“It’s like you just disappeared from sight, while still being there. You can see other people, but they don’t really see you, because in a way, you are not real to them.”

Hi, I'm the Latine Editorial Lead at BuzzFeed and cover a little bit of everything, from quizzes and true crime to celebrities and pop culture.

Warning: The following stories contain mentions of sexual abuse. Please proceed with caution.

"Getting out of homelessness was extremely hard. I couldn’t get a bank account required to deposit paychecks, because I didn’t have identification. I couldn’t get identification because I didn’t have an address. I couldn’t get a PO box because I couldn’t deposit my paychecks. Stuff like that was an endless loop that I was too young to anticipate. It got better for me, and I wish the same for all. "

"Imagine sitting on your bed in an uncomfortable position the whole day just on your phone. One or two days might be fine, but eventually you get tired of being in that same position all day. Especially when you're uncomfortable. Can't even stretch your legs when you sleep. That's when you go to the park, library, laundromat, etc., but even then, that gets boring after a while.

You don't realize how much time you have until you're stuck in a car for 24 hours. People that stay in tents have it even worse... I could never imagine the nighttime paranoia. At least the car gives you a sense of security when you block all the windows."

"A lot of shelters and charities can provide them, but where I was, I couldn't access them a lot of the time because of location, and I was unable to travel. It also took a lot of research and time to even find such places because...how else would I know about them without Google? Without access to a phone? A lot of the time, these places had run out because people do NOT donate women's hygiene products. It was just fucking awful and embarrassing and so sad.

PLEASE DONATE WOMEN'S HYGIENE AND PERIOD PRODUCTS, THEY ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED. 💜"

"It's kind of a terrifying thought experiment, but if anyone is ever out walking around, try to figure out where you'd be able to find the closest bathroom at 9 p.m. And then realize that the answer is *usually* 'fuck you, piss in the street.'"

"When you’re sleeping in a car, trying to find somewhere safe to sleep is extremely hard. It’s even more uncomfortable with multiple people, which was the situation for my family and me. Having enough space was a MAJOR issue, but finding somewhere to sleep was the center of our issues. We would sleep in the parking lot of hotels; that was the safest place we could find. It still wasn’t safe."

"Never, ever bring a weapon or get angry or show them you're scared. That's the permission they're looking for to turn the situation ugly. WTF kind of moment is that to have an internal set of rules ready to go for??"

"Just how creepy some people can be. I was on the streets at 15 and learned real quick not to trust anyone, especially any adult offering help, because I'd had way too many close calls. It was a shocking number of people who thought they could get something out of me for money, or that I owed them for 'donations.' People from all walks of life, but the worst by far were men in suits who'd been drinking after work."

"I have a friend who was homeless from 15–18. He was couch surfing at friends' houses but kept having to leave because multiple of his friends' parents tried to have sex with him when he stayed there. It's so weird to me, because he had been in those friends' houses and around those parents before with no issue. It's like as soon as he was homeless and vulnerable, some switch flipped in certain adults."

"The fear. Being a 15/16-year-old girl trying to stay safe was a 24-hour-a-day job. Never knowing who to trust. Trying to decide whether it would be worse to stay on the streets or go back to the abuse at 'home.' I managed to find my way and have enjoyed a relatively good life. However, I have never forgotten that it's a very short distance from having what you need to being homeless."

"I was homeless for about a year in NYC, and it was horrible! The worst thing was how incredibly alien I started to feel from everyone. Almost as if you don’t exist, but just enough for people to avoid you. Plus, everything when you’re homeless becomes a catch-22…you can’t do anything because you need X to get Y, and Y to get X, it’s a cycle of torture."

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 (HOPE), which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here. 

If you or someone you know is experiencing food insecurity, check out Feeding America, where you can find a local food bank and learn more about federal programs that may be available to you.