In the United States there are approximately 554,000 homeless people, or about .17% of
the total population.
By comparison Russia has approximately 5,000,000 homeless people, or 3.4% of the population,
and Germany has 800,000 homeless, or .5% of the population.
While Russia tops the charts on homelessness for first world nations, the true chart topper
is Egypt, with between 1 and 3 million homeless children alone.
But have you ever wondered what it would be like to be homeless?
Well, wonder no more as we dive into another special Challenge episode of The Infographics
Show and once more put our favorite guinea pig to the test for your scientific curiosity
and task him with going homeless for 72 hours!
Day 0: Ok, I probably should've been more prepared for this by now, but this challenge
definitely caught me out of the blue.
I've done I think maybe twenty challenges by now, and I should definitely have seen
this one coming.
Homeless for three days... part of me is kind of excited, because at least it's not a disgusting
challenge, and well, it kind of feels like an urban version of man vs nature, right?
There's a reason why there's so many of those wilderness survival shows on TV, I think deep
down inside we all crave to know if we could really make it out there.
Now the urban landscape isn't exactly the wilderness, but I know for a fact it can be
pretty rough.
I used to work security in Las Vegas for a little bit over a decade ago, and I had to
deal with the homeless population pretty frequently.
Once we even had one homeless woman stab another homeless woman through the eye for apparently
infringing on her territory, because she was turning tricks at the casino I worked at.
So yeah, I'm pretty well aware of the potential dangers of homelessness.
When your survival comes down to working a turf of your own, well, it's no different
than in the wild when prides of lions kill each other over the best hunting territory.
Whether you're begging for loose change or turning tricks, holding and securing the ideal
turf and protecting it at all costs can literally be the difference between life and death.
Still, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I am kind of excited to give this challenge
a go.
I have wilderness survival training from my past in the military, but there's a difference
between a jungle or forest and the city streets.
In a way, it actually seems more dangerous in city streets than it ever would be in the
wild with a bunch of wild animals.
I definitely trust wild animals more than I trust humans.
So, for this challenge I'm going to do the real deal.
I'll be leaving home with no money in my pocket, and will be dropped off way on the other side
of Los Angeles because I feel I should be in unknown territory- but also so I won't
run into anyone I know.
I'm taking the clothes on my back, two other changes of clothes in a backpack, and a bottle
of water.
I didn't want to take my phone with me but the girlfriend begged and pleaded to take
it just for emergencies, and I agreed- but I'll keep it turned off unless I run into
an emergency I really can't handle on my own.
I won't be taking a sleeping bag or anything like that, I'll have to scrounge for shelter
and with no money in my pocket I'll be looking for ways to make some cash or I guess... find
some food.
There's got to be about a billion legal liabilities regarding this whole challenge but then again
this is the same show that made me not take a shower for a month and forced me to watch
youtube videos for 24 hours straight.
I'm pretty sure the Allies sent a ton of Nazis to the gallows for similar inhumane experiments
on concentration camp victims.
I'll be updating at the end of my experience, but keep track of my days for later on pen
and paper since I won't be taking a laptop- just a notebook and a few pencils.
This challenge officially starts tomorrow morning at 5 am, when I'll be getting dropped
off near downtown Los Angeles to begin my life as a homeless person.
Wish me luck, and see you in 72 hours- unless I get stabbed to death with a rusty shank.
End of Day 3- This is the end of my first- and hopefully last- bout of homelessness,
and what an experience it's been.
I don't want to get ahead of myself because I feel a million thoughts rushing up, so I'll
just start back at the beginning.
Like I'd planned I got dropped off at 5 am very near to downtown Los Angeles, but I didn't
get breakfast and hadn't eaten since the night prior.
Seemed only fair to start this challenge off with my first task being securing food.
In case you don't remember, I didn't bring any money with me, and I had to figure out
a way to feed myself.
Well, I pretty quickly got a chance to do just that when I was walking past a 7-11 not
far from where I'd gotten dropped off at.
They were loading in pastries for the morning breakfast rush, but the truck driver and the
two employees were inside and had left two racks of treats waiting to get pulled inside
by the back door.
Now, I consider myself a very honest person and I've never so much as shoplifted a candy
bar- I think stealing is a pretty glaring moral shortcoming to be honest- but I reminded
myself that I am temporarily living a new life, and had to start looking at things from
the perspective of someone who didn't know where his next meal was coming from.
Mostly because, you know- I didn't know where the hell my next meal was coming from.
So I pried the plastic aside and swiped two donuts, took like three seconds and I was
well on my way down the block by the time anyone stepped out of the store.
One thing they teach you during survival training is to exploit literally any advantage or windfall
that you can, and I realized that after my donut heist I started looking at the world
in entirely different ways.
I wasn't just a pedestrian walking along minding my own business anymore, I was actively watching
my environment and looking for things I needed: food, water, shelter.
The more time I spent on the streets, the more keen this instinct became, and eventually
I realized that I was behaving the same way I had years and years ago in the middle of
a Northwest forest during survival training.
Our regular lives are so insulated from the actual necessities of life, the things we
need to keep ourselves safe and biologically alive, that when it's all stripped away it's
kind of... a refreshing, but extremely jarring experience.
So my homeless strategy was to try and gradually make my way over towards the eastern half
of Los Angeles from downtown.
I thought that starting at downtown would be my best initial exposure to the whole homeless
lifestyle, because I got dropped off literally just a few blocks away from LA's infamous
Skid Row.
This is a few blocks of downtown city streets that are completely awash with the homeless,
and some serious crime, and I wanted to experience what life there was like- but I wanted to
keep on the move because it's probably not safe to hang around too long in Skid Row without
knowing all the 'street rules'.
I spent most of the first day around Skid Row, and I could already tell that trying
to scrounge or even panhandle for money would be an absolute no-go here.
There's just very little local traffic that isn't other homeless people or gang members,
and anyone driving through is doing so with windows rolled up and car doors locked, and
with very good reason.
I wanted to stay on the move and not get wrapped up in any potential trouble, specially because
I was drawing a lot of attention.
I stupidly realized that I was drawing all this attention because I didn't look homeless-
I was too fresh, my clothes too clean.
I was standing out like a sore thumb and believe me that's not something you want to do on
skid row.
So I ducked into the nearest alley and rubbed my hands on the ground and then rubbed dirt
on my face, hair, and clothes.
I tore my jeans and shirt up a little bit- not much, but enough that it didn't look anymore
like I was wearing frequently laundered clothes.
The trick worked, and I quickly stopped getting stares and looks, which was good because not
too long after that I ran into a group of three guys shaking down other homeless people.
They stared me down at first, but I guess I was too young and in too good a shape for
them to figure I was an easy mark, and they ignored me, moving along to two older homeless
men.
They kind of dug through their assembled... well, what would normally be trash to you
and me, but to them was all their belongings- but I guess they didn't find anything valuable
and quickly went on their way.
I had already learned the first rule of being on the streets- the strong shake down the
weak, and the weak band together to fend off the strong.
I've watched a ton of nature documentaries and it was amazing how similar to wild animals
people really are.
The first day I got really lucky and ran into a mission that was serving out hot meals at
night, which was good because I'd gone totally bust on finding food all day.
I'm not naive, and I knew that getting into what is essentially a survival situation means
doing what it takes to survive- but the problem is that in this area there's no restaurants,
supermarkets, nothing where you might be able to scrounge for food.
And with no foot traffic, panhandling was not an option.
I got offered a place to stay the night at the mission but I declined it and figured
somebody in poorer health or older could probably use the place more than me.
There was certainly not a lack of people in really bad shape.
I struck east at night, and ended up on the outskirts of downtown.
I jumped a fence into an office park and managed to sleep for a few hours in an alcove by the
loading dock to one of the buildings.
Since the next day was saturday, I knew nobody would be showing up for work.
I've slept in the wilderness a ton before, sometimes without a sleeping bag, but knowing
how close I still was to skid row and everything I'd seen during the day, it was hard to get
any sleep.
The next day I was practically starving, having only eaten one bowl of soup and two donuts
the day before.
Also, my water was out.
Finding a public restroom to refill my water bottle was easy enough, and I made up my mind
to find a supermarket to go scrounge for food at.
When I was a kid one of my first jobs was at a supermarket, and I know for a fact that
they throw away a ton of food still wrapped up and perfectly good for eating.
I found three different supermarkets but all of the bins were practically empty, and then
I realized that it was just too early in the day- typically food gets thrown away around
the afternoon.
I didn't feel like waiting that long to eat, so I decided to answer a question that I've
always wondered about- just how much can you really make from panhandling?
I found a promising spot with a lot of foot traffic and set up shop, using a can I had
found in a dumpster.
I made a grand total of thirty five cents before a police car pulled up on the street
in front of me and just sort of looked at me disapprovingly.
I got the message and honestly didn't feel like adding a night in lockup to this challenge,
so I left and moved on.
Next I found a spot right on a freeway offramp, because I'd seen homeless people set up at
spots like this all the time.
It worked like a charm, and in an hour I had already made $3.50- not exactly a king's ransom,
but I was getting closer to being able to afford food again.
Then two homeless guys started cursing and yelling at me, because apparently I had taken
their spot.
Remember what I told you about being territorial?
I left because I didn't want any trouble, but I'm going to be really honest with you
here- if I was actually homeless, I know I would have stayed.
I would have stood my ground and defended that spot with violence if I had to, because
I had made over ten times as much money there in an hour than I had at my previous spot.
When you don't know where your next meal is coming from, prime real estate is a critical
commodity.
It also made sense why two guys worked that spot, with one 'working' while the other rested,
but also so that the two of them could better defend it against anyone intruding.
Again, it's amazing how similar we are to wild animals.
My good luck continued when I set up shop near the drive thru to a fast food joint,
and one of the employees actually called me over to the drive-thru window when they were
not busy and gave me an entire meal in a bag.
Now, I've done my fair share of small kind deeds before in my life, but I guess you never
really appreciate just how much impact even something as small as buying someone a sandwich
can have, until you're on the receiving end.
I was absolutely starving by then and I had barely four dollars to my name- that meal
was a godsend.
In the late afternoon I made my way to the previous supermarkets but found other scroungers
already there.
I guess they had figured out the schedule a long time ago, and I didn't feel like getting
into another confrontation so I skipped the first two supermarkets and hit the third one
where there was only one other guy.
With three dumpsters back there we agreed he could have the one on the far left, I'd
take the one on the right.
The one in the middle we'd split.
I managed to find a subway sandwich tray completely sealed in plastic that had been tossed, and
after seeing that the expiration date hadn't yet come due I honestly couldn't tell why
it had been trashed in the first place.
With a pretty substantial meal in hand, I let the other guy have the middle dumpster
and what was left in mine and he thanked me.
As I sat eating I thought about two things- the first being that I couldn't figure out
why this perfectly wrapped up subway sub tray had been tossed.
And it wasn't the only thing, there was several other food items in that dumpster that were
completely wrapped up and in perfectly fine shape, but all had gotten tossed.
When you picture homeless people dumpster diving for food, you probably think that they
are eating gross stuff that's slimy and moldy and covered in unmentionable grime- but the
truth is that the food you bring home from the market is exactly the same stuff that
they eat.
Yes, some of it is expired- but expired definitely does not mean that most of the food is even
close to starting to rot, it's an arbitrary date that I believe the FDA helped come up
with.
Most of the food though isn't anywhere close to the expiration date, but it might have
some kind of unwanted visual blemish.
For instance, it took me a bit but I finally realized why my tray of sub sandwiches had
been tossed- the top part of the plastic case had a large dent in it, and then it all made
sense.
How many times have you been at the supermarket and ignored the plastic tray of food because
it had an unsightly dent in it?
We all do it literally all the time, and with so much selection available to us why take
something so unsightly when we can get a tray that is perfectly unblemished instead?
It's kind of insane, and from now on I've vowed to not overlook food items just because
the packaging isn't perfect.
The second thought I had though was of the differences between the homeless people I
kept running into.
The guy behind the supermarket was kind and polite, but the ones by the freeway offramp
had definitely been aggressively protecting their territory.
I guess it's about survival, but we're not truly all like wild animals- some of us retain
our humanity and cooperate, even help others.
One guy I ran into on my second night for instance showed me where to refill my water
bottle after all the places with public restrooms had closed down.
He showed me where to get safe, clean water, when I had been planning on drinking the sprinkler
water that is clearly labeled: Not for drinking.
They do that so homeless people won't get sick, but you know what- when it's been a
hundred degree day and you don't have many options available to you, you have to risk
it sometimes.
I managed to reach a rail yard on the second night so I spent the night under a train car.
I've read stories before of homeless people crushed to death by moving train cars while
they slept underneath them, so I made sure that this cart was totally disconnected from
anything else and was on a piece of side track that jut out from the main line.
Other than a train whizzing by in the middle of the night and scaring the piss out of me-
almost literally- my night was pretty uneventful.
By my third day I had managed to reach east los angeles, and that meant that the neighborhoods
were nicer and so was the general look and demeanor of the people.
I learned from my first day and got up early enough to find a local 7-11.
Sure enough, an hour or so before sunrise a truck showed up and started offloading pastries
to sell to the morning breakfast crowd.
Again, I'm no thief, but I was living temporarily in a different world, and when you're in a
survival situation there's only one rule: survive.
Maybe it was because I was a lot hungrier than on the first day, or maybe because I
finally knew how difficult finding food was, and that I wasn't guaranteed a meal that day,
but instead of snatching two donuts, I snatched as much as I could carry without being caught,
then just slipped away.
I was 100% breaking the law, but I was also in survival mode and to be honest, it was
a little exhilarating.
But mostly, I was just hungry.
The nicer neighborhoods meant nicer people, and I made over ten bucks in about five hours
of panhandling, which gave me almost fifteen total dollars- or the ability to buy one meal.
That's kind of discouraging, especially if you consider having to do this every day for
weeks or months or even years on end.
It makes sense why homeless people are so protective of the good panhandling spots though,
and it really becomes hard to judge the two that chased me away a day before.
Once more, this is about survival, and I totally understand.
My day was uneventful, and mostly just boring.
I made my way steadily eastward throughout the day, stopping at a fast food place to
get a bite to eat.
I ran across a library and for the first time in decades I went inside to spend a few hours
just reading their books.
I got looks from people, and honestly it soon got really annoying.
It wasn't just a the library though, throughout this experience 'normal' people have been
giving me looks like I was untrustworthy, or like I was up to no good or even a potential
threat.
It was really dehumanizing at one point, and the irony that in reality I am a productive
member of society that regularly pays his taxes and has a nice apartment only made things
worse.
These people literally knew nothing about me, and had no idea that I was secretly one
of them- but they treated me like I was basically a criminal.
For the third night I decided I wanted to sleep a bit easier than I've been, because
by this point I was getting physically exhausted.
So since I knew where I was in town, I made my way to a very fancy cemetery in the area
with big, tall iron fences and security patrols inside the property.
Civilian security is a joke, and I know from my experience in the military that every secure
facility has a weakness- so I just worked my way around the fenceline into the tree
line until I found a drainage ditch.
The fence crossed the ditch but because of flood risks, had small metal gates that swing
outwards at the bottom so during heavy rains branches and other debris could flow out and
not back up at the fence and eventually bring the whole thing down.
Even though Los Angeles hadn't had a major rain in over a year, the gates had been, of
course, left open, so it was simple enough to just crawl through them.
Several thousands of dollars of cameras along the fenceline and two full-time security patrols
completely defeated because some guard had been lazy over a year ago and never closed
the drainage gates.
Like I said, civilian security is a joke.
I kicked the gates closed to keep anyone else from following in and found a pretty peaceful
spot to sleep undisturbed until morning.
Sadly, no ghosts or zombies appeared, but I did sleep until well into sunrise and realized
that I was supposed to call the girlfriend at 5 am on the dot to let her know where to
pick me up and that I was safe.
When I turned my phone on it was already well past seven, and when she picked up the phone
she was furious and also completely distraught.
I guess I don't blame her, last time she saw me was three days ago on the outskirts of
Skid Row- a place so dangerous they literally make documentaries about how you should never
go there.
Then she hadn't heard from me at all.
When she finally picked me up an hour later she told me she had nearly called the cops
and yelled at me for not calling exactly at 5 like I'd promised.
In between yelling, she cried.
I guess these three days were as nerve-wracking for her as they were for me.
What did I learn from my experience on the streets?
A lot.
Too much for this episode, and experienced a lot of things that honestly don't quite
fit into the more family-friendly aspect of our show.
The biggest thing I learned though is how far small gestures of kindness really go,
so when you do one of these gestures for somebody in need, don't ever undervalue just how much
that really meant.
Buying someone a meal may set you back ten bucks, not a big deal for the vast majority
of us- but for someone hungry who doesn't know where their next meal is coming from,
that's hot food in their belly and the stress of finding something to eat relieved for the
next twelve hours.
You can't put a price on that.
The other thing I learned is that living on the streets is dangerous, and some people
are predators.
But a lot of other people aren't.
I saw homeless guys giving other homeless guys their spare change, or parts of their
food.
Some kind soul helped me find a drinking source that wouldn't make me sick.
Lots of people on the street are looking to take advantage of others and prey on them,
but many more are willing to help others out.
And underneath that dirt and grime, there's a real person that isn't plotting how to hurt
you, or steal from you, and that you shouldn't be scared of.
Sometimes, simply treating them like a normal human being and giving a little respect is
the biggest charitable act you could do.
How would you survive for three days out in the streets?
Let us know in the comments!
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