Your emergency survival kit, a 🧵

The beauty of being homeless is that you can easily evacuate from a dangerous environment and you may be the best-prepared at an evacuation point. You are already carrying everything you need to survive.

But there are still specific things you need to acquire in case of an emergency.

Your emergency pack will be unique for you but it’s a good idea to work off a standard framework.

Let's go!

https://www.redcross.org.au/prepare/

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#EatingMyRent
#HouselessCats
#Homelessness
#DisasterPreparedness
#Emergency
#Evacuation

#Introduction

I am a single childless cat lady in Australia living in a tent with two rescue cats. Deliberate government policies forced me into homelessness.

But I am also resilient, self-reliant and resourceful, and I have decades of outdoors and solo-travelling experience. I want to take my existing experience and my new skill set and share it here so that anyone on the cusp of homelessness can benefit.

My advice will be skewed towards older women who are the fastest growing cohort of homeless people in Australia and who may lack the skills for living an itinerant life but there will be something for everyone.

I have a thread library to assist anyone who may find themselves homeless. Bookmark this post to easily find it and favourite it to be notified of any edits:
https://mastodon.au/@Jacquetta/113155747580097990

These threads may be useful if you’re camping or if you’re in an emergency weather situation. A lot intersects, and you’ll find posts within threads that may have a hashtag and/or link to another post/thread.

My hashtags:
#EatingMyRent Life as a homeless person
#HouselessCats Life on the road with homeless cats
#JacquettasKitchen Everything related to food and food preparation
#JacquettasCamping Gear reviews and hacks using stuff not usually associated with camping

Hashtags I use:
#Homelessness
#Camping

I rarely use content warnings. I want the ugly reality of my life on full display and content warning my own life doesn’t sit well with me. Homelessness shouldn’t be sanitised. I make full use of the ‘Australian vernacular’ as we are a nation that indulges in fruity language. This may bother you, but I hope not as much as being forced into homelessness does.

Please come along and enjoy the uncomfortable ride. Embrace being shocked. Start conversations about what it’s like to be homeless. Shut down the blame factory. We are all one awful life event or one bad decision away from homelessness.

Housing is a human right. It shouldn’t be a government-assisted Ponzi scheme.

You’re about to become homeless, a 🧵

I’m going to methodically talk you through what to do if you are faced with leaving your current home and you have no idea where you’re going to sleep. I’m not including the obvious things like dealing with your possessions and finalising your current living arrangements.

It’s an extremely stressful time and it’s difficult to think clearly. I kept thinking I had things under control and then I’d think of something important I should do and factoring that in on a tight schedule was horrendous.

It’s a good idea to prioritise what needs to be done while you’re still housed versus what can be managed after you become homeless. Your finances are going to take a hit and you will have to prioritise what you can afford. I am going to offer some budget options in this thread as a stop gap measure and I’ll indicate where I believe you should be directing whatever cash you have (and why).

But becoming homeless is unique to you. There are some things that everyone will need to think about and there are specifics which will depend on your ties to your current area, whether you are employed, whether you have children, whether you have a pet, and what skills you might have.

If you have children, your circumstances are going to be extremely different to mine and your approach will be catered to their needs. Please cherry pick anything useful from this thread. I have seen women with children on the road and, where I can, I will post anything that might be of use.

Facing homelessness with a pet is vastly different so I am going to provide two checklists: homeless humans and homeless pets.

There is a lot to cover and this thread is enormous so I’ll be adding links everywhere to direct you.

Let’s go!

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#EatingMyRent
#HouselessCats
#Homelessness
#Homeless