, including older women, are getting sexually assaulted. There’s also survival sex which is hardly avoidable for women and girls. As for the homeless men, they get physically assaulted, which could also be fatal.
Homeless people are generally stigmatized, looked down on and genuinely avoided. A good deal of them are losing their humanity and minds. Many of them are also becoming addicted to substances just to cope with the adversity of homelessness. They don’t get enough food to eat, defecate in the open, get water a mile away, are exposed to climatic conditions such as extreme cold, storm or heat, et cetera.
Further, study shows that a good portion of them live with chronic health issues, because they don’t have access to medical care. The horror of not having a home is unimaginable and unspeakable. Is it any wonder that they have low life expectancy, and die in the streets by the thousands?
Do not panic though as homelessness has different stages, from mild to chronic. Mild homelessness would include people who live in their vehicles or with friends or family. The full horror of living in the streets can’t affect that category of people. And lastly, some homeless people, depending on the depth of their homelessness, get out of plight.
How to Avoid Homelessness
The following is how you can avoid becoming homeless. The tips will be useful for a person is who is about to lose their home and those who generally want to know how to avoid homelessness.
Network
Have friends and family and maintain a good relationship with them. Friends and family can be a great safety net against homelessness. Millions of people who do not currently have a home are sharing other people’s accommodations. This is referred to as “doubling up”, in the US, and, squatting, in Nigeria.
Roommate and Spouses
If you don’t have enough money for rent, you could pair up with someone as a roommate. Sharing the payment of an apartment is a great way to manage your resources, particularly in a city with a high cost of living. If you don’t have money at all, but have a favourable personality, consider moving in with a respectful spouse and make yourself relevant to them supportively. This is better than life in homelessness.
Social Programs
Watch out for what the government and NGOs may have for people without housing in your area – whether it’s affordable housing, housing subsidy, or supplies. Whatever it is, where it’s available, it could go some way.
Permanent and transition housing by the government are better and more secure than homeless shelters.
Move
How about relocating? If you can no longer afford your apartment or inflation is smothering you, you may consider moving. Places you could move to include cheaper cities, rural areas and cheaper countries. If you have some money you can invest, this would be a great idea. These options are better than a life in the streets. Yet, a person who can’t afford their rent is at the risk of becoming homeless. And, homelessness gets only worse as time goes on.
Your Job, Side Hustle and Saving
Two common things about homeless people are that, a couple of months before losing their housing, their salaries are no longer sustainable, and, most of them are unemployed. Hence, you should see that your job is paying well, relative to the cost of living in the city you current live in; protect your job; have a side hustle; be frugal and save money.
Health Insurance
A life-changing event such as an injury, a trauma, a disease or sickness which destroys a victim’s ability to continue doing their job is one inevitable way through which some people become rough sleepers. Getting an insurance for risky jobs or your general health is a good way to stay covered. You could also get a life insurance, in case you have dependents.
In case you can’t afford an insurance, ensure you’re always safe and are not at risk of any dramatic health challenges.
Drugs
Substance and drug abuse combined with poverty is a quick way to become homeless, in the most deplorable way. Such unhoused people who are sadly looking like zombies are packed in Kingston Avenue in Philadelphia, among other places. To avoid this situation, avoid substance abuse and pre-empt whatever forces you to do it. And, seek medical help if your own effort has failed. Drug addicts make chronic homeless people who may never be able to get out of the streets.
Your Mental Health
Like drug, mental illness with poverty is another quick way to lose your accommodation. Mentally sick homeless people are also abysmal. One was killed in New York for making trouble. The police apprehended the killer but later released him without charge. Protect your mental health and your life will not become hellish in homelessness. Mentally sick people make chronic homeless people who may never be able to get out of houselessness.
Hazards
Hazards are catastrophic, natural or human. Do not live in a place that’s prone to any type of hazards. These disasters could be wildfires, earthquakes, hurricanes or wars. Whatever they are, once they’re able to destroy your home or displace you, avoid them. In 2023, many people in parts of the US, say California and Hawaii, have lost their homes to wildfires. In the same year, in Turkey and Morocco, people lost their homes to earthquakes. In Nigeria, since about 2009 millions of people have lost their homes and source of livelihood to insecurity caused by Islamic insurgency. Some of these people now live in Internally Displaced People’s camps; others are homeless in other cities such as Lagos.
Conclusion
Our focus on this homeless advisory is to create awareness on homelessness, so we interact with contents on homelessness frequently. What this is driving at is that you cannot by any means trivialize becoming homeless. Living outside is dangerous, wild and scaringly insecure. Homeless people normally don’t report crimes because they’re not taking seriously. From how they get treated by some, the interpretation shows that they’re perceived as human scum. While some people are kind to homeless people, the inhuman treatment they get are psychologically damaging, with the wounds hardly giving way. Avoid becoming homeless.
