- [Reporter] Buddy boy,
let's see your eyes buddy boy.
Whoa buddy boy
Buddy boy. Wow buddy boy with the multiple colored eyes.
Reno.
- Yep.
- [Reporter] Just crossing the street and you waved to me.
- Yep.
- [Reporter] We have met before in Hollywood.
- Yes.
- [Reporter] Subscribe to physical people.
- Yep.
- [Reporter] Well thank you for saying Hello.
- Of course.
- [Reporter] You still outside.
- Yes.
- [Reporter] Tell me about it.
- Okay so let's see here my brother was born
a year before me with Cerebral Palsy and
my mom didn't take care of him so she had her sister
adopt him um
and then when I was about 9
almost 10
my mom had a daughter with another guy who used to beat me.
Um.
- [Reporter] And you said even at 7 you did
they took you away.
- Yeah.
- [Reporter] Child Protective Services.
- Yeah they took me away for about a year until my mom
got me back.
Um let's see here um
when I was getting into
a lot of trouble stealing from people and everything
even family members.
- [Reporter] You were saying when you were 10 your dad
got out of jail.
- Right yeah and I moved in with my dad
because I was getting in trouble stealing from
everybody and my dad was like hey I am still smoking weed
you can here is the weed you can smoke it if you want
here is the porn you can look at it if you want.
- [Reporter] At 10 years old.
- At 10 within a couple of months I had gotten
arrested at school for possession of marijuana
on school campus and got brought back.
- [Reporter] And that was years ago
when marijuana was illegal.
- Yeah you know I was in Tucson, Arizona too at the time so.
- [Reporter] Being a kid you know 10 years old.
- Yeah marijuana is not for 10 year olds.
- [Reporter] So um your upbringing was not good.
- Right.
I started getting arrested for
possession of marijuana and then got put on probation.
(Reno laughs)
- [Reporter] Hold on we don't edit these but your dog
is ramping around the monopod so you are going in and out
of juvie.
- Yep they put me on probation on intensive probation
cause I kept getting arrested for possession of marijuana
or dropping dirty for marijuana. And then one day
when I was 15 my brother was 16 my uncle came over
to the house and he never came over to the house
so I knew there was something up, you know.
And he told me that my brother had passed away
during the night.
- [Reporter] Sorry.
- At first I didn't I thought everybody
was playing a trick on me
and went to the viewing that weekend and when I seen
his body in the casket it looked like he was breathing
and I immediately started crying and that kinda was what
screwed me up the most you know.
- [Reporter] I remember being at a funeral when I was young
and I didn't understand it and I freaked out.
- Right.
I was in and out of rehab
and um they put me in a
military school for a little bit for bad kids
I think I was 17 and I still hadn't graduated I haven't even
passed 9th grade yet.
- [Reporter] And you were telling me earlier you did
treatment mostly as uh
- As a minor yeah.
- [Reporter] And it never worked.
- Never worked. It just progressed honestly.
When I was 17
I got my GED while I was locked up and when I got out
I signed up for the FAFSA I got my classes set up at
Pema Community College in Pema County Tucson, Arizona.
And I was gonna study business management in Meta work
cause I wanted to own my own business making and
selling jewelry
and my mom wanted me to go to Job Corp
and I didn't want to go to Job Corp so she kicked me out
on the street and um
I been pretty much on the streets
ever since there has been a couple times where I have gotten
off the street I had gotten married for a couple years and
had a set of Irish twins.
My son was born on March 11, 2011,
and my daughter was born March 9, 2012.
It was about
May 12 of 2012 when I ended up going to jail for some
old warrants that I had had and while I was locked up
I was locked up for about 12 days and my wife left me
she got the kids taken away by
Child Protective Services and we lost our apartment
for having police activity at the apartment.
- [Reporter] And then you are back outside.
- So I was back outside. Very depressed didn't know what
to do so I was gonna kill myself with heroin and at
that moment I ended up meeting a girl that I was
interested in she was a heroin addict and.
- [Reporter] Funny how that works.
- It was very strange God had other plans he wanted me to
get strung out to see what real suffering was I guess.
- [Reporter] You said you are still doing fentanyl.
- I'm doing fentanyl right now yeah and crystal meth.
- [Reporter] You were talking about that.
- Yeah so many friends that aren't here anymore.
Oh there is another dog coming.
- [Reporter] Behaved dog, mostly yours.
So you are still using.
- Yes.
- [Reporter] And it is hard to do homeless silver.
- Very and I tried talking to Pat to get into a shelter
and they told me that they are all quarantined
right now because people keep coming up positive for
COVID-19 so it is just making it really, really
difficult to do anything you know.
- [Reporter] Where did you sleep last night? Actually what
I am gonna do is I'm gonna edit out that section
because you said where you slept and I don't want
that public with your permission.
- Yeah.
- [Reporter] I have never edited one of these videos
but I wanna make sure because I promised you it won't
be edited and I wanna make sure it's your permission
your safety is more important.
- Right.
- [Reporter] You slept on a sidewalk downtown.
- Right.
- [Reporter] What is that like?
- It is crazy somebody the other morning let their dog piss
on me. I woke up like completely soaked on my back and
the way I was laying, I was laying on top of my dog's leash
so he couldn't really move and he was on the inside of me
and I was pissed on on my back behind me.
So people don't have any respect for homeless at all which
I understand kind of because some homeless don't
have respect for anything or anybody you know.
It doesn't give them the right to do things like that.
- [Reporter] No yeah I agree and most people
don't understand a lot of people are going through trauma
or a past life like you and you know
it is no excuse to not
or to disrespect people you know when you have
mental illness and drug addiction.
- Exactly.
- [Reporter] But we need to help all homeless people.
- Right
- [Reporter] So how do you survive out here?
- I hold a sign to make money
my sign yeah my sign just says
please help me and my buddy boy and I have buddy boy
in quotations and the O on boy is a paw print.
- [Reporter] Oh wow.
- And people people really like it you know cause I am not
asking anybody for money.
- [Reporter] People don't understand how degrading
flying a sign is.
- Right. A lot of people that I have met could have given me
money or food or clothes or anything you know.
They say they have been in this position before themselves
you know.
- [Reporter] Oh wow wow wow. So oh my gosh
people don't understand how hard it is to
get off heroin or fentanyl.
- It is extremely difficult especially with the opiates.
- [Reporter] I know when I was out here I needed drugs
more than I needed air.
- Right.
- [Reporter] It took over my life I mean you don't just
snap a finger and say I quit.
- Exactly and you can't do it for anybody you have to do it
for yourself you know actually want it like
I want to be sober but apparently I don't want it enough
you know apparently I still have more to go through.
- [Reporter] Well but you are also outside.
- Right.
- [Reporter] You are going to the bathroom outside.
- Exactly. Yeah nobody wants to let anybody go inside and
use the restroom at any of these stores or restaurants.
- [Reporter] No you are going to the bathroom outside there
is no you are sleeping on a sidewalk.
- Right, right.
- [Reporter] And people are judging you for
- Everything I own I carry it on my back.
- [Reporter] People are judging you for using drugs.
Oh my gosh I mean the soccer moms you know
hitting the bottle lawyers toking the pipe you know.
Postman is taking a couple of pills to make the rounds
you know. Homeless people and I'm not justifying
addiction I am just saying let's put it in perspective
and get people the help they need.
- Exactly instead of judging them and making them feel bad
about it you know.
- [Reporter] What would you want people to know like
you know people walking by the people driving by
the house people what about homelessness.
- That it is extremely difficult out here that you
don't know if you're gonna be attacked while you're sleeping
or robbed you know I have been robbed and attacked
so many times its crazy to think about you know also
I have had a normal life just like them you know
that I am no different than they are you know. I just have
been dealt the wrong cards you know.
- [Reporter] You need help to get on your feet.
- Right.
- [Reporter] Get back to a normal life whatever that is
these days.
- I'm 32 now and I have been on and off the streets since
I was 17 since 2006 you know.
So it's like I don't know
anything else really I don't know how to get back on my feet
really.
- [Reporter] If you had 3 wishes what would they be?
- A house or an apartment somewhere to be comfortable
I don't care if I have a car or anything like that
good health for my dog and
everybody to be a little more
respectful toward the homeless community.
- [Reporter] Great wishes. Thank you very much for
talking to me.
- Thank you.
(exit music)