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Welcome to the Street Life Digest Blog!
Welcome to the Homeless Hacker Blog, a projected created by Andrew Weisbeck and Lisa Heusner. We appreciate you stopping by to check out our blog we created to help those struggling with homelessness, educate the public about common misconceptions about the unhoused, and also as a way to help us try and make a living doing something other than panhandling, which is our current way of survival.
We think that there is something here for anybody to enjoy and learn from, so we are excited that you have stopped by to check out the hard work we have put into this little project of ours!
15 Months of Homeless Experience
This is more time spent homeless than anyone should have to experience, but we believe that our time without housing can be of benefit to our readers. Since we were kicked out of our last apartment, we have lived in hotels, in parking lots, tents, and even storage units. While living outside, we have learned how to make a living without work, how to work a job while homeless, and how to survive with limited resources. Our diverse and unique experience allows us to connect with a wide audience of homeless individuals, as we know there is not one correct way to live out here.
We’ve met people who have been doing this for years and met other people who have no idea what they’re doing - this is important because we’ve learned what to do and what not to do. There are certain tricks for staying warm, hacks for eating cheaply/freely, and ways to approach other people on the streets. Our lived experience will teach you how to handle certain situations and survive on the streets.
We understand how scary and difficult every day is when you are homeless. That is why we hope you have landed here if you are seeking advice and knowledge that will help make things just a tad bit easier.
It is also important for us to reach all of you who are not experiencing or may never experience living on the streets. There is a lot of misconceptions and wrong information about people who do not have a home in the common sense of the word. There are many people who live on the streets by choice. There are some of us who are smart and very talented who can’t find any work, despite our best efforts, and are stuck doing things we rather wouldn’t to survive.
Most of us don’t have a choice in the matter, contrary to popular belief - before you go yelling at a panhandler to get a job, stop and consider that this person may be having the worst day of their life, may be disabled, or unable to find work due to personal hygiene, lack of address/id, or some other reason. If we can help get this point across to at least one person and change the way they view the homeless, then we are happy with our efforts.
Why Put Effort Into This Blog?
While we do have altruistic intentions on helping out the homeless and want to help others to better understand this vast problem that plagues the richest country in the world, we also have capitalistic intentions as well. We’re just going to be honest - this project has taken a lot of time and effort, and we would appreciate any kind of help and support that you can offer us. While we want to help out other homeless people, it is harder to help others when you can’t help yourself.
Besides, we think you would rather have us pursuing creative endeavors instead of standing in the road on a highway near you, holding a sign and asking for help that way. Think about this as a way of helping us out in a less invasive and “bummy” way.
You can find ways to donate to our cause on our donations page. We also have a blog post coming that will give you all the ways that you can help support us from donating money to signing up for Amazon Prime!
We hope that we can earn your help and support and we appreciate any and all help that you are able to provide. Thank you!
What Else to Know
Well there is much more coming to this project as we have more time and effort to put into this when we have free time. Right now we have to spend a lot of our time panhandling just to survive on a daily basis. The more help you provide, the more we can create and share our skills and knowledge with you. There are some plans for how we intend on expanding this project and I’ve listed a few below:
- A store with outdoor gear and products that help the homeless
- Ways you can order homeless kits for those suffering in your community
- A newsletter
- YouTube channel with video content
There is much more we plan on releasing as this project keeps on coming together over time. We hope that you enjoy it and share this with your friends and family - it would really help us!
Follow Us and Check In Frequently!
That is about all that I have to share with y’all in this welcome post. Keep checking in for more info about this project and to learn more about us and what we have to share with you about homelessness.
Thank you for reading and your support!