Word: eighner
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...drug addict--possibly find himself homeless for the second time in five years? The simple answer is that, without additional income from a steady job, $100,000 is consumed rather quickly by a middle-class life-style. For starters, income taxes took $22,000 off the top. Eighner ran through the rest in less than three years. He rented a house for $880 a month and ran up total expenses he estimates at $1,200 a month. He bought a new computer, an espresso maker, a fax machine, a stereo and cable-TV service, as well...
...effort to reduce his expenses, Eighner, a gentle, articulate man with a soft South Texas accent who is severely overweight and afflicted with phlebitis, migraines and arthritis, moved with his companion an hour south, to San Antonio, Texas, early last year. There, he took an apartment for $425 a month and taught a few classes in writing. He says his return to the streets in October came after an expected book royalty failed to arrive in September, and from a "miscalculation" that he would get a couple of teaching jobs. "People have said that I do nothing until things...
...Eighner is far from a conventional deadbeat. He was in his early 40s before he ever became homeless, and he has worked at many jobs, including a mostly steady decade of work at a state mental hospital. Since Travels with Lizbeth, he has published a novel, a book of essays and several books of gay erotica. He continues to write for a number of Texas publications, which brings in $100 to $300 a month. His Web page, which he designed and built himself, bristles with entrepreneurialism in its offers to sell books and give online writing courses. It's hard...
...conversation, one gets hints. Decent, conventional jobs are rare enough for a 49-year-old former street person who makes a normal presentation. But Eighner has other strikes against him: his weight; his swollen ankle, which makes it difficult to move about easily; his inability to drive a car; and his lack of the "right clothes" for a "straight...
...Neither Eighner nor his benefactors seem to know exactly what happens next, since the most money he can see on the horizon is $1,500 in the form of various advances, fees and royalties--hardly enough to sustain him for long. As a single male without a conventional disability, he can expect little help from the government. "What I really need," muses Eighner, "is for someone to say 'We got you covered' for a couple of months so I can get to work on a new book...