Surviving on the Streets: How to Go Down Without Going Out

Port Townsend, WA: Loompanics Unlimited, 2001. First Edition. Quarto with glossy black and white wraps; 195 pages: illustrations; 28 cm Fine. Paperback. ISBN: 1559502010

"Intended to be written as a how-to for anyone contemplating or more likely thrust by circumstances into street life, it is an uncensored and candid look at an entirely different world that exists co-dependently with the one with which most of us are familiar. [...] This book offers specific tips of street survival that worked and some that didn't, which might be just as valuable for those who could learn from Ace's mistakes. For those of use who will never live on the streets, this book gives a brutally honest peek into an alien world from the eyes of a native." (--Back cover) // Contents: Problems, problems problems: things you will have to deal with. Your stuff. Where to sleep. Your homeless home, be it ever so humble. How to deal with the cold and rain. The rain as a metaphor for a bunch of philosophical shit. Wild critters. Dealing with the cops (and being dealt with by the cops). Street people vs. the merchants. The homeless activist. Food: eating low off the hog. Money or... get a job you bum!. Washing up. Stashing your stuff and other complications. The people. Drugs and alcohol. Violence. Why homeless? why now?. Mass immigration. Counterculture casualties. Four street people: profiles in weirdness. Getting off the streets. Psychological skid rows. Surviving on the streets.