I suppose it was. The method is drive down dirt roads until you think you see a roof poking through the brush. Take the address to the courthouse and look up who owns the land, then call. We lived there for free, granted it was an old drafty house and was missing window panes here and there. Those we filled with cardboard or plywood (cut to fit the hole), and tapped into place. Our bathroom didn’t have a door, sink (it had a sink, but it was never hooked up), or floor leading up to it (just step joist to joist and don’t rush or you could fall into the dirt/mud under that end of the house).

I’m in my 40s now and just in the past decade or so did I realize how bad it looked from the outside looking in, but to a kid, that was just life. I thought everyone had multiple refrigerators because when one quits working, you just go to the auction and get another to put beside it, as kids we thought it was funny to tell guests to open the other one because it got insanely gross after a while (maggots, black slime that food eventually turned into, etc.).