Middle Class and Homeless | David Raether | TEDxAmherst 

I lost my business in 2009. I went on the road for work and found work 250 miles from home. I lived in a camper to save money to send back to my wife. I did this for 11 months.We survived but it was devastating to have to live in another state alone after raising a family and being married for 20 years (at the time) Now 10 years later we will celebrate 30 years of marriage, our kids are doing well and we bought a piece of land where we are building our dream home. Well, actually I'm building it myself "debt-free". The experience taught me a lesson. The only way to freedom, security and happiness is to have a place of sanctuary. We rented our whole lives. If you rent or have borrowed money to buy a house that is overpriced you are one paycheck from homelessness. When you lose everything (and survive) it gives you strength to endure anything. You can't scare someone who's lost everything. Self Reliance is the key to salvation. You'd be surprised what you can endure and it makes you stronger. Real skills and the knowledge that you've survived worse gives you power over the situation. It always turns around, always. Never, ever give up.

The sad thing is more and more of us are getting nearer and nearer to being homelessness.

I really appreciate having a roof over my head.

We live in a culture that celebrates judgement & intolerance yet is mostly devoid of compassion. Unless you yourself have ever been in a situation where your lifestyle was based upon a particular livelihood and then watched helplessly as that livelihood completely evaporated, it might be unfathomable as to how someone making so much money could end up so destitute. But as my wife Lisa states so eloquently, "True compassion is understanding that darkness is darkness, without judging the circumstances that turned out the light." It takes a tremendous amount of courage to share a story like this.

This was a lot to take in. I'm homeless. I'm literally doing everything I can for my family. thankful for God and everything He gives me

Very true. Hunger will slowly wear you down mentally. The cold nights are the worst. Thankful to have a truck.

One of the most real talks I have ever heard about what it is really like to be hidden homeless

how powerful. I live in LA and underneath its bridges is the real people.

You can tell this was hard to re live even before he started to cry. It is NOT shameful to be poor, it IS shameful to be rich and look down on poor people. It IS shameful to be wealthy and not help others.

If it wasn’t for my Teamster /UPS Pension and SS ,I’d be homeless . I didn’t save enough!

lm in 😢 because lve been there and it extremely painful and totally devastating and u just want the pain to go away.

Thank you David for sharing your feelings during this extremely difficult experience. I learned from you. I'd love to hear how you turned it all around.

There are a variety of middle class homeless lifestyles, some by choice, some not. Living in a vehicle, having a post office box, & a gym membership to bathe is one. People used to be able to travel the nation by Ameripass on Greyhound buses and sleep on the buses by night and tour or job hunt by day. As long as the homeless person has $100/month from unemployment, disability, retirement, welfare, work, or begging, he or she can have a post office box, a gym membership to bathe, and a 5x5 storage locker to keep clean clothes. With that, you will never be able to tell they are homeless, if they don't tell you. Many will sleep during the day and walk around at night. Once they lose job references, they may never be able to work again. The drug addict or alcoholic homeless person is only the tip of the iceberg of the 800,000+ American citizen homeless. Among the college crowd, young people hide their friends by moving them around as overnight guests in dorms. At least one very famous university locks its library doors at night, letting its own homeless students sleep safeky overnight on the library sofas. Possessing a valid student ID is required.

I so enjoyed this talk. Thank you.....stuff can be replaced and not your family.

I am a 40 year old white male with no family. I am homeless. I am not a drug addict. I am not a boozer. I do not have a criminal record. I have served in the military. I do have PTSD I have chronic depression I have social anxiety and suffer with horrible panic attacks. I could go on about all the mental conditions that I struggle with. It is hard to maintain life at times but I have never given up. There is nothing more hopeless of a feeling of having NO ONE. Having No where to go. Being completely alone in life. I've tried reaching out to resources but like I said,I am a ,40 year old. white male with no family. I was told unless I have a drug problem. They can't help me.

breath taking story, thank you for this Talk!

Disappointing that he didn't talk about how he rebuilt his life.

Thank you David for such an inspirational story. You are a winner and such an inspiration..I take nothing for granted and appreciate everything and everyone so help me God.

It’s shameful if no room and no one around that you love. Thanks for the talk!

Thank you for sharing your story. There are so many of us who for a myriad of reasons "lost it all." I am you. You are not alone although we feel we are when we're in that devastating place. Blessings, Love and Gratitude to You My Friend 🙏❤🌟

I’m sure this dude could of gotten a lower paying job , or a physical job, that at least would of paid something, but he decided to go the easy route that’s why he ended up homeless

Very inspiring story of wealth and materialism are nothing without love and companion. Makes me consider the presence of my family even more❤️

Bravo.

when the box is painted with oil paint it becomes waterproof

You said what i had hidden for a while.. Thank you for mentioning not only your story.all homeless people.

I have also lived this story. Tech crash. 50% of all jobs in the field lost due to industry contraction. 2000 resumes, 10 interviews, no offers later... Loss of savings. Divorce. Went from six figures to $10 an hour making soup in a kitchen while garnished by the IRS for back capital gains taxes and unpaid graduate school loans. Sometimes the invisible hand gives some the finger. And this is incomprehensible to people who have never encountered anything, or anyone, like this. To them (to parents I still longer talk to) failures are merited and deserved. Not a product of market forces beyond one's control, but of individual decisions, work ethic and drive. It is inconceivable that there is not >some< job out there befitting one's massive accumulation of skills and education. Inconceivable that long term unemployment can convert itself into long term job discrimination and exile from the corporate economy. And on some bad days you believe this about yourself, too. And despise yourself for ever existing.

life can and will knock u down... the question is can u get back up

With everything he lost, Mr. Raether still has his sense of humor! Years from now he'll realize how much he learned from this temporary situation. I hope things are much better for him.

At this point in time i am homeless. Nobody is immune to it

Spent 2 years paying 1400 a month for the worst motel room I've ever seen... Went to the worst rental company in my hometown... Told them I'd pay a year's rent in advance... And I had a payee that guaranteed my rent would always be paid on time everytime after that... Showed to application manager 2 years worth of motel receipts Showing that I had maintained for 2 years a 1400 a month rent... the place I wanted to apply for was only 900 a month at the time... I told him I could have 15,000 in cash to him on Monday... I even tried to give him my payees number... He stopped me... looked me right in the eyes and sneered... We don't rent to homeless people... I to this day have no memory of the 24 hours after that interaction... I was homeless for almost 6 years... it literally killed me... by causing a fatal stress induced medical condition that my doctor choose to ignore for 6 of the 7 years of typical life expectancy... Hatred, indifference, cruelty and Prejudice... killed me....

💜☮✝...Kind regards, thank you so much :) Chandra Leigh

Do the money addicted gentrifiers have a time frame for when rents will be ten to twenty grand a month? And will that be enough?

Thank you,that’s very inspirational. 🙏💕

Am 40 but am jus worried what would happen whenever I reach that age more I'm in Africa although Africa we own small homes.. I ve a home already but I'm self employed....n it getting tough each day... Wah should we do

Very powerful....!

Sounds like a great concept for a sitcom

Bless your heart you SURVIVED it and im sure learned many lesson from it and stopped looknig your nose down at those you used to. there os good always comes from the bad and as souls thats why we come here. to sculpt our souls and realises its not just About US it goes to show it can happen to ANYONE. ive been there too with divorce homeless and had to work my way out of it its the deposits too that kill people the cost of rent. to move in you need couple hundred grand. out of 300 000 a year no money was saved? always good to keep some money for back up. Where there is hardship though boy do we grow from it and learn sooo much it sculpts and changes our character for the better it shows how much its not about THE MONEY, TE CARS, THE HOUSES, just appreciating being able to sleep in a warm place and eat becomes priority. # i ended up losing everything because of disability and the country i was living in had to crawl home with nothing but a few boxes. lost everything and i moved as rural as i could in a beautiful quiet place with beautiful ocean views and never in my life have i been HAPPIER. not got a pot to pizz in but im happy grateful for being warm and being able to eat and for the nature right in front of my home. takes a long hard fal to realise its about people not things about love not things about happiness not money nothing can buy happiness and nothing can buy love Gratitude is everything it sure as hll makes you grateful for all you went through homeless back onto your feet. There is always good can be pulled form the bad much love sir you are a survivor. our cultures discard men and women past a certain ag and dont value them and other cultures honour them sure isnt usa or uk that honours them you survived and your character is better for it :) you find out real quick who is truly your friends in this situation they run as fast as they can away from you.

Roseannne........ 8 children......that says it all

Thank You for sharing !

thank you for telling your story!

Isn't the kind of sitcom low brained behavior that he supposedly wrote so much of been one of the causes of the main problems we've had in a our society for over 20 years now? I know he wasn't responsible for causing it but I like at the 4:10 point where he describes how it wasn't a skill set that had any use in the real world. That point in video should be an amazing revelation of the damage that modern television has been causing for a very long time. Artists were always held in check by spiritual values but we lost that ability many years ago and I hope we gain it back in some point in our evolution as a species.

Great Story Blessings to you thank you for sharing.

:) He didn't told how he got out of homelessness.

i love this guy !

I'ts considered shameful to be poor in any country actually.. by society not me personally

My "job" was out sourced and as a developer this is not "supposed" to happen

Friends? Any friends?

I don't like when people says that homeless are all drug addicted, today I felt so much sadness because my English teacher said that, that you give money to homeless and they use the money to buy drugs, I don't agree with that stigma.

He had no family, relatives or friends at 50 year old??????? I might go broke, but I will never sleep on the street. And for two years??? There are seasonal jobs that provide housing.

He did well to get his life back on track. I can;t help wonder why , like so many other people he " didn't fix the roof when the sun shone "? If he was on such fabulous money , why didn;t he pay off his mortgage while he had the chance ? Like so many others I cannot understand how people can be either a. too confident or b. too optimisitc or c. TOO STUPID to take on such overwhelming DEBT

it's shameful to be rich and greedy

Amazing

Can't believe her didn't have anyone to stay with

At least I have my truck

Powerful and poignant!

I wonder how much homeless is caused by buying expensive luxury items which a person cannot afford. He spends a $3,000 on an Apple computer and iPhone when he can only afford to spend $600 on a basic computer and phone.

he was saying he was earning so much when he was working and then when he stopped working thete was no money so where did it all go

Was this a confabulated sitcom skit? It doesn't ring true. Man voluntarilty quits a 300 k a year job to stay home for two years spending all his saving .

Middle class is small business owners . They pay most of the tax

Those 2 years he took off did him in. You can do that when you're 25 but not 50.

Once he stopped trying to be funny.. he became interesting. He could teach something to younger people

You must always look out for #1, and then care for non beggars. 8 children. Omg. He looks like Archie Bunker.deliver pizzas. Manpower: temp work.

At 50 no one wants to hire you.. I speak from experience

3

All that and you screwed it up

At all times and in all places, when ever it has been tried, capitalism has been a failure.

I wonder if Norm Macdonald knows him

hey middle class savages i have my own business i paint refridgerator boxes for homeless people if u r interested in me painting your box just tell me and i will paint it for u

Rasing taxes shrink middle class, socialist politican

Why didn't his growm up children help him. Maybe he us exaggerating

How come your older children did not check on you? There are soup kitchens sir. Churches. It was your choice, for you do not know poor.

Well maybe he should have thought of what would happen if he l9st a job before having 8 children. Wasn't very clever of him. Now to teach people saying he was proud to be homeless further questions his reasoning. Doesn't impress me