- [Interviewer] Dennis. - Yes.
- [Interviewer] We're here in Los Angeles.
- Yes we are.
- [Interviewer] You're homeless.
- Yeah, unfortunately.
- [Interviewer] Tell me about it.
- Well, through a avalanche of unfortunate events,
and a bad relationship which wiped me out financially,
I ended up being a working actor,
actually big fish in a small pond
out here in California and regionally.
Moved to New York to an apartment that I couldn't afford,
and after three years my partner split
and wiped me out financially.
So I had to start again.
And of course, you know, when you're in that state
and you don't have anywhere to really turn to...
My mother, I have family out here of course.
My mom is in a senior living situation
where if she doesn't get constant care...
I don't qualify for the age requirements
to live in the facility.
So I would get jobs, various odd jobs,
like working at a restaurant during graveyard shifts
and you know, come home at like three,
four, five in the morning in dark clothes
and a rolling duffel bag just in case I missed the bus.
And people in the environment
thought that I was gonna be there to burglarize them
or rape them or kill them.
So I had to leave.
The manager gave her an ultimatum.
They said either you leave or your son leaves.
So of course my mom can't be on the streets.
There was no question there.
So I went out and I had a car
that was given to me by a boss.
I was signing at a church, and a boss of mine,
actually a guardian angel, took me under his wing
and gave me one of his old cars.
That was great, except it started to break down very soon.
I couldn't afford the registration.
I couldn't see paying the registration
on a car that wasn't running.
So I kind of found an area
where I kind of did a lot of business
at a local theater in Orange County
and I was parking on the streets.
- [Interviewer] So you're living in a broke down car.
- I was living in a broken down car, yeah.
- [Interviewer] How long? - Many of us do.
I was in that car off and on
for the better part of a year and half.
I lived in a kitchen pantry for a little while.
I lived in a garage on a pool table for a little while.
And then there were several months
where I was actually on the streets, on the streets.
That's kind of what I'm facing now
as I became a driver for the Lyft corporation,
Lyft is like Uber.
I had a rental car through Hertz,
but one of my local street chums
decided that they wanted to take off with my car,
so unfortunately, you know,
we're trying to locate it and locate them,
but hope's not very high.
Hope is in short supply when you're in my position.
- [Interviewer] And that's gonna hurt your credit
and everything else. - It hurts everything.
What hurts the most is the friends
and the family that used to be there
that when you get into this situation,
everybody just chalks it up to drug abuse or bad choices.
I'm sorry.
It's not always the case.
Sometimes it's just the choice is made for you
and you don't have any choice.
So um...
I live in hope, I guess, that some things'll change.
Thanks.
- [Interviewer] Sometimes you work all you can.
Everybody makes bad choices.
You do everything you can
and it's like the world is fighting against you.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] But you can't give up.
- Yeah, I guess so, I'll keep trying.
Keep trying, hope its' not in vain.
- [Interviewer] I was out here 23 years ago
for bunches and bunches of years.
- Yeah, well thank you.
- [Interviewer] Yeah, well, can't give up.
- Live in hope, you know.
Everybody deserves a second chance,
sometimes three, four, or five second chances.
It's not easy out here.
When the economy tanked and gas prices went up
and food went up and everything's...
They say that the recession's over
but you don't really see much of the effect
in the daily dollar, you know?
And it's still hurting us greatly.
There are programs in place
like EBT and food stamps and things like that,
but anybody who knows anything
can't live off of $187 a month
on food that you can't have a refrigerator for
or an oven or a microwave.
We don't have the amenities of home.
So you buy things with preservatives,
things that don't go bad,
things that keep well on the streets
in different temperatures and climates
and most of the time it gets stolen anyway
because even amongst the streets
you have people taking whatever you have.
- [Interviewer] But you're in pretty good spirits
for going through all this.
- That's right, that's right.
- [Interviewer] What would you want people to know
about homelessness that they probably wouldn't know
or they stereotype that's wrong?
- Right, well, homeless people used to have,
it used to be the class system.
Homeless people used to be that person that you didn't know
that would talk to themselves or that didn't bathe,
in the corner of a doorway,
that everybody just walked by and overlooked.
Oh and there's my bus, that's okay though.
And everybody would just overlook.
But they're now your sons or daughters,
your sister, your brother, your cousins,
somebody in your family, the way that it's going,
at some point in time somebody in your family
is going to be homeless.
If you think about that person
that you overlooked in the past
and that were a member of your family,
I would hope that you would have the heart
and the humanity to do something different.
- [Interviewer] Great, great answer.
If you had three wishes what would they be?
- Oh, God.
Cure for deadly diseases,
the end of homelessness and poverty,
destruction of class system all together, but,
and world peace.
- [Interviewer] (laughs)
Well thank you, what a noisy night.
I was thinking there's no way I could've gotten away
from the intersection or the bikes or the scooters.
Thank you very much for talking to me--
- Thank you, thank you.
- ...and go catch your bus.
- Thank you, I hope there was some musical fotoage there.
Have a good day.