Civic regulations sometimes conflict with reality. For the most part, homelessness is not voluntary. When a city makes it illegal to camp on public or private property, they are decreeing that homeless people are simply not to exist. Such cruel and unenforceable edicts against helpless people confront us with a moral conundrum: Do we do what's illegal and right by helping the homeless hide from the civic minions, or do we do what's legal and wrong by ignoring their plight of the victims?

In pursuing my own convictions, consider these suggestions.

   When the weather permits sleeping outdoors without a shelter, any vegetation over a foot high can provide concealment if the lighting is from the side. I recall being concealed in sparse grass one night about 4 feet from a path occupied by a group of people who would have been very disturbed had they known I was there (and listening). There were a few nights I slept on a wild and dangerous beach immediately north of the Mexican border. In my subtle depression in the sand amongst the ice plants I was not even noticed by a border-patrol helicopter that was monitoring the area for illegals (I don't think the infrared technology was quite as developed back then).

   One night I was sleeping in the shadows just over the top of a ridge overlooking the L. A. basin, when a half-dozen or so young men trudged past me not twenty feet away. In daylight I would have been in plain sight, but as it was they had no clue I was there. They went about seventy feet further, buried something, and then returned. For reasons most people may not understand, I was not even tempted to try and see what they buried when I got up in the morning.

   I know of an area that has in the past been a favorite sleeping place, but now it is routinely surveyed by bored rent-a-cops on night shift. A cursory examination from the perimeter of this acreage is enough to reveal sleepers. If a homeless person were equipped with a small camp shovel they could excavate small hollows, which in conjunction with the resulting berm would serve as concealment. As a few of these were developed, the hunter would now be required to trudge through the area for an up close examination of each place.

   A slight escalation would be to move the excavated earth a distance from the hollow, leaving the hollow with no evidence above the surface. The earth that has been removed would create one or more visible decoy berms. For hauling earth, consider the use of “earth bags”, which can be purchased for a few cents apiece at hardware stores. They fold up nicely and can be used for a number of things; They don't have the bulk of plastic buckets.

   When possible, select sites with some natural concealment, or among trees or terrain that would make it difficult for a tractor blade to erase your fun. In cases where earth was hauled 50 feet or more from the hollow, even a cursory plowing would leave subtle highs and lows.

   Another important factor would be to dig latrine pits within a convenient distance – perhaps in a path along which trouble might approach. For another early warning system you can use a trip string connected to those little party favors that make a popping sound when you pull the string. I used this on one occasion, and the victim actually thought he was being shot at. Careful though, this could be dangerous when messing with a well-armed cub scout.

   If you had such excavations in a number of different locations both within and without city limits, you could get away with larger projects, and sometimes even cover them with stick frames as described elsewhere in the emergency shelter section. Such places could be excavated but go unused initially while you slept elsewhere, until local enforcement became accustomed to the outrage and ceased to routinely check them.

   Nomadic options can have additional advantages.

   You can buy emergency “space blankets” from among the camping supplies. These are thin sheets of mylar with reflective coating. They work by reflecting the infrared heat back to your body, are light weight, and fold up very tightly. The security aspect of this is that although partially transparent, they will attenuate your infrared signature, and can thereby assist you in hiding from the more technically prepared. Better still is aluminum foil with the shiny side towards you. Although it can be embedded in a wall, the shiny surface cannot be in contact with anything.