46 Of The Creepiest Things Unhoused People Have Experienced On The Streets

I was only homeless for a short stint but hands down the hardest thing was the constant fear my dog would get taken from me or that he would be hurt. I have a small white dog who weighs a little under 10 lbs and I was always terrified someone would try to take him, either homeless people or people who thought they deserved him more than my homeless self.

Thankfully I had a bad car at the time so I had a place to sleep. At night Id do my best to park at 24 hour gyms or with a "for sale" sign in the windshield because I was less likely to be asked to move along that way.

I was working part time and my friend worked with animals so quite often she would bring my dog to work with her since it was allowed. Other days I spent what little money I had on doggy daycare groupons.

We made it through and my dog is still mine, as soon as I had money in the bank I took him to a vet and got him all taken care of and I am typing this from my very own bed with him next to me.

Overpasses at the top are good places to sleep. Get some earplugs, take a blanket and roll it up long ways and put it against your side as a barrier to stop you from rolling off. When i was homeless there was one in between the job i had and the truck stop. Truckers get free showers with fuel ups, and id tell them "Im not asking for money, i just got this job im stuck on the street I need a shower for work so i can get off the street. If you have an extra shower credit it would really help me out, because i cant afford to pay for it and i cant lose this job" they will generally help out.

Spent 2007-2012 homeless. Most of that was my teenage years spent with my father (also homeless). The scariest thing is spending the evening in some homeless shelters, or out of them in this case. I was in one in Portland, Maine. My dad was assigned a "spot" to sleep on the floor because they were overcrowd that day. They didn't have a spot for me so I slept across the street in the garden of the local Catholic church since the priests don't kick people out. It was a popular place to sleep when the shelter was "over booked". I remember sleeping in the grass near a couple whom I overheard talking about robbing me for well over 20 minutes. I didn't let go of my knife all night.

The most surreal moment was a short stint in 2010. When I walked into the 400 square foot studio apartment my dad had finally been able to afford for a short while and asking him,

"This is all ours?"

We lived like kings that few months.

I had really bad PTSD after Vietnam, and I spent about 4 years basically homeless. When I was in the rough the thing that got to me the most was the total lack of any kind of privacy. I looked for places to hide, but I never felt really safe. The constant vulnerability just seemed to build and build it was really hard to maintain like any kind of normal human.

Maybe this is from a teen's standpoint, but I was so envious of kids my age with their families. You see people Christmas shopping, or having a picnic and you just want to be included so badly. I want my parents drop me off at college or go shopping for clothes together. You are still very much a child in your head and long for things from your youth, but there is a paradox because you have to make some very fast adult decisions. I would see a daughter dressed to the nines for a night out with her family and want to be in her place more than anything in the world.

How little you matter to anyone.

There are two kinds of people I learned to avoid very quickly- groups of young men/teenagers, and fellow homeless men. If someone's gonna mess with you, they'll fall in one of these groups, and people may watch disapprovingly, but they won't do anything to help you.

It's less important to most people that you be somewhere safe or with a bit of shelter from the weather, than it is that you be where they don't have to see you. Most of your interactions with people such as the police, who in normal life you consider to be concerned primarily with your safety, when you're homeless are more about making you less inconvenient to others.

Everyone is gonna try to steal from you so watch your stuff. Keep your mouth shut and find a good place that is desolated from nocturnal animals and jerks.

I was homeless as a teenager and I got constant harassment from the police, but never once did a cop ask why a 16 year old was sleeping in the stairwell, park, or abandoned building. They would take my ID, ask a bunch of questions about graffiti and vandalism and then tell me to get lost. I was happy to be let go, but looking back as a father, what the hell were they thinking?

The thought that someone would find your camp and ruin your stuff was a real concern. Also just finding some here to sleep that is secure. One morning, early, I was sleeping in an abandoned warehouse up a set of stairs nearly in the rafters and was woken by 4 raccoons like 4 feet from me eating my bag. Having to poop in the middle of the night is also awful.

Being homeless is only scary for a couple of days. There's depression and boredom that are your real enemies. Your body and mind go into a sort of hyper survival mode and there is no room for fear.

As a girl, the constant harassment and threats. (I was always in the hood when I was homeless.) Guys blocking your way to leave with their trucks to ask you for horrible things for $15 and if you say no they drive in front of you even more if you try to leave. Just knock his side mirror off and run.

I think the scariest part is just the way you are viewed by society and family. this is a situation you created and must shoulder all the blame for. empathy is hard to come by. i was kicked out of my house for being gay when i was 16 and got a special legal emancipation. i initially shared a 2 bedroom apartment with 9 other people. the girl who lived there let the lease expire and everyone got kicked out. this was right when rave/club culture were hitting critical mass so i managed to **PLUR** my way into lots of sofa hopping. worse case scenario i would stay up all night and just sleep on the beach during the day. eventually i squatted with two other people out of one room and one bathroom in an abandoned and dilapidated house. we managed to get utilities turned on (even cable!) and that worked out for about 5 months. we came home one day to cop cars and all our stuff out on the street. there were substances in the house but the cops didn't arrest anyone and let us call people to help us move our stuff. shortly after i met someone and moved in with them and that finally ended about two years of unstable housing/homelessness.

My mom kicked me out in January 2016, in the midst of my first year of law school. I was forced to sleep in my car for five months. I had no job when she kicked me out because I was a full-time law student and I was supposed to be able to live off of the tuition refund they give us every year for living expenses, especially since I put down that I was living at home on my FAFSA. I got a day job so I could afford to feed myself and pay my bills, but I started slipping in school. I went from doing amazing to barely understanding any of my course materials. Pretty soon, my professors caught on to the fact that I was sleeping in my car and the Dean ultimately asked me to withdraw temporarily until I could stabilize my situation.

The scariest part was having to sleep in public parking lots with my car in a dangerous city. My school is in the heart of a city that was once known as one of the most dangerous cities for violent crimes in America, but I always had to try to sleep close by to avoid being late to class (classes were at like 7 AM, it was awful). I have heard horror stories from friends. A friend of mine fell asleep in his car after a long night at the library, thinking it would be safer to rest before driving home. He ended up waking up to a guy banging on the window with a gun. He was carjacked and shot in the leg twice. I was always terrified that this would happen to me. There are a ton of other homeless people and substance dependents, psychopaths, etc. just roaming the streets of this city.

Once I temporarily withdrew from school to figure things out, I started sleeping in areas that I knew were safer, since I didn't have to commit to making school work while being homeless anymore.

Another scary thing about being out in the streets is the police. I was literally pulled from my vehicle, tested for alcohol and substances, handcuffed and thrown into the back of a patrol car, and had my entire car torn apart with searches NINE TIMES IN FIVE MONTHS just because I was sleeping in my car and the cops had a quota to meet. I refused to have my car searched every time and demanded probable cause. Sometimes the cops were legit like "It's just kinda weird that you look presentable but you're sleeping in your Dodge Charger claiming to be homeless. Are you under the influence?" WHICH I UNDERSTOOD. Okay, cool. I'll comply to prove my innocence. But then there were a few times where the officers would claim some stupid stuff like "This place (that you know for a fact isn't connected with any break-ins whatsoever) is known for break-ins. The fact that you're out here is suspicious." I was always afraid a cop would use his authority and arrest me and take my car - which was also my home at the time.

EDIT: My mom kicked me out after we argued and I stood up for myself instead of letting her belittle me in front of my siblings. I'm happy to report that everything is wonderful for me now! I'm back in law school and have a great job that pays the bills and works around my school schedule. I currently go half on rent at a beautiful apartment with my boyfriend. As for my mom and I, we are on great terms! I visit her and my siblings frequently and still do stuff with them. I secretly hope she's ashamed of herself for what she did to me, but I'm not holding any grudges. I know it sounds cliche, but this experience has only made me strong AF.

The scariest part was that after paying into the system for well over 16 years, I was suddenly disabled. It takes 2 years/a rejection and an appeal to receive disability. The waiting list for housing assistance is up to 2 years. And shelters only let you stay for a max of 2 weeks. So me and my 2 yo daughter were in a shelter about to get kicked out when luckily my parents let us move into an old house on their property (which would have been condemned if it had been inspected, but still better than nothing).

This probably wasn't the type of story you were looking for, but it's pretty scary how nonexistent the social safety net is in the US, and people just want to keep whittling away at it. You never think something like this will happen to you...until it does.

The time when a guy offered me $100 to help him out with some "chores". I was sitting outside a local food shelf and he wanted me to get in his car. I politely declined. He followed me for 4 blocks yelling obscenities out of his window, saying I was an idiot for not taking the money. The scary part is that it was 3pm on the main street, and not one person intervened or would even look in our direction. I was 20. He was maybe 50.

Finding an old friend of my brother who was also homeless. He had a good dry spot under the bridge, and a dog, and I was exhausted from half-sleeping alone in doorways. It seemed safe. He seemed to understand. He tried to attack me in the middle of the night. I ran off and then walked around until it was light, I was so tired I was seeing spots. Finally crashed on the beach around 7am.

By the way, if you add powdered milk to the free shelter coffee, it turns gray.

Bugs. I used to sleep behind dumpsters, and the fear of roaches crawling on me in my sleep was enough to make sure I only slept 2-3 hours. Made me try to find hospital bathrooms and just lock the door for 5-6 hours.

Winter.

Long story short I was living in a house, and was kicked out by the "landlord" with no notice. The scariest part about being homeless for me was having to give up my dog. He was my best friend, first pet, and only means of mental comfort. On top of it all, I had to give the shelter my last $100 as an "abandonment fee" because I wanted him to have a chance at finding a new home rather than dumping him off in the wild. I cried like a baby in front of everyone.

My brief stint as a homeless person wasn't as dramatic as many others here, but I wanted to share anyway.

I was homeless while I was in college for about 2 months. I thought I had secured a sublet for an apartment and it fell through last minute and I couldn't find anything else I could afford. My family was pretty far away but I had a car to live out of. I was working full time and was a full time student. I stayed pretty busy so it wasn't too horrible. I could shower at the gym on campus and workout there and I worked as a manager of a fast food restaurant so I got one free meal a day to eat.

The scariest thing for me was the night/dark. I had to park in an area where I wouldn't get ticketed and tried to find one where my vehicle would be kind of inconspicuous. The best place I found was this lot down by the river that runs through my city. There are always a few cars there. I would lock my doors and lower the seats down in my car (a small compact car) and sleep half in the trunk half in the back seat. Sometimes I would hear people talking as they walked by, I would always brace myself and make sure there wasn't any glow visible from my cellphone to draw attention to me. I'm a short, small-framed, slightly better than average looking woman. If someone wanted to do something to hurt me or attacked me they probably could have.

The thing about being homeless is it teaches you to be thankful for everything you have. It really makes you appreciate a hot shower when you are dirty a warm bed to sleep in at night a place to go when it raining or snowing outside. I have only been off the streets for. A year and a half and the best part about it is I know how to live on very minimal I love the life lessons i learned from being homeless it's more then most people have.

I hate the dark. It's stupid I know but I always felt like something was coming for me. I always had to find a corner and hide from the other homeless. I don't know if I *had* to hide but I was very young and I'm a girl and I'd had my head filled with how every unsupervised girl got attacked repeatedly. I thought I would literally be attacked to death if anyone found me. On the upshot I RULE at hide and seek. And I can almost sleep well outside of a corner.