- [Interviewer] Trouble.
- Hi.
- [Interviewer] We're out here in Los Angeles.
- Yeah, unfortunately.
- [Interviewer] You're out here homeless.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Tell me about it.
- I wasn't planning on being homeless in LA.
I don't think anybody's
ever planning on being homeless though.
I've been traveling on and off for five years
and it started out politically motivated actually
and health wise as well.
My boyfriend at the time, he's now my husband, we -
Puda, come here, sorry.
We were in neck deep of a pill addiction in Florida
and just didn't want to do it anymore.
I got ahold of one of my ex-boyfriends actually,
who was a traveler and I was just like,
I obviously can't do anything where I'm at right now,
I want to kick, I want to get out of here, can you help me?
Where's the train yard, basically.
Ready to fucking just get on a train.
He came, he was actually already on his way down to Florida
in a car with two of his other friends, so he picked us up
and we started touring the east coast basically.
Just going to protest after protest after protest
and fighting cops actually helped us kick dope,
which was really cool.
- [Interviewer] What now?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Who helped you kick dope?
- Fighting cops.
- [Interviewer] What is fighting cops?
- I mean we were just going to political protests.
- [Interviewer] So fighting police gave you purpose.
- It was just like a distraction, it was a motivation.
It was a motivation and just educate.
He and I have always been on the alternative side of things.
Our views of what's going on in this world is a skewed one.
I don't believe in anything that the government does
for this country, it's just falling apart.
Sorry, I could go on for hours about that shit.
We ended up in New Orleans.
We went there to get off the road for a little while
and get married and we did.
We ended up working with an art collective
doing political informatives through theater
and puppet shows and shit like that.
We had a venue for bands to come and play.
We did an absent club every Sunday.
It was really cool, it was dream come true for us.
We felt like we were at home for the first time
in our adult lives.
We felt like we had a place to be.
It fell apart probably a year and a half in to it.
Some people came and attached themselves to the organization
and had their own agenda and we didn't agree with it.
It resulted in us walking away.
We basically just fucking went on a rampage for a while.
We ended up drinking heavily and just,
we were very angry and sad at what had happened.
We ended up back on the streets.
I guess because we has our place for a little while,
so for two years after that we were working full time jobs,
everything but we were functioning addicts,
I guess you could call that.
We were drinking a lot and then weed, cocaine,
basically anything that we could put into our bodies
we were doing it but we had to pay for it
and we had to pay for where we were living at,
so it was just zomfing us to 50, 60 hour work weeks
to just waste on rent and drugs basically.
We went back to squatting, we left everything,
our apartment full of our whole life.
- [Interviewer] Back out to traveling.
- Just packed up our bags.
Well, that was the plan was to travel,
but NoLa has this thing where it likes to keep you
if it wants you.
We ended up on the streets in NoLa, we were squatting
but we were also working and shit,
but not having rent that's more money to fuck off with.
We got really, really fucked up.
The NoLa street kid scene is,
it's kind of like a theme park ride on steroids.
- [Interviewer] Every community has one though.
You could find it.
- Oh yeah, no it's everywhere.
- Us drug addicts we somehow migrate to where they're,
so anyways you're hear in Los Angeles.
- We finally made it to Los Angeles,
we were actually here three months ago.
We couldn't make any money to save our lives
while we were out here.
Then we hopped on a train to go to San Francisco.
Our buddy was actually going to bless us with some work,
so we could make some money or whatever.
We got out on a train in Colton and woke up in Las Vegas
and it was going to Salt Lake,
it was going nowhere near California anywhere.
It was gone, so we got stuck in Las Vegas for like -
- [Interviewer] The like of hopping trains.
- Oh my God, we got stuck there for like two months.
My husband's pack was stolen, all of our IDs,
birth certificates, his service dog shit, everything.
- [Interviewer] That's Puda.
- That's Puda, yeah.
- [Interviewer] Say hello, Puda.
- Puda, say hi to the camera.
We finally had a homie, it basically came full circle,
my buddy coming and picking us up in Florida, my homie
and her boyfriend that we squatted with in New Orleans
was actually, they had gotten a car kicked down to them
in Wyoming or something like that
and so they came to Vegas and picked us up
and brought us out here.
- [Interviewer] Where are you sleeping?
- Right now, we fall over over there sometimes.
- [Interviewer] That's no way to live.
- No it's not and that's what,
it's one thing when you're transient and you're traveling,
I love that life, I love being on -
- [Interviewer] The freedom of it.
- Yeah, I love it, but being stagnant in one place
with nothing gets really old really quickly.
Dealing with the fucking home bums constantly.
I've been on this corner eight years and fuck you.
- That sucks that you've been on this corner eight years,
dude, that's nothing to pride yourself on.
Everybody struggles with their addictions.
We do, we've been on and off shit our entire relationship.
Right now it's just about focusing
and getting back on track.
As soon as I have my fucking ID, dude,
I'm back up north trimming fucking weed
and having a good time doing it.
Having a place to stay, stability.
- [Interviewer] That's your future.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Getting a place to stay, getting your ID,
trying to get your life back up.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Travelers are very unique.
Whenever I talk to you guys, I get jealous
because I want to go hop a train but I'm too old.
In fact, a bunch of travelers in a school bus invited me
two weeks ago that I connect with on Facebook
and I'm just like, I am too old.
- You should've.
- [Interviewer] I know, I know.
- At least you would've been on the bus.
- [Interviewer] Here's the thing,
how do people that want to help homeless people.
There's a lot of kids out there traveling,
how do we help people that are traveling?
- Just don't treat them like their scum, dude,
they're people too.
We're fucking, we're human beings too.
We have dreams and aspirations,
we just go about life a little differently.
- [Interviewer] A lot of the challenges for youth service
organizations, because you guys pop in for a shower,
and you're gone.
- Yeah.
(laughing)
Yep.
That's the trick of the trade.
We appreciate everything that people do for us.
Granted there is some douche bags out there,
don't get me wrong, there's douche bags working in these
business towers.
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes,
what would they be?
- Right now one would be to have my ID.
Two, to have a roof to put this little guy under.
Three,
a car that would never run out of gas.
- [Interviewer] Good wishes,
thank you very much for talking.
- Thank you.
(light music)