Excerpts From a Self-Sufficiency Community:
2012 Stories and Photos
You will be reading the stories of many undetectable homeless people who are stable enough to attempt self-sufficiency. They have been living an alternative lifestyle in small RVs, trucks, converted vans, SUVs, and rehabbed boats. They mingle among us in urban and rural areas, undetectable as being homeless. They have mastered the art of masquerade: they look and act just like everyone else in a mall, library, store, or hotel lobby. They did have traditional homes and jobs, so they have knowledge of "normal" everyday life.
STUDIOCLUB.COM has a special link which leads you to these personal stories and photos from 10 years of "on the road" experiences by ethnographer Marjorie Bard, Ph.D. THE LINK IS:
www.marjoriebard/homeless/undetectablehomeless.htm
Dr. Bard has been interviewing and filming those who have lost homes, jobs, or need anonymity as they fled abusers (domestic or workplace bullies/stalkers). Some of those who used to live out of vehicles have been led to partnerships established by Dr. Bard with kind-hearted farmers who are usually retired and have unused farmland for the creation of tiny eco-villages. The now self-sufficient stable homeless build small cabins, grow their own food, and have started individual or co-op businesses -- now that they have a proper address.
Choosing to live away from government intervention in their lives, they remain anonymous and innovative, using innate skills to "make it on their own."
If you are expecting to become homeless or have been living an alternative lifestyle out of a vehicle and think you can use self-sufficiency strategies, do go to:
http://www.marjoriebard/homeless/undetectablehomeless.htm
The years of months-at-a-time travel were from 1997 to 2005, but shorter trips have garnered personal stories until the 2012-2013 Cyberlog at StudioClub.com. (The longer stories are in book form.)The issue of a previously unknown huge population of undetectable homeless across the country was first noted nationally in a "60 Minutes" segment (with Lesley Stahl and Marjorie Bard) titled "Lost in Bel Air" in 1992. It was the result of a Los Angeles Times staff writer who met with Dr. Bard and a few undetectable homeless women and then wrote a front-page article about the topic. Bard's dissertation -- and two books about Domestic Abuse and Homelessness are: "Shadow Women: Homeless Women's Survival Stories" (Sheed&Ward, 1990) and "Organizational and Community Responses to Domestic Abuse and Homelessness" (Garland, 1994). Both books have been re-issued by Routledge/Francis&Taylor in 2016 as Library Editions and as universty textbooks. General sales are at Barnes & Noble and online booksellers.
