The first rule of being homeless: don't look like you're homeless. Generally, try to avoid letting anyone know that you're homeless. (This includes not staying in the same place every night.) The only reason would be if you were foolish enough to think that it's going to unlock some otherwise hidden hospitality in others or access to social services. It won't, or, if so, whatever it does won't be offset by how much it costs you in the long run.

The second rule of being homeless: don't spend $9 a day on beer and an additional $335 a month—a third of your income—on inessentials like coffee, ice, and jugs of spring water. (You shouldn't be trading water for cash unless you live somewhere like Flint, Michigan. If you've already broken rule #1 and people are gawking at you, there's no reason not to let them gawk at you as you fill your reusable water bottle from free/public potable water sources.)

I sympathize with the author, but I'm homeless, and I'm kind of horrified how many stereotypes he's ticking off, including being a guitar-toting writer/artist with a dog in tow. There's a reason why Rosa Parks became the icon of the civil rights movement and Claudette Colvins didn't. (Is that fair? No.)

> In social psychology, the fundamental attribution error is a cognitive attribution bias in which observers underemphasize situational and environmental factors for the behavior of an actor while overemphasizing dispositional or personality factors. In other words, observers tend to overattribute the behaviors of others to their personality (e.g., he is late because he's selfish) and underattribute them to the situation or context (e.g., he is late because he got stuck in traffic). Although personality traits and predispositions are considered to be observable facts in psychology, the fundamental attribution error is an error because it misinterprets their effects.

[Wikipedia]

I sort of think that if someone is sleeping outside, in a wealthy society that has chosen not to ensure basic human necessities for its citizens, then who am I to begrudge them something like beer with which to self-medicate and/or moderate the harshness of their situation? Or the potential enrichment of music and art? Or the simple companionship of a dog?