An inside look at homelessness
Gazette reporter Neil wound up choosing one of the worst weeks of weather this winter to immerse himself in the world of homelessness.
One morning, Johnson was trudging from the GIFTS men’s shelter, which was housed that week at Emmanuel Free Methodist Church off Highway 14, to a bus stop at Pine Tree Plaza. Using the Ice Age Trail, he slogged through four inches of snow that had fallen atop frozen rain from the previous night. He stopped to get out of the howling wind and huddled among hickory trees long enough to dig a ski mask out of his backpack—and tear his pants on an old knot of barbed wire.
One night, filing a story on his laptop computer on the icy, snowy sidewalk outside Piggly Wiggly in Milton and awaiting a bus back to Janesville, his ears and nose turned red from frost nip.
He wrote about his experiences in last Sunday’s Gazette.
Why did he do it? What was the point?
We’ll share our perspectives in our editorial Thursday.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook
Mar 16, 2013 at 1:09 p.m.
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no matter what some people write i BELIEVE it was an is a A WELL WRITTEN ARICLE
Mar 14, 2013 at 5:36 p.m.
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What was the point ? I have read the story about a dozen times and frankly I think it was less than a good representation of being homeless. The story lacked any emotion other than cold feet. The only hardship I could see was getting back and forth without a car, and he had one if he really needed it. Sitting out side writing a story is not much different than covering a Packer game on a cold day. Walking in the snow is not much different than cross country skiing. Sleeping at a shelter is a lot like being at camp. You cannot fake being homeless. Just can't.
Mar 14, 2013 at 3:23 p.m.
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It's all about living within your means. I remember a previous article about a homeless guy that used to have a 100K+ house, a Harley-Davidson, etc. and now he was homeless. I can't feel sorry for people that spend money on things that aren't essentials of life including alcohol and tobacco. Instead of pimping out your phone, car, getting tattoos/piercings, etc. how about you pay off some of that debt first huh?
Mar 14, 2013 at 3:19 p.m.
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@Shoierehuh do you know what minimum wage is? When you consider how much time you spend working and what they take out of your check, yeah my methods pays better than a full time minimum wage job. These are some of the ones I use neverforget: Inbox Dollars, Toluna, Opinion Outpost, National Consumer Panel, IPSOS I-Say, NPDOR, Springboard America, Zoom Panel, YouGov, Survey Monkey, Harris Poll, and Mind Pay. There's even one that pays you to review adult videos but they do limit you to so many per week, but that ones called Review Dollars.
Mar 14, 2013 at 10:23 a.m.
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can you give us some addresses for survey sites?
Mar 14, 2013 at 12:07 a.m.
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Wow, you are doing so well, able to pay your mortgage/rent, utilities, and purchase your food, all on turning in metal, selling your CDs, and doing surveys.
Mar 13, 2013 at 5:56 p.m.
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A better article would have been how to make/save money to survive when you are homeless or jobless. I get so sick and tired of people complaining that they have no money. There are plenty of ways to get that extra money you are looking for. If you have internet, there are over 20 survey sites I used that pay money that are legit. Save and find metals to turn them in as cash. Take time to read at those retail stores, you can sometimes get stuff free or damn near free with a coupon or rebate. I use half.com for any books, movies, cd's I no longer need and have sold quite a few. There are just so many possibilities but there are even more lazy people in this word.
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