
Ask HN: Advice for staying in the job market while homeless? - HelpImHomeless
Hello HN,<p>I&#x27;ve lived as a &quot;hand to mouth&quot; freelancer for a while and can no longer keep up with rent due to clients shutting down. I have over a dozen job applications under way, but obviously progress is slow and even if I do get an offer it won&#x27;t pay off until I&#x27;m &quot;on the streets&quot;.<p>I do have good friends who will let me stay on their couches for some time. Given the circumstances I&#x27;m afraid that I&#x27;ll be stuck in this situation until my food budget is used up, at which point I don&#x27;t know what to do.<p>Frankly I feel like throwing myself into the river right now, but obviously that is not helping anyone.<p>I have a fairly niche skill set that no one wants. My specialty is building and running complex on-prem infrastructure (in the petabytes and teraflops range), though in the recent years I&#x27;ve been doing DevOps in the cloud like everyone else. I&#x27;m also contributing to a wide range of free software projects, but no potential employers seem to care about that.<p>I don&#x27;t even know what I&#x27;m asking here. A cry for help obviously, but with no room for actual advice! Probably I just want someone to say &quot;it&#x27;s going to be okay&quot; because I can&#x27;t see it myself.<p>Virtual hug, anyone?  :-(
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crsn
My name is Carson (carsonkahn.com/who) and I want to do whatever I possibly
can to help you. Text me and let’s see what we can make happen for you: +1
(303) 808-5874. It _is_ all going to be OK — not because of some mystical,
arbitrary self-assurance, but because we’re going to put our brains and hearts
into it. Don’t “throw yourself into a river”, please; text me. It _will_ be
okay.

~~~
crsn
Just realized you may not have access to texting. Email me instead if you need
to. We’re going to make this all work out for you.

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bigyikes
I’m not sure what to say except that this post really moved me. We’re living
in a strange moment where everything is going to crap for a significant
portion of the world. At the same time, we’re seeing an outpouring of kindness
and willingness to help from so many people. I think now more than ever there
is reason to be hopeful.

I don’t know you, but there was a time in my life where I made a similar type
of post on a similar type of website, and I found some comfort in talking to
and hearing from others. I was going to private message you, but I have just
learned that HN doesn’t have private messaging. Instead, I will put the onus
on you: if you ever need an ear to vent to, I am open to alternate forms of
communication.

Hang in there.

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DoreenMichele
Sorry, I only just saw this.

I run several websites pertinent to homelessness. I also run r/GigWorks. The
Welcome message pinned at the top has a compendium of links to stuff that help
you.

Given that this is on HN, probably the most pertinent thing is this list of
remote work platforms:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JfNAbUX_lN9K3MCNHO15...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JfNAbUX_lN9K3MCNHO15GJtJ5qpk7H9Cl3xTBwv2FR8/htmlview)

If you do actually end up homeless, this may be important info:

[https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2018/05/prepping-
to...](https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2018/05/prepping-to-be-
homeless.html)

But also standard advice from r/homeless and r/almosthomeless is to just keep
working at finding solutions and try to not end up homeless. It's much easier
to avoid homelessness than to get back into housing from the streets and thus
is a bad time to be homeless. They are closing soup kitchens and the like.

[https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19-an...](https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-19-and-
impact-on-homeless.html)

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jhymn
STAY WHERE YOU ARE and make arrangements to make staggered/partial payments at
a later date.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE. I work at a homeless shelter and see first-hand how not
having a safe place to work from and store your things complicates life and
creates undo hardships.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE, especially now with the pandemic when shelters are trying
to protect their clients from outside contamination. You may be turned away
from even emergency homeless shelters.

STAY WHERE YOU ARE!

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HelpImHomeless
Thanks everyone for their replies. And apologies for the desperate and scary
message, I was in a bad place yesterday.

Rest assured I'll do my best to stay afloat and keep a level head through this
difficult time. I really just needed to vent about it.

Again, thanks for the feedback, it really means a lot! I will contact the
landlord and try to defer payment, this possibility had not even crossed my
distressed mind.

Love y'all HN. Take care! <3

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sjg007
Evictions take a while so don't leave until you are forced. In this climate if
your community is impacted by covid-19 situation (which is basically everyone)
it will take _even_ longer. You might also ask your landlord to defer rent
payments until you get a job etc... Clearly you are skilled and probably a
good tenant. It seems unlikely they would find anyone to rent your dwelling.
You might look for some grants / small business etc... a lot of those are
spinning up now. You might ask your clients for a retainer as well. Keep
applying for jobs. Take some shifts at Amazon or the grocery store too. See if
you can stock shelves so you can stay away from others. Wear a mask, gloves
etc... Best of luck.

~~~
matt_the_bass
Came here to say this.

Talk to your landlord.

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mattsfrey
See if you live in one of these localities, you might be able to stay where
you are for a while. Even if not, eviction proceedings usually take at least a
month.

[https://www.fool.com/millionacres/real-estate-
market/article...](https://www.fool.com/millionacres/real-estate-
market/articles/cities-and-states-that-have-paused-evictions-due-to-covid-19/)

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ExSoax
Everything is going to be ok is too easy for human's life. Just keep in mind
that our existance is a blink in the Universe's Eye. Be grateful to yourself
and life, no matter what, until you're alive. Don't panic, don't stress
yourself, just do your best and anyway everything Will be ok in this Life or
another. I hope this could help. A big virtual hug.

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akulbe
Where are you located, at present?

