by Raymond L. Marr

Created on: December 12, 2007

My reflections on being homeless for the holidays, is the article that follows from a first person point of view starts in the simplest things I have been without a home over the holidays, I dealt with this, with survival first hand, so whether you are looking for a personal viewpoint or an informative article the hope is this could be both, by all accounts I am a regular person, now living life like most others do, working to pay the rent and renting to live, it was two years previous to this that I was not in such a state. I had lost the job I had and the market was not looking to promising, I did what I could day labor and the such but it was never enough to pay the rent, eat and to live. I kept to it though, by day I would work hard and if I lined up a job in the night I would work the night through. when the job was only during the day, then I would have to find a place to sleep for the night, at one point I was sleeping behind a building in a sleeping bag, and waking in the morning early to see if I could find some work. I was fortunate by most consideration, as during this time I did have my bike, which afforded me a way to travel job to job, whether it be a 30 minute ride or a 2 hour ride as it was once, when I went to a job in Hollister for about three weeks of steady income. I often had the tendency to do my best, and get to where I needed to go whatever it may of took the result an avid cyclist though that is a different story.

The months continued to pass me by, and before I knew it the weather had gotten colder, and the lights in the town had gone up, it was the holidays, well the beginning thereof. So though it was the time of year, I decided to continue doing what I could to improve my situation, to have my own place and perhaps enjoy the holidays at some point before the new year.

I had lined up two jobs at this point, one in the daytime, welding, building. Another at night cleaning and sterilizing machines, and both were constant. Finally I had the opportunity to improve my situation, though difficult as it was I worked close to 16 hour days, slept a few hours in a local motel, which later I found was not the best idea with the price gouging. I also worked the weekend, once I had the vehicle and a goal I stuck to it, regardless of the hours of time that passed, I was focused on my objective to better my own situation.

Then the moment came, a co-worker of mine, I had been speaking with, said I could rent a room in his house, I agreed but wanted

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