Tom Sepa would rather not be called homeless.

"That word is loaded," he said. "I prefer 'urban outdoorsman.' "

It is true that Sepa has a lot of things that aren't generally associated with the stereotypical San Francisco homeless person - like a full-time job.

A telemarketer, Sepa hits the phones at 7 a.m., working out of Zephyr Cafe in the Richmond District. He uses his laptop and a cell phone headset to make over 100 cold calls each morning. Currently, he's trying to get companies to take a meeting with a software firm he's representing.

He gets paid via his PayPal account, and owns an iPod and a guitar. When he says he is going to take you out to see "my version of a shopping cart," he means a late model Chevy.

What he doesn't have is four walls and a roof. Instead, he's been living in a tent deep on the back trails of Golden Gate Park for three months.

For all the offers cities like San Francisco make to serve the homeless, it does seem odd that an intelligent, rational soul like Sepa thinks his best option is a nylon camp tent. As the economy tanks and jobs disappear, you have to wonder how many other people will opt for the woods. And what we will decide to do with them.

Sepa insists there are more people like him than anyone realizes. People with steady, but low-paying jobs, who hit a patch of bad luck - Sepa said his wife left and he couldn't afford the rent where they were living - and find themselves running as fast as they can to stay in one place.

Although Tenderloin Housing Clinic Director Randy Shaw considers Sepa's case "extraordinarily atypical, because not many people have a laptop and are homeless," he thinks the number of employed homeless people is higher than many would suspect.

"We know that for a fact," Shaw said. "In 1999, when the Mission Rock Shelter closed, a comprehensive survey was done and a surprisingly high number, as high as 20 percent, were employed."

Trent Rhorer, the director of the city's Human Services agency and soon-to-be chief of staff for Mayor Gavin Newsom, agreed.

"Absolutely, there are cases where people are working and simply are not earning enough to live in a high-cost area like San Francisco," he said. "If you are not on a subsidy, it is very, very difficult to get housing on your own."

Sepa, who said he's rarely been out of work in the last 20 years, is the first to admit that he has other options. But frankly, they don't look very appealing to him. Instead, he's trying to live in the bushes, save some money, and put together a nest egg.

Life in a tent actually makes a kind of weird sense the more he explains it. Consider the economics: Because he declines to take any government or welfare checks, he subsists on what he makes from his job.

"Look, I make between $2,000 and $3,000 a month. It costs between $1,600 and $1,800 for a motel (at $50-$60 a night for a cheap one in a suburb like Fremont). You can do that, but you're not saving anything to get out of this."

Instead, Sepa checks into a motel once or twice a week and gets a shower. Other nights he sleeps under the stars, and he said he deposits what he'd pay for a motel in a savings account. He's got a couple of thousand dollars now, and is hoping to get to 10 grand.

If you ask why he doesn't stay in one of the city's a residential apartments, Sepa directs your attention to his laptop to see a video. It is a clip he shot of what happened when he was living in a residential hotel and heard someone banging on his door. He opened it to find his neighbor so drunk he was unable to stand. The neighbor wasn't knocking, he was repeatedly staggering into Sepa's door.

"Every time I try that, I end up between a crackhead and some drunk," Sepa said. "I'd rather be in the park."

But don't the police conduct sweeps through the park to search for campers, particularly those with illegal camping equipment?

"The whole thing is stealth," Sepa said. "I am in after dark and back out before dawn. I do no drinking, make no noise, and always leave it cleaner than when I went in."

He carefully scouts public bathrooms - "Starbucks are the best because you can go in there alone and lock the door," he said. He always buys a cup of coffee first, then makes sure to clean up the sink after wiping down with damp paper towels.

It is also worth noting that Sepa couldn't have done this five years ago. With his Wi-Fi card, cell phone, and PayPal account, he can conduct business, collect a paycheck and apply for his next job from a laptop in a tent in the park.

"This is the most liberating thing of the Internet," he said. "The birdcage is open."

Perhaps his only concession to the traditional world is a postal box he keeps downtown. What, I asked, does he use that for?

"My Netflix movies," Sepa said. "Right now I have 'The Best of Abbott and Costello,' and 'It Came From Outer Space.' "