- [Interviewer] Nicholas,
we're in Hollywood,
you're homeless, tell me about it.
- Well it's not easy.
It's very difficult at
times when we have to
get up and pack your stuff up,
like today was a pretty bad
day for a lot of people.
You gotta find new ways
to survive every day.
You have to, it's better
if you have a team,
it's harder by yourself
and there's a lot of
options that the city could,
they have a lot of options, I feel like,
they have a lot of funds
for different programs
like this Care Program that comes over
and sweeps all the stuff.
You can take that money from there,
and put it in other places,
and really get people on a better path
to getting permanent housing.
These case workers can
work a little harder
on getting people vouchers.
It's almost like they
have to sneak to do stuff,
to help people.
- [Interviewer] That's what your,
just so people know, sweeps are,
they come in often
unannounced with sanitation,
LAPD, lucky if there's case workers,
sometimes there is, sometimes they're not.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] And
they disrupt your lives.
And it's a waste of tax payer money
and it does absolutely nothing
to help any homelessness.
- I once left a bag of
my personal belongings,
with my friend.
This is when I first became
homeless out here, years ago
and it was in his tent and I went to use
the bathroom somewhere.
I had my birth certificate,
social security card, everything.
I came back, they swept it
up, everything was gone.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] And they throw stuff away.
- Yeah.
It was terrible.
So I had to start from
scratch, from scratch,
from scratch.
- [Interviewer] Right
and right now CDC guidelines
are saying that they shouldn't
but Los Angeles is still...
- Going against it.
- [Interviewer] Yeah,
they're still doing sweeps.
- Right.
I mean I don't know how to
make these things better.
I'm pretty young myself, I
don't know a lot about all this,
but I do know right from
wrong, so that's wrong.
- [Interviewer] Well it makes
no sense to me the sweeps,
because they don't.
They're a complete
waste of tax payer money
and they don't do anything to help people,
so they make,
and I know Los Angeles
spends 30 million a year,
on these sweeps and that's 15 shelters
that they could build
or a bunch of people they
can get into housing,
or hotels that they could
buy, to get you all in.
- You know something?
When I was younger, me and
my mother and my sister
we experienced homelessness
in New York City,
that's where I'm from,
and they had some woman had a chat to us
about a family shelter, which
was a hotel to begin with
in White Plains New York and
they got us all settled in
and we had a room with a key,
there was security, you
know it was very nice
and I think they have a budget out here
that could do something better,
bigger than that right now.
'Cause they have a lot of money,
and sure you know what?
L.A has the biggest homeless population
I think in the United States,
but that means you gotta
have a bigger budget,
that just means we need more donations
and there's tons of people here.
I mean where we're just
standing right now,
a block away from Hollywood Boulevard
where countless celebrities and you know,
people of high stature are there,
and can afford to donate a little bit more
than they hold onto.
- [Interviewer] Well-
- And not to say that people should
just give all their money to us but..
- [Interviewer] Money is needed.
I'm not saying, but what the government
and non-profits do with
the money is also important
and Los Angeles has a history
of doing too little too late.
- Yeah they just sent
out 1200 dollar checks
because of the pandemic,
so that kind of proves
they could of acted
sooner on these things.
- Well that was the federal government,
but that's another case.
- That's what I mean, which
I didn't get by the way.
- You didn't get your stimulus check?
- And I worked last year.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] We're gonna connect you
to our online support groups so that
we can help you with that.
- Much appreciated.
Thank you.
- [Interviewer] But I wanna
go back to when you were
first homeless, you were 13.
- Yeah, actually 12 going on 13.
I spent my 13th birthday in a shelter.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, oh my gosh.
And your mother was working
at the World Trade Center
and she thought
- Well she was
a security guard,
she didn't wanna work there,
because of how it was,
so she didn't go.
- [Interviewer] Okay so she
left the gig before nine 11.
- Right.
- [Interviewer] Which is lucky.
- Yeah and the whole idea of
like struggling for her,
was like,
we can't do this, we
have to get somewhere.
Luckily we got connected with that shelter
and then she got another security job.
She was actually working
security for the shelter
and then we got our apartment in Yonkers
and then everything was
going good from there, so.
- [Interviewer] And you
were telling me you've gone
a couple of times on and off the streets.
- Oh yeah,
well I mean, I like to travel
and when I ran out of money
I ended up in Hollywood.
So I did the whole country, got here,
thinking,
not like oh I'm seeing
stars I'm gonna do this,
I didn't come here for that reason.
I actually came here
because my family was here
and they invited me out
and we had a falling out,
because of me, so I
had my personal issues,
a lot of growing up to do at the time
and we just butted heads
and didn't get along
and I felt like I didn't need any help,
but obviously I do, yeah.
- [Interviewer] You do, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Because that's
- Look with being
young and dumb
- actually very
self aware of you to be able to you know?
- Well I'm 27 now,
I didn't see things,
like this all the time.
- [Interviewer] oh well, yeah.
Maturity does that.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Now you
were talking that they cut
your food stamps because
you couldn't on your phone
access the website.
- There's like a SR something,
re-certification form
you have to fill out,
every so often, periodically,
between I guess six months
and covid has been going
on for longer than that
so and these DPSS buildings are closed
and you can't bring it in
and then I get a case worker
who says she's working on it,
calls in sick, calls in sick.
I don't know how you can
call in sick in a pandemic
and then use the words,
I'm calling in sick today.
No if you're sick I mean you get,
you know?
You calling out you can't
make it today sounds better.
I just appreciate honesty
and a lot of these workers come out here
and they provide false hope.
They provide little
snacks, little sandwiches,
which is great, you know,
who doesn't need food?
Everyone needs food to survive, but...
- [Interviewer] What you need is housing.
- Yeah I need to know that
- [Interviewer] And false hope
- Someone's dedicated to that.
- [Interviewer] Most
case workers that I know
are very careful that
we don't make promises
we can't keep.
- Yeah and that's right.
- [Interviewer] But what's happening is,
Los Angeles after Measure Eight money,
went and hired so many workers so quick
and they also did for the pandemic,
there's not that train,
they don't have the experience,
because oh my gosh, you
guys get told so often
you know, we're gonna get you into housing
or we're gonna get you this
and we're gonna and then it never happens,
then you lose trust with the system.
- Well you know,
it's awful kind of putting your life
in the hands of another person,
so usually I just,
I've gotten off the streets myself before
and it was very very hard,
so I had to work a job for,
on the streets, going to,
not being able to sleep, at
the same time losing my things.
Going back and forth to work.
Not letting my job know
that I was homeless
so they wouldn't fire me,
'cause that's happened a lot out here.
I've actually been fired
for being homeless.
- [Interviewer] Yeah once they find out,
and without showers how
do you keep your job,
because co-workers like "man he smells"
- Well you know honestly,
I know a lot of people
that face that problem.
I do my best to keep good friends
that will allow me to
shower from time-to-time
at their house.
And they can't invite me to stay
because of people,
roommates,
or different situations.
- [Interviewer] The lease.
- The lease and I wouldn't want to put
their housing in jeopardy
- [Interviewer] Right.
- just to make sure,
that you know, I'm not selfish
and a lot people think
people out here are selfish
and unwanted in their
families or homes like that,
but some of these people
have lost their families.
Have been abandoned.
I hear a lot of stories and it's terrible
and it's painful to hear that.
- [Interviewer] What would
you want housed people
to know about homeless
people that they don't know?
I mean they see you and-
- Key word, people.
We're people.
- [Interviewer] Spot on.
- Yeah, we're people that's it
- [Interviewer] That's perfect
It's that easy.
As you look at someone dead in their eyes,
you can understand that they are human.
That they have the same need and wants.
Needs and wants as you.
And maybe,
a lot of people on the streets,
have very tough skin, so we can take a lot
and some people get
overwhelmed, I don't blame them.
Every person should try and
put their emotions in check.
- [Interviewer] It's
trauma out here, it sucks.
- Yeah it's traumatic for a lot of people
and not everybody's built
- [Interviewer] People lose it
for this situation.
- [Interviewer] when they have
a flat tire or you they're,
girlfriend leaves them,
boyfriend leaves them
and different things.
- World's upside down.
- [Interviewer] Life can
be hard, but homelessness
is extremely hard.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You were telling me about
being out here in a tent in the heat.
- Yeah you know what?
That's not even the worse part of it.
The worst part of it, is
having to defend your camp
or your things from other homeless people
or police or random people,
who like to walk by and destroy tents.
They were setting encampments on fire
around Hollywood recently.
I don't know if you've heard about that,
but that's terrible.
- [Interviewer] Yeah I have.
Yeah.
- Yeah, so
there's random people, housed people
that come out here.
If I want those people to know anything
is that there's no need
for violence against people
who aren't attacking you.
That's not self-defense.
There's no way you can
make that sound good.
There's no reason for that.
- [Interviewer] If you had
three wishes what would they be?
- Universal healthcare (laughing)
A better program to house people
and better food services.
Better donations to places
like these churches.
'Cause you know they
give them expired foods.
And it's not up to them, what
kind of donations they get.
It's up to them what they give out
and at the end of the day the
church where I'm volunteering.
We have to throw some stuff out, because
people are gonna get sick.
- [Interviewer] Donated crap.
People donate crap.
- Yeah.
So it's really not good.
- [Interviewer] Great wishes.
- And they give us third grade sandwiches.
That's great 'cause that's food
and I'm a big kid but you know,
for other people, they
can't eat peanut butter.
They have peanut butter allergies
and all you get out here is peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches so you're like
"take it, take it"
- [Interviewer] Yeah, yeah,
yeah.
You can't force feed me my
- [Interviewer] Right
- You know?
- [Interviewer] They give peanut butter
but they don't give any milk
or water and so you gotta
I used to, I lived in
a shelter far too long
and I used to say "if there's
mold on the bread at dinner
"don't eat the French
toast in the morning"
- Right, because it's the same bread.
- [Interviewer] 'Cause
it's the same bread.
Oh it's moldy, let's make French toast
so nobody sees it right?
- Terrible.
- [Interviewer] And they're
doing the best they can
so anyways,
thank you so very much for talking.
- Thank you man.
You've been really good in,
good help out here.
We appreciate you coming out.
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