- [Camera Man] Vincent.
- Yes.
- [Camera Man] We are here in the Tenderloin.
- Yes. - [Camera Man] San Francisco,
you're homeless, tell me about it
and you might need to speak up because of the traffic.
- Okay I'll try but kind of, my voice is going out on me
for some reason just yesterday, so.
I've been homeless now since 2017.
It was kind of a crappy situation,
fight with the landlord, lost my place
and I don't think at the time I gave it the seriousness
of attention it deserved to sort of get myself back
into housing and off the streets
because I didn't realize what a quagmire the streets were.
I didn't realize how they sucked you in and kept you there
because it's like crabs in a bucket trying
to get out of the streets.
So in 2017 I was two quarters away
from having my Doctor of Chiropractic
and legally diagnosing patients in California
for musculoskeletal disorders in chiropractic (mumbles)
and now I'm fighting for some clean socks, homeboy gave me
and just trying to keep my head above water
and it's very, very, the difficulty is unreal, so.
- [Camera Man] Now you said something very interesting
and you used this crabs in a bucket
and I don't mean to laugh, but we don't make it,
when I say we, social services, we don't make it easy
for people to get the help they need.
- You know, social services have been great
but what I mean by crabs in a bucket particularly is
that there's no camaraderie among the homeless,
you don't make friends.
You might find a few gems like you'd be really lucky
to get one or two people
and I would say there's one or two people
that I've met in the entire year and a half
or however long it's been now
'cause I lost track of time, that I trust
and by trust, that's even a different term
than I've meant in my prior life.
Like now trust means, if I left my stuff with you
and you had it three days later
that would be like kind of miraculous.
- [Camera Man] Everybody out here is on survival mode.
- Everybody is, they're on survival mode.
Most homeless people I'd say the majority,
at least in the Loin, are drug addicted or mentally ill
or both, usually both but the drug addicted you know,
it's different with every drug but
like you would never leave an item
with a heroine addict because they get sick every day
and they'll sell whatever they have to get well.
- [Camera Man] Or they'll forget it there,
they'll nod out and some somebody else takes it.
- Somebody else take it, yeah.
That's what I meant by crabs in a bucket is
that the hardest thing for me is you know,
because I want to work and I try to keep working
and then I lose the shit that people steal for me
and it's my cell phone which has been walked off with
because I try to help people with it
because it's still sort of ingrained in me
but you can't let anybody touch her cellphone ever,
that's kind of a rule on the street.
You know that's the rule and I had
to learn it the hard way because I'm dumb.
Four times people walked off with my phone
and that's it and then how do you work like
for me I do Uber, you know, I do delivery
or I do everything that's phone-based, gate work.
- [Camera Man] But it's still not enough to pay for rent.
- Oh, I don't even think about rent
so that's not even like a thought right now.
I'm not even thinking about housing,
I'm just trying to have a stable income.
Housing is, there was a point
where I was doing that sort of drifting the line,
sowing that, sort of stitching my way back in
and that was when I had the car and I could work
as much as I wanted and I was able to start staying
in an Airbnb and sort of making it.
I was so god damn close to just getting back in (mumbles).
I had the Airbnb room set up
that was gonna go to a permanent room 900 dollars a month
which isn't bad here in the Bay, the place that I-
- [Camera Man] That's great actually.
- Yeah, it was right over the bridge in Oakland
where I was before I'd lost my place there
at a rent-controlled apartment there for 1,100,
that was beautiful and I wish I held on to that better.
- [Camera Man] Sounds like it.
- Anyway, find my way back in and the car got towed
and San Francisco has a 650 dollar released your car fee
which they waive if you're a first-time offendee,
not waive, but--
- [Camera Man] Then, you were living in your car too, right,
combination of the Airbnb and your car.
- Right and at the time I had gone from the Airbnb,
I was sort of getting full time back in the Airbnb
but then I needed to make the,
when I was gonna transition into a regular place,
regular full-time place, I needed some more money
to put down deposit so I took a month off to live
in my car again because I knew I could do that
because it's easy.
- [Camera Man] Save up.
- Save up and then get that place permanently.
I was parked right right on the street here
with where this (mumbles) met me
and didn't realize it was a seven a.m. tow zone.
It was a rental car that I was using for work.
They do give a discount for rental cars,
they give a discount if it's your first time,
they give a discount if you have EBT, okay,
I have all three of those things.
I didn't get a single discount.
They said that the car was a car share not a car rental.
They said that it doesn't matter if it was my first time,
it had to be the owners first time since I wasn't the owner
and what was the other one, the EBT, whatever it was,
it didn't apply.
- [Camera Man] And that's how you ended up street homeless.
And that's when you go from car homeless
which is not homeless at all to street homeless
which is hardcore homeless.
So that's the world of difference.
- [Camera Man] I'll argue mobile homeless is still homeless.
- I'll take that--
- [Camera Man] I believe homelessness is absence of choice.
So if you're staying in an RV and you don't have a choice
or if you're staying in the car and you don't have a choice
or you're staying on the sidewalk
and you don't have a choice, that's homelessness.
- I'll say that, I agree with you there
and as a matter of degree, the choices that I had in the car
versus the choices that I have on the street--
- [Camera Man] Exactly, exactly, you're safer,
you're able to get around a little bit,
you got a place for your belongings you can lock up.
- And then the other thing is
that other people don't view you as homeless
like there's a distinction that's drawn.
When you're in a car people,
like other homeless don't notice you.
- [Camera Man] Interesting.
- And when you're on the street with them,
putting your head on the sidewalk with them,
then you're subject to the rules that they are subject.
So then you're you know, you're part of that spectrum
and you're part of that,
you'd pray if someone's a (mumbles) you know, that could--
- [Camera Man] So you're saying social services
has been good to you
but they haven't gotten you into housing,
tell me about social services being good.
- You know--
- [Camera Man] How have they helped you
because you're still here.
- Yeah, yeah, I'm still here.
I keep starting the ball rolling with them
like I don't want to, I don't even know
what the process is entirely about getting into an SRO,
it just doesn't excite me that much.
I keep thinking I can work my way out of it
and I keep finding myself deeper
in this pit which is, yeah--
- [Camera Man] Can't help it.
- Yeah, tryna (mumbles).
- [Camera Man] Can't knock down any door,
whether it's social services or whatever.
- Yeah, 'cause--
- [Camera Man] Get any door,
you gotta get out of here bro.
- Yeah and it gets harder and harder,
'cause where do you email your license to.
Bank account, you can't open a bank down without an address.
- [Camera Man] Or it's tough to get a job
when you don't know if you're gonna have a shower or--
- I still can't.
Well I mean I just got a job, but they wanted,
and then finally I took these three things
that I finally got in place this year, took me all year,
this is the biggest accomplishment of the year.
My license, a bank account and a debit card.
The debit card is still, trying get that finished up
but having those--
- [Camera Man] So you're working right now.
- Yeah well, so okay, I'm working right now but,
so I'm doing Byte delivery.
I just finished up another car rental thing
and trying to do Byte delivery.
- [Camera Man] You're hustling.
- As much as I can you know, but I've never begged yet
and it still is kind of a hard bridge for me to cross
like mentally.
- [Camera Man] I know it's hard.
- Yeah, it's you know, so--
- [Camera Man] For me it was pushing the shopping cart.
The day I pushed the shopping cart now was the day
that I had to accept I was homeless.
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've said,
I mean you know, I'm looking at some concrete tonight
but it's like I have a dollar 60 in my PayPal account
and I have an overcharge, my bike,
you know I rent the bikes to work
and that overcharge is like 10 dollars
so I'm nine dollars short of being able to rent another bike
to be able to work during the bonus hours
that pay two to three times as much
and you get a $10 bonus every for deliveries,
but I can't get a bike, I can't pay two dollars for the bike
because I have $10 overdraft on it.
So it's, you know now, so now I got to come up
with the money without being able to work
to be able to work, that's the (mumbles), it sucks.
I ended up, had to sleep there on the side walk
for two nights because, I came in from Oakland,
I was in an academy in Oakland, (mumbles).
- [Camera Man] If you had three wishes,
what would they be?
- Three wishes?
Finishing that debit card's a big one.
I wanna see my son, I haven't seen my son...
Sorry. - [Camera Man] Are you okay?
- Sorry.
- [Camera Man] No, I'm more worried about you,
don't want to be apologizing to me.
The emotions got to you?
You know, I've been asking the three wishes questions
for 700 plus interviews and you're the second person
in a row who got emotional.
Was it the question or was it just the whole interview
and bringing stuff up.
- Because it's probably a combination.
I don't get emotional very often lately
so it's twice now this happening.
The past year and a half,
so I don't know, it's probably lack of...
- [Camera Man] It's okay.
Probably lack of control, you know,
so I haven't seen my son, my son is--
- [Camera Man] The thought of your son
that brought it up, yeah okay.
- My son will be six in July 23rd
and I'm assuming since he's you know, five,
five and a half, sorry before he turned five,
it's been like a year now.
It a bad, it's not a year I wanted to miss.
- [Camera Man] It's tough not seeing the kids.
- And he had to you know, him and his mother had
to be relocated to Alabama.
So they're far away and I've been working my ass off
to try and get this wrapped up.
But you know like I said,
difficulty of getting things together
when you don't have an address and you don't have,
and people are stealing your shit all the time.
It's fucking hard.
- [Camera Man] Crabs in a bucket.
- Crabs in a bucket,
everybody's climbing over each other's back,
but not getting anywhere and,
see so the last time I broke down like this was
because I went up to I went to the services
and I was going there for something,
I don't remember what I was going there for
but the way the counselor suggested
that I get some general assistance benefits again you know
with just cash benefits which I really,
I already got them when I first lost my job like a year ago
and I didn't think (mumbles).
I didn't apply for them ever again
so when the doctor was like you know,
we're gonna approve you for service again,
I had the same sort of reaction
'cause it was just overwhelmingly emotions expressed.
- [Camera Man] Well Vincent, I know you cut yourself
and you're headed up to the hospital
so I thank you very much for taking the time
to speak with me and sharing a little bit of your life.
- Thank you, thank you.
Sorry I'd be so miserable.
- [Camera Man] Oh you were, oh my gosh,
don't be apologized, never apologize for being yourself.
Most people hide, walk around with a mask
and don't let it out so--
- Yeah, Especially out here.
- [Camera Man] You have courage man and my respect
so you'll make it out here, thank you.
- Take care.
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