- [Interviewer] So you don't know what--
- Mm-mmm.
- Just beautiful. - Just beautiful.
- [Interviewer] Let's see it in the camera
if you don't mind. - I gotta get it out again.
- [Interviewer] So.
- Okay, hold on.
- [Interviewer] Wow.
- I found 'em last night.
I mean, I've seen 'em before,
but I got the source
last night. - [Interviewer] Yeah.
So Carolyn. - Yeah.
- [Interviewer] We're here in Seattle.
You're out here homeless, tell me about it.
- Tell you about it?
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- (laughing) It sucks.
It's mostly self-induced
and it can be done something about.
- [Interviewer] So, how do you survive?
- I take donations for flowers.
- [Interviewer] We had that conversation
a moment ago, it's wonderful!
So you find beautiful flowers - Mm-hmm (affirmative)
- And you make other peoples day!
- I acquire them and then I take donations for them
or if they don't have anything that they
feel that they can donate, or maybe
they're possibly in a worse situation than me,
I give flowers away.
- [Interviewer] Wow - So, it all just depends.
- [Interviewer] Now, you're saying
you've been out here five years.
- Mm-hmm (affirmative)
- That's way too long! - Mm-hmm (affirmative)
- [Interviewer] Now, you're sleeping out here
even in the winter time?
- Oh yeah.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh, that's gotta be so cold!
- It is but you just
you know, I insulate very well.
- [Interviewer] Nobody should have to live like this.
- I agree but...right.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, is anybody
helping you get out of homelessness?
- No.
- [Interviewer] Has people tried?
- No.
- [Interviewer] So you don't see
many outreach teams or anybody out here?
- I have a caseworker
but honestly, he, from what I see,
can't do anything more for me
than what I can already do for myself.
Not that he isn't helpful, he's a nice guy.
It's just, I know some avenues
and I haven't always been homeless
and I've gotten myself out of this situation before.
So, I just need to apply myself and
- [Interviewer] Yeah. just do it.
- [Interviewer] But you've been out here five years.
It's not easy to get off the streets.
- No, no it's not.
It's not easy but
how can I say this?
If you don't allow other people
to monopolize your life and your time
with their drama and chaos, as I do,
and people quit dying on ya,
then you can, you can do it.
- [Interviewer] You've had friends die out here?
- No, well, yeah but, my family.
- [Interviewer] I'm sorry.
- My mom first, then my dad and then my son.
And so, I've been going through that.
- [Interviewer] I'm sorry. - Thank you.
So, it's just, it's gotten me to the point
where I am just so scared to death
someone else is gonna die, you know?
I mean, it's no excuse and it's not how
I'm trying to live my life but
it's just what it is.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh, what would you want
somebody to know about homeless people
that, you know, the public what would you want
them to know about homeless?
- It's not contagious (laughing).
- [Interviewer] It's not contagious!
- It's not the cooties!
You know, yeah, I get really tired
of being treated like, I mean, literally
had this woman walk in Starbucks today
and she's like this...
I'm like wow, how rude!
I mean, that stuff it really, it gets to you
after a while and there's times
I'll just sit there and cry,
it hurts my feelings that bad
and I probably shouldn't let it get to me
so bad but it just builds up, you know?
And, you know, just, we are no different,
well, I can't say that. (laughing)
Some of us are quite different.
Yeah, I could be them, they could be me
and probably have been.
At least, I've been on the other side.
- [Interviewer] Well... - What?
- [Interviewer] People don't see us as human.
- No, they don't.
They think that they're better and
that is a big, big mistake on their part.
It's really, it's pathetic.
They should feel embarrassed
to treat another person like that.
- [Interviewer] All right.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] I mean, if you didn't
have the cart, I wouldn't know you were homeless.
- Really?
- [Interviewer] No, I wouldn't, Honestly!
- That's cool. - [Interviewer] You know?
- 'Cause I feel like I wear a big label
even when I don't have the cart.
I don't know if people just remember me or what.
Sometimes I feel like I've just got this label
because I can be sitting there
and a group of people will all of a sudden,
they just gravitate towards me,
as far as, like "there's the homeless
"one, let's give her this"
you know, and no one else is getting anything.
You know, it's just a really weird thing.
- [Interviewer] I've been off the streets 24 years
and I still have that feeling,
where people will invite me into their house
and I feel uncomfortable, it's like
I'm the homeless person!
You know, you don't invite-
and then I have to remember, I'm no longer.
So ,that is a challenge
and my heart breaks for you.
- And you know, honestly, I've been homeless
a few times before and then have infirmity
to the situation and I can't remember
when the last times that I had a place to live,
I was kind of, being that way myself.
So, you know.
- [Interviewer] So, your other times of being homeless,
you were able to get off the streets yourself?
- Well, with agency help, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Right, so, somebody helped ya.
- I had an income at that time.
- [Interviewer] And this time you don't.
- No, I lost it.
I'm in the process of getting it back though.
It's through Social Security Disability.
I just didn't do my paperwork good enough for them
because I was processing my son.
- [Interviewer] If you're once on disability,
they shouldn't have taken you off!
- I agree!
But it was time for my review
and it's so crazy, it was time for my review,
I did my paperwork, they said "okay, all good,
"everything, we're turning it back on."
A month later "oh, well, we need you to do
"the paperwork again."
So, and then a day turned into a week,
turned into months and now we're almost a year.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh. - Yeah,
and it went by really fast.
It's amazing how fast.
- [Interviewer] Well, homelessness doesn't go by fast.
- No.
- [Interviewer] You know and I hope you can get
your disability back soon.
- Thank you.
Yeah, I mean, I knew it was a blessing
at the time, I did realize it
but I don't think I realized the extent
of what a big blessing it was.
Yeah, so thank you, I hope so.
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes,
what would they be?
- My family to be back, especially my son, he was only 20.
To be a better parent
and, boy, what would that third one be?
I don't know, I don't know,
just to be the person God wants me to be.
- [Interviewer] All great wishes.
Well, thank you very much for talking to me.
- Thank you.
(upbeat music)