- [Interviewer] Chad.
- Yep.
- [Interviewer] We're here in Venice,
you're homeless, tell me about it.
- It's not too bad for me.
I've been homeless most of my life
so I grew up on the street,
kind of know the whole vibe and how it goes.
Homeless in Hawaii, homeless in Oregon, homeless here.
It's pretty much it for homelessness, mainly in Oregon,
Hawaii, and here.
- [Interviewer] But now you said you were first homeless
at nine years old?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] What happened?
- My mom lost her house so we lived in a car,
ended up moving down here,
lived in the car here and moved back.
Lived in a sort of apartment there.
She had an abusive relationship,
we fled the state to Hawaii.
I finished sixth grade in Hawaii.
Then we've we had to leave the homeless shelter
so then I stayed in the car with my mom for a week
and then I was like 11, just on my own, running around,
occasionally getting beat up by full-grown men.
It taught me how to take a hit and stuff like that though
and how the street works?
- [Interviewer] I mean 11 years old
running around on the streets by yourself?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] That's crazy.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] No kid should grow up like that?
- No, a lot of bad things happened, a lot of bad things,
yeah, and then- - I'm sorry.
- It's okay I'm stronger for it.
Then we ended up coming back here
and being homeless here, or not here,
to Oregon to the mainland,
and then after a little while
I ended up getting in trouble,
went into foster care and then I ran from foster care
when I was about 13 and I've been on my own since then,
and I'm 28 now.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh, from nine to 28,
most of it homeless.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] From 11 to 28,
pretty much homeless and alone.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] And you seem happy?
- (laughing) Yeah, well you learn
to take it with stride, you know,
it's just the way life goes I guess,
I mean, I don't like being homeless,
but like that's what I mainly know, you know, so like.
- [Interviewer] You've gotten used to it.
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Making the best of it.
- Yeah, and a house is okay,
but like if I had a girlfriend or something,
that'd be a lot better to have a house,
being in like a house that's just me, it's kinda boring
and you just sit there and like watch TV,
I don't watch TV much, I.
- [Interviewer] But you grew up
with nothing- - (laughing) Yes.
- [Interviewer] You grew up out
on the streets. - Yes, right now
I got shorts, a pair of pants and a jersey.
- [Interviewer] And that's all ya own?
- Yeah, no socks, no shoes, no boxers.
- [Interviewer] I know, I tried to give you socks
and you wouldn't take 'em
because you don't wear shoes.
- Well yeah, I don't have any shoes.
I don't wanna walk around in just socks (chuckling).
- [Interviewer] Well that's California for sure.
- Yeah, and I'm missing my two front teeth,
I got my whole face reconstructed with a bat
and my arm broken
right here. - Oh my gosh.
- And right there. - How old were ya?
- That was about three years ago on my birthday.
I was blacked out and a store clerk gave me a dirty look,
he came back later, still blacked out,
and I guess I beat him up a few times,
I don't know I don't remember and he came out with a bat
and broke my arm there, there, and hit me in the face
and then he kept hitting me when I was knocked out.
And then I had 95% of my face reconstructed.
- [Interviewer] Oh my gosh.
- Yeah. - Now when you were a kid,
out on the streets, a lot of abuse?
- Yeah, yeah,
yeah, physical, sexual, mental, yeah.
- [Interviewer] I'm sorry.
- It's okay.
- [Interviewer] Well I know you keep saying that
and I'm gonna keep saying that I'm sorry.
- And it sucks. - And no kid
should grow up like that.
- No, no, no, it sucks, it's pretty rough.
An ex-cop, I woke up and he was jerking me off.
My grandma molested me,
other dudes have perved on me, and I grew a,
I kinda grew a defense mechanism,
if I'm sleeping and you touch me, I just swing in my sleep
and then I wake up with like a bruised elbow,
or bruised hands and I know someone tried perving on me
and then I just went back to bed
and they didn't get it, it didn't work.
- Right, right. - So I built up
certain defense mechanisms from stuff like that,
it's kinda like a PTSD thing
I think. - Well that's what people
don't understand about homelessness,
especially somebody like you, that's grown up outside
- Yeah. - You know what I mean?
Here, why don't you step this way,
you're getting in the sun a little bit,
yeah, who, whoa, that's perfect.
And,
you've adapted to a life
on the streets- - Yeah, for sure.
- And a life of survival.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah,
kept me skinny, I guess and tanned (laughing).
Yeah. - Well that's 'cause of
Hawaii and California? - Yeah, woo.
- [Interviewer] You didn't get tan in Oregon.
- I did, I did. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah?
- I did in Oregon too, but I would purposely go out and tan
because I knew I was coming here
and if I would've been really white and came here,
it would suck.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- I'd be burnt so bad, yeah.
- [Interviewer] So what's your future like?
- My future, I don't know, man.
If I can get a job or,
'cause I've never really actually had a real job,
I've been homeless my whole life, I mean,
I don't even have ID, I don't have shit.
I got, like, I told you, some lighters,
and then a pair of sweats, a jersey,
and then these shorts, and that's,
that's all the stuff I got.
I've had less though, so,
I've had just shorts and nothing else
and still survived, so I mean,
at least I got the jersey and those sweats,
and the lighters.
- [Interviewer] What would you want people to know
about children growing up outside?
- Don't do it, it fricking sucks,
I mean, yeah, it might make you street minded,
some things like that, whatever's, benefits,
but it's not worth it.
- [Interviewer] Well, it wasn't by choice.
- No, but. - You are not
homeless by choice.
- No, but still like,
help them I guess.
It's not an easy life,
it's pretty rough. - Yeah.
- I got scars all over my body.
- Well, where would it- - I'm missing two teeth
in my front. - Well where would it,
where would it have helped?
I mean would have been to help your mom stay
that she could have provided or?
- Both, I mean, I was abused by the time I was like two,
so that gave me anger problems
and stuff like that. - Yeah.
- Maybe even before then, too, so I mean.
- [Interviewer] That's what people don't,
you know, the childhood trauma.
You know I say lack of affordable housing,
childhood trauma, you know, my gosh, wow.
- Yeah, when shit like that happens,
most people tend to run away
and go do their own thing and find out who they are,
and be their own person,
you know what I'm saying?
Like, just be themselves,
like not be controlled, or have things pushed on them.
They wanna be able to like
have the owner in control of their own life.
You know, like, by the time I was 11,
I didn't think I'd make it to 13,
I thought I was gonna die.
There was a full-grown man that would beat me up and stuff.
And then I met this dude that looked out for me,
and he would give me hotels, and food, and stuff like that,
he was pretty cool and he's like
one of the main father figures in my life.
His name's, Ombasa, by the way, from Hawaii,
yeah, he's a way-cool dude.
- [Interviewer] I never thought I was gonna live to 25.
- Right, I'm 28, and I'm still here, how is that?
How is that?
It's crazy.
- [Interviewer] Well you still have a long life, man.
- I know. I do, hopefully he gets better.
I don't know, I sleep on the beach, or I sleep on the grass.
Sleeping on the beach I get a bunch of sand in my hair
and it's really annoying.
I love the ocean, but I have to all
eat out of the trash cans so I don't starve.
I don't know, you just gotta do what you gotta do I guess.
I've been eating out of dumpsters
since I was a little kid.
At least I don't eat like gross stuff like I had to then,
you know, but it's still not like my favorite thing,
it's embarrassing, it sucks,
but like that or starve, I literally have no money.
Don't really care about money, I mean, yeah, I could use it,
but like if I had all the money in the world
I would just wanna do the right things
and help people start organizations that help people,
help you, you know, other continents,
so we can do what we're supposed to do
and not be divided, be united,
and if one country's suffering
have all the other countries come to help it out,
you know shit like, stuff like that,
I like to think about and I would like to do,
but like I'm just one homeless person that,
I got a lot of
plans and stuff. - You can, you can do it,
you can do it.
- I know, but I need to become rich,
how am I supposed to be rich?
Be a model, be an actor, I guess maybe, I don't know.
- [Interviewer] I ask myself that all the time.
- Right. - There things I wanna do
that I don't have the money to do.
- Yeah, I don't know. - So.
- We'll see where the future goes.
I'll be alive or dead for it, probably alive.
I'm pretty strong faith.
If they couldn't take me out when I was like 10, and 13, 11,
then I don't think they're gonna take me out at 28,
so I'll probably be alive for it.
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes, what would they be?
- Help unite the earth,
help save the land and ocean,
you know, like the ecosystem, all that.
- [Interviewer] One more.
- One more, get people to wake up
and see what they're doing.
Every piece of trash they throw on the ground
isn't hurting just the earth,
it's hurting themselves,
get people to be nicer and care about each other,
you know, world peace type stuff.
- [Interviewer] Great wishes.
- Thank you, appreciate that.
- [Interviewer] Thank you very much
for talking to me. - Yeah, you have a great day
and God bless.
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