h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Half a year. Got that way as a result of some of my own bad decisions.

Can't say that I much cared for it.

Tough to get work when you don't have an address.

Money? Sold plasma twice a week for twelve dollars a shot. You can "donate" plasma a lot more often than whole blood because they give the red blood cells back, in saline solution.

Food? Salvation Army and Rescue Missions, for the price of spending 45 minutes listening to a bad preacher. Get "saved" and go to the head of the line for food.

Shelter? Salvation Army and Rescue MIssions if there's a cot available. Otherwise, drainage tunnels under highways if sure it wasn't going to rain. Any available place outside of the wind. In the back of a pick-up truck that has an unlocked cover on the back... just make sure to get out early. Only woke up in a moving vehicle once. Public restrooms in parks work too.

Cigarettes? Can usually be had for the asking, one at a time.

I got lucky. Ran into some people I had known from many years, and several lifetimes, ago. Was able to get work on the second day after they put me up in their home. Was able to move out into my very own apartment two months after that.

It wasn't much fun. Don't think I'd want to repeat the experience.