- Hey, everybody.
I'm in Ithaca.
We're walking into a tent community.
About 20 people sleep out here even in the snow and cold.
I'm gonna cut this up into a vlog, just linear,
just real quick.
I've got vlogs from July I still haven't gotten to,
but this is important and needs attention,
so it's gonna be straight down and dirty,
real, linear, what's happening today.
And you are?
- Sinbad.
- Hey, Sinbad.
- How you doing gobongos?
- (laughs)
Come on (mumbles).
- How long have you been out here?
- Me, oh for now about 15 years.
15 years!
Well hang on!
Let me get up here.
- Get your twilight zone ass up here.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So 15 years.
- Yeah off and on yeah.
- So what's it like sleeping out here?
- Ooh! When it's 25, 35 below, it's hard buddy.
- Yeah.
- The hard part is getting wood and getting water,
the rest is easy.
Stay warm, once you crawl into your blankets you ain't
coming out buddy.
You're a Puerto Rican burrito, you ain't coming out
little buddy.
(laughter)
- Well nice to meet you.
- Yeah, nice to meet you.
We got this guy from the (mumbles)
(laughter)
- That's a good one!
- What's your name?
- My names' Mark.
- Mark, Sinbad or Fast Eddie.
- Fast Eddie.
- Or just Eddie.
- So (mumbles)
Eddie was just talking saying it's $1100 to get-
- [Man] (mumbles)
- What?
No, it's on me.
- [Man] No.
- No, I wouldn't, without permission I would never film you.
The lens is-
I was just recording that last segment and homeless person
was having issues with the camera, which is understandable
because so many news media and looky-loos come down here
and they portray homeless people as not being human.
And they don't tell the story like it's really supposed
to be told.
And now Carmen wants to talk to me, he's trying to point
to something.
- What's the fuzzy stuff on top?
What is that fuzzy stuff?
- What's the fuzzy stuff?
- Yeah, up here, what is that?
- That's an extra blessing from the Lord.
- Okay, great
- This is a burnt just last week, they barely got out alive
right here, see it?
- Okay, yup.
- Yup.
I don't know what the fence is.
- Well, you know sadly last time we were out here,
and I did the Google Glass, the person you introduced
me to died because his tent went on fire,
I just remembered that.
- That's right, that's right.
- Oh my gosh, I'm going to put a link to that video
down below.
- My friend Rick, boy.
- I toured this community during the summer time wearing
Google Glass to give you a real firsthand look.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Tell me about what's going on here.
- Right now, it's the same thing.
People are living outdoors.
People are dying out, people are burning up outdoors.
People are freezing to death outdoors, yeah.
- So this shouldn't be.
- No, it shouldn't be,
in the United States of America, really?
No, it shouldn't be.
But ...
Okay, let's go meet some more people.
This is Chris,
and Chris just showed me a photo on his phone, which I-
- Absolutely, let me get it out for you Mark.
And so we're about to visit TJ and Allie, and they
just got engaged yesterday.
That is terrific news and
we are all just so stoked for them,
we helped plan the proposal and everything and it's just
really just a lot of fun, a lot of hope, lot of joy.
- [Mark] Now you also from my understanding helped build
out their camp a little bit.
- Yeah so Carmen was the visionary behind it and we
got a team of volunteers-
- [Mark] This Carmen?
- [Chris] This Carmen right here, absolutely-
- [Mark] He's building like cottages and stuff?
- Well I don't know if you can call them cottages-
- [Chris] It's what he does, it's what he does!
- [Carmen] Down here!
- Absolutely, boo. We got a team of volunteers, we've got
the Ithaca Homeless Crisis Team, and we've been working
around the clock to just help facilitate and help mobilize
and help people to survive the winter.
- [Mark] What's Ithaca Crisis Team?
- So it's just on Facebook, we have a community group,
and basically a group of people who just believe that
you know we're convicted to just, you know we love
these people, these are our friends, and we just want to
do everything in our power to help them and we just do
various things, whether it be bringing them clothes,
bringing them food, got a box of food right here.
Just things along those lines.
So we just do what we can to, yeah,
bless them in any way possible.
- [Mark] Awesome!
We need more people like you to get out and help provide
support to people who are still outside and also work to
get people out of this situation.
We're here in Ithaca, small rural community, housing cost
is insane because the colleges, so added to that, there's
not the resources like a shelter facility that you'd see
in urban areas, there's just not the support.
So there's 20 people living outside in the cold here and
it's been negative 20 windchill most of the week.
- Guys, this is the eighth most expensive city in the
entire country, Ithaca, New York.
And the vacancy is 1%.
We need to do more.
So many of our friends are living out in the freezing
cold.
It'll feel like negative 25 degrees and people are dying
out here.
And we just need to take action and be the change.
- [Chris] Think chicken and steak, do you want that?
- Yeah, great.
And what we'll do is we'll-
- [Mark] So, I have hand warmers and socks.
- [Man] Socks would be good, this is the sock guy.
- [Mark] You want socks over hand warmers?
- Mark travels all over the world handing out-
- [Mark] Oh my gosh so I got socks for you.
- Man, look at this.
- [Mark] (laughs)
- [Carmen] Chris, what should I, anything in here that-
- [Chris] Uh, it's-
- [Mark] So how long have you guys been out here?
- [Chris] I think it's broccoli cheddar soup and little
cold broccoli cheddar soup.
- I don't know how long it's been now.
- [Chris] You guys want some soup?
- Before the snow.
- [Mark] Before the snow.
Is this your first time sleeping outside in the snow?
- No. (laughs)
I've done it before.
- [Mark] Well how do you manage?
- Um, we go around caning.
We have help from these guys, so.
- Yeah.
And our house here that they helped us build.
- [Man] Yeah, right.
- [Mark] That's awesome, that's awesome.
- I'm sure he would have if he was here.
- [Mark] Well I'll hook you up with some socks.
- A lot of times I carry hand warmers and socks and
people still pick socks.
- That's because hand warmers are easily accessible.
- This tent right here is where they first lived,
and then thanks to people in the community, they built this.
- You know one thing I never, I lived in Los Angeles
for 30 years, and I-
- [Man] Oh, so sorry. (laughs)
- Why?
(laughter)
it's not cold!
But so where I'm going is I've never been able to manage
this drippy nose cold thing.
How do you that, just the sleeve thing?
- Kleenex!
- Yeah, Kleenex.
- Kleenex?
You know.
- [Carmen] She's a lady.
- Sleeves
- Sleeves?
- Sleeves and the dishes.
- I just snot on her.
- Yeah sometimes he just, you know.
- [Chris] That's true love, friends, that's true love.
(laughter)
- So very honored to meet you both.
- An honor.
- Good to meet you too.
- Congratulations on your engagement.
- Thank you.
- Yeah.
- Enjoy the socks.
- Oh yeah, that's awesome, thank you for the socks.
- And I'll see you online on support group.
- All righty!
- See yeah.
- [Woman] Bye you guys.
- But I'll be in Arizona next week but the following week
let's find a weekly time for us to meet for the
pre-marriage counseling.
And then we'll also find a time for Bible study.
And we can do them both at the same time, okay?
- [Ma ] Yes, I think it'd be best to both do them-
- And we'll have to plan your wedding, your wedding.
- [Woman] Like (mumbles)
- [Man] Everything goes smoothly.
- We get a little, we get a little lippy with each other.
- Yeah, I remember-
- You can understand, look at-
- You're living in that little place, not it's-
- [Carmen] If you can make this work, if you can make
this relationship work in this situation, you will be-
- We can do it in any situations.
- Solid as a rock.
- It was so funny the other day we were kind of fighting
but I like eased it up.
Like you know what, I'm just going to go in the other room.
(laughter)
- Come on brother.
- [Mark] What?
- Pictures, come take pictures, okay.
- [Mark] Oh you're going to show me, you're going to
show me your spot?
Give me a tour Eddie.
Well right now I'm chopping up timberland right now.
- [Man] I heard you.
- (Laughs)
Look all the kindling I'm chopping up.
- [Mark] See you got your tent inside this-
- Hut.
This is a hut.
- [Mark] This is a hut?
- Yeah, go inside, take pictures.
- [Mark] Oh my gosh.
- [Carmen] We helped you put the poles-
- [Eddie] Yeah, go inside, just watch your step right there.
- [Mark] I will, I will.
I don't need to go all the way in.
- [Eddie] Yeah, that's my bed over there.
- [Mark] Well, you got a pretty-
- [Carmen] (mumbles) new chainsaws (mumbles),
those right there make the new platform.
- [Man] I didn't know you needed it, I'll bring them
down next time.
- [Eddie] Yeah, you know mine's (mumbles) shut,
I think it's frozen, Carmen.
- [Carmen] Well, the moisture gets in there you know?
- [Eddie] Yeah, I think it's frozen,
it won't start up for crap.
- [Mark] I think everything's frozen.
- [Eddie] Yeah!
- [Mark] Oh my gosh!
- [Eddie] I wish my chainsaw worked, won't start up.
Yeah burn a butch of, hey thank you Mark for these.
- [Mark] You're welcome.
- [Eddie] Usually keep them to keep my phone warm.
- [Mark] You need socks?
- No, I got thousands of socks.
- You got socks?
- Hey, Mark!
Look around for turtlenecks!
- Turtlenecks?
- Yeah, the one that goes up to your chin.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Chris tried looking, it ain't turtlenecks nowhere.
- Yeah.
- It ain't no turtlenecks.
- Wow.
- My sister looking in Amazon, they don't even make them
no more.
- That's like a sixties thing.
- But still they make them for women.
- [Carmen] I'm pretty impressed, you remembered his name,
that's very impressive.
- Mark.
- [Carmen] You're a good man.
- I'm going to call him the twilight zone man. (laughs)
- Why am I the twilight zone man?
Why the twilight zone?
- Because you look like you're too damn smart! (laughs)
- Oh my God, boy do I got you fooled!
- Yeah, you know more than me, seriously!
And Carmen!
- I got you fooled, I got you fooled.
- [Eddie] So you're like us, you're unga bunga?
- [Mark] I'm a unga bunga.
- [Eddie] Yeah, sure you're a unga bunga.
- [Mark] All right, unga bunga, oh my gosh.
- [Eddie] Yeah, saw the kindling.
Oh we cook out here.
Hey I'm going to make a scene maybe Sunday, y'all coming?
- [Man] All right.
- So I go to the pots and clean, everything's clean.
I got about four bags of CDs, I'll go get some kielbasa
and stuff, pepperoni, we'll make some zees.
I've got a bunch of cat, yo Carmen somebody left you this.
- [Mark] So you're making the best you-
- [Eddie] How you make these?
How'd y'all do it in the pan?
- [Carmen] What is it?
- [Eddie] Biscuit, how do I do it in the pan?
- [Carmen] I don't think-
[Eddie] I got to put butter-
- [Mark] Biscuit without a, biscuit without an oven right?
- Yeah!
How you do this in a pan?
- [Carmen] Well, you know not everybody's
as smart as you are-
- [Mark] Yeah, so, I was in Boston and everybody's
walking around with oatmeal packets, right?
- I love Boston and Connecticut and Massachusetts.
- [Mark] Yeah, I-
- I've been to all three places.
- [Mark] Everybody's walking around with oatmeal packets.
- [Carmen] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Mark] So I finally ask one of the guys, he says yeah
people are handing them out.
They're not handing out a bowl or water or anything else.
- [Carmen] Right, right, right, right, right.
- [Chris] Nothing like some dry oats, right?
The other week he posted a potluck in his place,
and he got hot dogs for us and he just facilitated it all.
- [Eddie] Sauerkraut.
- Sauerkraut, all the good stuff, and we just had a little
potluck right here.
- I got pickles, I got mustard, I got ketchup,
I got everything.
- [Mark] But you didn't invite me.
- Well I didn't know you twilight zone man!
I didn't know you unga bunga!
- [Mark] You didn't invite me!
- Well Mark, now I know you!
- [Mark] Yeah.
- Sunday come over.
- [Mark] So is it Ed, Unga Bunga, or Sinbad?
- Sinbad.
- It's Eddie, just Eddie.
- My name is Sinbad.
I don't want to be good, it doesn't pay to be good.
- [Carmen] Yes it does, you-
- [Eddie] No it don't.
- [Carmen] You know better.
- It's heartbreaking that people are living out here
in the cold, but all over America cold weather,
warm weather, rainy weather, summer weather, people
have to survive so they're building camps.
It's affordable housing, and it shouldn't be.
Now we're visiting another camp.
We've been driving around, checking on a few people.
Giving them batteries, food, hand warmers and socks.
Carmen, tell me about the tents burning.
- They try to stay warm with different means of propane
heaters or whatever and if a tent, anything touches that
heat, they just go up instantly.
- Right.
- And they just barely escaped, I mean Doug's over here
and he's got his face all burnt and arms all burnt,
and then his arm gets infected and it's not good.
- Oh my gosh, and you're saying the tent over here
burnt down.
- Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
- Oh yeah, you can see it.
- [Carmen] Yup, you can see the charred, all the charred
wood still, yeah.
- I mean, there's tents all around here.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah, they're all over, they're all over.
- I mean-
- Up in here there's-
- This is the third spot we've visited.
- Right.
- And at each spot there's probably three of four tents.
This one, one, two, three, maybe five or six tents.
- Yeah, yeah, and then there's four or five over there,
and there's four or five down over there.
They're all over.
Yeah, yeah.
- This shouldn't be.
- No, no it should not be, nope.
We live in America, the wealthy-
- Last time I checked.
- The wealthiest country and the smartest country and the
best country, right, isn't that what they say?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Isn't that what the best country in the world?
- I'm kind of worried that I've been rubbing off on you
over the years.
You were like Mr. Positive forever and now you're ranting
like a Horvath.
- Well, it's, people gotta see it, we gotta see it.
You know, these are our neighbors, and they're good people.
And yeah.
- There's tents all over.
I know I'm repeating myself but my heart is broken
that people are living out here to begin with,
and that they're living out here in this cold.
I can't even imagine.
- [Carmen] Lane!
- We just met a couple people living out here,
wonderful couple.
- Yeah, yeah.
- And older ornery man who I now adore.
- (laughs)
- Gotta come back and have dinner with him.
- Right, right, right, right.
- Carmen what do we do?
How do we, how do we help people?
I mean, Carmen actually went and started building cottages
called Second Wind cottages, I'll put a link below.
He owns a body shop, he's not a nonprofit person.
He's a Christian but not a church ministry person.
He just wanted to take action.
So how do people like yourself do something about this?
- That's frustrating Mark because I think there's so
many people out there that call themselves Christians
that can do stuff like this.
There's people out there and I want to, can I talk to them,
right now?
- No yeah, please, please.
- Speak to you that call yourself Christian, you own
property, you have money, you have ability,
you have friends.
Do something, do something about this.
You can do it.
I'm a dope, I'm a dummy, but listen,
these are our neighbors.
These are people.
Help them, you can do it, I now you can.
There's people with property Mark,
there's people with money.
And know-how, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist
to figure it out.
These people are real people, they're our friends man.
We love these, my children, I have three children that
come down here.
They love these people, really love them.
- I'm going to agree with everything he said,
except he's not a dummy, he's extremely smart because he's
caring about his neighbors.
We need you to care about your neighbors.
So this vlog, I'm just going to throw it up tonight,
going to be linear, it's going to be down and dirty
really quick, because it's cold out here.
There's going to be a link that you can hopefully
you know, find it in your heart to support the people
that are coming out here,
to support the people living outside.
Click sub-, bleah!
Click subscribe if you haven't, click like, please!
And support us on Patreon because without your support
none of this happens.
- Amen.