- [Cameraman] Noah.
- Yeah.
- [Cameraman] We're in a park. Westchester, right?
- Yes, Westchester Park.
- [Cameraman] And it is near LAX.
- Right next to LAX, yes.
- [Cameraman] And you're homeless and you're 21.
- Yes, 21 years old, homeless. From New York.
- [Cameraman] Whereabouts in New York?
- Well, I was born in Buffalo,
but I lived in Niagara Falls for very long time.
- [Cameraman] Okay, got it. Got it.
I'm from Binghamton.
- Oh. Nice.
- [Cameraman] So that's why I asked.
- Yeah Binghamton is...
I have been Binghamton few times.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
- So it's a smaller city but it's very nice there.
- [Cameraman] I hate it.
- Well, they had a very nice,
I got a chance to go to the radio station there.
- [Cameraman] Oh, really?
- Yeah, I got to go to the radio station,
iHeartMedia, at Binghamton.
- [Cameraman] Oh, wow.
- Mhm. So, yeah. I've gotten to do ...
I like to consider myself the king of New York
even though I'm in California now.
(cameraman laughs)
I've gotten to go to a lot of different places in New York.
I'm in LA now, but I've been
in New York City before
and all over upstate New York two years ago.
- [Cameraman] How long have you been sleeping outside?
- I've been outside since September.
Well, that's how long I've been in LA for,
but I've been homeless for about a year now.
But other the places, some places not so nice as,
not so warm as here.
Some places were cold.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
But I slept in my, I have slept in my car.
I had a car at one point and I slept in my car.
20 degree weather, no heat in the car out.
That wasn't very fun. So.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
And now you sleep in a tent.
- Yeah, a tent.
That could be cold too, but you know,
it's a lot warmer in LA than it is in other places.
- [Cameraman] Right.
But people still, I've been everywhere from Anchorage
to Tampa and, you know,
where people feel comfortable, that's where
they learn to survive.
- Right, right. There's a place for everybody.
LA is a very difficult place to live,
especially with the homeless problem.
There's not a lot of help
from normal everyday people, as well.
I want to make that known,
that, you know, a lot of people
you know, even right here in this park could care less
that there's homeless people struggling.
So, you know, it really takes all of us to come together
and fight this homeless problem because, you know,
the LA is a place catered very much
towards the people that are already kind of doing good and
and have everything they need and have been here
for most of their lives or all their lives.
And it's not really, I feel, I don't feel
like there's a lot of support and a lot of, you know,
encouragement for people that may have come here
from other places that want to get a piece of what LA is all
about and the culture here and the industries here.
You know, the film, the television, the radio, the media.
You know, there's a lot of jobs out here,
but it's not for everybody.
Came out here thinking I was going to be a superstar.
I was going to be a movie star as soon
as I stepped foot in LA, but it's not like that.
You know, it's, you got to get up to that point.
But I'm just hoping for a better LA,
an LA that's a little bit more welcoming for everybody.
Because everybody's different. Nobody's the same.
And you know, some people really need that, you know,
that kind of encouragement and, you know,
everybody has a story.
Some of the nicest people I've met
are right here in Westchester park.
Everybody has a story of how they ended up here and,
you know, everyone is kind of unique
in their own special way, and it really takes
some strong people, some intelligent, kind people
to see how great these homeless people really are.
And know we deserve to be endorsed just like everybody else.
You know, we deserve to be able to take a shower.
Plug our phones in, you know.
I've seen so many people out here in this park that ...
We're right next to LAX airport.
Some people don't have phones.
People have nothing but the clothes on their back.
- [Cameraman] Well, you just gave
a homeless woman your phone.
Yes, yes.
She has said she has been in this park.
She's from Utah.
- [Cameraman] But you're homeless.
- Yeah, yeah. I just -
- [Cameraman] And you're giving
another homeless person a phone.
- Yeah. You know, some people can't,
you know, I can go get phones fairly easily,
you know, with my EBT card.
And some people don't even have their EBT card.
Some people don't have anything.
- [Cameraman] You can buy a phone with your EBT card?
- Well, they give you free ones for,
if you get your benefits, they give you a free Obama phone.
- [Cameraman] Yeah, yeah. There's ways of getting phones.
- I have a phone service on it now
so I don't need an Obama phone.
So when I get them, you know,
since I get them so easy with my stuff that I have,
I can just give them to somebody else.
And I'm hoping that, you know,
they can use that phone and get ahold
of DSS or whoever, get their ID, get their food stamps.
They can do it.
They can continue the cycle, give other people phones.
- [Cameraman] I've given phones to homeless people
and they've used it to get the help they need.
- Yeah, it's such a necessity.
If you have a phone, you can pretty much do anything.
You can call the caseworker.
You can call anywhere that you can get help.
You know what I'm saying?
If you don't have a phone,
you have to rely on somebody else.
And some people, you know, will mislead you
and they won't give you the right information.
I've had that happen to me a couple times.
Somebody will say, "Oh, write this number down.
Call this number."
I call that number. It's a dead line.
Nobody answers.
So, you know, you'll get misled.
Some people will mislead you.
So it's good for everybody to have their own phone
so they can stay connected in their own way.
And get the help they need.
Because it's a lot, it's partially,
you know, you can lead somebody in the right direction
and lead them to the help they need,
but they also need to want it.
You know what I'm saying?
Some homeless people have been
in this situation so long.
They haven't had any TLC, any love,
compassion from any other humans.
So they don't know how to -
- [Cameraman] What about you about you?
- Take it.
- [Cameraman] What about you?
Why, what are you going
to do to get out of here?
- Well, right now I just, you know,
it makes me feel good to be able
to help somebody out and give them a phone,
but also I just want to,
I'm homeless myself and I have, you know, offers
and resources to use to get me endorsed and stuff.
However, I really just want to see the people that have been
on the streets with me and people that have maybe
been struggling with it longer than I have.
Because I haven't been homeless forever.
I've had, you know, I've had a car, a job, money, you know.
I've had everything I wanted
at one point and then became homeless.
And I see people that have been like this
their whole lives.
Say, "Oh, this is what you need to do.
You need to do X, Y, and Z,
And then you'll be all set."
So for me, I just really want
to see everybody in a better place.
- [Cameraman] Well, there's also, there's a lot of fear.
Whenever, you know, life change, people don't understand.
I mean, even if it's, you know,
moving to a new job, a new apartment, a new home,
even going from your, because your life becomes this park.
- Right. Absolutely.
- [Cameraman] Then the homeless services
wants to take you out and put you
in some apartment that's not close to your friends.
- Right. Right.
And that's another thing, you know,
all of us in this park, you know, I split my time up here
in Westchester Park and another park, Echo Park.
Downtown Los Angeles, they're about to get swept.
So, you know, they were going
to sweep everybody out of here
when I first came here,
and now look at it.
We got a team of about how many people you think, Matt?
Maybe 10, 15, 20 of us in this park now.
Just not very,
just a small group of us.
You know what I'm saying?
We all care about each other deeply,
you know what I'm saying?
- [Cameraman] So how do we help you?
How do we, you're a young kid, Noah.
- What we need most is, you know, there's people -
- [Cameraman] You're smart.
- There's, we've got people over here
on the basketball court.
We got people on tennis courts.
You know, there's people zipping
by us and cars over there, over there, right behind me.
They have money.
You know what I'm saying?
All it takes is, you know, one small act
of kindness, you know, one person to open up their heart.
- [Cameraman] But how do we,
how does social services help Noah get out of homelessness?
- Well, they need to be supporting us more.
You know, I see too many
of these homeless programs out here that just
come take our information down, you know,
say they're going to get us housing and don't
do us any good, you know, beyond that.
You know, all this talk, talk, talk, talk.
"Oh, we're going to get you indoors."
This and that. Give us time.
- [Cameraman] Well, you're young, you're healthy.
You're probably, we're just talking
to somebody about the vulnerability list.
You're probably low on any list, but without housing
it's hard to, you know, take a shower to go look for work.
- Yeah. Yeah.
That's my thing.
I gave my GR my food stamps.
I'm getting, you know,
growing myself and taking care of myself and hopefully
within a little while, I'll be able to get a job.
You know what I'm saying?
But I'm farther along in this process
than what most other people are.
You know, I have my documents to work.
Some people don't have anything.
This is, I gave somebody a phone.
That's all they have.
That's their lifeline right now.
They don't have anything else, you know?
So that that's just step one.
And then, you know, hopefully a couple of months from now,
then that person will be able to get a job
and get the things they need.
So they don't, because a lot of people, when you're homeless
they get down so bad they get
all their stuff stolen from them.
They wouldn't have nothing but the clothes on their back.
And then you don't got anyone.
You don't got people just out here helping us out
and you know, saying, "Oh, you're homeless.
You're stuck. You need some help."
No, it's kind of like you kind of have to,
you know, ask around and get the help you need,
because it doesn't just always come to you.
You know?
But I just hope that the homeless people eventually,
you know, will get the help they need, get the stuff
they need to get off the streets.
And then in the meantime, we have people
that are doing the housing and those programs also,
whoever else, you know, start actually
doing their jobs and giving us resources.
Because we have street watch out here.
They help us.
But they're volunteers, right?
We got organization nonprofits that are supposedly
getting money per homeless person
to help us with services and they don't do anything.
So we really need,
it's a problem that we all have to tackle together
and give each person the best, give each homeless person
the best opportunity that they can
because each homeless person is unique.
I'm not going to have the same needs
as somebody else that's homeless, you know.
Everyone has specific needs.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
- So we really need-
- [Cameraman] Now you were telling me the reason you ended
up on the streets was it's hard to live with your parents.
- Yeah. My parents really, you know,
coming out to Los Angeles, they ...
They like to get into the drugs.
You know, my mom likes to do like black tar heroin.
- [Cameraman] I'm sorry.
- Yeah. It's all right.
My father, you know, he gets, I believe he gets more
into the crystal meth and things like that.
So there is drug use in my family.
The rest of my family, they like to drink.
A lot of people in this park like to drink.
I don't drink very much.
But I just want to see the people that really, you know,
you know, I'm doing it for my parents.
- [Cameraman] No, I get it. I get it.
- You know, helping my parents.
You know, being on the street
and struggling with them to know that I care about them.
You know what I'm saying?
And I've come out.
I've been in LA about half the time
that my parents have been.
They've been out here, six months.
They were out here about six months homeless
before I came out here.
And I've already accomplished a lot
since I've gotten out here, you know what I'm saying?
And my parents, you know,
they are accomplishing things,
but, you know, again, they're, you know.
They go out and they'll make their money every single day
part of it goes towards their drugs
and then part of it might go towards their housing.
But, you know, I just have another sister who I care deeply
about who I want to, who I don't want to have to come
out to California and see this homeless problem.
I want her to be able to be on set when she, you know,
if she ever decides to start her life out here
in California, because we're all originally from New York.
- [Cameraman] Right.
So if you had three wishes, what would they be?
- My three wishes.
Well, I would like a girlfriend.
(Noah laughs)
It's hard to tell you.
It's hard to get some love when you're on the street.
You know, you don't, you don't get no love.
And it's hard, you know,
because I'm really on my own sometimes.
And I really can't do much, but suck it up
and just deal with it until I'm in a better situation.
You know, I wish for all my friends here
in the park and all the people I've gotten to know
out here in LA, because I'm new to all of this
and all of these people, I just pray for each and every one
of them that they will get in a better situation.
They will get out of homelessness.
They will find their home.
Because we're all homeless.
We just don't have a home, but everyone has a home
somewhere out there in the world.
But, you know, just wait until they find that place
that they can lay their head down and say,
"Yep, this is my home."
So everybody would get there sooner.
My other wish is just for my family.
You know, that, you know my family can overcome homelessness
because we're all technically homeless
and overcome our addictions.
That we can be a better family.
You know what I'm saying?
Since we've been a very, we're a very broken family
and we need, you know, yeah, we need the healing.
And part of it is having a home.
You know what I'm saying?
If I'm on the streets or something
and it starts to go, it's hard to, you know, say,
"Okay, I'm on the streets.
Then I need to go find my parents for help."
They're on the streets, too.
They need to be able to have a place to stay
so that way we can all help each other out in that way.
So.
- [Cameraman] Well, thank you very much for talking to me.
- You're welcome.
(upbeat music)