[bittercynic]

There's degrees of homelessness. At first you're sleeping on a friend's couch or something. By the time someone is actually living on the street or in a shelter they have burned those relationships.

Source: have had a friend slide into homelessness. It was horrible for all friends and family, and probably worst of all for the one becoming homeless.

[devoutsalsa]

Honestly, I decided to go straight to homelessness because I didn't want to strain my personal relationships any further. I tried talking to friends about needing a place to stay. But being in San Francisco, everyone's house was tiny & expensive. They simply didn't have a place for me. I talked with my parents about moving home, and they would have let me stay there, but they also said they weren't thrilled at the idea of having a broke, depressed adult dependent living in their house & asking for money/food/everything. I would have gone home if I REALLY had to, but I managed to get myself to stability before needing to do that.

[mdip]

Good point about burning those relationships. As I mentioned previously about "addiction", if you've ever had a family member who's an addict, you can see real quickly how those relationships get burned.

After you've elected to trust that individual one more time only to find the last remaining valuables you owned have been pawned for a fix.