Orange County, CA - First big endeavor

[DataPhreak]

So my girlfriend and I are recently finding ourselves without a place to live. Luckily for us, we have had about a months worth of time to plan and save up, and I think we've pretty much got it figured out. Lemme give ya tha skinny.

We live in Arkansas, that swampy, humid, nasty misquito/tick/seed tick/chigger infested hell hole. Not the best place to be homeless, summer or winter. Luckily, we have a friend who is moving to Phoenix on the 31st, at 3pm. So we're going to catch a ride with him, and he's agreed to take us all the way out to L.A.

Why L.A.? Do we know anybody out there? Have we ever been there before? Nope, not a soul, ever even seen the west coast. But, if you're going to be temporarily homeless, (and yes, though I have been homeless before, I do not intend to stay that way), what better place to do it than the west coast, right? We're going to have enough money, (stored in the bank) to pay first month's rent on a room. If ya look on craigslist, orange county has over 100 hits for people looking for roomies a day. Unfortunately, the majority of these posts are NO PETS in big bold letters. We have a few pets here that we are storing, so we may be looking for a little while. Once we get shored up, we'll pick up any job we can get, probably waiting tables, and start rebuilding our lives.

Well, that being said, it very well could be several months before we find a place to stay, so we will be beachbumming it for a while. We've got printouts of all of the soup kitchens and foodbanks and missions in the local area, along with a map, and theres a huge skatepark nearby that we can "live" off of by selling hemp, haircuts, and hash.

This isn't the first time I've been on the road. A buddie and i went from Arizona -> Montana -> Arkansa -> Arizona -> Arkansas -> Arizona on a wing and a prayer, spent about 3 months in flagstaff in one sitting. My girlfriend, on the other hand, has absolutely no experience on the road or on the streets, excepting that her mother was a crackhead prostitute for most of her childhood. Still, she's more excited to be homeless than I am.

The biggest thing I am worried about is the cops. Both of us are very young looking, but we're both over 18. I expect, especially where we will be, to get hassled by the cops a lot. Luckily it's the summer and school is out for another month, but later, I suspect we will be checked for truency. I also worry about cops "confiscating" our equipment. Police here in Little Rock are dirty, heartless bastards. Even though we plan to carry no controband of any kind, I am planning for the worst. If anyone has any experience with police in SoCal, advice or stories would be greatly appreciated.

[smartmouth]

well that solves it, if there are a 100 posts a day looking for roommates in one city, none of which allow dogs - you can guess what sort of environtment you'll be living, and then think about those same circumstances but while homeless. do you want to...? there are better places and people to be once your rent collapses

[DataPhreak]

Oh, they're not all no pets, just the majority. the 10 or so that do allow dogs, we have to look at whether we like the roomies, whether they like us, is the rent within our pricerange? The majority of the no pet postions are not implied by tennant, but by property manager, in all likely. It's the same with any other town. Also, we aren't going to have the dog with us at the time.

[quote:1e5a6ee083]There are better places and people to be once your rent collapses[/quote:1e5a6ee083]

Is this your opinion of orange county from personal experience, or merely because of the general disregard for pets? If anyone has been here and had bad experiences, this is information we should know.

[redford]

California is full, no more room, no water. Orange county is expensive and most of the homeless end up in L.A. county.
But compared to Arkansas.... ah well learn Spanish or Korean.

[Laz777]

hook north and head to Seattle (just a recommendation)....Tent City 4 is always open and as a couple you'll get a private tent, but no animals allowed except service animals.
plenty of good food, decent people and there's work if you look..BTW, it's in Redmond at the moment but will likely be moving soon (every 90 days)..here's a wikipedia link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tent_City_4

[DataPhreak]

[quote:0c8995ba60="redford"]California is full, no more room, no water. Orange county is expensive and most of the homeless end up in L.A. county.
But compared to Arkansas.... ah well learn Spanish or Korean.[/quote:0c8995ba60]

Lol! Yeah, we don't expect to settle in OC, I'll be looking for a call center job when we finally do settle down, so likelyhood is we will end up in LA county too. There's a place there in long beach that starts at 16 an hour. That's twice what i'm making now, and i'm in a second teir supervisory position. Prices may be cheaper here, but you make less money.

@LAZ: Unfortunately, temperature is a major issue for me. I've lived in a swamp my whole life, and often go spend the summers in the desert. I'm going to be carrying a hoodie with me in Cali, and will probably end up wearing it often. Therefore, seattle is out of the question. Went up to Mazula once for nationals, just about froze my toes off.

[redford]

[quote:73d7bd13b9="DataPhreak"] There's a place there in long beach that starts at 16 an hour. [/quote:73d7bd13b9]

One thing you should know about Long Beach... NO RENT CONTROL.

So they offer cheap rent to get you in and then keep raising the rent until you have to move out and keep your deposit. Not everyone but check with other tenants before committing. One mission in Long Beach(not so good) but they have a community help center just over the bridge from Orange county Choppers that's first rate. Showers, laundry and any other help you might need.

[DataPhreak]

Yeah, i've done a little research, too. There are several soup kitchens in the area, one of witch serves 2 meals a day during the week, and 1 meal a day on weekends called someone cares. There's also a mission "Community." With showers on the beach, I don't think we'll be spending much time in the missions, though looking at the architecture and building layout, it'll probably be hard to find places to sleep. Maybe we can find an empty lot that's overgrown and not currently "Occuped". In the summer, staying outdoors won't bother me a bit, even in bad weather. Also trying to look up some local copwatch chapters to see if they have any kind of organization. If they do, i can probably barter a few shifts on patrol in order to crash in their rooms.

We'll likely be communiting to long beach if i get the job at the call center. Also, I intend to sublet from someone so that I don't have to go through the property management. At this point, I'm going to get a hit on my renters history, so i won't likely be able to get a place through a management company anyway. But by subletting, we have a little negotiation capability as far as the lease goes. We'll see what happens though. Still, if you hadn't told me about it, I'd of probably been blindsided. Thanks for the heads up.

"A plan is a detailed list of things that will probably never happen."
- Probably Benjamin Franklin

[redford]

[quote:05fd5be175="DataPhreak"]With showers on the beach, I don't think we'll be spending much time in the missions, though looking at the architecture and building layout, it'll probably be hard to find places to sleep. Maybe we can find an empty lot that's overgrown and not currently "Occuped".
[/quote:05fd5be175]

Seriously dude, Long Beach is full of Professional bums. Check Lincoln Park next to main branch of library for every stripe. And there is Ghost Town, the indestrial area seperating Long Beach from rest of LA. Where crack addicts flit from shadow to shadow. So if you have anythng someone will be looking to take it. Plus the cops have experience and protocol for busting and moving on the homebums, especially during big events like the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Bus Pass card $5 a day and not purchased on bus.

[DataPhreak]

Not going to be in long beach, bro. Further south. Huntington Beach, Newport beach, Newport coast, Irvine. The only thing we have going in longbeach is a potential job. I don't plan on hanging out in the ghetto.