The word “homeless” evokes images of distressed men, unkempt and huddled in layers of clothing beside a cardboard sign. But behind that most visible demographic is a second, hidden layer—the unseen, unconsidered, underpaid homeless who are working a job (or two) but who aren’t making enough to cover rent or a mortgage payment.
This character does not “look homeless,” if that phrase does anything but reinforce assumptions that are far from universal. Her clothes are clean, if plain. Her haircut isn’t very stylish, but she can keep it looking professional. She works the cash register at a clothing store part time, and she slings burgers.
If you asked her (and she trusted you enough to be honest, which she wouldn’t), most of the advantages she could list are negative ones. She doesn’t have cancer any more, as far as she knows. (She got ovarian cancer when she was a sophomore in college, two months before her father died and she found out he’d been deep, deep in debt). She doesn’t have an abusive boyfriend or any kids.
She hasn’t gotten desperate enough to go on the game.
She lives in her car and drives around during the day—not just so that she doesn’t get busted for loitering or vagrancy, and not just because services for the homeless are spread all over the metro area and often involve long waits. She drives around because she doesn’t want anyone to look at her and somehow guess what she’s become.
Coincidentally, the PCs could see her just about anywhere, at any time, because of her nomadic
employment and her habit of finding somewhere new to sleep-park every night.
She can just barely manage to keep this together on five hours of sleep a night, as long as the car
stays functional.
The third time the PCs run into her is seconds after her CHECK ENGINE light comes on.
HELPLESSNESS 3 Hard
ISOLATION 4 Hard
SELF 4 Hard
UNNATURAL 2 Hard
VIOLENCE 3 Hard
Wound Threshold: 50
I’m Working Homeless, of course I can know which creepy places even the violent and crazy are scared to go, haggle
tenaciously, repair just about anything with just about anything as long as it only has to work one
time more.
Substitutes for: Secrecy.
Feature: Protects Self.
Feature: Substitutes for Lie.