The Economics of Rural Homelessness; hypothesis: no cost savings

[iSpoogeDaily]

One major hypothesis of the Homeless Data Project (HDP) is that no matter where I'm homeless I can't reduce costs below a certain point, roughly the federal poverty line of $1,500/mo.

Over the short term and with luck I can spend less than that during a given money or handful of months, but something will always give and make it balance out.

Live in a car? The further you get from population centers the more you're spend on gas. Reliable car? After 5 years something will likely break and cost a lot of money.

I've thankfully only experienced one night of rough homelessness, sleeping outside with absolutely no shelter. It becomes effectively impossible to work at that point. Perhaps one can work with limited hours so they can access their essentials in storage before and after each shift, when it needs to be somewhere safe--simply taking it to work is not an option for reasons that shouldn't need explaining. Never the less, the reasons a homeless person can't take their suitcase to work need explaining to everyone... thought exercise: you're the boss, you might have an office... do you want a large beat up suitcase in there every time a certain employee works? Nope. Yes, there could be an exception here or there. But in general, one has to assume employers are psychopathic and if they do something charitable then you're lucky. This isn't crying or complaining, just the facts of how business works. There is no marginal space.

It's easiest to be vehicular homeless in a big West Coast (WC) city despite the lack shelter beds. It's possible to be homeless w/o a vehicle in a Midwestern (MW) city with enough shelter beds during the warmer months. It's possible but increasingly expensive to be homeless in more rural areas with 'cheaper cost of living' as one gets further out from population centers.

I think my years of receipts will show that I spend about the same amount of money wherever I am. I eat a maximally unprocessed diet, vegetarian. Food is cheaper on the WC than in the Midwest... corn and steaks might be cheaper in the MW but I don't eat that. Gas might be more expensive on the WC but the year-round moderate temperatures mean biking can be relied upon every day rather than for just part of the year, when the bike needs to be stored or sold/abandoned.

This is just a stream of thought style post, I'm more formally working on the idea in the Urban Camping Pro project, a sibling of the HDP, as part of The Physics of Homelessness.

Pretty much the only thing that will ultimately solve homelessness is a cash infusion. The longer the homelessness goes on the bigger the cash infusion needs to be and the fewer resources remain than where available on the day homelessness began. I can quantify these claims and analyze data to test the hypotheses given time and resources, which are already lacking hence homelessness. Trying to raise money while homeless? Best no mention the fact, or people will perceive it as looking for pity or a scam; even posts like this can be seen as making excuses or complaining.