RE: HOMELESSNESS IS: LIVING ON $1,000 PER MONTH IN THE USA

AN INCREDIBLE BUT TRUE STORY!

What standard of living does $1,000 a month give you in the US?




I'm living on a bit less than that, and have been doing so for over six years now. So here it is, right from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

I don't currently receive food stamp benefits. When I do receive food stamp benefits, the amount I receive is $16 a month. The reason I receive so little is because I am single and I do have an income of over $800 a month. People who receive higher amounts of food stamp benefit have lower income, or more dependents.

Yes, it is possible (though difficult) to get a place for $500 a month. However, what none of the other answers have mentioned is that in order to get into that $500 a month apartment requires $1500 up front before you can sign a lease and move in. That's first month's rent, last month's rent, and a security deposit. Even with an income of $1000 a month, you will never get into housing.

Furthermore, there's some kind of financial formula in use here which states that no one can afford to pay over 30% of their income on housing. $500 a month is 50% of your $1,000 a month income. You cannot get approved for housing that costs 50% of your income. So your options are limited to homelessness or roommate situations. Neither is a very reliable way to live. I'm certain somewhere here on Quora there are questions about the worst roommate nightmare you've ever experienced and hundreds of horror stories in response. I could tell a few myself, but that would be beside the point.

So, I am homeless. My food budget is less than $20 a week. I work hard, I skimp and cut corners in ways that seem bizarre to affluent folks. A few months ago I acquired a camper, complete with kitchen and bathroom. These simple luxuries are something I simply did without for more than 6 years. They aren't strictly necessary (shower, toilet, refrigerator, stove), because I've been surviving without these things for all these years. That's why I call it a luxury instead of a need. However, they do make things significantly cheaper as well as more comfortable. I can shower in my camper for free, provided I have the water with which to do so. Without this simple luxury, one must either pay $15 to take a shower at a truck stop, or over $40 a month for a gym membership to have access to showering. With a gym membership, you can shower as often as you like, so that is by far the cheapest option if you are homeless. If you're in an area that has no gym, you can't afford to shower every day at $15 per shower. So you go without, often for longer periods of time than society deems acceptable. You have no idea how much money you save when you have your own shower, or how fantastic it feels to have finally earned the ability to shower as often as you like, anytime you want, with no waiting.

The kitchen also saves a ton of money because it allows you to have groceries. Without a kitchen you are limited to prepackaged foods that require no refrigeration and no preparation. And those things add up quick. Very pricey. Impossible to survive on a mere $20 a week when restricted to those kinds of food items. But ten bucks will buy a pound of good lunchmeat and a pound of cheese. Bread can be purchased quite cheaply. Applesauce and a gallon of milk are each more expensive than bread, but that's the complete grocery list for the week. Then you have to ration yourself so that you don't eat it all up in less than a week. This might mean only 2 or 3 sandwiches each day. When you're really hungry and having a sandwich, it is often extremely difficult to stop at just one sandwich. You have to learn to be content with being less hungry, instead of wanting to be full.

When you get the opportunity to use a public restroom, you'll unspool as much toilet paper off the roll as you can fit in your pockets. If you go to a convenience store or gas station, you'll pocket some little packets of sugar or ketchup or some plastic spoons or forks. You scavenge for empty trash bags (many gas station employees leave a roll of trash bags out at the pumps). Sure, it isn't grand theft auto, nothing felony level, but you feel like a thief and you try to console yourself by telling yourself you're not a thief, you're just a scavenger, it's a matter of survival, only temporary, and you'll find a way out of this somehow, eventually.

You discover that society judges your humanity based solely upon the amount of money you have, the stuff you possess, the resources available to you. At first it is shocking to discover that no one looks at you, that their eyes slide by and they ignore you if you speak or smile, like you're not even there, like you don't even exist. You are SHUNNED, and within the first two weeks the emotional and psychological impact of the shunning is devastating. It only grows more profound the longer it continues.

Those who don't shun are more inclined to abuse than to be kind. It is quite common, particularly during cold weather, that a housed person will throw a cold drink at a homeless person, soaking them. This person will simultaneously begin to scream “GET A (BLEEP) JOB YOU LAZY WORTHLESS (BLEEP)” and sometimes continues on in this vein at length, growing bleepier and purple-faced and spitting the longer it goes on. It is not just one guy. People are doing this all over the place.

It is also not uncommon for a homeless person to be beaten. Those doing the beating are as likely to be housed as to be homeless.

It is also not uncommon for people posing as kind to offer a sandwich or a bottle of water to a homeless person, when in reality they have poisoned that food or that water and they walk away from your murder before you even know you've been poisoned.

A homeless man was attacked by a large group of housed folks while he slept in his tent. They fell on the tent and beat him severely while he was trapped inside. Then they urinated on him. Then they poured gasoline on him. Then they set him on fire. Somehow, he survived. Your news channels rarely mention this sort of thing. Why would they? News is for stuff people care about.

These aren't isolated incidents. This is what it's like to be that poor in this country.

The lack of human contact drives us crazy. Many will eventually rescue a stray cat or dog. Why, when we can barely feed ourselves and have no shelter, would we obligate ourselves to take on the responsibility of an animal companion? This is one aspect of homelessness that has always perplexed the housed. So let me tell you why. That animal looks at us and sees us. No one else does, aside from the other homeless outcasts, many of whom have become predatory over the years, or the hateful abusers who seek to do violence against us. Furthermore, that animal loves us! Even though we can provide no stable home, even though we may have to root through garbage cans to find something to feed our animal, they bond with us. They know that we will feed them even if doing so means that we ourselves must be hungrier longer. They cuddle up against us and share their body heat. And they want us to touch them. Reach out to shake someone's hand and see them recoil from you. Reach out to pet a dog and see the touch not only welcomed but rejoiced in. Ecstatic pleasure just because you reached out and touched, when the undeniable message you receive from everyone else is that you are lowly, lazy, unworthy, untouchable. You have no idea what that feels like.

If you can manage to come up with an RV before your $1,000 a month limit kicks in, you'll be able to do all right. A spot in an RV park may add up to $500 a month or more, but you can camp for free for two weeks at a time in any national forest. And if you aren't paying rent, you can afford insurance and the gas necessary to get you from one national forest to the next when your two weeks expire. If you have any marketable skills, you can plan your trips around a variety of opportunities to earn some small amount of additional income as you travel from forest to forest, but it is never guaranteed and frequently fails to go according to plan. It's still your best bet for doing America on a thousand bucks a month. You get to see more of the country and have a variety of unique experiences that most of our citizens don't even know exist. A sleeping bag in a forest, cradled by moonlight and caressed by coyote songs. A bald eagle soaring overhead, clutching long clumps of wild grasses to soften the nest where the eggs will soon be laid. The incredible fortitude and determination of your fellow travellers whom you will encounter along the way. Many are far more poor than $1,000 a month, and have been so for far longer. They have remarkable stories to share, and songs, and jokes, and talents. The world of the poor can be surprisingly rich, if you take the time to try to look for it. No, it isn't easy. Anyone who really is lazy and unwilling to work does not survive homelessness long. This is because surviving homelessness IS a lot of work, it's really hard (both physically and mentally) and extremely time consuming. So many hours a day spent hunting a place to sleep, hunting for something to eat, walking for miles to get to a soup kitchen or a food pantry or an appointment with social services. They don't have time for a traditional employment positon because they're already working more than 16 hours a day, working harder than you can imagine at the simple task of staying alive. Things that never have to cross your mind. Over half of all homeless actually do have jobs. Many of these are indistinguishable to the casual observer from their appropriately housed counterparts. They don't look or smell homeless. They work. They seem like everybody else. But they live in their car and get a gym membership so they can shower as well as have the option of being indoors out of the weather while being treated exactly the same as every other paying customer. They go to the laundromat to wash and iron their work clothes. Some of them are even working more than one job, further reducing the number of hours spent on the street. But they can't make enough to get a place to live. They might get a week or two of hotel room once in a while.

I remember when I was one of the housed, before I first experienced homelessness. I remember what was normal to me then, when my income was nearly ten times what it is now. Yes, I used to be one of you. Most of us did. Does that surprise you? More surprising, it can happen to you, too, and much quicker than you might believe possible. AND I remember what I thought regarding the homeless. There is nothing I can do or say to ever apologize or make amends for having had those thoughts. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm crying right now and that's making this harder to get through. I AM deeply sorry that there was a time when I did not understand. A time when I freely distributed $20 bills to friends who were short on the rent or a car payment or repair or to buy birthday gifts and throw parties…all the while ignoring the homeless, the truly needy, shunning them, refusing to look at them, recoiling from them. That's what I'm ashamed of, and all the sorry in the world won't fix it. But I am. I get it, now. I understand things that I could never have previously imagined, nor would I have wanted to.

That's what it's like in this country on a thousand bucks a month. Welcome to America.


Maggie Deigh, Traveling Musician at Wherever I Like (2015-present)
Updated Mon · Upvoted by Isabella Newman, Female President at The United States of America (2017-pres… and Hemanth Potluri, lived in The United States of America (1998-2016)


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$1,000 is N364,000 today 24th January 2019. I earned about half of that a month while working at a bank. I had a car, lived in the center of Abuja in my own apartment and was considered well-off by my peers.

Today, I pay on average 30k a month to my staff. I try to raise their salaries as often as business grows. I give bonuses, some allowances including 13th month bonuses. 2 of my staff are married men. One of the single ladies is responsible for a part if her extended family.

I remember sometime last year after a particularly productive spell, I gave bonuses of half each individual's salary. I walked into my office the next week snd every last member of staff had gotten a new phone! It was like they planned it. I don't even know how and where they organized them from.

Point I am making is this. We know things are bad in Nigeria. But it is much easier to earn a living here than trying to flee the "shithole" for so called greener pastures.

I lived with my wife on 20k a month for quite a while. One of the bank's 50k a month drivers back then had 3 wives for heavens sake. A lot of the people I meet are on 40k to 75k salaries. They sure as heck aren't looking for gym houses or public bathrooms to take a bath.

Yes, nothing works in Nigeria. But it is much better to stay and try fix your little portion than sell your family land for 700k to go through Libya to Europe.