- Hi everybody, here I am in Albuquerque, and I'm with Paul.
You might remember Paul because last time I was
in Albuquerque, we met around five in the morning,
and we put his video on invisiblepeople.tv,
and it wasn't invisiblepeople.tv
that helped Paul get into housing because we're
in his apartment, which is amazing.
It was 100,000 Homes and the Albuquerque Coalition
working together to, you know, get people off the streets
and just truly amazing.
Now, I was the one that did the survey that morning,
I was telling Paul, because it almost by accident,
we ran into him, because all of this other stuff happened,
we were supposed to be all over town,
and we ended up downtown, and we were able
to survey him and do his interview, so give us an update
of what happened since I met you, oh gosh,
how long was it?
- That was in February, right? February?
- Yeah.
- So, I don't know if you remember,
you told me you were sleeping on the stairs
and you, know, cold was your alarm clock, you know.
- Oh, yeah, it was definitely a wake up call.
(both laugh)
You definitely had to make sure you were going
to keep busy as soon as you got up
in order to stay warm.
- Right.
- A lot of times people think
that being homeless is something
that's pretty laid back, and it really isn't.
I mean, you have to be on your toes,
and you better have, you better your wits,
that's all I can say, you know.
- So, now tell me, what happened?
It was several months ago, it was last winter actually.
- Well, a lot had happened, between now and then,
I went through some kind of legal situation,
which had something to do with me homeless
out there and misunderstood, but that's all behind me,
and then by the time I was done with that,
I went a place called AOC, which is a men's shelter,
and there was a director there that--
- Well, you actually had forgotten
that'd you taken the survey, you decided--
- Well, I just wrote it off, and I just figured
that that was just going to be something
that wasn't going to happen for me, so you know,
I was just going to go about my life
and go back into my routine as normal,
it was going to be summertime maneuvers,
which is, believe it or not, the summer is the worst.
- Right, right.
- Well, because, it's hot, it's nasty,
and you're running from the sun.
- Oh, yeah.
- In the wintertime, it's the opposite way around.
You're clinging to the sun, but there's more places
to go inside, which makes it a little bit more forgiving,
you know, I mean there's more shelters are going--
- Right, right, there's more shelters--
- In the summer, there's not.
- Right.
- I mean, you're--
- It makes a lot of sense.
- Yeah, so, I mean, it's a different--
- Places like Arizona and Texas, a lot
of people died this summer in Texas.
- The elements are different in the summer.
- So anyways, you forgot about it,
and you went into some place.
- Yeah, then they, one of the directors, Robert,
I forgot his last name, he mentioned that,
he told who he was and what they were going to do for me,
and he told me to stick around and make myself available
for the next four months and watch things happen.
- Well, I actually, they were looking for you.
They just weren't able to find you.
- Well, well, well, like I said,
I had some legalities with kepner detained,
and that's probably why they couldn't find me, you know.
Lost in the system, the legal system.
- Right, and on the streets, you're not often--
- No, you're not really available,
you're not at a community voicemail,
but you know, somehow, somewhere, maybe it got lost
in the shuffle, I don't know.
- And when he hooked you up with that community,
well 100,000 Homes, the city of Albuquerque actually did,
tried to provide you.
- Well, that voicemail has helped me out tremendously
- Awesome.
- For medical, for all kinds of different things.
The reason they shut it off on me,
I guess they figured I don't need it anymore,
which I really don't, I've got my own home phone.
- Yeah, 'cause you're in housing.
- So, I could be contacted and make contact,
but that was the main thing with that,
it was great, it was great services.
- Now, for those of you who don't know the 100,000 Homes
and what it is, they come and do a vulnerability index,
which basically, they survey the homeless population
to see who has the worst medical issues
and who really needs housing,
and it's not anybody's better than each other,
it's really just, look at it, it's common sense.
It's that, here's the people that are closest to death,
so they need it, they need housing
to get their life back together,
and also freeze up other resources because those people
that are using medical emergency rooms and paramedics
also, you know, cost taxpayers money,
and the more those resources free up,
we can house the other people,
so the reason Paul, you had some medical injuries,
brain injuries.
- Yeah, that was still the fact that I was robbed
about 13 years ago and received some contusions in my head,
about 72 stitches.
- Yeah.
- So.
- And, because of that, you know, he, you know, qualified,
if you will, that living on the streets, is dangerous
for everybody, but those that suffer
from serious medical conditions, it's even worse,
so tell me about getting your furniture, moving
in here, you gotta rockin' pad, you know,
what'd it feel like?
- Oh, it's great, every day, you know,
I try to add more things to get more atmosphere
so I can be proud of where I'm at and while I remain
here and stay proud.
- Yeah.
Well, that's very cool, I know, you know,
when I first got my first place,
I went and had everything delivered that one day,
I went, like waited forever and ever, it was one
of the best days of my life, 'cause I actually stayed
in a shelter system another year so I could save money,
and then I just went and got all this stuff,
unlocked my apartment door on my first apartment,
and then by end of the day, my couch was delivered
and everything, it was really cool.
One of the things we were talking about,
somebody played you the invisiblepeople.tv video
that morning.
- Yes, that's Hemington at St. Martin's.
He's, I guess, a coordinator over there,
like an advocate for the homeless.
- Now, what'd you think?
I mean, seeing yourself on the streets homeless.
- You know, it was a while back, you know,
I remember those days, I mean, how could I not?
I mean, it sure is such a far cry from what it is now.
- Right. Right.
And what'd you think about the video,
I mean being on it (stutters) and just you?
- I thought I was done very well.
You know, I mean, there was no cheap shots,
or you know, any editing to make me look stupid
or anything like that, so, when I saw that,
it gave me more incentive to go through with this.
- Wow. Very cool.
- It was done professionally.
- Yeah.
- It's to give us, the homeless people, dignity.
The whole site is for us.
So, I just, dude, this is awesome.
I'm ending this road trip on a very high note,
and even though it wasn't the invisiblepeople.tv video
that housed like it has with Donny and a few others
in the past, I mean, oh my gosh, you know,
thanks to 100,000 Homes and thanks
to the great people of Albuquerque
and all the organizations that were involved,
Albuquerque, I think it's, I forgot the actual name,
I'll put a link to the video, but, you know,
we can get people off the streets, we can save lives.
And in doing so, we save money.
So, support 100,000 Homes, support the organizations
in your community that is actually getting people
off the streets, into housing and maintaining housing.
One of the things me and Paul were talking about is
that often, not often, most of the time,
when you put somebody into housing,
that's just the beginning.
And Paul was very independent and very,
you know, had friends and social structures, so
often the battle starts when you get into housing.
Was it a weird experience for you?
- It wasn't anything that I didn't remember,
it was like riding a bike after you hadn't rode one
in a while, just that some things have a way
of coming back to you, anticipation.
Little small struggles that make it worth having your place
to live, you know, it's, that's why it's home.
You know, you make it, you work at.
- Well, thank you everybody, thank you
for supporting invisiblepeople.tv
and thank you for supporting 100,000 Homes
and all the organizations that are having a real impact
getting people off the streets.
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