Last week I was mistaken for a street dweller. I was walking home from school via my usual route behind buildings, staring a few steps in advance of my feet, oblivious to things not in my vision, wearing the large hood of my green winter cotton/wool coat. A man in the parking lot of one retail store I was walking behind called out

“Where are you headed off to?”
“Home.”
“That’s a nice place.”
“…yeah.”
“Good luck.”

There are benefits of being perceived as homeless: you need not worry of being bothered by either home-dwelling solicitors or homeless solicitors. You have the luxury of taking advantage of rescue mission type programs without being shunned or kicked out on account of being too well off to deserve free food or bed.

It’s also dangerous to be perceived as homeless. If you fall asleep on a bench in the open, you may wake up in flames because someone has doused you in gasoline and struck a match. More commonly, you risk getting beat up in an alley for the fun of violence.