- [Interviewer] Sandtago, we're here in Wichita, Kansas.
You're homeless living in a hotel.
Tell me about it.
- Well there's some hard times out here,
livin' in a motel and being homeless.
Before I got in this motel I stayed under a bridge before.
I've stayed at abandoned houses,
abandoned apartments and stuff.
There's just a lot of different things.
It's pretty scary out here.
There's people walking around you when you're underneath
bridges and stuff.
It's hard going out, not panhandling,
it's hard going out making signs to get money from others.
So gettin' in a motel is what I did.
When I started to get in the motel that I'm in now,
I started to go make signs, stand out in the sun,
stand out in the weather and stuff
to get money to stay where I am.
- [Interviewer] How long have you been homeless?
- I've been homeless for quite a long time,
since I was five years old.
I'm now 22 years old.
It's been very difficult to hard times.
- [Interviewer] How does a five-year old kid
end up on the streets?
- It began abuse in the family.
In my grandma's side of the family,
there was a lot of abuse.
I got kicked out of there.
I stayed in cars, vehicles.
At that time it was wintertime.
I was very, very cold, so I hadda warm the clothes
that I had on my back, and it was just very difficult
at that time.
I didn't have no food.
I didn't have nothing to eat.
I was very scared.
It was a very dangerous environment
that I was in at that time, when I was five.
- [Interviewer] What would you want people to know
about youth homelessness?
- I think that people should know about youth homelessness,
they should know that there are a lot of youth out here,
even today struggling, trying to come out of a home,
coming out of their parents' home
or coming away from abuse or away from drama, trauma,
from friends, staying with friends, or whatever.
There's a lot of youth struggling out here.
There's different organizations and stuff
that help out.
QuikTrip is one of the good places to go to
if you've ever struggling.
- [Interviewer] 'Cause your in a safe place.
- They have a Safe Place sign in there.
They have people that will help you get on your feet,
people that will help you getting to house,
or some type of shelter, at least.
- [Interviewer] What's your future like?
- My future is to become a nurse.
I am very highly proud of my future.
My grandmother was a nurse before in California.
I stayed in California for a while,
but she was a very good nurse while I was there.
I always wanted to help others,
and I believe that I can make it in the future,
by next year, hopefully,
I'll be in Spring class.
- [Interviewer] Well even through all the challenges,
you've kept going to school.
- Yeah, I went through different foster homes and stuff.
I went to school back and forth, different schools.
It was hard at times making friends,
and trying now here that I'm in Wichita,
I graduated from North High.
I kept moving forward.
I wanted to do stupid things.
I wanted to drop out, but I kept moving forward,
because I had the different people out there to help me
and to keep me on the right path.
- [Interviewer] Good for you.
If you had three wishes what would they be?
- The three wishes that I would wish for
is first of all, I would ask for a prayer,
because I believe in God and I would always ask for a prayer
to help me while I'm on the streets.
My second wish is I would ask for clothes
and food and water, and shelter.
My third wish would be to help me and my friend out,
help us out on the road in the future.
Help us both out in the future,
because it's going to be a struggling hard times out there,
but I believe that we can make it.
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much for talking.
- Thank you.