- [Interviewer] So Willy,
tell me how long you've been out here,
what you're doing, what's it like.
- Oh, about two years.
- [Interviewer] You've been out here
on the streets two years?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] And you're in a wheelchair.
- Uh hm
- [Interviewer] So how do you survive?
- Well I'm homeless right now.
Trying to get my Social Security together
and I'm waiting on my ID to come back.
I lost my ID.
- [Interviewer] Lost your ID.
It's really hard to get your ID once you lose it, ain't it?
- Well it's just got a bit more difficult,
no apartment and all
(car engine drowns out speech)
apply for another one,
they give you another one.
But you have to pay for it, though.
I'm so broke right now, shit, I can't eat meat.
- [Interviewer] So tell me, what's it like here,
what's a day like at home?
- Well, I'm just passing through.
I'm trying to get to the valley,
San Fernando Valley, yeah, that's where I live.
For now.
I came looking for jobs.
- [Interviewer] How do you get around?
- On the bus, mostly, on the bus.
- [Interviewer] Do you have any family?
- All my family's in Las Vegas.
- [Interviewer] What'd you do before you were out here?
- I was an auto body mechanic.
- [Interviewer] So you were an auto body mechanic.
- Auto body.
- [Interviewer] Then what happened that brought you
to living out here on the streets?
- Well, we closed down the shop and
don't have no job no more.
I left and went coming here, to California.
- [Interviewer] So you were in Vegas at the auto body place
then you came here, looking for work.
- Yeah, no luck.
Found one little job, then I met this man,
moving people.
I hooked up with him for a while.
My feet went out on me,
had to go to the hospital and get my toes cut off.
I can't walk no more, I can't lift furniture no more.
I'm just trying to make it like I can.
- [Interviewer] So that's what happened,
you had your toes cut off?
- Hm mm, I messed them up.
I dropped a refrigerator on them and messed them up
so bad, trying to get it upstairs,
stepped wrong and bam.
- [Interviewer] So what, did the hospital just put you back
out here, I mean, what happened?
- I stayed about a year in the hospital
and they released me, I just
decided to go back out here
on the street for a time,
getting back home.
- [Interviewer] Is there anything you'd like,
if you had three wishes, what would they be?
- I wish I had my ID back.
I wish I had a bus ticket to Las Vegas.
Right now, I'm living with someone else
in Van Nuys, but I wish I had my own place.
- [Interviewer] Oh, so you're not out here on the streets,
or you're out here in Santa Monica until you can get a ride,
a bus ticket up to Van Nuys?
- Yup.
- [Interviewer] So how long have you been down here
in Santa Monica?
- One day.
- [Interviewer] How much?
- One day.
- [Interviewer] One day.
- One night.
I came through here last night.
I made it to here for last night.
- [Interviewer] So you slept out here in the park?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Gosh, that's got to be horrible.
- Oh, yeah, no blankets.
- [Interviewer] You slept out here last night
with no blanket.
- It was pretty cool, it wasn't too cold.
- [Interviewer] That's still horrible.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Well, Willy, I really want to thank you
for talking with me.
- All right.
- [Interviewer] Anything else you'd like to say?
- Nothing, if you got a little change to spare,
I can use it to eat with.
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much Willy.
- All right.
- [Interviewer] I'll help you out.
- All right.