His story:
It’s been 13 years now. When I first started, it was because I was being beaten by my brother. So I chose that lifestyle. They know exactly what I’m doing out here. But ever since I left, it’s just been harder and harder each day. It’s gotten to the point out here where, if you fall — I skate, you know — people just pull out their phone and videotape it. Pretty de-humanizing, you know. I’m starting to get work going more, now.
My first time homeless in Denver, I was almost run over by a pick-up truck. I was laying down on the sidewalk! I was like, man, I’m leaving. I almost lost my dog down here in Boulder — they opened the floodgates in winter. Lost every bit of my gear and nearly lost my dog.
Average day:
As you’re out on the street, you have to learn to adapt not just to the weather but the people around you. People look at it like we’re making it harder for them to get by us on the path, we look at it like ‘we’re just trying to survive.’ I’m just doing anything I can to survive – I fix cars.
Community:
My girl is 22 weeks pregnant. She’s been working at McDonalds for 3 months now and that’s the only way we’re gettin by. I wanna work, but every time I get an ID, it gets stolen. In the last 3 months I’ve been here, I’ve gone through probably 15 different backpacks. It’s homeless stealing from homeless. As we would see it, it’s family out here. But we have to pick and choose who’s fam and who’s not.
What is home to you:
Wherever we can lay down is home. Right now I’m living under a bridge. People ask me where I live, I just tell ‘em, “At home.” They’re like ‘where’s home’? “Under the bridge!”
I don’t even know if I could live inside anymore.
Homelessness in America:
Cities and counties all across America don’t seem to really care about people on the street. Actually you’re the first person here in town who actually took the time to hear anything about what we do.
If you have a place to live, take a week out of your time and live outside. If you haven’t dealt with it, deal with it for one day and see how you like it. Deal with it a week if you can deal with a day. I’ll bet you don’t see life the same way afterwards.
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