- [Interviewer] Charmain.
- Yes, how are you?
- [Interviewer] I am doing good,
I hate homelessness, but I'm grateful to see you.
- I'm grateful to see you too,
'cause I haven't seen you in a long, long time.
- [ Interviewer] A long, long time,
it was I think 10 years or so,
I interviewed you on the side
of the New York City Rescue Mission,
just like we're talking today.
- Yes you did.
- [Interviewer] And you slept outside last night.
- Yes, I did.
- [Interviewer] Tell me about homelessness in New York.
- Survival is a technique,
I've been in and out of the shelters,
it's rough,
it's like running your own business,
you have to survive.
I'm back on the streets,
I do have a temporary shelter
but as of now,
because of the pandemic it's hard to be in a shelter
where it's still clustered
with people that you don't belong around,
and everybody needs their own space,
their own privacy.
- [Interviewer] From my understanding, it's all male?
- Where I'm at, I'm a DV survivor
and I'm in a shelter with all male,
where did I get lost in this system is beyond me.
So I'm back on the streets,
hoping to get placed in the right space,
not displaced.
- [Interviewer] So you're sharing,
if you were in the shelter where you're staying,
you would,
it's an all male bathroom?
- I have my own room,
there's six older gentlemen, all veterans,
we share three bathrooms together and a kitchen.
Obviously they're all veterans,
they're all men,
it's not too safe or convenient for me as a female.
- [Interviewer] So you're out here hoping
that social services will find you a better place?
- Absolutely.
- [Interviewer] Now, when we first met,
you talked about going in and out of the shelter system,
and that's still happening.
- And that still happening,
they place you,
they let you go,
they move you, they let you go,
they get your money from the government,
they'll let you go,
and you're still misplaced.
Every homeless person has a different reason
why they're homeless,
they have different needs.
not everyone has a mental issue,
everyone needs their own little space,
not everyone could sleep in the same room
with someone else,
myself as a female, 45 years old,
I need to have my own room, my own bathroom, my own kitchen,
and not see a male or another female.
They're hoping to push you to a mental breakdown,
and then you get your own apartment,
I'm not gonna let it happen that way.
- [Interviewer] So what you're saying is
people that are prioritized
because of the. - Are being deprioritized.
- [Interviewer] Where did you sleep last night?
- Right here.
- [Interviewer] Right here?
- Right here.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
- Right where you looking at.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh,
right on the sidewalk?
- Right here is where I slept last night,
this is where I have been sleeping
for the past three, four last night.
And right over there,
can you turn your camera?
By the postal office steps right there
for the past three, four nights then,
some nights we go up the block,
right in this neighborhood.
- [Interviewer] What's that's like?
- Very scary,
a lot of new faces you're sleeping with both eyes open,
and hoping that you make it through to see the next morning,
you're hoping you get something to eat,
you're hoping somebody, you know, doesn't hurt you,
and just hoping that there's hope.
- [Interviewer] Well, people say,
why don't you go into your room?
- 'Cause your room is even scarier
than being on the streets sometime,
if you don't know who's next to you in that room,
or who was in the next room next to you,
you gotta come out your room to use the bathroom,
and there's a gentlemen in the bathroom
with the door open,
under my situation that's what I've experienced.
So I rather be out on the streets,
I got some friends out here, got a boyfriend,
we look out for each other,
I feel a little safer sometimes not all the time.
- [Interviewer] So since I met you,
since your first interview.
(trucks engine roaring)
And this trucks are really loud.
Since I met you the first time,
how long have you been outside compared to inside,
most of the time?
- I'll say about 80% of the time I've been outside.
(trucks engine roaring)
Yeah, about 80% of time I've been outside.
When I first got that room I did last winter in it,
as soon as I got warm,
and this pandemic hit I came right back outside.
- [Interviewer] I run into people out here all the time
that feel it's safer either
because they were in a bad placement like you are,
or they are kids with their family,
and their family situation isn't safe.
- Yes, there's a lot of different issues out here,
and I feel as the outreach teams,
they're doing the best they can
but they're also being misplaced
as how to handle every individuals different.
(plane engine roaring)
They are just looking to place you wherever they want to,
or whatever reasons that might be, I don't know.
- [Interviewer] So tell me about that,
you're very knowledgeable about homeless services
in New York city.
Gosh, I mean, you've been so many places
- It's so many, so many.
- [Interviewer] Tell me what's what's working
and what isn't.
- Nothing's really working.
(background noise overshadows speakers speech)
Honestly nothing is really working.
We've got about four different outreach teams,
and everybody tries to help you
but there's no communications between either four teams,
and you get lost,
'cause you can only work with one and not another,
and then you lose, you get a case manager,
and then that case manager leaves,
then there's another one
that's gonna be looking for you somewhere,
but if I'm not sitting here and you're looking for me,
and I'm on the other block and I don't see you,
how is that working out for anybody?
Nobody, 'cause you don't even know who I am.
'Cause they just handed you my name,
and you don't even know who I am,
but you're looking for me.
So you miss your interviews, you miss your appointments,
you miss everything.
- [Interviewer] How about police?
- Police has gotten up very lenient,
they really don't,
once you're not killing and fussing
and doing nothing to each other,
they are gonna leave you alone now.
- [Interviewer] Besides shelters not being safe
how is the Corona virus pandemic affected you?
I know in many places, you know, bathrooms
and less street traffic you can't handle,
and bathrooms are closed.
- Less people moving around, same thing
bathrooms are closed,
the bathroom hasn't bothered me that much,
'cause I'm pretty good at going downstairs
and Penn station using a bathroom,
cleaning up after myself and you know, wearing my mask,
it's out here, there's less people coming out
to help you with food and you know, it's,
money wise, survival wise it has gotten worst,
yeah - [Interviewer] Yeah.
- But other than that,
for myself, I've been okay with the bathroom and stuff.
But other people though I can see they haven't been.
- [Interviewer] That's because you're close to a public.
But a lot of places.
- A lot of places aren't.
- [Interviewer] What would you want housed people
to know about homeless?
- Please don't get there
and don't think that it's a disease, 'cause it's not
it can happen to anyone,
do not look down on anyone,
'cause at this time in the way the world is going
it could happen to you too.
If you can use your judgment,
and do not judge thank you.
- [Interviewer] You had three wishes, what would they be?
- To see you again every time
so I could keep doing this
and people would learn something
and life would get better for everybody.
- [Interviewer] I'm wearing a mask
so you can't see me smiling,
but I'm smiling.
- You can smile with your eyes.
I love you and thank you much
- [Interviewer] Okay that's one wish.
- Second one, wish for me to actually get somewhere to live
and I would get a job working with homeless people,
and I could make a difference.
- [Interviewer] You'd make a great case manager.
- I know.
- [Interviewer] Third wish.
- Third is to learn more so I could get into the system,
and get people out of the system.
- [Interviewer] Great wishes,
well again,
I hate homelessness, but it's good seeing you.
- You too
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much for talking to me.
- You're welcome
(upbeat music)