- [Interviewer] Michael and Danielle and family!
We're here in Wentzville.
And you guys are all living in a hotel room.
Actually, there's a couple more of you, even.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] So else do we have here?
- This is Kymara,
this is Sierra, and this is Kyle.
- [Interviewer] Gotcha.
And there's one hiding below in the back there, so...
(laughter)
So, you're about to
come in,
you're packing up,
because you're out of money for the hotel.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] With no place else to go.
- Yes sir.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
What's it like living in a hotel?
- It's hard. Stressful.
- Yeah, it's stressful and hard.
But it's better than being on the streets.
- [Interviewer] How did you end up in this situation?
Our...
- Our landlord
Our landlord didn't pay the mortgage payment,
and they took
the home...
- Sheriff came and took the home we were paying on.
- [Interviewer] Really?
- Yes sir.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
And then how long have you been doing this hotel cycle?
- Uh...
- Almost a year now? Little over a year?
- Yeah, we went to her ma's
her mom in bed also...
- Yeah, she had a heart attack
- We went there for a little bit.
And then, she couldn't afford to pay her bills
and I was giving what I could,
but it wasn't enough to support two families at one time.
- [Interviewer] You're working?
- Yes sir.
- [Interviewer] It's just not enough to get out of here.
- Pretty much so.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
Wow.
And now the kids are in school?
- Yes sir.
- The oldest three are in school.
- [Interviewer] That's gotta be hard!
- Oh yeah.
- [Interviewer] It's gotta be hard on them and you!
- It's harder on them, I think.
Than it is on us.
- [Interviewer] So, oh my God.
And this young one
when I walked in said he was five?
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] He's happy, he just turned five.
- Oh yeah.
- He just turned five on Tuesday?
- [Interviewer] So, like even here, I mean,
you have six kids.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] When laundry comes around,
there's no laundry facility in this place.
- There's a partial laundry facility.
It's just not set up to do a full load
on the money you pay the first go around,
if that makes sense.
- [Interviewer] So, how about meals?
- Mmmm...a lot of microwave.
- Yeah, a lot of microwave.
What you see on the table is what we have for our meals,
right there.
- What is that, like a skillet thing that I can cook in...
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You guys are smiling!
Looks like you're making the best of it.
- Not much you can do.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
- It's not easy to smile.
- It's okay.
- It's not easy to smile.
But for especially the younger ones,
you don't have a choice, because they don't understand
that it's not their fault.
- [Interviewer] Well, it's not your fault either.
- Yeah, you still feel like you failed somewhere.
- Yeah, you uh,
It's kinda hard when you do everything right,
you know, when you're doing the American dream,
and you're paying on something,
and you're working everyday,
and the kids got nice clothes,
and they're going to school,
and their friends stay the night.
And then you get somebody who takes advantage of you
and takes your money and then lets you continue to think
that you have a home,
the next thing you know, you've got St. Charles county
with four officers knocking on it,
saying you've gotta get off, you're trespassing.
They gave us two hours to empty that home.
So this really, what you see,
except for one small storage shed,
is all we have left of home.
Everything else we couldn't move it in two hours.
That was it.
- [Interviewer] I was once addicted and given half an hour,
so I know it happens.
I can't imagine having the kids and the whole family,
and having to move.
It was just me.
Man, my heart goes out to you.
What would you want people to know about homelessness,
living in a hotel?
Because this is,
this is a face of homelessness that they don't see.
- Um, put a smile on for your kids,
and make the best that you can, you know?
And pretty much like us, if you're gonna cry,
try to...except for her right now,
but if you're going to try,
try to go into the bathroom and cry,
so the kids don't see you.
Cuz you know, dad's ain't supposed to cry.
And that's mom's job, I guess, to cry.
It's okay to cry!
- But you don't know what anyone's going through
or how they got where they are.
- Oh yeah, people look at you and...
- So don't make the assumption that you know.
- Yeah, don't assume that because you don't have a home,
you know, with the economy it is nowadays,
a lot of people are losing their homes,
they're making $30 an hour,
but they can't make the ends meet with children.
- [Interviewer] So they end up in these hotels,
which, as when we started,
are still better than the streets.
- Yeah, that's the main thing.
That's why you know, you don't wanna be here,
but you gotta roof over your head,
- And it keeps everyone together.
- Yeah. My daddy always told me before he died,
home is what you make it.
You know?
And I go to work, I come in here and take my shower,
play with the kids,
and then, God knows,
I try to go to bed in time to get up at 3:30 in the morning!
You know, I've got kids sleeping with me,
and she has the monsters with her,
and this monster kicks around...
Yep, you sleep with your daddy.
- [Interviewer] Well, if you had three wishes,
what would they be?
- Um,
- Three wishes for us, or three wishes in general?
- [Interviewer] Three wishes any way you want to slice 'em.
- Three wishes for me would be to pretty much...
Stability for the children but also in homelessness
for like my father, he came home from Vietnam
and my mom and him were on the street because
everybody spit on him when he got back from the war.
- [Interviewer] So he's out on the streets?
- Oh, my father passed.
He passed seven years ago,
but when he first came back from Vietnam...
He did three tours and they lost their home
when he was gone.
And pretty much to
have all the money you can
when you see people on the side of the road
to give them money, and...
- More understanding.
Because you don't realize how fast...
- [Interviewer] This happens.
- Oh yeah. Blink of an eye.
- And how fast it can quickly be you.
- [Interviewer] So Mama, three wishes?
- Um, other than the stability for my kids?
That's my biggest one, the stability for my kids.
Permanent.
What we had.
- Yeah, what we had.
What we worked for.
- Um
Other than that, a peaceful bath
would be about the only thing I can say!
- Oh wow, yeah.
- That's definitely something you miss.
You don't have that, I mean,
you can run to the bathroom,
but that doesn't last very long!
- [Interviewer] One more...
- Cuz they find you!
- Other than that?
Basically, understanding.
Because the kids are the ones,
especially the older ones,
like, the one that's hiding behind me,
it's hard on them, and they take a lot of flack for it.
- I do too!
- Um, yeah, okay.
(laughs)
Always gotta put his two cents in.
- [Interviewer] Well, thank you guys very much
for talking to me.
- You're welcome.
- I think I did more crying than talking.
- [Interviewer] No, you guys are awesome.
- No no no, Daddy don't drink that.
(laughter)