The “Almost Homeless” Subreddit is a stark glimpse into rising wealth inequality

Dana, 46, and Calista, 43, are two women in Florida who took to the subreddit where they speculated they could be fired due to extended unemployment.

Calista told WIRED she’s applied to more than a thousand full-time jobs since losing her remote job in February 2024, but she can’t seem to get an interview. She says she’s three months behind on her rent. “I’ve never approached homelessness this way before,” she says. “It’s a new experience.” “It’s so helpful to see other people’s stories, see the things they’ve experienced, just that solidarity.”

Dana, who has extensive work experience in software development, says she has been laid off from her jobs four times since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, most recently in November, partly due to the artificial intelligence boom. A single mother, she discussed the possibility of living in a tent with her son, who had recently graduated from high school. “A lot of people are facing similar situations,” Dana says of the stories she reads online. “It’s honestly been the most helpful mentally. I don’t feel alone.” She says this contradicts the stigma of poverty she feels in her city.

Politicians and commentators who demonize the homeless population as mentally ill drug addicts, such as former reality TV star Spencer Pratt, who ran a failed campaign for mayor of Los Angeles, described them as “zombies” on “Super meth— distorts the issues at hand, says Margot Kuchel, director of the Benioff Initiative on Homelessness and Housing at the University of California, San Francisco.

“What we see in the numbers of people experiencing homelessness does not mean that we are suddenly seeing this increase in the number of people with mental health issues or substance abuse issues,” she says. “What we have is the rent is too high.”

The harsh ways in which homeless people are portrayed in the media adds “to the very heavy burden of homelessness,” Kuchel continues, as groups like the homeless almost go against those narratives and make people feel seen.

Keith, 35, from South Carolina, says he attempted suicide in 2023 after a long battle with alcohol addiction. He tells how he survived jumping off a bridge but broke his back. After receiving a spinal fusion, he found it difficult to work or do much of anything physical due to his injury, and eventually ended up homeless. He has resorted to sleeping in the woods outside the hospital, where he says he regularly calls for help. “I was just staying there, like I was trying to get into mental health or something,” Keith says. “They’ll just reject you.”

Later, Keith says, he got a place at a local Salvation Army shelter, found a job at a gas station, and in January moved into a studio apartment, stayed sober and “built something resembling a normal life,” he says. Recently, however, he has begun to worry that he is “watching years of progress disappear in slow motion.” A series of restaurant jobs, including dishwashing and prep work, proved impossible due to his back problem, and he avoided further medical treatment for fear of the cost. He now expects to be evicted, and fears going back to living without a home.