Delilah is young and homeless. She says that previously she worked in a Beverly Hills hair salon and that homelessness is much better than cutting hair for angry, mean rich ladies!
Delilah says she is enjoying her freedom while she is young enough and healthy enough to have it. She wants to live a minimalistic and nomadic lifestyle.
Delilah relocated to Los Angeles three years ago and has been on the streets for six months. She had various living arrangments. Delilah’s last roommate throughout all her stuff and now she is just trying to make the best of it.
Delilah’s boyfriend has been homeless for many years and she started to live with him on the streets. She was already spending weekends with him in his tent, so homelessness did not come as much of a shock.
Delilah plans on traveling and then if she wants to change her lifestyle she says she will.
One of the foundations of Invisible People’s work is to present stories of people experiencing homelessness raw and unedited. Delilah’s story is a little different than most because from the outside it looks like she is choosing to be homeless.
The last few years I have seen more people deciding to live a minimalistic and nomadic lifestyle. Van dwelling is now a thing and becoming more popular. I think part of the reason is the high cost of housing and the lack of good-paying jobs.
I used to think no one wants to be homeless, and that is the truth for the vast majority of people sleeping outside. Even the ones who tell you that want to be homeless, at one time they tried to get out of homelessness, but after hitting so many barriers, they just give up. It’s called “learned helplessness.”
I think Delilah’s story is important because so often homeless youth choose this lifestyle and then it’s nearly impossible to get out of it. The streets in any city are very dangerous, especially for young women. Although Delilah says she wants to be homeless there is a sadness about her. I do believe she is making the best of it and that love probably played the biggest role in her current situation. I just pray she gets off the streets while she still can.
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