Gypsy

“I was put into a foster home back in ’91 and been on the street ever since.  That’s almost 30 years, huh… wow the years get lost on me.  All in LA.  All 30 years.

I took a long time to learn this city.  It’s not a safe city.  You gotta know where not to go.  Down by Skid Row, that’s not a safe place to go.  A lot of times I’ll sleep at Santa Monica beach.  A year ago there could be 100 people down on that stretch of beach, but now there’s like 30.  Now that could be cause they’re dying, you know, or it could be that they’re really accelerating getting people into places cause they realize that the poorest people are the ones most likely to spread it (COVID).

The problem is that a lot of the homeless people are butt-ass crazy.  And there aren’t a lot of services for them.  You have to prove yourself a danger to society in order to actually get some services.  Otherwise you have to fight for services, tooth and nail.

Home is wherever I sleep that night. It’s real dangerous – luckily I have some good spots nobody else knows about.  You gotta be real careful about where you choose to sleep at, cause well, you’re asleep.  And it’s not like you’re in a bedroom… you know, I happened to find a pretty safe place all the way down in the San Gabriel Valley.  I sleep on the other side of the metal bins where bikes can be stored.  You have to be real, real careful about where you sleep.  I guess that’s home – somewhere I feel safe closing my eyes.”