- [Interviewer] Mike, we're here in Chatsworth.
You're homeless.
When I was walking by you were showing
a police citation.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] How many of them have you received?
- Three within a month.
- [Interviewer] Within a month,
now what are they giving you a citation for?
- Trespassing.
- [Interviewer] Trespassing.
Now do they provide any support?
- No.
- [Interviewer] So you don't have any place to go?
- No.
- [Interviewer] And they just ticket you.
- Yep.
- [Interviewer] I heard this morning
they were out here ticketing.
- Yes and on my second, or actually
on my first ticket it was for
basically crossing over the railroad tracks.
I guess you're not allowed to do that.
It's an arrestable offense
just for going over the train track
but it was done by Bed Bath & Beyond
and the LA Fitness, or the 24-Hour Fitness
and the quickest way to exit the track
if I'm told to leave, is the exact way I went,
right across the tracks, step over the rail
and I'm off the train tracks.
And that's what I was ticketed for.
- [Interviewer] Now how long have you been homeless?
- I've been homeless for about three years.
- [Interviewer] How do you survive out here?
- Recycling, honestly.
Recycling.
I find all kinds of stuff.
You'd be surprised the stuff people throw out.
You know a couple food places
you know, they give out food here and there.
You know, they help a lot.
Then you've got people that like
to come out here where we're at
and supply us with water and all the stuff we need.
- [Interviewer] This is no way to live.
- Oh no, it's not.
It sucks.
- [Interviewer] I mean you're making the best of it.
You've got a nice tent here.
I like how you got the --
- The bamboo?
- [Interviewer] The bamboo porch.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] That I haven't seen, that is pretty neat.
Making the best of it.
So you lost your job, couldn't afford rent,
rent went up and you ended up outside.
- Yep.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
What was your first night of homelessness like?
- The bugs.
That's what would get to me, trying to find
a nice, quiet place to sleep
like away from everybody.
It actually started by staying in buildings
or bathrooms,
bathrooms that were just like in parks
or in part of a building,
like you had to go in the building area
to use the bathroom and I would just
stay in there overnight.
- [Interviewer] Wow.
- That would be how I would shower
you know and freshen up.
- [Interviewer] Now how do you keep hygiene here?
- There's a couple places I go to.
I mean you've got certain places
that have spigots still in use.
You could always get a bucket of water,
you know fill up the thing and just,
you just have to bird bath it somewhere.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
And you know with this COVID thing,
how has that changed homelessness?
- It's actually changed a lot.
I feel like it was like meant for or something like,
I know there's been a lot of talk
that it was planned.
I mean I have a video clip on my phone
that says that them asking Alexa
what's COVID, the virus and they saying
that the government planned it, it was released
and they lost control of it.
- [Interviewer] Yeah there's a lot
of conspiracy theories.
- Yeah but I feel like almost like
it was meant for the homeless.
Like first they're gonna do is shutdown
our food, like everything closes early.
It's hard to get food and you need a car
to go through the drive-thru.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- You know, so that's like --
- [Interviewer] You can't go into a restaurant.
There's no foot traffic to panhandle.
- Nope.
Yep.
It's become a lot harder and I mean luckily
the law that, whatever it's called,
the law about being out late at night
hasn't happened.
So I mean we're still lucky for that
but the other day I was recycling
and a cop told me, "You can't do that.
Get out of the trash can."
Like, I mean, it doesn't make sense,
like how am I supposed to survive, you know,
if I can't recycle?
- [Interviewer] Right.
Have they helped, I heard they came by
and did some testing.
Were you able to get tested?
- Yes, yes the swab, they swabbed us
and we gave them our contact information,
our Gmail, so they're gonna contact us
through that or I guess let us know of our results.
- [Interviewer] And hopefully get you in
one of the hotels I heard?
- You know I've been hearing a lot about the hotels.
I've been hearing a lot of complaints, too.
And it sucks to say, some people
would rather choose a hotel, definitely a hotel,
I mean it sounds nice and everything,
but I feel more comfortable right where I'm at.
- [Interviewer] The hotels --
- Not like that I wouldn't go out and get a job
and wanna like get my own place again.
No, not comfortable like that.
It's just while this thing is going on
I'd rather just be in my own place right now.
- [Interviewer] You feel safer in your tent.
- Yeah by my, yeah.
- [Interviewer] And you can't take your stuff.
- Well you could actually take your stuff
but it's like, I heard they go through
and they take mostly little, stupid stuff
that it's your personal stuff.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
So if you were able to, is anybody
helping you get work?
Are you looking --
- I actually lost two jobs due to this virus thing so --
- [Interviewer] Oh so you were working
and living over here.
- Yeah I was doing detailing.
I would do it on the weekends, Saturday and Sunday.
I would call up my boss
and see if he's gonna, if he has any cars
due to the weather, you know.
Sometimes it's good, it's sunny and we're good to go.
And then on the weekdays there's a warehouse
I was at and some lady got me a job with some clothes.
Clothes factory.
- [Interviewer] You're looking for work.
You're trying to get out of here.
- Yeah, but right now those two jobs
I mean, they're not going anywhere
and the lady's doing work from her house.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
I mean with so many people unemployed
and COVID --
- A lot.
- [Interviewer] It sure slammed it down.
- Just like Kohls is closed.
All the clothing stores are closed.
Can't even buy clothes now (chuckles).
- [Interviewer] When police give you citations
do they ever give you any support?
Where to go, I mean, you don't have an income
so how do you pay for citations?
- They just said public sidewalk
which is kind of crazy cause I thought about
if I was to put my tent on a public sidewalk
by a couple businesses, maybe post a sign
said, "Cops told us to move here,"
maybe that would change people's thinking
about us being on the tracks.
(chuckles)
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes
what would they be?
- Three wishes:
that I guess rent would've never went up
and I would have still been in the same position I was
with my girlfriend and a daughter.
I guess like everybody else wishes
is you know a nice, big house,
picket fence, car and --
- [Interviewer] Normal life.
- A normal life, that's it.
Not even a bunch of money, not even money,
just a normal life, you know.
The wife, the daughter, the picket fence,
the dog and a car.
- [Interviewer] The American Dream.
- Yeah, you know.
That's it, that's all I wanted,
but I mean I was with her for eight years so --
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
Well thank you very much for talking to me.
- Thank you.
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