Family.
Family is far away, but I think we have friends who would take us in. But as long as we lost only the house, and not our jobs, we’d only need time to find a new apartment.
My family and his are both local. We’d be okay until we could get back on our feet. But it would Not Be Fun.
I’d be on the streets or in my car or something. Sure, I have family, most with more room in their homes (and vacation homes) than they’d ever need, and I love them all, but there is no way I would ever muster up the balls to ask any of them if I could stay with them for any length of time, no matter what.
And I’m not so keen on offering up my space. My sister sent me a text message some time last year asking if she and her young son could come stay with us for awhile. My answer was a polite no to her, but a “Hell No!” in my head. And my 22 year old son is currently pretty much homeless, basically couch surfing everywhere he can. My house is not among them.
I don’t think any of my family would let me live in the street, but none of them would love to take me in, either.
Anecdote:
When I had to escape from my ex husband in 2004 I went to a shelter for safety reasons, but then I was able to stay with my parents…kind of. It was clear that I was not invited indefinitely, and my stepmother wrote down all the expenses I incurred. I got a job the day after I started staying there, and 2 weeks later my father paid move-in expenses for an apartment for me. I had to pay him back and my stepmother’s expense bill as soon as possible, and I did so without complaint, but in my heart I always wondered why they were so like that about it. I was always a good kid, had never caused them undue stress, never had borrowed money or anything like that. I think I expected them to be a little more supportive, given the circumstances.
I had to do that once when I lost a job. So that bridge is burned. It’d be the street for me.
I’m sure some family members would take me in, but expecting them to accept 6 large dogs, 4 cats and two horses wouldn’t be fair. I could probably get a neighbor to look after the horses for me, and they like my dogs, but they’re a little afraid of them (particularly the dobermans).
If my house burned down I’d probably rent or buy a cheap travel trailer and live in it with the critters until my new house was built. I have 10 years left on my mortgage, but my payments are pretty small. I’d be more likely to have family members kicking in cash to help me pay my mortgage.
StG
We would move in with my MIL, without question. EJ & I lived with her for a while, when he was working in another county (apt during the week, home on the weekends). I was all alone… it was awful. But more than a decade has passed since then (holy shit!), and we get along very well now. I work for her anyway, at her place, so it would be convenient as hell, plus our boundaries are much more firm now- good fences make good neighbors.
Hell, if the rental market around here stays the way it is now, we might just move in with her anyway and rent out our house!
My family is not particularly “close.” There’s no hard feelings or anything, but we keep to ourselves mostly. However, if I needed anything, anytime, I know without question they would offer it and not make me feel strange about it. A place to stay, a car, a kidney, whatever. I probably wouldn’t even have to explain why. Just call up and say, “I need help.” I’d do the same for them. I can’t imagine ever needing it, but it’s nice to know it’s out there.
I couldn’t live with my family- the only family that I have here, and the only family I would be halfway willing to live with, live in a retirement community. 10,000 old people and you have to be at least 45 or something to live there. Too bad (not). But they’re wealthy so they’d hook me up. I think. At any rate, I do have lots of good friends that I could stay with, but anything would be very temporary- I can’t stand staying with people or having them stay with me. I need my space.
I’ve been there,couch surfed with friends for a while(All but one of my family are deceased and the survivor lives in the F.E.)but not wanting to wear out their friendship lived in a hostel for a while and then ended up on the streets.
I eventually managed to get a job inspite of being homeless and got myself back on my feet.
I didn’t become homeless as a result of alcohol dependancy or anything like that,I lost my job couldn’t pay the rent and my landlord like so many(And I cant really blame them)was not prepared to have somebody who was unemployed as his tenant.
I live in a welfare state but some of us either slip through the net or for some reason fail to meet the requirments for being housed.
Part of it was my fault I confess as I’d rather sleep rough then cohabit with alcoholics and the mentally ill.
If theres a next time maybe I wont be so fussy,maybe I will.
We could live with my parents, who are in our city, pretty easy to live with, and have some room. (Thankfully my in-laws have no room; Aanamika covered how we feel about them.)
Family. My parents - just the two of them - have six bedrooms and a paid for house - but eventually they will move out of that house into a much smaller one and that door will close.
Ours is paid for too, so I don’t expect to be on the streets. More likely we’d have people living in our house - something I’d really rather avoid.