Let’s Talk About Camps

 

Most homeless people can be found living in the shelters around town. Some live in abandoned structures such as houses around town as well but there are a growing number of homeless people who would rather camp out. Their reasons for camping out are as varied as the number of camps around town. Personally my reasons, which probably touch on many of the same reasons others would give, are the privacy, security, a certain freedom and a good place to keep my property.

Let’s talk about a few of the types of camps that can be found throughout the city. Also let it be known that I have lived in and maintained each sort of camp in my years living as a homeless person.

The first camp I had and probably the most basic is a tarp and a sleeping bag. More often than not the people who camp this way are just starting out or are the ones who travel around so simplicity is the way to go. That’s the way I started out. Sometimes a fire place will be built but generally not.

The next sort is pretty basic too. It generally starts with a homebuilt shelter made up of a tart and plastic to keep out the elements. Sometimes this is as far as some people get when it comes to a camp.

Another sort is a tent, generally a small 2 or 3 man tent with basic equipment. This setup of a small tent, sleeping bags or blankets and basic supplies is probably the most common found in the various camps. Some of these setups are transitional camps leading to something more comfortable but most are just places for the occupant to sleep in and nothing more.

Some camps, but not many will have larger tents but not be much more than their smaller tent variety. The sleeping arrangements will be for the most part pads or mattresses on the ground with blankets and sleeping bags as well as a few camping necessities. Once again these places are in general semi-permanent or long term camps.

Lastly there are places that are more of a home than just a camp. They tend to have varying degrees of comfort and show the nature or skill level of the people living in them. My current camp is like this and has been for some years. It has a large tent that inside has a real bed with mattress, storage for clothing or other personal effects as well as food storage and a stove for cooking and heating in the cold weather. There is ground protection underneath the tent and carpeting inside. Outside the tent is a large tarp to keep the sun and rain off the tent itself as well as provide shade and protection in front of the tent. Inside as well as out I have chairs and areas set aside for cooking depending on the weather. Cooking is done on a Coleman stove that can be moved either inside the tent or out and is used for heating the tent in colder weather. On other days when the weather is not so wet or chilly there also a fireplace for cooking. The best part and one of the things I’m most proud about my camp is that I have electric power to operate lights, radios and my laptop computer. Power is provided by a solar panel and a couple of 12 volt batteries.

Of the last sort of camp such as mine there are very few and even fewer still are camps that have the level of comfort I have managed to create. It took many years and is now my home although that does not rule out my moving into a real apartment sometime. I just felt that if I had to camp out, I wanted to be as comfortable as I could.