Authorities include councils, police, social services, government, hospitals. Be patient, keep your temper, check yoour rights and complain if you are treated badly.
Sounds cynical, but they are tough to deal with, and losing your temper doesn't help because they don't care and will only make life harder for you if you do.
Attack Alarms: A great idea if you feel vulnerable sleeping rough, and especially if you are female. The louder the better, and the louder the more expensive, as a rule, pound shop ones are not loud at all. Sometimes basics banks and daycentres have attack alarms to give away to female rough sleepers.
Abuse: There is a lot of abuse associated with homelessness, it can cause homelessness and occur when you are homeless, abuse of all kinds, sexual, emotional, physical, and also drug and alcohol abuse.
If you are being abused, escape the abuser, even if it means moving away, not always as simple as it sounds, get help one way or the other, talk to someone, seek refuge. I understand that going to the police is not an option sometimes, in my case I would have trouble going to the police because of the way they have treated me.
But if you are being abused physically or sexually, if you are being harmed, then understand that no matter how bad you are told you are, you don't deserve to be hurt by someone in a position to keep hurting you, do take action, or it could get worse and leave unhealable damage.
Don't be scared, escape.
Basics Banks: Places run by well-meaning nosy people that supply homeless and badly-off people with food, toiletries and some basic clothes, occasionally they have towels, blankets or linen as well.
Most basics bank food is suitable for poor families, it often needs heating or to have boiling water added, if you use a basics bank it helps if you have a stashplace, a stove or even a tin-opener, though they will try to find ringpull cans, biscuits and snacks, cereals and longlife milk and other food suitable for homeless people.
They usually overwhelm me with food and toiletries when I go, but I have stashplaces and a small stove, so I have learned to cope with everything.
The food and clothes they offer are all donated and there is just what is there on the day, they try to help everyone as much as they can, so don't get frustrated if you don't get what you want.
Brew Kit: An absolutely essential piece of kit, a lifesaver.
My brew kit is like this:
- A small lightweight hexamine burner stove
- A small saucepan to heat water on the stove
- Hexamine fuel tablets wrapped up so as not to contaminate anything
- cigarette lighters to light the stove
- packets of 3-in-1 coffee, hot chocolate and instant soup
- sachets of sugar (you can find these on the ground outside cafes or pick them up in cafes)
- a stirrer
- a cloth and wet wipes to clean the stove, mug and pan.
3in1 or 2in1 coffee (coffee with milk and sugar or just mlk) is available in sachets 7 or 10 for a pound at poundland and similar at other cheap shops. It is easier to carry than teabags, sugar and milk, and tastes a lot better than instant tea (yuk).
Water for brews can be found in toilet washbasins, the occasional garden taps, water fountains, some pub and cafe owners will give you clean water, hot or cold, if you are polite and explain your situation and ask nothing else of them. You get the occasional rude person who turns you away, just hope they end up homeless and facing such coldness one day :/
I use my brew kit sparingly, early morning and late night and when I am short of money. But some people probably use theirs more, it is hard to light a stove and brew in a town centre, and some people may complain, I go to a churchyard or an open space where no-one will disturb me.
Blisters: Easy to come by, especially in the early days of your homelessness, even if you have walked and run in army boots and worked outdoors in work boots as I had. I got blisters anyway, from walking and walking in wet boots, and the blisters turned into sores and athletes foot. I have ended up with feet with no skin on them, so look after your feet.
Chemists sell anti-blister creams and blister plasters and all sorts of expensive things. the anti-blister stuff doesn't work on homeless feet, the blister plasters are variable in effectiveness, but you can often get them cheaper at pound stores and cheap shops.
Pin and disinfectant - a primitive blister solution, yes, do burst the blisters, they will stop hurting, you will feel better very quickly, but disinfect a pin, burst the blister so fluid comes out, disinfect the blister site and leave it to heal, it will heal quickly, as long as you keep it clean and disinfected.
At a point when you have no blisters, get surgical spirit and regularly bathe your feet with it, it will toughen your skin, but don't overdo it, don't do it forever, I used it a few times a week for a few weeks and I never get blisters now.
Another help is homeless outreach doctors or nurses, they can often provide bandages and padding and even ointment that will help keep your feet comfortable as they heal.
If you wear soft or fleecy insoles to keep your feet warm and comfy, make sure they fit well, they can sometimes add to blisters because of the friction and movement of your feet on them.
wear socks that a
aren't too smooth and fine and which keep your feet nice and still to prevent friction, change or wash your socks as often as possible, and wear boots that fit well, sometimes you can get blisters wearing new boots in, but I stopped having that problem a long time ago, though I don't know why.
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