- 7 years ago
Documentary, TV Series, Urban (2018– )
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00You
00:15What's that where y'all from you're not the police what agency y'all from me
00:30I
00:39Don't have faith in this government. I don't
00:48I don't have faith in my president. I don't have faith in the system
00:54I'm dealing with a broken system. That is not designed for people like me
01:00I
01:22My mother was a sociology professor my father was a supervisor for transit authority in Brooklyn, you know, but my father was an alcoholic
01:30When he was when he drank he became violent and I you know got tired. So I shot him above his kneecaps
01:36You know
01:46I committed another violent act when a guy raped my 13 year old cousin. I killed him in broad daylight to 30 in the afternoon
01:54I did 10 years in prison for that
02:00I
02:02Don't have faith in this government. I don't have faith in the system. I don't have faith in my president. I don't have faith in the system
02:32So, all right, sir, happy holidays, all right
02:38Yeah, all right, sir, happy holiday, all right, how many night
02:43My name is Paul Alexander
02:4651 years old and I'm homeless in New York City since
02:502008
02:52There is a all right, sir. Happy holiday. All right. I'm there and he says
02:58Have a nightmare
02:59Have you all today?
03:01$250 a day on a good day. I can make 300 but this is 18 hours of up-and-down
03:0718 hours straight up and down up and down on my feet
03:11I
03:21Bet happy with your eyes. Yeah, sir. Any changes? Thank you, sir. Happy holidays. All right, I
03:32Smoked 60 cigarettes a day. I ain't and crack cocaine
03:37I'm in the cross streams between a broken system. That is more about profit than it is human nature
03:45We're coming from a family of eight and poverty when I was going to school
04:09I used to have to wear two pair of pants to hold one pair of pants up. I was poor
04:14I was so poor, but I wanted to dig myself out of out of the hole of poverty
04:19You know, I wanted to make a better life for myself. I didn't like poverty. I
04:24Hated poverty. I made a vow to myself if I ever got to the place where I could make some money and dress
04:30Well, I would do that
04:44I
05:02Scare oh, it's famous for people getting their lives to go
05:14I
05:19Will get two or three people to beat all of us up include me because I'm doing an interview
05:25I
05:39Cameras like this in their face because they assume they believe that a police or a picture is going to be in the newspaper
05:56I
05:59Different people are here for different reasons
06:07Lost a job and lost a home whatever the excuse is they come down here to get themselves together
06:14I
06:23Think the fundamental problem that we all face and in whatever
06:27Situations of poverty is just a lack of lack of community like a lot lack of family a lack of support around you
06:44You
06:48St. Louis is a lot like a lot of other American cities in some ways. It's still very segregated
06:59You had a lot of people that it's not enough pay to pay for a place to live
07:06For poor neighborhoods
07:09All the areas that we go to are where a lot of people who are almost a
07:14This used to be a big homeless camp up here
07:17But the city the city tore it all down had a few people that had their tents caught on fire and they died
07:31All right
07:34Let's do it. I wish there were a better word
07:39Than being homeless because I think that's not the only problem that some people have
07:44I
07:46Whether you have a home or you're not there are nice people and sweet people and whether you have a home where you don't
07:50Then there are there are jerks and there are people that are it can be
07:53Violent and aggressive whether you have a home or you're not you still people still act the same
08:02We have food carts in York City, but all over and called gyro carts and the gyro carts
08:09You have have gyros and you have rice lamb with rice chicken and rice mixed vegetables
08:17Shish kebab on the stick. They have some very good food on there
08:23But I usually eat I eat a lot of pizza because there's dollar slices today cheap
08:28I don't eat Chinese food anymore. I used to eat a lot of that stuff. I don't do it anymore. I
08:32Like the lamb and the rice. I like rice. Well, then I need the fiber and it's an older guy
08:38You know and live you on the street
08:39I need that kind of food to eat and I always have to have my vegetables
08:45Because the vegetables have vitamins in them, you know
08:47I mean, it's not like I'm going to CVS every day where I can afford to buy, you know
08:53Centrum for men 50, you know, I'm not doing it
08:55I
09:26I'm a big Mac, please. Wait, uh one big Mac, please. What a medium
09:36No, just a big man
09:44W say okay
09:46Alright, let me have that and let me have a medium-sized tea lightness speaker medium-sized tea
09:54I
09:59Gotta fix this. I can't eat like, you know, where I have to use the bathroom like that all the time
10:05I just can't do it. It doesn't work that way, you know
10:10Because we gotta go to bathroom
10:12There'd be a lot of trouble when you live on the street and you gotta use the bathroom
10:16Right and you can't use the bathroom. Oh god
10:24Oh
10:47We bought an old box truck on the internet and turn it into what we have today mobile showers
10:54I
11:19Was volunteering with a group that had a food truck and
11:23I
11:24Jumped in and started
11:26volunteering at a table and taking care of some hygiene stuff a friend of mine here in st
11:29Louis had a salon and she gave me some really expensive shampoo and
11:34It was like, you know $40 a bottle. I
11:40Gave it to this gentleman and I said here this is some really expensive shampoo and he said thank you
11:45But I got I got nowhere to use it
11:46And I was just so embarrassed and ashamed that I was so excited about passing out shampoo to someone
11:51but I didn't think far enough that they would have nowhere to use it and so I got to thinking that if we make food
11:57trucks and
11:58You know put put kitchens inside of a truck
12:00Why can't we put showers inside of a truck and kind of started the whole process from there?
12:04Good to see you. Good to see you again
12:08About about a week
12:22You
12:29When I was 10 years old I discovered I could sing a little bit and did no harmony
12:35So some guys in the neighborhood taught me how to harmonize and we formed a group my brother and I and a couple of more
12:40Guys got our band and we did the local talent shows in the schools and in the nightclubs in Memphis
12:52We was a local star talent, you know in the city of Memphis
13:04Well, we song everybody else's stuff, you know the guys who already had records out
13:09We were so good and we sang their stuff, you know so that they wouldn't have to come out and work so hard
13:15So they gave us the first segment of the hour and we sang man. We just got out man
13:20We would be stepping, you know, we'd be sharp just like this here and you know, and then I would just I was the lead singer
13:27So I was just bust a move and I'll probably say something like the song. It's all her my girl
13:50I am a homegrown homeless
13:54Similar to on some of the thoughts I write poems about hard bottoms and black feet
13:59I'm looking for good green and yellow lights. I am afraid of stopping. I am human
14:05Reality eventually takes people to space and reminds me the tears
14:11in my place
14:20I
14:50I
14:59So this is Sunday breakfast rescue mission, we're the largest free service provider of meals in Philadelphia
15:04We're the only free service provider of breakfast in the entire city
15:11We serve 400 meals a day and no matter what always
15:16That includes breakfast lunch and dinner
15:20I
15:42Also, we serve about a hundred and eighty people every single night who just need a place to sleep
15:50Every single bed in this room that currently has a pillow on it is actually a physical person who has reserved this bed
15:58Tonight so as you can see we really are almost completely full
16:04Sunday breakfast rescue mission is 139 years old. So there were actually quite a few homeless individuals in Philadelphia at the time
16:10It was even way before the Great Depression yet. There was a very large homeless epidemic in Philadelphia
16:20We
16:22Don't receive any government funding
16:25So that means that we're completely independent of the strings that would come along with accepting any money from the government
16:36We do this because we don't necessarily want the strings but also if there is
16:41Giant budget cuts that like there were a few years ago
16:44We actually don't get affected because we have our entire revenue stream from individuals who are donating us money instead of
16:52through something that is so easily tamed changeable like
16:57policy
17:07So in the past few years in America, we've had quite a difficult time with passing our budget
17:13that means that
17:14We've actually had a few weeks where our government shuts down
17:19because
17:21We just can't get it passed
17:24That does become quite a problem for people who are relying on that money
17:43I
18:14Oh
18:2134th Street now, right?
18:23You
18:38Well, we got mayor we got a mayor that arm him and his wife promised housing to the mentally ill and the homeless
18:45That really hasn't happened
18:54I
18:59Got a governor sitting on 20 billion dollars
19:02Surplus for affordable housing hasn't come off for nothing but five and only thing I see them built here is more hotels
19:10Okay
19:18You know, I live on the street
19:21Homeless people live on the street, but we can be taken off if
19:25the government or some of my fellow citizens would step up and
19:30Demand that government officials put an end to this and spend money in the right places
19:36To get people off the street because at some point you have to help people that can't help themselves
19:51A
19:56Lot of it is just the unfortunate fact that most people in Philadelphia are only about
20:02two paychecks away from homelessness
20:03so that means you don't have a job for four weeks and then all of a sudden you're gonna be homeless because you are literally
20:09Living from paycheck to paycheck you need that next job in order to continue paying rent
20:15And if you don't pay rent, then you will be evicted
20:21From
20:24My perspective, I really believe that the route to homelessness in Philadelphia is the fact that
20:32There is a very high population below the poverty line
20:40A lot of people if you lose two paychecks, then that's not going to be a big deal
20:45But in Philadelphia, that is an extremely big deal for about 40% of the population
21:03Anyone can become homeless a lot of people become homeless because of some sort of catastrophic event in their life
21:10Maybe medical bill was just too high or a fire in their house
21:14Maybe a divorce or something like that could could potentially cause homelessness
21:33Come on boy, come on. Come on. Come on down sir. How are you? It's a happy holiday, right?
21:41My man God bless you
21:44I was born in Brooklyn, New York college graduate
21:49Have two masters and a bachelor's degree
21:52I've got straight A's in school
21:56I was a marriage counselor for 17 years of my life
22:04Ex-military
22:07When my wife passed away of breast cancer in 2006 a part of me died with her
22:15I
22:25Got very lonely started hearing voices started committing suicide attempts
22:34Started drinking and using drugs on a daily basis
22:39And developed a very bad drug habit and a mental problem behind
23:02But I'm not sick enough for their mental health programs
23:06And the drug programs don't want me because of my mental health history I seem violent
23:13I'm not a violent person. No, I mean I can become extremely violent when I have to be
23:18I want to get my life back together. I'm tired of living on the street. I've been doing this a very long time
23:24I never really want to help. I had a lot of suicide attempts. Okay, I
23:28Went back to God went back to church get my life back together
23:32I'm trying to be the best person. I can be a second at a time a day at a time. It's not always easy. I'm human
23:42Sometimes I mess up I make mistakes, you know
23:45But I need help and I know I can't do it by myself. I've tried multiple times. I have tried I
23:51Understand what they're going through. I understand what they're going through. I understand what they're going through
23:56And I can make their life a little bit more comfortable become the face of the homeless and have a platform and a voice
24:01For the homeless and it let them know that look it's really a selfless left a selfless thing because it's really not about me anymore
24:07It's all about, you know, what can I do to make life better for somebody else having had that experience myself. There's a place
24:15captivates and enthralls
24:18Having had that experience myself, there's a place captivates and enthralls
24:26Adjust to the thought and I wanna be there
24:32Broadway glitter real possess hit the village hit a jazz
24:38Lots of noise with lots of notes and my blue oak country
24:44Central Park when I wanna be quiet
24:50Catch a show if I wanna be
24:57Recipes for connoisseurs memories for racketeers cause it's all right
25:07My New York
25:11My town
25:17My town
25:27New York
25:37You
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