
Ask HN: Realistically if I became homeless in California what would happen? - ge96
This is my last-resort plan when life fails. I just buy a ticket to California and become a bum. What would happen? I don&#x27;t expect to last, but the weather hopefully would be nice, and I&#x27;d walk around to see places like Venice Beach and the Golden Gate bridge before I kicked the bucket.
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DrScump
If you come here, CA taxpayers will pay a _fortune_ to host you, if you play
the system right.

For a specific example, for one local government (I _think_ San Jose or could
be Santa Clara County -- check the article[0]), 2800 chronic homeless cost
taxpayers _$83,000 per year EACH_ in "homeless services" alone. (That's _not
counting_ state aid such as welfare, SSI, Medi-Cal, etc.)

[0] San Jose Mercury 8/15/2015, page B1, "Rolling dice on homeless"

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mattbgates
It had always been my childhood dream to visit California, so when I had a
week vacation, I took off and hit the road, and spent a week driving up the
coast of California, arriving in Los Angeles, going down to San Diego zoo and
USS Midway (the ship my dad served on when he was in the Navy), hitting a
bunch of small towns along the way, before making my way through a bunch of
places including Hollywood, Bel Air, Santa Monica, Malibu, Santa Clara, Santa
Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco, before heading east over to Lake Tahoe,
Reno, and then driving back down through eastern California.

Anyways, along my travels, I did meet a few "bums" or homeless people, a few
living on the beaches of Cali and a few living out of their cars. One guy I
met at Starbucks, who asked me to buy him a coffee -- I did and we sparked a
conversation ($2-$3? no biggie) was doing some freelance work (like graphic
design or programming or web design) for gas money and for a little food here
and there, just enough to survive and get through the week). He was living out
of his car by choice and loved the free lifestyle he chose.. he was waking up
in a new city everyday, and just stopped into a Starbucks to get a coffee,
recharge his appliances, take a little shower in the bathroom, etc.

I would hope that you would certainly have ambition to "not give up", but
there are people out there who just prefer not to be tied down into an
apartment or a house and actually enjoy living out of their cars or on the
open road. For the most part, you can find free parking near the beaches in
California, if you were to hit a coastline every night, but don't stay in one
place for too long, police and people get suspicious. If I travel alone, I
never get a motel/hotel/AirBNB, I usually just sleep in my car, and since I
have a moon roof, I just put my seat down, open the moon roof, and stair at
the stars. Being close to the coast with little light, the stars were
gorgeous.

Southern California is much easier to survive because the weather is almost
always warm. Northern California definitely gets much colder and will require
you to at least have a jacket and possibly a blanket, especially if you plan
to move above the Santa Barbara area. The worst thing about California, of
course, is all the damn traffic. Sitting in it, dealing with it is definitely
enough to make you mad and cause rage within, so if you can let that rage go
in a non-violent manner, and just accept the fact that traffic is just a part
of California, than you can definitely be fine with California. If you want to
be somewhere, you just need to be getting there an hour in advance. For that
reason alone, I was happy to visit California, but I would never live there. I
live 5 minutes from my job.. and it takes me 5 minutes to get to my job or
back home again.

Gas is a bit more expensive in California than in the Midwest or "the Mountain
States" and eastern California gas prices were outrageous, almost $2 or more
above the national average for some reason. So when I was there, I knew gas in
my state was about $2 but in Cali, it was much closer to $3.50.

My week in California was amazing. I had no run-ins with any cops or "scary
people" and minded my own business pretty much. Be weary though because there
are places you cannot park -- and those meter cops are crazy lurkers. You
might not think they are there, but the minute you step away, they are giving
you a ticket. I started to walk away from my car once and he began writing a
ticket for the car behind me.. I hopped in my car and high-tailed out there
and was lucky enough to avoid a ticket.

Californians are friendly people but everyone is all going about their own
business, trying to get through the day, trying to avoid traffic, and get home
or get to wherever it is their going. Another exciting thing about being in
California is the chance to possibly spot a celebrity, though I didn't spot
one on that trip, on a separate trip, I had actually came across Jennifer
Tilly in the Los Angeles airport.

