- [Male] Mike.
We're in San Francisco, you're out here sleeping outside.
Tell me about it.
- Well the price of the lowest, cost of the lowest,
cheapest hotel room was 550 a month years ago,
now it's gone up to 1,500 to 2000 a month.
And I don't get that much.
The retirement check I've got,
the SSI doesn't even come close.
So I'm trying to get a hold of a discount room,
and we've gotten the donations for that,
and even though we've gotten donations constantly,
I still haven't seen the rooms being built
to accommodate thousands of homeless people
that are trying to get one.
I've got a couple of friends that got one,
but seems like there's not even nearly enough to go around.
But I'm hearing about billions of dollars being donated,
so I don't know where the money's going.
I got a little tour guide side thing
that I'm doing as a tour guide,
and I meet people from all over the world,
and they ask me all the time about the situation.
A group of Germans told me once, they said,
"You know you're getting screwed
"by your government here, don't you?"
And I said, "Yeah I kind of figured that in some way, yeah."
Although I don't know that much about politics.
Constantly people from other countries
are asking me about it,
and I just tell 'em I'm not sure why
but being one of the richest cities in the world,
we just seem to not have the money
allocated and the money going towards
helping these people get off the streets.
- [Male] How long have you been out here?
- Eight years.
- [Male] That's a long time.
- Well I'm suffering from a stomach hernia,
which makes it hard for me to walk to
various different services to apply,
but I am, I'm on the list for several different places.
- [Male] How long have you been on the list?
- Well one of them I turned an application in
five/six years ago, and they said it might take
a couple of years, and I haven't heard from 'em.
- [Male] So you've been out here ever since.
- Yeah.
- [Male] Now what did you do before...
You're obviously well spoken,
what did you do before homelessness?
- I was in remodeling business for 30 years.
All different trades.
Painting, remods, Sheetrock, taping, framing.
And we had nine booming years here in the city.
We had a lot of jobs.
And the jobs are picking up again like they used to.
That's the one reason why I want to stay here
in the city, it's got a lot of things going for it,
a lot of opportunities.
So if I could find out how to get off the street
and get into a home.
- [Male] Now how old are you?
- 65.
- [Male] This is not how to spend your retirement.
- I'm not even close to getting enough money
to be able to get a room.
Maybe for a couple weeks, not the whole month.
- [Male] Right.
So how do you survive out here?
- Do a lot of praying.
I make my money on tips.
I tell people different things they wanna see
and help them find things.
I'm a jazz guitar player so I can help 'em
if they wanna find live music and where to go find it.
And that sometimes gets a small tip.
So that's a little extra money to be able to survive,
buy blankets and you know, food,
or whatever you need to get through the night.
The nights are very cold.
- [Male] I didn't realize it til I came here,
the nights are really cold here.
- Yeah.
We got basically the coldest city in the world
that doesn't snow, but all year round night time weather,
the windchill is just...
You almost never get a warm night.
Days warm up but the nighttime stays breezy, windchill cold.
- [Male] So where do you sleep?
- If I have enough blankets,
I can't even get a blanket out of the city sometimes.
But if I have enough gear I can sleep
sometimes down towards Union Square where it's safer.
If I'm not too cold.
Otherwise I don't sleep until the sun comes up,
if it comes up the next day,
where it's safer and warmer.
- [Male] Yeah, it's dangerous at night.
Especially being a senior citizen.
- It's very cold and it can be sometimes dangerous
to just lay down in the street.
Anywhere.
- [Male] What would you want people to know
about homelessness that they probably don't know?
- I'd like to say that people are not all in the same club.
That each person is an individual story.
Sometimes they'll be bothered by some homeless people,
but we're not all part of that same club.
Some people out here are actually trying to get ahead
and are polite and nice, and they're worthy to help out.
They've been tormented and bothered
by other homeless panhandlers and whatnot.
Try to keep that separate, just look at each individual
differently because they're not all the same club.
I hate to be thought of as in that category.
- [Male] Yeah.
I think of you as a very kind, gentle man.
That's why we stopped and had a little conversation.
- Thank you for that.
I'm not perfect but I'm just trying to survive.
I have a lot of respect for people
and their territory and their space,
and I know how people feel,
it's human nature to feel a certain way
about all the homeless put together.
But there's a lot of talent out here,
and there's a lot of homeless that are nice people.
- [Male] And everybody's a human.
- Exactly.
- [Male] And people react, you know,
when you're in survival mode or when you're on drugs,
the normal rules don't apply.
It's sometimes the drugs acting, not the person.
- Yeah.
I don't smoke cigarettes and I don't drink alcohol,
'cause of my stomach hernia.
I'm not perfect, I smoke weed
because I play jazz guitar, but.
- [Male] Everybody in Cali...
Everybody smokes weed anymore.
- Yeah, I mean it's...
- [Male] And it's tough doing homeless sober.
- It's just something that I'm a victim
of high rents pretty much.
The highest rents in the world, San Francisco, pretty much.
If there's more discount rooms I'll be
in one of them in a heartbeat.
- [Male] They've gotta do something,
they gotta get you inside.
Well Mike, it was an honor to meet you today,
spend some time.
Thank you very much for talking to me.
- Thank you for that.
Thank you for listening.
- [Male] You're more than welcome.
(upbeat music)