Some of my homeless friends gave me 'rules' for surviving the streets:

1. Never trust anyone. Your best friend will rob you when they need a fix. You can never let your guard down.
2. Don't sleep on the streets. People will rob you, if you are lucky. If you are unlucky you will be killed. Stay awake at night. Sleep during the day. If you really need to sleep during the night stay in a public place so people see you. Do not hide in a dark alley, if you get found by the wrong people you will be cold in the morning.
3. Carry a knife, but a bottle is even better. The police might arrest you with a knife and take it away. Carry a beer bottle and train yourself to hit it on the road like people do in the films so you can use it as a weapon. Nobody wants to get stabbed by glass. It cuts through human flesh like a knife through butter. Make sure you train to break the bottle. It is not as easy as it looks in the films.
4. Stay in groups. Being alone means an easier target for muggers.
5. When people on the street ask you the time don't get your phone out. Remember most homeless people have no appointments planned for the rest of their lives. They only want to check out your phone and see if it's worth robbing you for.


 6. Blend in. Act like wherever you are you belong there. It doesn't matter if you don't, but don't show it. Don't look shifty. When people follow you move towards other people.
7. Make friends. The more people know you the more chance you have of staying alive. Everybody is a potential friend and everybody is a potential enemy.
8. Keep moving. Don't become a creature of habit. The people who follow you will work out where you sleep and what you do. So don't fall in easy routines.
9. Learn the above quickly. If you want to live you need to become street wise. Every day you survive is a graduation to celebrate, but don't. Never become complacent. Danger is just around the next corner.

These are the 'rules' from my homeless friends. These are their harsh realities of living on the streets. Nobody should live in emotional, physical and spiritual poverty like this! (Tweet This)

How do you live a life not trusting anyone? How do you always stay alert? How does one always watch their back? It must be emotionally and physically exhausting.


All of my homeless friends have been robbed, beaten and attacked numerous times. One of my friends said this: "The hardest thing about living on the streets is that you can never relax. You always have to be switched on. You can never go home."

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