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It's safe to say that many people take great care at night to make sure the doors and windows of their home are closed and locked because they don't know when someone might take advantage of an opportunity to harm them.
But for one woman, there are no windows and no doors to lock because she has lived outside in the Youngstown-Warren area for at least several weeks.
To not put her life in any more danger than it already is, this newspaper is not saying where she lives or describing her. She is always careful not to give out too much information about herself anyway because she is a "woman out here alone."
She spoke to a reporter this week in the early evening. Though many of us may not have noticed, it's getting damp in the evenings lately -- around 7 p.m. and later -- because sometimes she has to put a cover over the place where she sleeps, and her blanket sometimes needs to be taken to the laundromat to dry out the next day, she said.
She said she might be an unusual homeless person in that she does not have addiction issues, and she ignores advice she gets on the street about places homeless try to live -- like in a tent or under a bridge.
She wants an apartment and has her eye on one in particular. She is working toward having enough money to afford it, but does not have enough money yet. She also wants to have a car, but that also is a work in progress.
She has tried to find accommodations in homeless shelters, but has had no luck. She said she thinks one reason is others are filling the available spaces in anticipation of colder weather coming.
She also believes that homeless shelters focus their resources on people with substance-use or severe mental health issues, and she does not qualify.
So while she continues to search for a way to get out of the weather, she travels from place to place, returning to a specific place at night.
When a reporter approached her after learning of her situation from a person who spoke with her recently, she was reluctant to talk about herself. She is understandably wary of strangers and demonstrated how much she observes people and cars that move around her.
She is wary, she said when she sees a car that doesn't seem to belong there. She noticed when a man entered a business and left without buying anything and noticed him glance in her direction, she said.
At the same time, some people have treated her nicely, offering things to help her. One woman stopped and gave her a coat and a blanket.
"It was just nice because she didn't make a big deal out of it," she said. "Some people want to make a big show of it. She saw someone in need and did something about it."
The woman said she found a drawing in the pocket of the coat that she believed had been made for the woman by a child, maybe her daughter. The woman said it seemed to be evidence that the woman did not intend to give the coat and blanket away, that she simply did it because she felt compelled to.
She said she has not been homeless for a long time.
"I am not used to this situation," she said. "Because I'm independent, I don't like to take stuff from others."
One common challenge she faces is people wanting to help by giving her too much at one time, like food or drink or a large blanket, for instance. She has no place to keep excess food or other items.
"I appreciate what you did, but I don't want you to buy me stuff that will last a week," she said.
She could try to justify keeping too much by thinking she will only be homeless another week.
"But I don't think like that" because it may not be true, she said.
It's hard for her to trust strangers, not knowing when someone might give her something to eat or drink to purposely make her ill.
She has received help from some businesses, like restaurants. Sometimes she asks for food when she is hungry, and sometimes they give her something to eat. But she is very conscious of needing to keep a low profile and not draw attention to herself -- either when she enters a business or is at rest at night.
She is especially concerned that she will not cause the police or anyone else to find her presence objectionable and force her to find a whole new place to live.
"I go day by day," she said, expressing an interest in learning more about agencies that can suggest other options for her than living the way she does now.
She said she thinks the number of homeless people has increased in recent times because of economic conditions and people "falling through the cracks."
She said her primary goal is a "roof over my head, but not just a quick fix, a BandAid. It's better to get it right the first time."
A man and his wife who encountered the woman recently said they wished there was something more they could do to help her with her housing situation, but so far they have not figured out how to do that.
The woman said she approached the homeless woman one time to see if she was "in distress," But "what I discovered about her gave me great surprise. She was articulate, neat, calm, kind and mostly determined in her decision that she was going to wait for the right place to live. She said, 'I know people who are in places, but they are bad places.'"
She did not hold a sign asking for money or food. Instead she said, "Sometimes we have to get through bad times before we get to the good times."
The woman said she hopes the homeless woman finds an apartment because she is on disability and earnestly wants to pay her rent.
"She deserves that instead of the cold, rain and wind she experiences each night while she waits."
The woman said the homeless woman is "brave. I could never do what she is doing."