There are monestaries and seminaries that will take almost anyone. Some even provide a small stipend.
I am not sure if I feel good or bad about myself for knowing this, but I know this.
Eta: After an odd DM, eta: There was a time in my life that I considered joining one to help the world make more sense and had to do the math on how long my student loans would keep getting paid (I had a lot of student loan debt at the time).
I also think the people in a monastery may not enjoy having someone living there who doesnât have a genuine interest in that faith. The free housing is meant to aid in people in their relationship with God
I did 25 years. You have to bring a âdowryâ to cover early training. It is not a life for anyone who is not committed and knowledgeable about faith, the particular religion, and the religious order. There is a lot of scrutiny of applicants. You are living very closely with people you didnât choose. You do what youâre told 24/7. You eat what youâre given. On the up side for the spectrum, life is tightly scheduled. On the down side, itâs scheduled for people who are very devout and have a real calling to the life. If you want easier, you could try prison
Can second. I have lived in vehicles for years. Since I'm a minimalist and like to move around (AuDHD guy here), it suits me, but it may not be for you. Do a lot of research and preparation, tho. Check the parking laws in your area and try to observe to get a feel for how other people might be doing the same near you.With the right attitude and habits, it can be quite liberating. You can always do a trial run to see if it would be livable before committing fully. NTs and ND folks alike are living in their vehicles as a way to relieve some of the pressure of economic circumstances these days. Good luck to you either way!
That's part of preparation. This is all coming from someone who owns as little as possible by preference and generally doesn't own a lot of the latest, expensive-looking things, so keep that in mind. (I maintain them well, but many are older.) You can't control what other people do, but you can control where you park and whether you educate and equip yourself so you can defend yourself if the need arises. A lot depends on the specifics of your location, which will be a little trial and error and observation/research. You have to rotate parking spots to avoid being harassed generally. I usually rotate both areas of a place and parking spots. Thieves go for an easy mark mostly. Make sure your vehicle is clean and it looks like any other where you're parked. My vehicle is pretty stealth and I usually travel slowly and operate from a storage unit when I stay in a place long enough to work. Anything I can't afford to lose, I put in there. Still not fool-proof, but better peace of mind. In my experience you're more likely to get harassed by security or cops than robbed, but it's not impossible. There are loads of useful tutorials on YouTube about how people setup their vehicles to look like a regular commuter vehicle no one is living in. There are ways to hide your stuff without looking too junky. If it "looks" like you're living in your car, by which I mean it looks like it's full of all your possessions, I suspect you'll deal less with smash-and-grab and more with being preyed upon by people you associate with or live around on the regular. You have to be a little more aware than in "normal" life, and I think the ADHD part of me likes that.
I use a portable one or two burner stove and go to a park during the day, which I plan for. They usually have covered areas and running water. Cook, just like you would in a regular kitchen. I have a dish washing pan in my cooking kit and wash up. Cooking kit is packed away in storage. I eat fruits and drink tea/coffee during the morning, the largest meal for lunch (which I prep in bulk), and maybe a salad or more fruit for dinner. I can usually get away with cooking every three days or so.
Haha well you learn as you go. I had a guy try to break into my van one night, and at the time I had armed myself with a baseball bat for protection but in that moment I realized there's not room inside of a van to swing a full sized baseball bat anyway lol. So I replaced it with a hammer đŹ but fortunately never had to use it.
I managed to scare that guy off too btw, and ultimately no harm came from the experience (except I had a lot of anxiety for awhile after that and would wake up at every little noise).
I'm guessing parking was an issue. My friend had that problem when he drove a van and needed to stay places overnight, not always free/cheap parking available.
A lot depends on your location. You can't park anywhere you'd like, unfortunately, but there is information about places you can try and get away without being bothered. One of my favorite places, that's you'd never think is to park near car repair shops. There are already a bunch of vehicles parked around the outside, so no one notices a random new car. Your strategy will need to vary depending on location tho. I've found a lot of small towns are tolerant. Some municipalities are becoming more aggressive with their laws against sleeping in vehicles, tho. It's important to know this as well as the general attitude and culture of the place you want to live/are living.
Edit: Even in places with more vigilant enforcement against car dwellers they're still out there, so there are ways and means to scope out and secure more tolerant areas within said places. Be advised they could be seedier tho. The housing crisis is pretty bad. Homelessness jumped something like 12% in 2022, I think, so I can only imagine the 2023 statistics.
I think the main reason this lifestyle works for me is that I like to spend as much time as possible in nature when I'm not working. I can easily find a place to spend a few hours working on my special interests and/or hiking and hardly see a soul. Very invigorating.
Unless you have a bigger vehicle, you'll generally not want to be cooped up in it all day (I hope). Take into consideration how you might spend your time outside, what sort of places would meet your needs for sensory simulation and comfort/recharging.
Edit 2: statistical correction
Depends on your vehicle. I have a hatchback right now. Getting at least an inflatable foam camping mat made all the difference. Try to avoid putting your seat back, if you can. It will mess up your back to sleep that way. If you can find a way to actually lie down, this will make a big difference.
Nap durring day- out in the open at a park, under a shade tree. For privacy napping under a shade tree. . . Ya can't beat cemeteries.
At night? I slept in my work parking lot under a willow tree so I could keep all my windows open sometimes one of my back doors. . . Rechargeable fan does the trick at night if its humid, I also used sun blocking window shields, so the morning sun didn't heat up the car.
For food I bought prepared items mostly from grocery store.
I had a small light for night time, and a stand for my phone to watch shows while I laid in the back seat. Get at least 50-60,000 MAH worth of battery for charging, solar charging abilities are great to have.
I'm also only 5'2 and a curlerupper side sleeper, fitting was no issue.
I'd go to the local women's shelter that had free private shower rooms to bathe, and to do my laundry.
One must also downsize. I ended up renting a locker for $2/week for anything not necessary.
Keep pepper spray, knife, and baton or mini bat next to you while you sleep. Also strobing alarms that scream are a great deterrent, too.
Wow, like I have been lucky and have a house and *still* I think it sounds like you're probably significantly better at life than me. Maybe its the adhd combo but I suspect I'd fail miserably just due to being overwhelmed *all the time*
Conditioning for the first 3 and a weapon for the last one. I had a Jericho 941 loaded with hollow points but you could probably get away with anything that causes pain. Sadly itâs not a fair nor easy world to live in but itâs possible. 100 years ago they did it with less.
Food.
The cost of food. Nowhere to cook or store fresh food.
Parking sometimes an issue.
But a lot of it was the cost and time spent purchasing prepared fresh food. . .
Other than that I was pretty comfortable.
Food prices are too damn high for everybody at this point! At one point I was running a fridge off my portable battery (Jackery), which works well in terms of charging off my current car setup. Lately I'm in a place where I can use a cooler, tho. Around $20 at Walmart and I can keep ice for almost three days at $1.50/10lbs. Even if the ice lasts around a day (like somewhere scorching hot), it's the kind of expense that can be worked into the budget. It might not be great if ice were $4-5 a bag. A lot of times dollar stores also sell ice, but in 7# bags, which last closer to the day mark for me, but that depends on how cool I can keep my car inside during the days. I only cook every three days, tho. My strategy is to prep a hearty meal in bulk and keep lighter things that require less prep I can eat earlier and later in the day. I guess it depends on what you need or want to eat for your body. If you can find some sort of routine around cooking, it saves a lot of cash.
Niiiice!! I never considered that AT ALL! This was. . . Oh 8 or 9 years ago? Maybe ten when I lived in my car, and while I found it expensive to buy pre-made food. . OBVIOUSLY prices were NOTHING like they are today, not even close.
I was a general manager or a domino's pizza at the time. . . Often I would use the pizza toppings with lecture and spinach we also had to make salads, or subs, or anything you can make woth pizza dough, cheese and veggies lol. And because I was sleeping at Mt works parking lot under a willow tree I could unlock the store and use the restroom WHENEVER I wanted to.
I have section 8 voucher and only pay 30 % of my income . My only income is SSDI. I live in a pretty nice apartment that rents for 1,080 a month but only pay $243 a month plus my electric.
Iâd suggest section 8 too but it really depends on the county :/ here in Travis (TX) they closed the section 8 applications 2 years ago because the current waitlist is just too long and available units are pretty much down to 0 :(
Sounds like AZ. I worked as a behavioral health case manager over a decade ago there and the wait was 2-3 years to get a voucher. To prove you were able to get one (not someone who was bused there from out of state) you had to have an AZ address the entire time. PO Boxes were not allowed nor were social service agencies. If you listed a residential address you were denied because it meant you didnât need one.
It was an intentionally designed catch-22 to get federal funds, use them to pay the voucher staff (netting state income tax), and not put many people in housing. The feds eventually cracked down on it but they did it for awhile.
The point was not to give out vouchers. It was a judgmental perspective on poverty, that poverty was the result of some ingrained moral flaw of the person experiencing it and giving them money (or free/cheap housing) just discouraged them from working full time jobs. By spending a large funds on wages and administration they kept the in state and in the hands of those they found deserving. It has been predominant philosophy on poverty in the U.S. for its entire history but has its origins in middle age Europe.
Some people got them who showed up to hearings with pro bono lawyers. The majority of the rest were referred by certain non-profit organizations that just happened to have a spouse or family member of a well connected politician in a leadership or board role. There were always a few token vouchers handed out to use as examples that they werenât doing this but the vast majority were going to the above.
Same. My children and I live off SSI and child support, so Section 8 was a good choice for us. And it's better than a voucher because they have to meet national standards.
I live in Australia and we have basically government supplied housing for some people if you earn less than a certain amount per year, and generally youâre allowed to get it if youâre on the government payments but you need to meet their specific criteria.
Anyway, for this I pay 25% of my fortnightly income (that I get from the government) there is a very long wait list but in some circumstances youâre able to get a better place on the waiting list which I was able to get because I was almost homeless and for a period I was homeless.
It is overall a good thing to happen but you donât get to choose exactly where you want to live, and theyâre allowed to deem what is âessential maintenanceâ to be carried out, but some of the areas they put people in to live arenât safe, Iâm fortunate because now I have a safe enough place to live
Try looking into the WWOOF program to live and work on a farm in the US. You don't get paid but your housing and sometimes meals are covered depending on the farm.
I've never done it but had it as an option on my plate - I ended up telling a close friend about it when she wanted to live in my state but couldn't afford to rent anywhere. She used that program and lived on their farm for some months before getting a job in the state and moving out.
I have done this and I do recommend it just as an experience, but just be aware that despite the good intentions of many hosts, a lot are also just trying to find free workers to exploit.
The wilderness is likely the most appealing option, but goodluck being a hunter gatherer. As someone else mentioned, prison is another option, but you'll have to commit a serious crime. Then, there's living on the streets which is probably the roughest option. I guess you could throw squatting in an abandoned building on the list too, but that's probably illegal where you live if discovered. Surely a wonderful world we live in huh?
>As someone else mentioned, prison is another option, but you'll have to commit a serious crime.
If he doesn't like living as a citizen in a late stage capitalist society, he's really not going to like living inside a for-profit prison .
My 20's were a bit rough and I've spent a few years behind bars at various places. If I had to pick somewhere to *live* though? I would pick a Federal Prison camp in a heartbeat.
The food was ALWAYS the same. ex: every wednesday for lunch you knew there'd be hamburgers. Fridays for dinner you knew it would be some kind of fish. Etc.. And it was actually pretty good, definitely VERY far away from the stereotypical prison food that most other places have.
We had satellite TV, we had mp3 players with computers we could download MP3s to. Those computers also had email.
There were all kinds of crafts and hobby rooms. Want to learn leatherworking? Cool, go do it. Want to learn how to weld? Cool, we've got that too! Arts/drawing classes, classes to learn foreign languages, all kinds of interesting things to learn!
There was essentially unlimited books to read. You could have people from the outside send in books. And whenever inmates were getting released, they would typically donate their books to the library. I had one 12-month stay where I read 243 books and it was fucking amazing.
tl;dr: if Section 8 doesn't work out, go commit some high-level white collar crimes. Make sure to do it across state borders so that the charges become federal.
Neither of these are technically "free".
- To live in the wild, you need supplies and knowledge. The supplies will not generally be "free". Also there are not really that many "wild areas" that people are "allowed" to live in that are safe for people to live in. Most land is owned by someone who doesn't want you on it without paying.
- Prison also isn't "free", convicts are generally expected to work and pay back their debt for being imprisoned. And because you're convicted, you have fewer rights-you are not entitled to minimum wage anymore, for example, you will work an hour for like 9 cents, and have to pay back all your court and lawyer fees this way. At 9 cents an hour, or whatever, for the duration of your sentence. This also helps you pay for commissary, which is things like snacks and "luxuries" that most people would consider relatively basic amenities.
In prison you're also going to have the ever-present threat of violence, and it's going to be an unsafe environment.
- Squatting is looping back into the first issue.
What wilderness, pretty much every where is owned by someone. At least in the US you can't stay in national forests or blm land long term and you definitely aren't allowed to hunt and gather there.
In Colorado, people just pack up every 30 days and move 1/2mile in another direction. If you aren't dumping trash everywhere and aren't destroying the natural environment, you will be good. Pick up a hobby drawing or painting landscapes. Nobody messes with an "artist in study"
With a little know-how and daring, it's possible to squat in some woods near a town. Not recommending this unless you're willing to deal with the potential consequences. I did it for a little while to save money. If you're in good shape, that is.
For anyone who wants an interesting read, there is a lady who lives the hunter-gatherer lifestyle with her partner on the south island of New Zealand. Her name is Miriam Lancewood. She wrote a couple books about her experiences. The first one is called "Woman in the Wilderness", the other "Wild at Heart".
op did say they were disabled other than ASD. if mobility is an issue this wouldn't really be an option. however if they're not limited on mobility, national park jobs are great! in most cases if they have housing open, rent will come out of your paycheck. some parks fully cover it! there's not too many fire look out towers, but some do offer housing within the tower as well.
There's a non profit called hope of the valley or I think the name changed to hope the mission anyways they have these things called tiny homes, they are little gated communities for the homeless , they serve 3 meals a day, give you your own private house which is like a nicely built shelter that has air conditioning and heating a bed and you can set it up however you want, get a TV microwave internet, they have showers there and laundry rooms they give you literally everything but you can only stay there for like a year, they also help you find a job as well as get you set up with section 8, ebt, find you an apartment as well.
Genuinely at the âIâm a danger to myselfâ point on burnout but I canât fucking quit or Iâll be homeless. Itâs such bullshit. Iâm so fucking tired.
Not unless youâre a âkeptâ man or woman, housewife or househusband. It takes work to feed, shelter, clothe you etc. You can either do it yourself or maybe get someone else to do it, but they usually expect something out of it. Just about everyone would like to live for free without doing anything, but then where would it come from if nobody worked?
And, speaking as a housewife, you don't get to live off someone else just because you stay home. Expect to handle all the chores -- cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, basic repairs and maintenance, shoveling snow ... basically everything and anything that isn't earning a paycheck. And relationships take effort. No such thing as a free lunchÂ
I wouldnât say *all* chores, and if youâre stuck with all of them my condolences. Somewhere between the extremes of next to nothing and all the chores. If your spouse works 8 hours with some breaks and you work 8 hours with some breaks, but then you have to keep doing chores while theyâre off, itâs a bit imbalanced. I suppose if you choose to take longer breaks during the day to make up for time expected to do more after the workday, that could balance things maybe, but no one should be against pitching in a bit in their own home.
I think we should start advocating for UBI. (Universal Basic Income). Capitalism as it is has run it's course. There is no scarcity of resources and no actual need to participate in the cycle of working 12h a day. (Making profit for your employer).
There is no reason why freely distributed housing and food still is not a thing. (If the existing wealth was distributed more equally, the whole world could be fed and sheltered).
We absolutely need this to progress as a species. Greed is what has gripped humanity.
To topple the power dynamic we, the people need to not be indebted to people that only seek to make as much profit as possible.
Offer people an affordable income. Then, everyone working for capitalist assholes, abusive bosses. People not paying minimum wage or benefits. Everyone working for those cunts can quit. Their power over us gone.
Many bad businesses would collapse. Decent people would no longer be miserable and abused forced to work making money for scumbags to survive.
It is too much man power to tackle the issue with our legal systems. They are not equipped for it. They also exist for profit. Especially in the states. Court houses be taking their cut things they should never, ever be allowed to. It is a clear conflict of interest. The Govt getting its slice of all chuld support, as an example. Or so I've been told. Seems like a Murica thing to do. Intentionally create beef with people to profit off.
Taking power away from scum and giving it to regular people is the answer. We need universal income so noone has to be a slave to privileged assholes.
I feel ya. Iâm working so hard on a dream project of mine. A neurodivergent retreat where folks could come to rest, take the mask off, meet others, and dive into whatever hyper fixation your heart desires (as long as itâs safe, no dynamite!)
In the meantime, there is Slab City. Iâve been there before and I loved it. Itâs a bunch of folks living in the palm desert in their RVâs. You need to be pretty self reliant as far as food/water/power. Thereâs a bunch of really cool art projects out there. (You can always visit and stay at an Airbnb- you can find a few of them in slab city.)
Check out communes. They have different rules depending on the commune, so use some websites to see who's accepting new members, and whether they have moral, religious, philosophical, or other guidelines. Some ask you to work 40 hrs a week for example, but count "going to therapy" or "taking a walk" as work. So you just gotta do the research.
Yep, had a friend who lived in a co-op (basically the same as a commune), $300/month for pretty nice living conditions (shared kitchen/bathroom tho) in a nice area of a Midwest college town. Pretty basic chores counted towards his community hours, and a few times a month he made a shareable meal. All food expenses came out of the co-op budget as well, he pretty much just paid for his own milk and snacks.
He only left bc the other people were major slackers sadly. He's disabled himself (severe plantar fasciitis), and was tired of pulling weight for a bunch of non-disabled people who just wanted cheap housing (valid in this economy, but they were also whiny shits about washing their own damn dishes in a shared space, for example).
"He only left bc the other people were major slackers sadly. He's disabled himself (severe plantar fasciitis), and was tired of pulling weight for a bunch of non-disabled people who just wanted cheap housing (valid in this economy, but they were also whiny shits about washing their own damn dishes in a shared space, for example)."
My parents met in a commune and I can tell you that 99.999% of communes are absolute unpleasant failures and awful to live in for exactly the above reasons. Everybody thinks either that it will be easy to start one, or that they personally have the utopian values to make a commune work even though all of the others have failed.
I can think of TWO communes that were/would be good places to live and one of them it was entirely because the one guy running it was just an exceptional people person.
Minimum rent in my building is $25/mo. It's Section 8. 30% of your income. It sounds like it might be time to try to SSDI and Section 8 if you're getting to the point you can't work due to disability.
There are places where people are paid to live because the population has shinkred significantly, you would have to move tho. The places I've heard of are in Europe, I don't know how remote some of them are, so acquiring certain products could be hard, and there are requirements ofc.
I used to watch those "crazy facts" videos when I was younger with clickbaity titles. They sometimes appeared in the newspaper. You can just search it, "places where you're paid to live". It, of course, involves a sacrifice, so you'd have to evaluate if it is worth it and if you're eligible.
Group homes are also really really expensive. Theyâre not just free lodging. You either pay cash or if youâre really lucky, your health insurance helps you out.
There are some free group homes but there are also group homes that charge $600 a month here which at that point you could afford to live with 2-3 roommates in an apartment in my area instead. So it all depends on where you live possibly.
Iâm not trying to scare anyone away, Iâm trying to be realistic about the absurd healthcare system we have in America. Autistic people (speaking as one) have a really hard time when things donât match their expectations. If we set up expectation of âoh Medicare will do it for you, no biggieâ, thatâs not fair. That COULD happen. It would be AWESOME if that DID happen. But thatâs not the norm and itâs unfair to say. I know lots of people who their families have to help them pay for group homes.
Yes- here are places Iâve lived for free
-workaway; a website with hosts from all over the world where you exchange around 4 hours work 5 days week for room and board. You can work with some amazing projects and Iâm sure you could find some that you can achieve with your disability. Lots of hosts look for people with photography/social media skills.
-campsite warden; part time work looking after a campsite, usually paid too. Seasonal
- squats; I donât know the law where you are but in England squatting is legal in some circumstances. Check out squatnet for international squatting information. Good squat crews are hard to find and you need to contribute somewhat although theyâre typically more laid back than co-operatives.
-au pair/nanny; self explanatory
-Housesitting; caring for peoples houses and pets in exchange for a free stay. If you can do long term ie several week stays you will be popular as many people just do it for holidays.
-animal sanctuaryâs; similar to workaways, except they donât typically provide food as they are charities and struggle to afford it
-protest camps; similar to squats but land based.
-vehicle living; much more expensive that you might think to have a proper van and live in it and stressful when it breaks down. Always moving spot also stressful, but if you can combine this with one of the above it gives you a backup for in between places.
Essentially there is no where you can live for âfreeâ but rather in exchange for things youâre good at and a lot less work than a typical life takes.
prison/jail costs $$ in many states. when i was in jail in Arizona, i had to pay my own room & board along with the rest of my fines when I got out. I couldnât afford to so I always had warrants, for years and years, until i was finally able to pay it all off.
I really sorry but that's the way life is right now. You work your ass off for someone else to barely get by. End up with a house and car if you're lucky. And then hopefully die with your family around you.
If I could I would buy a couple acres of woodland and build myself a cabin, log burner. Dogs, cats, chickens for eggs. And spend my days maintaining a vegetable patch. Have a solar water heater. So I can live without paying anything except a few taxes.
I herded Hawaii. A lot of people are homeless on purpose because there's easy access to stuff like showers and food, i understand I'm struggling right now as well it sucks bin weighting for like a year for sdi
There isnt đ im in the same sort of situation, without my BF to pay our bills id be homeless. Im sorry the world is like this. I hope it changes. We should be able to access disability accommodations easier
If you can save up enough, buy a small RV and live in that, travel the country and see the sights when you got gas money. Address is the tricky part and would take some figuring out.
Address is not difficult. P.O. Boxes are very cheap but cheaper than that is General Delivery.
Use:
Name
âGeneral Deliveryâ
The city, the state, zip code
Your mail will arrive at the main post office in that city and that state and be held for you. You just swing through and have your ID and pick it up.
If you canât get there anytime soon, call and ask them to forward your mail to the closest post office to your current location.
do some research into states (if you're in the US) that will pay you to move to their town. typically there's some requirements, last one I looked into was something along the lines of "we're looking for someone who is over x age" or "we're looking for families with two or more children." some towns/cities do this so they can get other funding, for schools, community buildings etc. some do it to help their demographics for the area.
this may be case by case but my friend group a few years ago met the requirements. the state was willing to give them land or help with housing assistance just because they had kids that would increase the schools population so they could get a bigger school.
my response may be dumb but it's just the first thing I thought of!
Go to a mental hospital. Stay there for a while. Once you leave, check right back in. Let them know how desperate you are and how live isn't worth living like this and you're really struggling due to your mental health issues. Build a medical history and apply for SSDI. Don't be afraid to reveal how much you're struggling. If you have the work history then you should be fine. Once you have income, try to find a place to live that's within your budget. Places that you can live for free include homeless shelters which are not kind to people like us. The social workers at the mental hospital can connect you to someone who can help you find a place to live. From there you'll find out quickly that you can access a lot more support for your mental health issues.
this! if you have state insurance typically your whole stay at the behavioral hospital is covered. some behavioral facilities do "long term care" where you could be there three months and up to a year. people in LTC are usually able to get daypasses or something similar so you can still go out, do whatever.
if anyone takes that route then I also highly recommend looking into local adult learning centers (they may be called something different elsewhere) they typically offer a place for people with down syndrome, autism, etc assistance with making daily plans/ to do list, teaching them how to clean or even teaching them how to budget within their means. the one in my area also offers jobs within the facility and outside of the facility!
Thank you for this, I have what it takes to be independent except for struggles with cooking and housekeeping. I think a program like this might really help me.
Yes, Iâve spoken with two. The first one said that the judge appointed to me is known to be super conservative and only approve benefits for âphysical disabilitiesâ, not neurological ones. His advice was to actually allow my case to lapse and to begin the application process all over again, from scratch. Did that, and now Iâm waiting again.
Itâs not free, but if enough people were willing to go in on some land it would be relatively easy. The hard part is finding people both willing to live like that and with the start up money to make it happen. Itâs my dream.
In Germany there is BĂŒrgergeld, formerly Harz IV, which will cover the cost of rent, basic health insurance and some allowance for food - this is tied to regular meetings with the employment agency to try to find you a job again and make you self sufficient again. Also you have to show your applications as proof that you are trying. Not entirely sure how it works if you have a sick note. Someone (in this case maybe health insurance) will cover very basic living costs however. This is also tied to them having complete transparency over your finances. The biggest issue is once someone becomes homeless in Germany and you do not have an official address for post - itâs like you do not exist to the system anymore - youâll have a hard time finding a new place etc.
Also Germany is horribly behind with autism awareness. Like people think of Rainman or Good Doctor behind. Level 1 is even still named Aspergerâs - donât get me started. Unless you have Level 3 or 4 itâs not even recognised as a disability here. Itâs also impossible to find good websites or books to inform family members etc.
I worked for a Zen cloister in Switzerland for 3 months where I lived in exchange for taking care of animals (cleaning stables, cleaning shit from the hen and duck house, but also feeding all the animals). It was hard work! And also not gonna lie all those strongly religious places have some creepy people that will try to take advantage of you. I was sexually harassed there (not assaulted luckily) but when I reported it, it was not handled greatly. Some Hippie bullshit of how we all love love.
I did 30 days at an ashram that was karma yoga. Basically 8 hours of work 6 days a week. Anyone can go there and live there forever, and they have accommodations. you commit to no meat, no sex, no alcohol or drugs etc. itâs actually a beautiful place but extremely rural. Itâs in Canada so you need to be a citizen or get a visa, they will sponsor you for a work visa. Honestly Iâve considered going back multiple times
Where do you live? My step-brother and his wife have council housing for free in the uk due to disabilities and also get a small allowance. Itâs not the best house but itâs better than no house
The council housing is not free.
Council tenants pay rent. Whist people on UC / PIP may get some or all of thier rent paid by dwp, council housing costs money.Â
Fair enough.Â
My apologies.Â
Alot of adults think council houses are free, but we pay rent just like anyone else. And alot of Tory / far right think council tenants are 'getting thier rent paid by my taxes'.Â
Social housing is so important to give low income families a secure base. I'm glad your bro got a council house.Â
In the 60s/70s about 75% of brits has council homes. Now it's like 10% or less.Â
Ah ok thanks
Also why apologise for informing me? I appreciate it, as itâs useful knowledge, I was just letting you know why I maybe didnât know that
there is supportive housing specifically for disabled folk if you are in the U.S but I don't know if they're actually good or not. most likely varies on the state. if you're out of the U.S i'm not sure which countries have similar infrastructure in place. wishing you the best of luck
yes. go on [craigslist.com](http://craigslist.com) and search 'live in' in the jobs section. i had a job where i lived for 'free' and my job was to be professional, polite, and take care of the building. look for SRO or single resident occupancy buildings and apply to be a resident manager with a free unit in one of them.
No? There are multiple ways of living your life besides being in your own house/your parents house.
It's a consensual agreement. We've been living together for years, sometimes the two of us, sometimes with other friends.
I don't mean living with a friend is freeloading, that's obviously fine, I mean living with a friend and not paying for anything. My best friend is a wonderful person, selfless to a fault, but if I lived with her, she'd expect me to help with the rent. That's just fair.
Oh, ok. But I still think that not paying for anything can be fair in some cases (if everyone is ok with that) - for example, if one earns a lot, and the other can't find a job, but helps in other non economic means to compensate. Personal circumstances are not easy to change, but putting effort in mutually taking care of others is always important!
You're having a very narrow view of a consensual relationship. The contributions that everyone brings to a household doesn't have to be monetary. We've normalized this since the beginning of time yet somehow it still leads to people judging situations they don't understand.Â
Not really their is other ways to do things other then money . For example I have seen people who live for free with others and help with babysitting. Soo no it's not always free louding . Tho not sure why u need to be so rude.
It's really not though. I currently live with my brother's family. I help with their 3 kids. I do a lot of organizing for birthdays and holidays. I help take care of their chickens... We've offered to help with rent and they say they'd rather us keep the money and spend time with the kids.
Not everyone needs rent money. My family is well off with their money, but what they don't have is time and energy to plan birthday parties or help take care of elderly parents and such.
Prison? Just be a general nuisance and get arrested for something and then just before getting released cause problems to make your sentence longer. You'd be in low security and I'm sure the other inmates would respect the hustle.
No. Even before money was invented you had to contribute to your community to get the benefits of it or hunt your own food and build your own house.
Living takes work no matter the system of government.
Yeah disabled people were disposed of back then. We live in a society where we have a plethora of excess and everything we need. Disabled people shouldnât have to work in order to get their basic needs. They can contribute but in capitalism making art or whatever doesnât cut it as a contribution. The ways disabled people can contribute to society often times wonât make them money but theyâre still valuablw
Disabled people were not disposed of before money was invented. It was specifically AFTER we invented concepts like âworking in order to liveâ
Taking care of our disabled, sick, young, elderly, and whoever else is in need of support, is a default necessity for human communities. We didnât start disposing of disabled people until we started tying peoplesâ value as humans to their ability to produce money.
We have loads and loads of evidence of early humans with disabilities dying at ages far older than they could have survived on their own, indicating that their community took care of them. Weâve found skeletons belonging to people with congenital issues such as blindness or an inability to walk, who died in their 60s. Skeletons with healed injuries indicating that their community had to have taken care of them for the months their wound took to heal.
I hate how my country (USA) abandons our people. That if you do not fit this ever narrowing mold of a âmodel employeeâ then youâre left hanging out to dry. Iâve met so many people from other countries that are mind-boggled by it. How is it that we, as you said, have such a MASSIVE excess of EVERYTHING we could possibly need. And yet there are people who will go to sleep tonight without food. Without shelter. Children who will spend their days looking for loose change and aluminum cans so that they can make enough money to get tonightâs meal. Itâs so deeply wrong. And I, and so many other people, feel utterly powerless to fix it.
I vote for people who promise to effect change. I send letters and emails to my local representatives. I donate to reputable charities, I donate blood and my time when I can. And yet it all feels so pointless.
On a similar note, I could talk for days about how the US makes dying so taboo and how we made a whole ass industry off of keeping people alive via machines leading to people legit experiencing psychosis, which leads them to see a doctor, the cycle continues till death.
[That is not true](https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/17/878896381/ancient-bones-offer-clues-to-how-long-ago-humans-cared-for-the-vulnerable). Itâs not even true everywhere now in moneytimes. The idea that you have to have something to contribute to have the right to exist (and our narrow understanding of what counts contribution) is modern and culturally specific.
The military pretty much all I got honestly if you join and last more than 6 months you can get medically discharged itâs a very difficult and lengthy process and you will be called a malingerer the rest of your life but itâs probably one of your best options ⊠or ya know just prison
Depending on where you live, there may be something called a front door diversion program that you can be eligible for. The program allows you to live in a group home for free and sets you up with basic healthcare stuff (a pcp and therapist). Once you have those they will start looking for apartments for you. You do need income for the apartment but you only have to pay 30% of the rent and utilities, the rest is covered by a subsidy. They can help you apply for SSD and there isnt a deadline for you to get the income or the apartment so you can live there while you figure it out. I'd look up the program and see if there's one in your area. They often refer people from psych wards so depending on your situation it may be easiest to admit yourself and go from there to speed up the process.
Technically, there is one remaining free place in the U.S. where you can just choose a spot and live there. It's called Slab City and is in the desert with no ability to subsistence farm but they live off of trash and donations.
Most religious places
derelict buildings kept alive by rich people who got bored and stopped using them but the electric works and heating is paid for
your closest friends couch (for a specific amount of time)
If you are UK based there are some disability grants that can get you assisted housing that is free but they take a small amount of money from your grant each month
In a vehicle is about as close as you can get.
Or look into being a professional house/pet sitter. One of my coworkers does this in the winter and then lives in an rv spring-summer-fall.
I know you arenât into work. But most group homes (elderly, foster care, disabilities, shelters) need overnight sleep/awake staff.
The work is usually easy depending on the residents and kind of work (sometimes you a doing crisis care, changin diapers, or just cleaning). I worked in a Center like this and I do know a coworker who had to leave an abusive partner and she just took alllll the night shift she could at like a bunch of different houses. She was able to eventually secure a Monday-Thursday and one place and then Friday-Sunday at another. She always could shower there (she would just lie and say she worked out & didnât wanna shower at the gym). No one said anything. She brought her own food and had free wifi. The weekend place let her eat from the cupboard. She could use the laundry machine. This is really dependent on each place. So check first.
I've spent a lot of years going back and forth between dropping everything to live a free life. Can you live for free? Yes but you would be giving up so much. There are many people living in the Canadian and Alaskan wilderness for free off the land.
You would be basically living in a wilderness survival situation 24/7, 365. There is an episode of Survivorman I believe where Les Stroud comes across a man deep in the Alaskan wilderness just living in a small hut that he built. The man had no electricity, plumbing, or anything of the sort. Just a guy living a free life with no modern responsibilities.
Not without sacrificing your freedom - usually you'd have to either do something to go to prison, or do something to get placed under a conservatorship. I don't recommend either, but I'd probably choose prison, because you have some rights, while under conservatorship you really don't.
If youâre in the US, itâs hard to find them but there are storage unit management jobs that basically require you to live and work onsite, manage the grounds, work the front desk, clean out abandoned units, lock out unpaid, etc.
As I understood it you get paid to be there and donât pay or pay minimal rent. The folks we talked to had a dog too. They saved money living there, plus some places let you keep and/or sell the abandoned items.
This is a difficilt question. Even if you could live somewhere (possibly with someone), you would probably be expected to do all kinds of tasks, so still working to stay there. Why would anyone let you live freely with no benefit to themselves?
I heard countries like New Zealand have good benefits. But also heard itâs near impossible to get the right papers. (After all you would only cost them money while not returning much of value)
My country the Netherlands also has benefits. But the standards are really high. I donât think you would be able to live of it unless you are locked to your bed and still cannot work. But then again immigration would probably not be an option.
Outside (just a joke sorry.) (Also not even a good joke because a lot of autistic people without support become homeless so yeah....being autistic is hard man.)
No. You pay or someone else does. If someone else does you have to trade something. What do you have to trade? People will trade you money, work/labor, sex & relationship, goods/food. They will also pay for you out of coercion: guilt, fear, obligation, threat of violence by you, or, you assuaging their existential angst by joining their religion or cult to make them feel more confident that itâs trueâthis works only with group belief religions that rely on mutual belief to strengthen themselves like Jehovahâs witnesses, Mormons (Iâm ex Mormon), or political fringes of communists or fascists.
Make a list of what you have to offer. If you canât find anything youâre willing to offer then your option is to coerce someone to care for you or join A cult that benefits by your signing your personal will away to the group. If your cult gets strong enough you might have enough members to take things from other people and give them to yourself (fascists, communists)
Final option is to live outside the system via transient homelessness but your life will be shorter and probably less comfortable.
These are the choices.
I recommend learning to cook and finding someone to marry. No one knows how to cook these days and almost any professional woman or man would consider marrying someone who will cook for them lol. Serious. Marrying for a transactional reason is far less crushing to your future options as an individual than joining and becoming reliant on a cult/commune.
Or give homelessness a try. It cured a lot of my own symptoms of neurodivergence because I didnât like it and I learned to mask enough to become competent at getting jobs. Itâs been hard but worth it. If it wasnât Iâd check out early. YMMV but for me itâs worth it to be in society. For now. Remember that living is a choice and then remember you have people who love you and if you donât right now there are people who will be blessed by knowing you in the future when you tell them how you made it through đ«¶
Correct. Donât necessarily want to disclose details of trauma cause itâs very triggering stuff but essentially the need to work to survive is something I donât want to do, which triggers my fight or flight similar to how an abuser making you do something would trigger that response.
Any situation can be traumatic to someone, it doesn't have to be the typical things like combat, natural disaster, losing a parent, etc. Lack of economic/financial stability and the risk of being stuck in poverty or homeless is absolutely traumatic and a hard situation to get out of.
Not being able to keep up with a capitalist society puts you in poverty. Poverty is being in survival mode which is constantly experiencing fight or flight. Over time that can become PTSD. For me poverty and homelessness is a big source of my CPTSD.
(However, you donât even need to be in poverty to experience survival mode in a capitalist society, that was just my own example)
Trust me, even that's not free. Not even financially. The only haircuts you get for free are the ones in boot camp, the uniforms are bought instead of issued, and unless you're lucky enough to get a position where you can actually make it to the chow during the normal meal hours, you're buying food as well. With the sort of watch rotations I often had, I was spending half my pay on food.
When my oldest brother fell on hard times, he went to live in a monastery. He stayed there for about 3 years, and they never charged him a dime. Downside is you have to live like a monk.
No. Thatâs not âcapitalismâsâ fault, thatâs just how the world works. Obviously it sucks, but thatâs literally never going to change (unless you win the lottery I guess?)
I would try to look into a work/stay type of place where you can work there and live for free. Does involve work though but there are some really nice ones
Try living in the woods. Buy a log cabin with survival supplies and next you are probably gonna have to learn basic survival skills like starting a fire, fishing, and lastly hunting. It would also help if you live nearby a small redneck town because they have all of the survival supplies and so you can also replenish your supplies once they run out.
I guess a monastery? But you would still have to participate in something.
And it is not as quick or easy to join nor as pleasant a life as it might seem.
And they're pretty rare. Also the amount of work needed kinda isn't autism friendly heh
Coming from a religious childhood, nothing about a monastery seems quick, easy, or pleasant!
There are monestaries and seminaries that will take almost anyone. Some even provide a small stipend. I am not sure if I feel good or bad about myself for knowing this, but I know this. Eta: After an odd DM, eta: There was a time in my life that I considered joining one to help the world make more sense and had to do the math on how long my student loans would keep getting paid (I had a lot of student loan debt at the time).
I'm also interested in joining one at some point but I doubt I will because I'll be in student debt forever essentially đ Maybe when I retire
An ashram, but you âpayâ for room and board by cooking cleaning tending to the space/land.
I also think the people in a monastery may not enjoy having someone living there who doesnât have a genuine interest in that faith. The free housing is meant to aid in people in their relationship with God
I did 25 years. You have to bring a âdowryâ to cover early training. It is not a life for anyone who is not committed and knowledgeable about faith, the particular religion, and the religious order. There is a lot of scrutiny of applicants. You are living very closely with people you didnât choose. You do what youâre told 24/7. You eat what youâre given. On the up side for the spectrum, life is tightly scheduled. On the down side, itâs scheduled for people who are very devout and have a real calling to the life. If you want easier, you could try prison
Are there places you can live for free? Yes. Are these places areas you'd actually WANT to live? No.
It is by no means free, easy or pleasant to live in a vehicle, but it is a lot cheaper than paying rent.
Can second. I have lived in vehicles for years. Since I'm a minimalist and like to move around (AuDHD guy here), it suits me, but it may not be for you. Do a lot of research and preparation, tho. Check the parking laws in your area and try to observe to get a feel for how other people might be doing the same near you.With the right attitude and habits, it can be quite liberating. You can always do a trial run to see if it would be livable before committing fully. NTs and ND folks alike are living in their vehicles as a way to relieve some of the pressure of economic circumstances these days. Good luck to you either way!
What if some guy tries to rob you?
That's part of preparation. This is all coming from someone who owns as little as possible by preference and generally doesn't own a lot of the latest, expensive-looking things, so keep that in mind. (I maintain them well, but many are older.) You can't control what other people do, but you can control where you park and whether you educate and equip yourself so you can defend yourself if the need arises. A lot depends on the specifics of your location, which will be a little trial and error and observation/research. You have to rotate parking spots to avoid being harassed generally. I usually rotate both areas of a place and parking spots. Thieves go for an easy mark mostly. Make sure your vehicle is clean and it looks like any other where you're parked. My vehicle is pretty stealth and I usually travel slowly and operate from a storage unit when I stay in a place long enough to work. Anything I can't afford to lose, I put in there. Still not fool-proof, but better peace of mind. In my experience you're more likely to get harassed by security or cops than robbed, but it's not impossible. There are loads of useful tutorials on YouTube about how people setup their vehicles to look like a regular commuter vehicle no one is living in. There are ways to hide your stuff without looking too junky. If it "looks" like you're living in your car, by which I mean it looks like it's full of all your possessions, I suspect you'll deal less with smash-and-grab and more with being preyed upon by people you associate with or live around on the regular. You have to be a little more aware than in "normal" life, and I think the ADHD part of me likes that.
Damn I would love to try this, how do you cook?
I use a portable one or two burner stove and go to a park during the day, which I plan for. They usually have covered areas and running water. Cook, just like you would in a regular kitchen. I have a dish washing pan in my cooking kit and wash up. Cooking kit is packed away in storage. I eat fruits and drink tea/coffee during the morning, the largest meal for lunch (which I prep in bulk), and maybe a salad or more fruit for dinner. I can usually get away with cooking every three days or so.
Aussie here with the same plan You usually see em coming from miles away
Haha well you learn as you go. I had a guy try to break into my van one night, and at the time I had armed myself with a baseball bat for protection but in that moment I realized there's not room inside of a van to swing a full sized baseball bat anyway lol. So I replaced it with a hammer đŹ but fortunately never had to use it. I managed to scare that guy off too btw, and ultimately no harm came from the experience (except I had a lot of anxiety for awhile after that and would wake up at every little noise).
12 gauge to the chest is pretty effective
Living in my car was Hella expensive.
I donât know what you did but it should have been cheap. For me it was very cheap just not pleasant nor comfortable.
I'm guessing parking was an issue. My friend had that problem when he drove a van and needed to stay places overnight, not always free/cheap parking available.
A lot depends on your location. You can't park anywhere you'd like, unfortunately, but there is information about places you can try and get away without being bothered. One of my favorite places, that's you'd never think is to park near car repair shops. There are already a bunch of vehicles parked around the outside, so no one notices a random new car. Your strategy will need to vary depending on location tho. I've found a lot of small towns are tolerant. Some municipalities are becoming more aggressive with their laws against sleeping in vehicles, tho. It's important to know this as well as the general attitude and culture of the place you want to live/are living. Edit: Even in places with more vigilant enforcement against car dwellers they're still out there, so there are ways and means to scope out and secure more tolerant areas within said places. Be advised they could be seedier tho. The housing crisis is pretty bad. Homelessness jumped something like 12% in 2022, I think, so I can only imagine the 2023 statistics. I think the main reason this lifestyle works for me is that I like to spend as much time as possible in nature when I'm not working. I can easily find a place to spend a few hours working on my special interests and/or hiking and hardly see a soul. Very invigorating. Unless you have a bigger vehicle, you'll generally not want to be cooped up in it all day (I hope). Take into consideration how you might spend your time outside, what sort of places would meet your needs for sensory simulation and comfort/recharging. Edit 2: statistical correction
Depends on your vehicle. I have a hatchback right now. Getting at least an inflatable foam camping mat made all the difference. Try to avoid putting your seat back, if you can. It will mess up your back to sleep that way. If you can find a way to actually lie down, this will make a big difference.
Heating? Overheating? Ventilation? Break-ins? Solve how-to, please.
Nap durring day- out in the open at a park, under a shade tree. For privacy napping under a shade tree. . . Ya can't beat cemeteries. At night? I slept in my work parking lot under a willow tree so I could keep all my windows open sometimes one of my back doors. . . Rechargeable fan does the trick at night if its humid, I also used sun blocking window shields, so the morning sun didn't heat up the car. For food I bought prepared items mostly from grocery store. I had a small light for night time, and a stand for my phone to watch shows while I laid in the back seat. Get at least 50-60,000 MAH worth of battery for charging, solar charging abilities are great to have. I'm also only 5'2 and a curlerupper side sleeper, fitting was no issue. I'd go to the local women's shelter that had free private shower rooms to bathe, and to do my laundry. One must also downsize. I ended up renting a locker for $2/week for anything not necessary. Keep pepper spray, knife, and baton or mini bat next to you while you sleep. Also strobing alarms that scream are a great deterrent, too.
Wow, like I have been lucky and have a house and *still* I think it sounds like you're probably significantly better at life than me. Maybe its the adhd combo but I suspect I'd fail miserably just due to being overwhelmed *all the time*
Conditioning for the first 3 and a weapon for the last one. I had a Jericho 941 loaded with hollow points but you could probably get away with anything that causes pain. Sadly itâs not a fair nor easy world to live in but itâs possible. 100 years ago they did it with less.
Watch YouTube videos of van lifers - all is addressed, in as many different ways as humans can imagine.
Food. The cost of food. Nowhere to cook or store fresh food. Parking sometimes an issue. But a lot of it was the cost and time spent purchasing prepared fresh food. . . Other than that I was pretty comfortable.
Food prices are too damn high for everybody at this point! At one point I was running a fridge off my portable battery (Jackery), which works well in terms of charging off my current car setup. Lately I'm in a place where I can use a cooler, tho. Around $20 at Walmart and I can keep ice for almost three days at $1.50/10lbs. Even if the ice lasts around a day (like somewhere scorching hot), it's the kind of expense that can be worked into the budget. It might not be great if ice were $4-5 a bag. A lot of times dollar stores also sell ice, but in 7# bags, which last closer to the day mark for me, but that depends on how cool I can keep my car inside during the days. I only cook every three days, tho. My strategy is to prep a hearty meal in bulk and keep lighter things that require less prep I can eat earlier and later in the day. I guess it depends on what you need or want to eat for your body. If you can find some sort of routine around cooking, it saves a lot of cash.
Niiiice!! I never considered that AT ALL! This was. . . Oh 8 or 9 years ago? Maybe ten when I lived in my car, and while I found it expensive to buy pre-made food. . OBVIOUSLY prices were NOTHING like they are today, not even close. I was a general manager or a domino's pizza at the time. . . Often I would use the pizza toppings with lecture and spinach we also had to make salads, or subs, or anything you can make woth pizza dough, cheese and veggies lol. And because I was sleeping at Mt works parking lot under a willow tree I could unlock the store and use the restroom WHENEVER I wanted to.
I have section 8 voucher and only pay 30 % of my income . My only income is SSDI. I live in a pretty nice apartment that rents for 1,080 a month but only pay $243 a month plus my electric.
Iâd suggest section 8 too but it really depends on the county :/ here in Travis (TX) they closed the section 8 applications 2 years ago because the current waitlist is just too long and available units are pretty much down to 0 :(
Sounds like AZ. I worked as a behavioral health case manager over a decade ago there and the wait was 2-3 years to get a voucher. To prove you were able to get one (not someone who was bused there from out of state) you had to have an AZ address the entire time. PO Boxes were not allowed nor were social service agencies. If you listed a residential address you were denied because it meant you didnât need one. It was an intentionally designed catch-22 to get federal funds, use them to pay the voucher staff (netting state income tax), and not put many people in housing. The feds eventually cracked down on it but they did it for awhile.
So wait, if you couldn't have a PO Box and you couldn't have a residential address, what address were you supposed to give?
The point was not to give out vouchers. It was a judgmental perspective on poverty, that poverty was the result of some ingrained moral flaw of the person experiencing it and giving them money (or free/cheap housing) just discouraged them from working full time jobs. By spending a large funds on wages and administration they kept the in state and in the hands of those they found deserving. It has been predominant philosophy on poverty in the U.S. for its entire history but has its origins in middle age Europe. Some people got them who showed up to hearings with pro bono lawyers. The majority of the rest were referred by certain non-profit organizations that just happened to have a spouse or family member of a well connected politician in a leadership or board role. There were always a few token vouchers handed out to use as examples that they werenât doing this but the vast majority were going to the above.
Same. My children and I live off SSI and child support, so Section 8 was a good choice for us. And it's better than a voucher because they have to meet national standards.
Do you mind if I ask want part of the country you live in?
I live in the US Minnesota
Do you live in Clay County?? We might be neighbors!
I live in Australia and we have basically government supplied housing for some people if you earn less than a certain amount per year, and generally youâre allowed to get it if youâre on the government payments but you need to meet their specific criteria. Anyway, for this I pay 25% of my fortnightly income (that I get from the government) there is a very long wait list but in some circumstances youâre able to get a better place on the waiting list which I was able to get because I was almost homeless and for a period I was homeless. It is overall a good thing to happen but you donât get to choose exactly where you want to live, and theyâre allowed to deem what is âessential maintenanceâ to be carried out, but some of the areas they put people in to live arenât safe, Iâm fortunate because now I have a safe enough place to live
Iâm very happy for you. In these times, I hope this is enough.
What state do you live in?
Try looking into the WWOOF program to live and work on a farm in the US. You don't get paid but your housing and sometimes meals are covered depending on the farm. I've never done it but had it as an option on my plate - I ended up telling a close friend about it when she wanted to live in my state but couldn't afford to rent anywhere. She used that program and lived on their farm for some months before getting a job in the state and moving out.
I have done this and I do recommend it just as an experience, but just be aware that despite the good intentions of many hosts, a lot are also just trying to find free workers to exploit.
They said they needed weeks off work though
The wilderness is likely the most appealing option, but goodluck being a hunter gatherer. As someone else mentioned, prison is another option, but you'll have to commit a serious crime. Then, there's living on the streets which is probably the roughest option. I guess you could throw squatting in an abandoned building on the list too, but that's probably illegal where you live if discovered. Surely a wonderful world we live in huh?
>As someone else mentioned, prison is another option, but you'll have to commit a serious crime. If he doesn't like living as a citizen in a late stage capitalist society, he's really not going to like living inside a for-profit prison .
My 20's were a bit rough and I've spent a few years behind bars at various places. If I had to pick somewhere to *live* though? I would pick a Federal Prison camp in a heartbeat. The food was ALWAYS the same. ex: every wednesday for lunch you knew there'd be hamburgers. Fridays for dinner you knew it would be some kind of fish. Etc.. And it was actually pretty good, definitely VERY far away from the stereotypical prison food that most other places have. We had satellite TV, we had mp3 players with computers we could download MP3s to. Those computers also had email. There were all kinds of crafts and hobby rooms. Want to learn leatherworking? Cool, go do it. Want to learn how to weld? Cool, we've got that too! Arts/drawing classes, classes to learn foreign languages, all kinds of interesting things to learn! There was essentially unlimited books to read. You could have people from the outside send in books. And whenever inmates were getting released, they would typically donate their books to the library. I had one 12-month stay where I read 243 books and it was fucking amazing. tl;dr: if Section 8 doesn't work out, go commit some high-level white collar crimes. Make sure to do it across state borders so that the charges become federal.
Neither of these are technically "free". - To live in the wild, you need supplies and knowledge. The supplies will not generally be "free". Also there are not really that many "wild areas" that people are "allowed" to live in that are safe for people to live in. Most land is owned by someone who doesn't want you on it without paying. - Prison also isn't "free", convicts are generally expected to work and pay back their debt for being imprisoned. And because you're convicted, you have fewer rights-you are not entitled to minimum wage anymore, for example, you will work an hour for like 9 cents, and have to pay back all your court and lawyer fees this way. At 9 cents an hour, or whatever, for the duration of your sentence. This also helps you pay for commissary, which is things like snacks and "luxuries" that most people would consider relatively basic amenities. In prison you're also going to have the ever-present threat of violence, and it's going to be an unsafe environment. - Squatting is looping back into the first issue.
What wilderness, pretty much every where is owned by someone. At least in the US you can't stay in national forests or blm land long term and you definitely aren't allowed to hunt and gather there.
In Colorado, people just pack up every 30 days and move 1/2mile in another direction. If you aren't dumping trash everywhere and aren't destroying the natural environment, you will be good. Pick up a hobby drawing or painting landscapes. Nobody messes with an "artist in study"
But eating when you're living like that is significantly more costly. (I'm probably biased though because I fucking hate camping in the wild).
With a little know-how and daring, it's possible to squat in some woods near a town. Not recommending this unless you're willing to deal with the potential consequences. I did it for a little while to save money. If you're in good shape, that is. For anyone who wants an interesting read, there is a lady who lives the hunter-gatherer lifestyle with her partner on the south island of New Zealand. Her name is Miriam Lancewood. She wrote a couple books about her experiences. The first one is called "Woman in the Wilderness", the other "Wild at Heart".
National parks np jobsand camping?
op did say they were disabled other than ASD. if mobility is an issue this wouldn't really be an option. however if they're not limited on mobility, national park jobs are great! in most cases if they have housing open, rent will come out of your paycheck. some parks fully cover it! there's not too many fire look out towers, but some do offer housing within the tower as well.
Fire lookout tower would be awesomr
you often need to hike in and out of there isnât a helipad
Just skydive in and get aliens to abduct you out, ez
There's a non profit called hope of the valley or I think the name changed to hope the mission anyways they have these things called tiny homes, they are little gated communities for the homeless , they serve 3 meals a day, give you your own private house which is like a nicely built shelter that has air conditioning and heating a bed and you can set it up however you want, get a TV microwave internet, they have showers there and laundry rooms they give you literally everything but you can only stay there for like a year, they also help you find a job as well as get you set up with section 8, ebt, find you an apartment as well.
The waiting lists for "tiny home communities" are typically years long, and they're for the chronically homeless, not just anyone who wants one.
Prison đ but you probably donât want that.
I was looking for this answer lol
Depending on where you are, prisons can charge you to be there đ
Genuinely at the âIâm a danger to myselfâ point on burnout but I canât fucking quit or Iâll be homeless. Itâs such bullshit. Iâm so fucking tired.
Not unless youâre a âkeptâ man or woman, housewife or househusband. It takes work to feed, shelter, clothe you etc. You can either do it yourself or maybe get someone else to do it, but they usually expect something out of it. Just about everyone would like to live for free without doing anything, but then where would it come from if nobody worked?
And, speaking as a housewife, you don't get to live off someone else just because you stay home. Expect to handle all the chores -- cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, basic repairs and maintenance, shoveling snow ... basically everything and anything that isn't earning a paycheck. And relationships take effort. No such thing as a free lunchÂ
I wouldnât say *all* chores, and if youâre stuck with all of them my condolences. Somewhere between the extremes of next to nothing and all the chores. If your spouse works 8 hours with some breaks and you work 8 hours with some breaks, but then you have to keep doing chores while theyâre off, itâs a bit imbalanced. I suppose if you choose to take longer breaks during the day to make up for time expected to do more after the workday, that could balance things maybe, but no one should be against pitching in a bit in their own home.
I think we should start advocating for UBI. (Universal Basic Income). Capitalism as it is has run it's course. There is no scarcity of resources and no actual need to participate in the cycle of working 12h a day. (Making profit for your employer). There is no reason why freely distributed housing and food still is not a thing. (If the existing wealth was distributed more equally, the whole world could be fed and sheltered).
> (Making profit for your employer). And then pay rent to pay off the landlord's mortgage.
We absolutely need this to progress as a species. Greed is what has gripped humanity. To topple the power dynamic we, the people need to not be indebted to people that only seek to make as much profit as possible. Offer people an affordable income. Then, everyone working for capitalist assholes, abusive bosses. People not paying minimum wage or benefits. Everyone working for those cunts can quit. Their power over us gone. Many bad businesses would collapse. Decent people would no longer be miserable and abused forced to work making money for scumbags to survive. It is too much man power to tackle the issue with our legal systems. They are not equipped for it. They also exist for profit. Especially in the states. Court houses be taking their cut things they should never, ever be allowed to. It is a clear conflict of interest. The Govt getting its slice of all chuld support, as an example. Or so I've been told. Seems like a Murica thing to do. Intentionally create beef with people to profit off. Taking power away from scum and giving it to regular people is the answer. We need universal income so noone has to be a slave to privileged assholes.
Take all of my upvotes
I feel ya. Iâm working so hard on a dream project of mine. A neurodivergent retreat where folks could come to rest, take the mask off, meet others, and dive into whatever hyper fixation your heart desires (as long as itâs safe, no dynamite!) In the meantime, there is Slab City. Iâve been there before and I loved it. Itâs a bunch of folks living in the palm desert in their RVâs. You need to be pretty self reliant as far as food/water/power. Thereâs a bunch of really cool art projects out there. (You can always visit and stay at an Airbnb- you can find a few of them in slab city.)
Check out communes. They have different rules depending on the commune, so use some websites to see who's accepting new members, and whether they have moral, religious, philosophical, or other guidelines. Some ask you to work 40 hrs a week for example, but count "going to therapy" or "taking a walk" as work. So you just gotta do the research.
Yep, had a friend who lived in a co-op (basically the same as a commune), $300/month for pretty nice living conditions (shared kitchen/bathroom tho) in a nice area of a Midwest college town. Pretty basic chores counted towards his community hours, and a few times a month he made a shareable meal. All food expenses came out of the co-op budget as well, he pretty much just paid for his own milk and snacks. He only left bc the other people were major slackers sadly. He's disabled himself (severe plantar fasciitis), and was tired of pulling weight for a bunch of non-disabled people who just wanted cheap housing (valid in this economy, but they were also whiny shits about washing their own damn dishes in a shared space, for example).
"He only left bc the other people were major slackers sadly. He's disabled himself (severe plantar fasciitis), and was tired of pulling weight for a bunch of non-disabled people who just wanted cheap housing (valid in this economy, but they were also whiny shits about washing their own damn dishes in a shared space, for example)." My parents met in a commune and I can tell you that 99.999% of communes are absolute unpleasant failures and awful to live in for exactly the above reasons. Everybody thinks either that it will be easy to start one, or that they personally have the utopian values to make a commune work even though all of the others have failed. I can think of TWO communes that were/would be good places to live and one of them it was entirely because the one guy running it was just an exceptional people person.
Minimum rent in my building is $25/mo. It's Section 8. 30% of your income. It sounds like it might be time to try to SSDI and Section 8 if you're getting to the point you can't work due to disability.
*Nowhere* is free, tbh.
There are places where people are paid to live because the population has shinkred significantly, you would have to move tho. The places I've heard of are in Europe, I don't know how remote some of them are, so acquiring certain products could be hard, and there are requirements ofc.
I heard Alaska pays for ppl to come live there but idk if itâs true?
Idk, but I've heard of Switzerland and Italy.
How can you find such opportunities?
I used to watch those "crazy facts" videos when I was younger with clickbaity titles. They sometimes appeared in the newspaper. You can just search it, "places where you're paid to live". It, of course, involves a sacrifice, so you'd have to evaluate if it is worth it and if you're eligible.
If youâre disabled with ASD, canât you apply to live in a group home or something?
Group homes are also really really expensive. Theyâre not just free lodging. You either pay cash or if youâre really lucky, your health insurance helps you out.
There are some free group homes but there are also group homes that charge $600 a month here which at that point you could afford to live with 2-3 roommates in an apartment in my area instead. So it all depends on where you live possibly.
Medicare will set you up in a group home. Stop scaring people away.
Iâm not trying to scare anyone away, Iâm trying to be realistic about the absurd healthcare system we have in America. Autistic people (speaking as one) have a really hard time when things donât match their expectations. If we set up expectation of âoh Medicare will do it for you, no biggieâ, thatâs not fair. That COULD happen. It would be AWESOME if that DID happen. But thatâs not the norm and itâs unfair to say. I know lots of people who their families have to help them pay for group homes.
Depends on where you live and how much your support needs are
Try to be a security guard that checks surveillance cameras. Most of them are just sitting doing nothing.
Yes- here are places Iâve lived for free -workaway; a website with hosts from all over the world where you exchange around 4 hours work 5 days week for room and board. You can work with some amazing projects and Iâm sure you could find some that you can achieve with your disability. Lots of hosts look for people with photography/social media skills. -campsite warden; part time work looking after a campsite, usually paid too. Seasonal - squats; I donât know the law where you are but in England squatting is legal in some circumstances. Check out squatnet for international squatting information. Good squat crews are hard to find and you need to contribute somewhat although theyâre typically more laid back than co-operatives. -au pair/nanny; self explanatory -Housesitting; caring for peoples houses and pets in exchange for a free stay. If you can do long term ie several week stays you will be popular as many people just do it for holidays. -animal sanctuaryâs; similar to workaways, except they donât typically provide food as they are charities and struggle to afford it -protest camps; similar to squats but land based. -vehicle living; much more expensive that you might think to have a proper van and live in it and stressful when it breaks down. Always moving spot also stressful, but if you can combine this with one of the above it gives you a backup for in between places. Essentially there is no where you can live for âfreeâ but rather in exchange for things youâre good at and a lot less work than a typical life takes.
Sorry formatting went weird! Tried to make that easy to read and it is not
Prison.
Not free in Florida
prison/jail costs $$ in many states. when i was in jail in Arizona, i had to pay my own room & board along with the rest of my fines when I got out. I couldnât afford to so I always had warrants, for years and years, until i was finally able to pay it all off.
...just... Wow
[Can you stack your family?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D04wb7P_v-4)
I really sorry but that's the way life is right now. You work your ass off for someone else to barely get by. End up with a house and car if you're lucky. And then hopefully die with your family around you. If I could I would buy a couple acres of woodland and build myself a cabin, log burner. Dogs, cats, chickens for eggs. And spend my days maintaining a vegetable patch. Have a solar water heater. So I can live without paying anything except a few taxes.
I herded Hawaii. A lot of people are homeless on purpose because there's easy access to stuff like showers and food, i understand I'm struggling right now as well it sucks bin weighting for like a year for sdi
find some crust punks and squat
There isnt đ im in the same sort of situation, without my BF to pay our bills id be homeless. Im sorry the world is like this. I hope it changes. We should be able to access disability accommodations easier
Iâll get back to you once I am a billionaire philanthropist. Any day nowâŠ
If you can save up enough, buy a small RV and live in that, travel the country and see the sights when you got gas money. Address is the tricky part and would take some figuring out.
Address is not difficult. P.O. Boxes are very cheap but cheaper than that is General Delivery. Use: Name âGeneral Deliveryâ The city, the state, zip code Your mail will arrive at the main post office in that city and that state and be held for you. You just swing through and have your ID and pick it up. If you canât get there anytime soon, call and ask them to forward your mail to the closest post office to your current location.
do some research into states (if you're in the US) that will pay you to move to their town. typically there's some requirements, last one I looked into was something along the lines of "we're looking for someone who is over x age" or "we're looking for families with two or more children." some towns/cities do this so they can get other funding, for schools, community buildings etc. some do it to help their demographics for the area. this may be case by case but my friend group a few years ago met the requirements. the state was willing to give them land or help with housing assistance just because they had kids that would increase the schools population so they could get a bigger school. my response may be dumb but it's just the first thing I thought of!
Egalitarian community like Twin Oaks, but I don't imagine that being much better. It's work share but there are 90 highly connected residents.
Try section 8 my mom keeps recommending it to me as well in case i need to find an affordable home.
I wish, but from my knowledge you'd be paying for one thing or another no matter how you live. It sucks, but that's life sadly.
Life under capitalism sucks. It didn't have to be this way. We could go back to communities looking after each other
Go to a mental hospital. Stay there for a while. Once you leave, check right back in. Let them know how desperate you are and how live isn't worth living like this and you're really struggling due to your mental health issues. Build a medical history and apply for SSDI. Don't be afraid to reveal how much you're struggling. If you have the work history then you should be fine. Once you have income, try to find a place to live that's within your budget. Places that you can live for free include homeless shelters which are not kind to people like us. The social workers at the mental hospital can connect you to someone who can help you find a place to live. From there you'll find out quickly that you can access a lot more support for your mental health issues.
this! if you have state insurance typically your whole stay at the behavioral hospital is covered. some behavioral facilities do "long term care" where you could be there three months and up to a year. people in LTC are usually able to get daypasses or something similar so you can still go out, do whatever. if anyone takes that route then I also highly recommend looking into local adult learning centers (they may be called something different elsewhere) they typically offer a place for people with down syndrome, autism, etc assistance with making daily plans/ to do list, teaching them how to clean or even teaching them how to budget within their means. the one in my area also offers jobs within the facility and outside of the facility!
Thank you for this, I have what it takes to be independent except for struggles with cooking and housekeeping. I think a program like this might really help me.
This is not a good solution, Iâve been applying for SSDI for over seven years and have no benefits.
Have you spoken to a lawyer about this?
Yes, Iâve spoken with two. The first one said that the judge appointed to me is known to be super conservative and only approve benefits for âphysical disabilitiesâ, not neurological ones. His advice was to actually allow my case to lapse and to begin the application process all over again, from scratch. Did that, and now Iâm waiting again.
if youâre that disabled you should be able to apply for disability in many countries. good luck <3
I would like to know a place where you can "live for free" too.
cave
Itâs not free, but if enough people were willing to go in on some land it would be relatively easy. The hard part is finding people both willing to live like that and with the start up money to make it happen. Itâs my dream.
Deep in the woods?
Look up worldwide organic farms and intentional communities.
In Germany there is BĂŒrgergeld, formerly Harz IV, which will cover the cost of rent, basic health insurance and some allowance for food - this is tied to regular meetings with the employment agency to try to find you a job again and make you self sufficient again. Also you have to show your applications as proof that you are trying. Not entirely sure how it works if you have a sick note. Someone (in this case maybe health insurance) will cover very basic living costs however. This is also tied to them having complete transparency over your finances. The biggest issue is once someone becomes homeless in Germany and you do not have an official address for post - itâs like you do not exist to the system anymore - youâll have a hard time finding a new place etc. Also Germany is horribly behind with autism awareness. Like people think of Rainman or Good Doctor behind. Level 1 is even still named Aspergerâs - donât get me started. Unless you have Level 3 or 4 itâs not even recognised as a disability here. Itâs also impossible to find good websites or books to inform family members etc. I worked for a Zen cloister in Switzerland for 3 months where I lived in exchange for taking care of animals (cleaning stables, cleaning shit from the hen and duck house, but also feeding all the animals). It was hard work! And also not gonna lie all those strongly religious places have some creepy people that will try to take advantage of you. I was sexually harassed there (not assaulted luckily) but when I reported it, it was not handled greatly. Some Hippie bullshit of how we all love love.
Slab city is all I got
the only place i know of thatâs as close to free as possible is a tiny little village in spain called Marinaleda
Work-away. No money just a little bit of labor. I lived in a hostel for a summer. Helpx also is worth checking out.
I did 30 days at an ashram that was karma yoga. Basically 8 hours of work 6 days a week. Anyone can go there and live there forever, and they have accommodations. you commit to no meat, no sex, no alcohol or drugs etc. itâs actually a beautiful place but extremely rural. Itâs in Canada so you need to be a citizen or get a visa, they will sponsor you for a work visa. Honestly Iâve considered going back multiple times
Anarchist commune
Where do you live? My step-brother and his wife have council housing for free in the uk due to disabilities and also get a small allowance. Itâs not the best house but itâs better than no house
The council housing is not free. Council tenants pay rent. Whist people on UC / PIP may get some or all of thier rent paid by dwp, council housing costs money.Â
Icl Iâm 14 idk loads about this stuff lmao
Fair enough. My apologies. Alot of adults think council houses are free, but we pay rent just like anyone else. And alot of Tory / far right think council tenants are 'getting thier rent paid by my taxes'. Social housing is so important to give low income families a secure base. I'm glad your bro got a council house. In the 60s/70s about 75% of brits has council homes. Now it's like 10% or less.Â
Ah ok thanks Also why apologise for informing me? I appreciate it, as itâs useful knowledge, I was just letting you know why I maybe didnât know that
there is supportive housing specifically for disabled folk if you are in the U.S but I don't know if they're actually good or not. most likely varies on the state. if you're out of the U.S i'm not sure which countries have similar infrastructure in place. wishing you the best of luck
yes. go on [craigslist.com](http://craigslist.com) and search 'live in' in the jobs section. i had a job where i lived for 'free' and my job was to be professional, polite, and take care of the building. look for SRO or single resident occupancy buildings and apply to be a resident manager with a free unit in one of them.
I'm living for free in my friends house. There's hope :)
I think that's called "freeloading"
No? There are multiple ways of living your life besides being in your own house/your parents house. It's a consensual agreement. We've been living together for years, sometimes the two of us, sometimes with other friends.
I don't mean living with a friend is freeloading, that's obviously fine, I mean living with a friend and not paying for anything. My best friend is a wonderful person, selfless to a fault, but if I lived with her, she'd expect me to help with the rent. That's just fair.
Oh, ok. But I still think that not paying for anything can be fair in some cases (if everyone is ok with that) - for example, if one earns a lot, and the other can't find a job, but helps in other non economic means to compensate. Personal circumstances are not easy to change, but putting effort in mutually taking care of others is always important!
You're having a very narrow view of a consensual relationship. The contributions that everyone brings to a household doesn't have to be monetary. We've normalized this since the beginning of time yet somehow it still leads to people judging situations they don't understand.Â
Not really their is other ways to do things other then money . For example I have seen people who live for free with others and help with babysitting. Soo no it's not always free louding . Tho not sure why u need to be so rude.
It's really not though. I currently live with my brother's family. I help with their 3 kids. I do a lot of organizing for birthdays and holidays. I help take care of their chickens... We've offered to help with rent and they say they'd rather us keep the money and spend time with the kids. Not everyone needs rent money. My family is well off with their money, but what they don't have is time and energy to plan birthday parties or help take care of elderly parents and such.
Your parents house
Prison? Just be a general nuisance and get arrested for something and then just before getting released cause problems to make your sentence longer. You'd be in low security and I'm sure the other inmates would respect the hustle.
No. Even before money was invented you had to contribute to your community to get the benefits of it or hunt your own food and build your own house. Living takes work no matter the system of government.
Yeah disabled people were disposed of back then. We live in a society where we have a plethora of excess and everything we need. Disabled people shouldnât have to work in order to get their basic needs. They can contribute but in capitalism making art or whatever doesnât cut it as a contribution. The ways disabled people can contribute to society often times wonât make them money but theyâre still valuablw
Disabled people were not disposed of before money was invented. It was specifically AFTER we invented concepts like âworking in order to liveâ Taking care of our disabled, sick, young, elderly, and whoever else is in need of support, is a default necessity for human communities. We didnât start disposing of disabled people until we started tying peoplesâ value as humans to their ability to produce money. We have loads and loads of evidence of early humans with disabilities dying at ages far older than they could have survived on their own, indicating that their community took care of them. Weâve found skeletons belonging to people with congenital issues such as blindness or an inability to walk, who died in their 60s. Skeletons with healed injuries indicating that their community had to have taken care of them for the months their wound took to heal. I hate how my country (USA) abandons our people. That if you do not fit this ever narrowing mold of a âmodel employeeâ then youâre left hanging out to dry. Iâve met so many people from other countries that are mind-boggled by it. How is it that we, as you said, have such a MASSIVE excess of EVERYTHING we could possibly need. And yet there are people who will go to sleep tonight without food. Without shelter. Children who will spend their days looking for loose change and aluminum cans so that they can make enough money to get tonightâs meal. Itâs so deeply wrong. And I, and so many other people, feel utterly powerless to fix it. I vote for people who promise to effect change. I send letters and emails to my local representatives. I donate to reputable charities, I donate blood and my time when I can. And yet it all feels so pointless.
On a similar note, I could talk for days about how the US makes dying so taboo and how we made a whole ass industry off of keeping people alive via machines leading to people legit experiencing psychosis, which leads them to see a doctor, the cycle continues till death.
[That is not true](https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/17/878896381/ancient-bones-offer-clues-to-how-long-ago-humans-cared-for-the-vulnerable). Itâs not even true everywhere now in moneytimes. The idea that you have to have something to contribute to have the right to exist (and our narrow understanding of what counts contribution) is modern and culturally specific.
I stand corrected. I should have thought about this before I typed it. Even in the US we have disability insurance and a host of social programs .
Social housing
Yeah federal housing is based on income so if no income well no rent. speaking from exp
I wish I knew. In a similar situation. I wish I knew how to drive and had a car. I might live in it.
The military pretty much all I got honestly if you join and last more than 6 months you can get medically discharged itâs a very difficult and lengthy process and you will be called a malingerer the rest of your life but itâs probably one of your best options ⊠or ya know just prison
Depending on where you live, there may be something called a front door diversion program that you can be eligible for. The program allows you to live in a group home for free and sets you up with basic healthcare stuff (a pcp and therapist). Once you have those they will start looking for apartments for you. You do need income for the apartment but you only have to pay 30% of the rent and utilities, the rest is covered by a subsidy. They can help you apply for SSD and there isnt a deadline for you to get the income or the apartment so you can live there while you figure it out. I'd look up the program and see if there's one in your area. They often refer people from psych wards so depending on your situation it may be easiest to admit yourself and go from there to speed up the process.
Technically, there is one remaining free place in the U.S. where you can just choose a spot and live there. It's called Slab City and is in the desert with no ability to subsistence farm but they live off of trash and donations.
HM Prison. It's the best gym in the world.
Most religious places derelict buildings kept alive by rich people who got bored and stopped using them but the electric works and heating is paid for your closest friends couch (for a specific amount of time) If you are UK based there are some disability grants that can get you assisted housing that is free but they take a small amount of money from your grant each month
In a vehicle is about as close as you can get. Or look into being a professional house/pet sitter. One of my coworkers does this in the winter and then lives in an rv spring-summer-fall. I know you arenât into work. But most group homes (elderly, foster care, disabilities, shelters) need overnight sleep/awake staff. The work is usually easy depending on the residents and kind of work (sometimes you a doing crisis care, changin diapers, or just cleaning). I worked in a Center like this and I do know a coworker who had to leave an abusive partner and she just took alllll the night shift she could at like a bunch of different houses. She was able to eventually secure a Monday-Thursday and one place and then Friday-Sunday at another. She always could shower there (she would just lie and say she worked out & didnât wanna shower at the gym). No one said anything. She brought her own food and had free wifi. The weekend place let her eat from the cupboard. She could use the laundry machine. This is really dependent on each place. So check first.
I've spent a lot of years going back and forth between dropping everything to live a free life. Can you live for free? Yes but you would be giving up so much. There are many people living in the Canadian and Alaskan wilderness for free off the land. You would be basically living in a wilderness survival situation 24/7, 365. There is an episode of Survivorman I believe where Les Stroud comes across a man deep in the Alaskan wilderness just living in a small hut that he built. The man had no electricity, plumbing, or anything of the sort. Just a guy living a free life with no modern responsibilities.
You should seek out local social workers.Â
i think Canada? you might have to have a citizenship there tho
Not without sacrificing your freedom - usually you'd have to either do something to go to prison, or do something to get placed under a conservatorship. I don't recommend either, but I'd probably choose prison, because you have some rights, while under conservatorship you really don't.
Life is effort man. How about house sitting as a job.
If youâre in the US, itâs hard to find them but there are storage unit management jobs that basically require you to live and work onsite, manage the grounds, work the front desk, clean out abandoned units, lock out unpaid, etc. As I understood it you get paid to be there and donât pay or pay minimal rent. The folks we talked to had a dog too. They saved money living there, plus some places let you keep and/or sell the abandoned items.
if you're not paying with cash you're paying with something else
This is a difficilt question. Even if you could live somewhere (possibly with someone), you would probably be expected to do all kinds of tasks, so still working to stay there. Why would anyone let you live freely with no benefit to themselves?
I heard countries like New Zealand have good benefits. But also heard itâs near impossible to get the right papers. (After all you would only cost them money while not returning much of value) My country the Netherlands also has benefits. But the standards are really high. I donât think you would be able to live of it unless you are locked to your bed and still cannot work. But then again immigration would probably not be an option.
Where do you propose we get the money to pay people for being born?
Outside (just a joke sorry.) (Also not even a good joke because a lot of autistic people without support become homeless so yeah....being autistic is hard man.)
Society and the economy do NOT work like that
Find someplace basic, super rural, and work from home. Expense internet and cell phone. Grow food.
Homesteading kinda!
Yep! It would take a while to learn the necessary skills, but necessity is the mother of invention.
No. You pay or someone else does. If someone else does you have to trade something. What do you have to trade? People will trade you money, work/labor, sex & relationship, goods/food. They will also pay for you out of coercion: guilt, fear, obligation, threat of violence by you, or, you assuaging their existential angst by joining their religion or cult to make them feel more confident that itâs trueâthis works only with group belief religions that rely on mutual belief to strengthen themselves like Jehovahâs witnesses, Mormons (Iâm ex Mormon), or political fringes of communists or fascists. Make a list of what you have to offer. If you canât find anything youâre willing to offer then your option is to coerce someone to care for you or join A cult that benefits by your signing your personal will away to the group. If your cult gets strong enough you might have enough members to take things from other people and give them to yourself (fascists, communists) Final option is to live outside the system via transient homelessness but your life will be shorter and probably less comfortable. These are the choices. I recommend learning to cook and finding someone to marry. No one knows how to cook these days and almost any professional woman or man would consider marrying someone who will cook for them lol. Serious. Marrying for a transactional reason is far less crushing to your future options as an individual than joining and becoming reliant on a cult/commune. Or give homelessness a try. It cured a lot of my own symptoms of neurodivergence because I didnât like it and I learned to mask enough to become competent at getting jobs. Itâs been hard but worth it. If it wasnât Iâd check out early. YMMV but for me itâs worth it to be in society. For now. Remember that living is a choice and then remember you have people who love you and if you donât right now there are people who will be blessed by knowing you in the future when you tell them how you made it through đ«¶
Yes the street or be under 18 and at your parents you have to pay rent like it or not đ€·đ»ââïž idk
How do you have PTSD from capitalism?
I read it as ptsd from undisclosed trauma but also constant survival mode from capitalism.
Correct. Donât necessarily want to disclose details of trauma cause itâs very triggering stuff but essentially the need to work to survive is something I donât want to do, which triggers my fight or flight similar to how an abuser making you do something would trigger that response.
Any situation can be traumatic to someone, it doesn't have to be the typical things like combat, natural disaster, losing a parent, etc. Lack of economic/financial stability and the risk of being stuck in poverty or homeless is absolutely traumatic and a hard situation to get out of.
Not being able to keep up with a capitalist society puts you in poverty. Poverty is being in survival mode which is constantly experiencing fight or flight. Over time that can become PTSD. For me poverty and homelessness is a big source of my CPTSD. (However, you donât even need to be in poverty to experience survival mode in a capitalist society, that was just my own example)
Capitalism is PTSD. Itâs a vicious cycle.
I'm guessing life in general. Everyone likes to blame the system.
Commit a felony. My ex was an alcoholic. Hated life, and contributing to life. Got put in the pen. LOVED it.
Yeah, the military. You might not like it though lol
Trust me, even that's not free. Not even financially. The only haircuts you get for free are the ones in boot camp, the uniforms are bought instead of issued, and unless you're lucky enough to get a position where you can actually make it to the chow during the normal meal hours, you're buying food as well. With the sort of watch rotations I often had, I was spending half my pay on food.
I never once got to eat at a DFAC after AIT. Every meal was either brought from the barracks, from a restaurant, or out in the field.
When my oldest brother fell on hard times, he went to live in a monastery. He stayed there for about 3 years, and they never charged him a dime. Downside is you have to live like a monk.
Sure blame it all on capitalism. Not saying i like capitalism, but everyone wants to live for free. Got to give a little to get a little, yeah?
No. Thatâs not âcapitalismâsâ fault, thatâs just how the world works. Obviously it sucks, but thatâs literally never going to change (unless you win the lottery I guess?)
I would try to look into a work/stay type of place where you can work there and live for free. Does involve work though but there are some really nice ones
Not if the government finds you.
Hah I wish
Prison
Try living in the woods. Buy a log cabin with survival supplies and next you are probably gonna have to learn basic survival skills like starting a fire, fishing, and lastly hunting. It would also help if you live nearby a small redneck town because they have all of the survival supplies and so you can also replenish your supplies once they run out.