Homeless Wizards

[mahogany_wand]

Homelessness. It happens a lot in our society, and since wizards are only human, certainly it happens to them too.

I do have a few questions about it, though.

Would there be such a thing as wizarding hitchhikers?

It seemed easy enough for the wizards the Trio overheard in the forest to summon fish. Would homeless wizards not go hungry because they could summon mushrooms, berries and such?

Those are the ones I need the most help with. Any help would be fully appreciated!

~M_W

[Tim the Enchanter]

Homelessness. It happens a lot in our society, and since wizards are only human, certainly it happens to them too.

I do have a few questions about it, though.

Would there be such a thing as wizarding hitchhikers?

It seemed easy enough for the wizards the Trio overheard in the forest to summon fish. Would homeless wizards not go hungry because they could summon mushrooms, berries and such?

Those are the ones I need the most help with. Any help would be fully appreciated!

~M_W

I don't see a such thing as wizarding hitchhikers, because wizards don't travel in a linear fashion - wizards Apparate, take Portkeys, or Floo, and rarely physically travel from point A to point B without some means of instant transportation.

So I think a homeless wizard would simply Apparate to wherever he needs to go, or take the Knight Bus if he can't Apparate - but he probably wouldn't because that's too expensive. But homeless wizards probably wouldn't do much travelling at all - they'd most likely stay at Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley and scavenge through rubbish or something like that.

Concerning scavenging, life would be a lot easier for the wizarding homeless than the Muggle, due to the ease of summoning food and cooking with magical fires.

However, this assumes that the homeless wizard is lucky enough to have a wand. Remember, during the Second Voldemort War, many Muggle-borns had their wands confiscated, and became the vagrant "Wandless" that roamed Diagon Alley.

Tim the Enchanter

[Karaley Dargen]

Is there anything like social security in the wizarding world? I've often been wondering about that... Because the wizards obviously don't go to the muggle places for that... I mean you can hardly say "I'm currently working as a Curse Breaker, but I'd like to have some unemployment insurance" or something like that..

[OliveOil_Med]

There is actually a site on the story that is about a homeless girl in Brazil who turns out to be a witch.
Marissa and the Wizards

This issues surrounding homelessness are explained very well in this story. Give it a read and see if it helps you out any.

[Inverarity]

I can't really see a wizard in possession of a wand being destitute and homeless (unless they happen to be on the run from a despotic wizarding regime ruled by a Dark Lord). You'd have to be a pretty stupid wizard to be unable to feed yourself or figure out how to make a living when you can cast Summoning Charms, Apparate, transfigure things, etc.

Unskilled wizards, or those with too many children and not enough ambition (the Weasleys) might be relatively poor compared to other wizards, but they're not going to starve or wind up on the streets.

So I think the only way homeless wizards are likely is if they're fugitives, or they have lost their wand. (Or, alternatively, if they are mentally ill, which is how a lot of people wind up homeless in the real world.)

[Karaley Dargen]

Here in Germany (I don't know how it is in other countries, so I'm just going to use this example), there's a lot of kids from 12-20 who run away from home and never return to their parents, no matter how bad life on the streets is.
Imagine a charakter like Sirius, for example, but without a friend like James. Underage wizard, can't stand his family any longer, runs away from home, and then he has nowhere to go, and he can't use magic yet if he wants to keep his wand.
At least until they turn 17 I think there could be homeless children.

And I can see wizards, just like Muggles, who for example abuse alcohol and drugs to an extent where it costs them their house and job. They can still for example summon food out of stores and things like that, but I can see wizards not having enough money to afford a place to live. Life for them would definitely be easier than life for homeless people in our society, because of the already mentioned possibilities of summoning charms and transfiguration etc, but they'd still be homeless...

Although if it were me, I'd get myself one of those tents they use during the Quidditch Worldcup...