I went homeless for 3 days in KL. This was what I experienced.

If y’all have a stable job and enough money left over from paying your bills to put in your savings account or to invest in whatever, being homeless is probably the last thing on your mind. That’s understandable, but the truth of the matter is that it can happen to anyone.

It could be low income, an unexpected stretch of unemployment, not being able to find jobs due to disabilities, old age, or a combination of other reasons, and when the rent goes unpaid, people end up on the streets. It’s a downward spiral that’s unbelievably difficult to get out of. Being in the B40 group myself, a couple of months of unemployment could very well mean homelessness, and I wanted to see what it’s like when the worst-case scenario hits.

I planned to live on the streets for five days with these rules in place:

• I get 4 sets of t-shirts, clothes, shorts, and underwear (plus a hoodie);
• A budget of RM50;
• A company-issued smartphone that constantly tracks my location; and
• I can’t stay over at anyone’s place or a hotel/motel

Y’all might have noticed from the title that I only lasted three days instead of five, because after sleeping in the streets of Chow Kit, Bukit Bintang, Bangsar, Masjid Jamek and Petaling Street, I can tell y’all that…

 

1. I never felt like I was completely safe on the streets

Some homeless people actually sleep in their cars, but since that wasn’t part of the experiment, I had to look for spots where I could lie down and go to sleep at night. That’s not super difficult, you can basically just sleep outside abandoned shoplots, under pedestrian bridges, on public benches. I’ve done all of that in the span of three nights. Some of the drifters I’ve seen sleep on their motorbikes. No, the hard part for me was feeling safe enough to fall asleep for more than like 20 minutes at a time.

You could just chalk it up to my paranoia, but I was always worried that:

A) My belongings, especially my smartphone, would be stolen;

B) I’d be physically harmed by other homeless people or drunken passersby; and

C) The local authorities would scoop me up and put me in a lockup for the night

Mhm, the PDRM or DBKL are allowed to take anyone they deem to be homeless into custody under the Destitute Persons Act 1977 just to release them a few hours later, which doesn’t seem to achieve much. It’s not like the vagrants would magically be able to afford an apartment overnight. That’s why every time I heard noises like footsteps, rustling leaves, aluminum cans rolling across the pavement, wailing sirens, or even just vehicles zooming by, I’d jerk awake from my sleep… which happened extremely often, as you can imagine.

It didn’t help that I was near a fight that broke out between two homeless people as I was just chilling beside the Masjid Jamek river. No clue as to why they started whaling on each other; one of them was just talking to themselves and the next moment they were shouting in Tamil. I’ve seen other homeless people that “set up camp” around me waking up at odd hours of the night, too, so it’s possible that they feel the same way to a certain degree, though I can’t confirm that for sure cuz I never asked them. Maybe it’s something you get used to over time, who knows?

Sure, I did find places where I felt like no one was gonna disturb me when I got some shut-eye. Then again…

 

2. Countless things can interrupt your sleep on the streets

Yes, yes, I know. The surfaces I slept on weren’t the most conducive to restful sleep, that’s obvious enough. Not many people can claim that they can get their eight hours from sleeping on gravelly concrete or tiles caked with grime. There were other not-so-obvious things about sleeping outdoors in a dense metropolis that I never considered before doing this whole homeless thing.

For one, there’s the mosquitos. Almost everywhere I laid down, the little bloodsuckers would start swarming around me like hungry diners queueing up for Sukiya. It goes without saying that they made it hard for me to even close my eyes, not to mention fall asleep. My own rumbling stomach definitely made snatching forty winks harder too.

Then there’s the noise from maintenance works. All sorts of maintenance begin at night (since that’s the only time some of them can be done), and a jackhammer being machine-gunned into a tar road isn’t really my kind of ASMR. Just to make it clear, I’m not complaining – the workers were just doing their jobs. Another minor thing that messed with my sleep was light. KL is a city (duh), and cities are lined with massive LED advertisement displays, bright street lamps, and blinding signboards. The catch-22 here was that I felt safer sleeping in places that were better lit, and yet, the same sources of light interfered with my nightly rest.

TL;DR from the last two points: I think it’s really tough for any homeless person who sleeps on the streets of KL to get any meaningful sleep, and that’s got to take a toll on their overall wellbeing.

That’s not to say that things were fantastic while I was awake during the day. I quickly learned that…

 

3. You gotta grow a thick skin as a homeless person

When you’re homeless, you’re gonna be using public facilities. Like, a LOT. I didn’t have access to a shower, so I had to either hose myself down in public toilets using their cubicles or sinks. Thank goodness for malls and fast food restaurants. That’s garnered me some weird looks when I stepped out of the toilets with wet hair and clothes. In fact, when there weren’t any places with toilets that were open at 3am when I had to do a number two, I had to grit my teeth and do it in a bush.

I’m not entirely sure how other homeless people charged their phones (yes, some of them have phones), but in my case, I walked into fast food places to check whether they had power outlets for me to use. On one occasion, I had to steal a used coffee cup from a table in Starbucks to make it look like I was a paying customer while I waited for my phone to charge.

You’re also gonna get some side-eye action if you’re just sat on the corner of the street, particularly if you look disheveled cuz y’know, you’re a homeless person. Bonus points if you have an empty cup on the floor in front of you for people to put money in. There were even a few times when commuters went to a different spot on LRT/MRT platforms as I stood near them waiting for the next train. I mean, that’s understandable. I probably didn’t smell like Dior cologne having not had a proper shower for two days.

Despite that, it was clear that…

 

4. I didn’t quite fit into the “homeless” stereotype

As part of my stint on the streets, I attempted to blend in with other homeless people at the Kechara soup kitchen (located near Fahrenheit 88) during one of their food handout sessions. I was met with suspicion from the staff there, and I don’t know why.

Maybe it was because I didn’t look like other Chinese homeless people who were wearing clothes that were more tattered than mine, and had weathered skin from prolonged exposure to the elements. And again, to be fair, the staff were just doing their jobs – I’ve heard that tourists sometimes masquerade as homeless people to try to get free food from them. On the bright side, I found out from my visit that Kechara actually has job placement programs to help homeless people get back on their feet. They start you off with odd jobs, progressing toward full-time employment.

Speaking of stereotypes, I noticed that there were a disproportionate amount of homeless people who had physical and/or mental disabilities. Many of them drank copious amounts of alcohol, which I can only assume was to help them cope with their circumstances. Another odd observation: a lot of the homeless people I saw were Indian. It could just be bias on my part cuz the experiment only went on for three days.

All in all, having experienced what I did from being a homeless person…

 

Not enough is being done to help out the destitute on our streets

The issue of homelessness is a complex one – on top of the things mentioned earlier (low income, disabilities, et cetera), a lack of affordable housing, a sustainable support system for abuse victims, and medical treatment for people with mental health issues among other factors all contribute to the problem. There were an estimated 600 homeless people in KL in circa 2014, and the number jumped up to 1,500-2,000 by 2016. I’m guessing the figures have only increased due to the economic downturn caused by the C19 years, and while NGOs and the government do measures to help these people, I’m left wondering if that’s really enough.

Here’s to hoping that the government will take firm steps to reduce the homelessness rates that are rising in this city, but at the end of the day, we can do our part by donating to and volunteering our time to help out at places like Kechara. Or at the very least, we could try not to look at homeless people with disdain. I felt it first hand, and it’s one of the worst feelings in the world.