When I'm not riding my bike, I'm generally wearing an old T-shirt and jeans. Depending on the weather, I may also be wearing my favorite hoodie, which is old and tattered. To top it off, I have long hair and a big bushy beard and my hair is usually quite oily. That is, I tend to look like many homeless men. It's not uncommon when I'm walking around downtown or riding public transportation for a homeless man to assume that I am also homeless, at least there are clues that come up in conversation that seem to me to be based on such an assumption. I don't rush to correct them, but I don't hide the reality of my life either. Typically when it becomes clear that I have a stable place to live, that isn't a problem. Notice, however, that this comes up because I'm having a conversation with them. My experience with homeless people is that they are just like anybody else (though perhaps they don't hide their eccentricities as well). I used to think that homeless people talked to me because they thought I was also homeless. Over time, I've come to notice that they talk to pretty much everyone and I just end up in more conversations with homeless people than most others do because I listen. (Note that the correlation between mental illness and homelessness is well documented and I accept it as correct, but mentally ill people, for the most part, value acceptance and social interaction just as much as anyone else, possibly much more.)