- [Interviewer] Lexsis.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] You're 19, you're sleeping
on the streets of Denver, tell me about it.
- It's hard, I mean, everyday is a struggle for food,
shelter, place to lay your head that's safe, I mean,
you'll see people walking around that's, that's looking,
they'll do anything to fuckin'
have a nice place to lay their head.
I mean, I've been growing on the streets since I was little,
I just recently came back to Denver after finding my mom
and stuff and it didn't really work out there,
I hit that magical age, I thought I could do it on my own,
but I've never once gone and, I'm not rich by any sense,
and everyday is just a fucking struggle
and people walk around, they look down at us,
and walk a day in our, walk, walk 10,000 miles
in our shoes without any money, without anything,
people looking down on you, and see, look through our eyes,
not through your cars, not through your wallets,
we're not even after money, we're just after like
acceptance and having a safe place and food,
we want the same things, like, just because
we didn't grow up with money in our pockets,
shit handed to us easily, we built ourselves
from the dirt up, I mean...
- [Interviewer] How old were you when you became homeless?
- I was 16.
- [Interviewer] What happened?
- I got booted from the system at a young age.
- [Interviewer] You were in foster care?
- Yeah, 'cuz my mom did some stuff, I mean,
I was taken from my family when I was a little girl,
but, I grew up in the system,
- [Interviewer] Now how many places?
- Off and onto the sheets. Over 57.
- [Interviewer] 57?
- Yeah, I bounced around a lot.
I mean I wasn't by any means a bad kid
but I didn't like people hitting kids,
doing all kinds of shit like that, I mean,
it's not a nice place to grow up in.
It's no, anything but.
And so they run to these streets where they know family is,
I mean, you may not be blood but respect is thicker,
we take care of our own, I mean, we're tighter
than half the people that live in these condos and stuff.
We take care of our own, but...
- [Interviewer] Where'd you sleep last night?
- Me, I slept in the park and had water poured on me.
And somebody poured water on us, I mean,
that's all we have, is our blankets
and the stuff on our back.
- [Interviewer] Who poured water on you?
- I don't know it was nighttime
and we finally found a place to sleep.
- [Interviewer] Just punks.
- Just somebody poured some ice cold water
on us and you know the seasons change.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
- I mean, I'm not by any means rude to anybody,
and they just come around, they treat us like dirt.
I mean, just 'cuz our nails aren't clean,
our mouths aren't shiny, and we don't wear like
all kinds of funky, good clothes
and we don't drive $10,000 car don't mean nothing,
I mean, in fact...
- [Interviewer] What's your future like?
- My future, I don't really know,
I mean, I live it day by day.
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes what would they be?
- Three wishes, enough money to set up
just a small place for all the homeless people
where they can go get food, whatever they want,
and they know they're safe and respected
it's 24 hours open, I mean,
like Sasha's place but only that it's open all the time,
day in day out, no matter what week a month.
And that people would stop treating us like dirt,
and my third wish, that people would stop treating,
that people would stop sending little kids
out to do a grown person's work, I mean, 13, 15 year old,
your lives are still ahead of you, you shouldn't
be on these streets, I mean, if you still got a
Mom or Dad to go to, wait 'til you're that age
when they can fuckin' actually really kick your ass
to the curb and you can walk in our shoes then.
But you're just a little kid, you don't want this,
you will die in this, I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna make it,
but if I'm remembered at all, I want it to be that.
- [Interviewer] Pretty sure you're not gonna make it?
- Well, I mean...
- [Interviewer] Don't give up, I'm living proof
you can get out of this.
- I'm barely walking as it is,
I'm supposed to be paralyzed here soon,
'cuz I got back problems, I mean,
I don't get any medical help, yet I'm walking,
I'm not driving in a car, laying on my ass,
I fight for my food, I mean...
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much for talking to me.
- Yeah you're welcome and God bless, keep it up.