- [Interviewer] Todd, we're here in Echo Park.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You're homeless.
- I'm not hopeless, but homeless, yeah.
- [Interviewer] And it's raining.
- Love it, I'm from Seattle, Washington.
(interviewer laughs)
it's every day, man, I love it.
- [Interviewer] But how do you, you're in a wheelchair.
How do you survive out here?
- The wheelchair is just one other apparatus for me
to get from point A to point B.
Everybody, since I was four years old, although I'm 54,
have told me I can't do certain things
because of an ailment, and I go out, not to prove 'em wrong,
but to prove me right.
And tell 'em that you can't tell me I can't do this
when I can do it.
I've been in retirement homes half my life,
and they feed you with drugs,
and feed you what they're eating, and charge $4,000 a month
for you to sleep with two other guys,
old guys that are gonna die,
and I'm still only 54,
and it just came out like a really loud knock on my door,
but it was more like a Rammstein,
they knocked my door open and flipped it, and it was MS
and either I fought it, or I grabbed it and embraced it
and said, I'm not gonna beat you, dude,
so if we get together, we could be way more powerful
than fighting each other 'cause I'm never gonna beat you.
You're gonna take me at some point.
So I wanna be your friend.
- [Interviewer] You're out here with MS.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Living in a tent.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] How long have you been homeless?
- About six years.
- [Interviewer] Always here?
- No, I was in South Central for three and a half years.
Living under a 1997 4Runner that was broken down,
and they let me just sleep in it behind the gate.
So, I was pretty safe.
- [Interviewer] How'd you end up homeless?
- That's a long, long trip,
but it's an easy one.
I lived in Silver Lake, Good Front Boulevard.
My MS, something happened with my social security,
my mother passed away.
My brother is the executor, he took over the will
and my mom made a special needs trust fund for me
for just for like a new wheelchair and stuff for medical
that Medicare doesn't cover,
and my brother wouldn't release the money.
I still have quite a bit of money up there
but he won't release it.
And it's in Seattle.
So, I have to have someone represent for me in Seattle
just to get the money so I can even buy,
every article of clothing I'm wearing is given to me,
whether through a church or the faith centers, whatever
I have to do that.
And my brother just bought,
my middle brother got some of the money
from my brother in Seattle.
He got $65,000 worth of new teeth,
and all I want is $15,000 to buy a motor home.
And I have somebody that will drive me around.
It will be totally customized for me with my disability
and he won't give it to me.
(interviewer mumbles)
I know, this is not the only story.
- [Interviewer] Well, you know why one of the things
people always ask about is family,
where's the family?
And I always say how was your Thanksgiving?
Drama free?
Family is often complicated.
- Oh my Lord, oh my Lord, think about it.
I come to the park,
I can talk to somebody I've never met in my life,
that's going through a major struggle in their own life
and have been through and going through.
And I can talk to them more than I can talk to my family.
Because you talk to the family
and there's some sort of blood line,
you talk to your brother or your sister,
and they go, oh I know you.
It's like, you don't
so, it's like it's better to talk to strangers sometimes.
And somebody just said invisible friends.
- [Interviewer] Invisible people.
- I have a song I just wrote
and my friend, Eschelon, right here, he wrote a song,
and I came up with idea for the song
I watched a guy washing himself on a fountain
and he was talking to somebody the entire time
and I was intrigued so I wrote a song
called Invisible Friends.
And at some point, I'd love to sing it to you.
- [Interviewer] Okay.
- Yeah, it's really crazy.
- [Interviewer] Well, how 'bout now?
- All right.
I'll just acapella it, I don't have my guitar, but yeah.
- [Interviewer] Well, yeah, if you--
- Listen, so this is about.
- [Interviewer] Well I can come back.
- No, I'll just kinda give you a snippet,
and I bet I'll get an acoustic guitar and play it, but
it goes I could just see this guy
and he was handing the washing cup, the little coffee cup
full of water off the fountain
and he just kept splashing his face
and then handing it to someone.
And I went, these people are jogging by
with their dogs and everything
and I'm goin' they don't give a fuck about this dude.
They don't care about he's insane, he's on crack.
But I went
♪ To you, I seem to be a little disturbing ♪
♪ You see me running around throw my hands up into the air ♪
♪ You're driving by me as you laugh ♪
♪ And as me as if I was spending ♪
♪ In my spaced out, man have I blown a fuse ♪
♪ Am I out of control, man? ♪
♪ Acting all confused ♪
♪ Don't you all find yourselves once, two ♪
♪ Who been looking for the one who can understand you ♪
♪ And never let you down ♪
♪ And never screw you ♪
♪ 'Cause in the end ♪
♪ It's my invisible friends ♪
♪ So, do I have a direct line to God ♪
♪ Or have I just been disconnected up inside of my head ♪
♪ You're laughing at me as I drive by you ♪
♪ Looking at me as if I was high ♪
♪ Are you space out, man, have you blown a fuse? ♪
♪ Are you just like me, are you one of the chosen few? ♪
That talk to your invisible friends?
Just lookin' at this guy goin'
he had, there was someone there.
You know what I mean, dude?
- [Interviewer] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- He was convinced that,
so he's smokin' pot, handin' the pipe to the guy
and there's no one there.
- [Interviewer] Wow.
Yeah, no, I without going into a long story,
I've ran into a few times
where homeless people have felt they were invisible
because they've been ignored so long.
People walk by them not even looking.
That's how the brain reinforced,
oh, well people can't see me.
You know?
- I must not be anything, no one.
- [Interviewer] Well, you are someone to me.
- No, I'm saying to
when you find someone just sittin' there goin'
people are like so afraid to go talk to someone.
Go fuck up to them and go, hey man, my name's Todd.
How you doin', man?
People don't do that.
They're scared.
'Cause people in the society are scared.
They don't want oh, I'll never be like that
driving their car in the rain.
Oh look at that tent.
I'll never be like that.
Guess what?
You wake up with MS, and fuck,
next thing you know, there's a tent.
- [Interviewer] Nobody's helping ya?
- I got a lot of people helping,
but no one can save me.
- [Interviewer] Okay.
Feel like the gentleman that was pushing you
in the wheelchair, you got people helping,
but nobody gettin' you out of here into housing.
- But I'm suffice with it.
It's not that I was born to lose,
I'm used to
looking as high as I can get,
that if I get halfway down, that's fine.
As long as I get off from where I'm at.
You know, I don't want.
- [Instructor] So, now I heard
that a pretty aggressive sweep came through yesterday.
- That was gnarly.
It was gnarly is California.
Yeah, gnarly.
And no, and I woke up at
this is exact, I was the first one I think
that really woke up.
Everyone's crashed.
We'd already had to do out with this other rich tent shit
in the other couple days.
The guy comes, (stammering) right over here.
And I go, I hear something, this is seven in the morning.
I went, my friend Santino from Argentina
knockin' on my tent and I thought he was a cop.
I'm like, what are you doin' here?
He just got back from the skating competition.
I'm like what the fuck?
And he goes, hey dude, gives me a cup of coffee
and then all of a sudden I could just see these lights.
Then all of a sudden pulled in and big fuckin' sheriff
fuckin' truck and pulled right up to the very top here
and didn't say one word.
Turned the lights on.
And yelled through a bullhorn.
And you couldn't understand one fuck
it was worse than an airport.
(mumbling)
I'm goin', dude, my audio fuckin' got slayed dude,
I know everything about audio.
I'm goin' no one can even,
everyone's in their tents hangin' out.
They gave us wrong dates to actually do what everything.
And them taking pictures and all that shit.
And I was just watching this, just mayhem.
I'm just like this, this is the--
- [Interviewer] So they gave you dates
that they're gonna come and do the sweep
but it was the wrong date?
- Yeah, and then they showed up on a different date
and no one knew about it.
You know, they were takin' pictures
and puttin' it on tents.
And then takin' pictures and iPhone that shit.
And everyone's got video of it, it was insane.
And these, I'm not gonna use a derogatory statement,
but these overweight guys that just work for the government,
they're not the police, think they're all badass.
And Bobby, they handcuffed him to prove a point.
You guys, what are you doing?
All I can say, and hopefully it's on video,
I didn't wanna call them anything, you know,
you gotta wait until lunch.
I don't think, you can skip lunch,
'cause they were really fat
and they walked around with their batons and shit
and I just went, the only thing I want you to think about,
fatso, is you are the one that made the choice
to do this for a living.
You're the one that made the choice.
I didn't.
So, how do you feel?
You went to work to do this shit?
I know I can go to work and help fuckin' maim puppy dogs
and that seemed a lot cooler.
- [Interviewer] So I heard they took a lot of stuff.
- Oh fuck, they threw it out.
They didn't even ask.
They brought in eight of those big fuckin' yellow trucks
and just started grabbing like Bobby's fuckin' TVs
and just, didn't even tell anyone.
And started grabbin' shit.
I'm lucky I was, a couple of us were up in the hill.
They didn't touch us.
Then yesterday or whatever,
had to move all of our tents onto the sidewalk.
'Cause they were gonna mow the lawn.
- [Interviewer] But you don't have any place to go?
That's the thing.
Even when they warn you, you know,
there's no place for you to go.
- No.
You have to be 500 feet away from the park
or look, you'll get a citation.
I don't know what it is
trying to be a bully or you're sad
because you feel tough because the rest of your life sucks.
You take it out on other people.
Everybody I've met in all the parks
and all the under trucks I've lived in,
they're more of a community and helping each other out
than any of real society.
Real society's so fucking self-absorbed
and so fuckin' egotistical and just
they don't give a fuck about you.
I'm gonna get home and dry off and take a shower
and eat some food, drink a beer,
fuck those bums, drug addicts.
Yeah, everybody here's a fuckin' heroin crystalhead.
I don't know one crystalhead here anymore.
It used to have a lot, but now it's pretty mellow, you know.
I don't know, man, it just.
- [Interviewer] So how do we end homelessness
in Los Angeles?
- Leave LA.
I have no idea.
There's no way you can stop homelessness.
How are you gonna stop starving?
How are you gonna fix all the ailments
that little kids have in Syria?
Bugs on their eyes.
I mean, how are you gonna do that?
I mean, I know I just have to believe in myself,
and I work through this what I have
personal insight with this individual.
- [Interviewer] Well, you're spot on
because we have to go upstream,
because homelessness is a symptom, not a cause.
You know.
So, until we fix racism,
until we fix the criminal justice, poverty,
foster care, housing.
- The conglomeration, the coagulation of all of it together
becomes a really powerful ball, it fuckin'
so, do we send guys, astronauts to the asteroid
and blow it up or go and descend into the Earth and try to
I think it's gonna be Mother Nature and God
just shakin' up the world and goin'
I'm gonna make you guys think about what will
it's gonna be an earthquake,
it's gonna be something catastrophic,
'cause that's the only way we learn
is through really bad things.
- [Interviewer] Sadly, you're right.
If you had three wishes, what would they be?
- Okay, first one was
okay, I can do in one wish, if you had one wish.
- [Interviewer] One wish?
- I wish I didn't have to make wishes.
- [Interviewer] Wow.
- 'Cause everything would be in place.
- [Interviewer] That is so powerful.
- Well, I mean, for me it's a real statement.
I don't wanna go,
oh, I wish there was no kids that are hurting.
I wish there was no homeless.
But wishing, yeah, I Dream of Jeannie.
- [Interviewer] People had everything we needed.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You know, then we're all content.
- And everybody that thinks they're content aren't.
They're probably the ones that make things a little bit
oh, look at what I got, my Jaguar,
but your blinker's still on.
You know, it's like,
and I'm not pointing fingers, I'm not judging any,
you got, I'm on part, what is it?
Over 50 something billion people on the planet, right?
- [Interviewer] Well, it was an honor to meet you.
- Super cool to meet you.
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much for talking to me.
- Trying to, and by the way, I'm part of this company
or not company, but this collaborational effort
called Tricycle, you gotta look into it.
You'll hear about it.
Yeah, it's a heavy conglomerate of positivity.
- [Interviewer] Good.
Thanks for talking to me.
- Hey, thank you for just coming and hanging out.
You seem like a really neat dude, man.
So, just keep doin' what you're doin'.
Lot of other people, they got other things to do, you know.
But you're doin' things to try to help other people
get to a different heighth
and that's really a beautiful thing, man.
(electronic music)