Where do the rural homeless near you live?

I worked homeless outreach in a rural area. My job was to connect people to housing, assist with obtaining government benefits, and mental health services if necessary. They would spend the day at local hot spots, well trafficked convenience stores in the morning, well trafficked stores like the local grocery store for most of the rest of the day. A lot of them would hang out in the stores as long as possible to escape the heat/cold and many would also hit up strangers for money at these spots

They were often very hesitant or completely unwilling to share where they actually slept. Even though I worked for a nonprofit a lot of them saw me as a government employee and even the ones who didn’t still were very hesitant to trust me or any of my coworkers with that info. I’m pretty sure they were scared that I would call the cops or something. Some slept in wooded areas, some slept behind stores, some couch surfed, etc from the ones who did share and who I found (part of my job was being the point of contact for police and other emergency services who found people staying outside in dangerous weather and getting them emergency housing).

Even though it was probably like 2013 or so that I did this job the absolute cheapest room that would rent to the homeless was $700/mo. There were cheaper rooms around but they tended to require big deposits and would often refuse to rent to someone that didn’t already have a permanent address. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal but they would get around it usually by being vague and ghosting. “Oh so sorry someone else got the room”, stuff like that, and you’d see it was still available for 3 more months. I can’t even imagine what the rent is like now

Super depressing job. It’s very difficult to escape that cycle once you’re in it. It radicalized me a lot to work with people who were literally left on the street in a town with hundreds of vacant apartments. By our estimate there were maybe 20-40 homeless people in said town at any given point

There's a camp in the bushes behind our local bar. The bar is near a boat harbor as well so there's water faucets where they usually shower. It's a relatively small camp with about a dozen or so residents.

I lived in tents for the better part of a year. I'd set up anywhere with a bit of cover that wasn't frequently walked through. Woods mostly.

My uncle was evicted from his house because he failed to maintain the property and let it go to shit. It was winter, so we invited him to stay in a spare room in our basement just to keep him out of the cold and give him time to sell his property and buy a trailer home.

He's still living here.

In their cars.

I live in a suburban more than totally rural area but we have lots of trails and bushy areas around. Usually they just set up tents on the side of those trails. Walked past a guy who had an entire cot set up and was just napping on the side of a trail midday the other day. The benches in our area are also less anti-homeless than the ones downtown so I don't doubt people sleep there at night.

I saw a video of one guy (who isn't homeless but does urban camping on YouTube) set up camp in the middle of a roundabout with lots of bushes and I think that's honestly probably one of the best spots where people wouldn't find you/call cops on you.

Occasionally I come across camps while fishing local rivers. Homeless folks tend to set up within walking distance of some kind of support like places that give out meals. I spotted a camp last fall across the river from me thinking it was a dumb place to set up. In a suburban park in full view of a paved trail. A few days later the newspaper ran an article about a woman dead from exposure being found inside

In the dense bushes across from the post office.

One got transferred to a hospital last winter and eventually got into some kind of housing situation.

One tends to hang out at the Walmart.

Others are frequently in and out of one of the two hotels in town. We had three but they tore one down.

stayed at a really cheap hotel in Columbus, Ohio recently, and the view from my room was of a homeless encampment within the grassy median between the offramp and the highway. So... there's one.

If I ever become homeless, and can't sleep in my car, I found a secluded spot down an embankment near a walmart. I'd probably go there.

Abandoned homesteads, village homes or dachas. Some areas have a lot of abandoned houses. It sometimes takes years to find squatters in some places. My father in law is an alcoholic who has been moving between abandoned houses for 5 years now, sometimes with owner's permission.

Near bigger cities, you sometimes get forest camps, but local government tends to remove them when they are found.