Nearly one-third of ALL Americans experiencing homelessness live in California––
— That’s more than 170,000 people sleeping outside OR IN temporary shelters ACROSS THE STATE Each night.
The vast majority––90 percent––were living in California when they became unhoused. And 75 percent are homeless in the same county in which they lost their housing.
This documentary project was produced with support from the California Health Care Foundation and is intended to serve as a companion piece to the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative’s California Statewide Study of People Experiencing Homelessness.
Photography by Sam Comen Audio interviews by Aaron Schrank
Who are they? How did they end up here?
What are their stories?
Meet some of the Californians coping with the state’s homelessness crisis:
Ennix Blackmon
You see how the world in general looks at homeless people? I think it’s a sad situation.
I challenge people. Ask that person: What’s their story? Find out what their story is, because it’s uncommon for someone to just be out and not have anyone to care for them. But there’s a reason for it...find out the story behind a person’s life.
But don’t look at that person like trash.
“Being homeless, man––that was very hard for me to get over. Because I'm someone who’s used to being independent.”
“I served 15 years in the Army—went to Iraq twice. When I got back, there were things that I had to address emotionally and mentally…Today, I mean, I’m not gonna say that I’m in a Place of perfection. But I can smile.”
Patricia Houlden
I grew up in this neighborhood, so that’s why it’s a little difficult for me to leave it. I had a head trauma some years back where I had amnesia, and so I stick with my familiar areas. I’ve been out here for almost 10 years. Since my mom passed.
“They make it extremely difficult for us to be able to get up and go do something about our homelessness.”
Calvin Shorts Jr
“I was stabbed over 18 times less than a year ago, over there at my tent. It could have been anybody’s tent, you know? The only thing to protect us is a zipper.”
“I thought everybody was after me…I couldn’t go home… you can’t go to church…where are you supposed to go and get comfort?”
Raven Gardner
“At least we have somewhere to start because you have to break the vicious cycle. If you don’t have a place to sleep and feel safe in and eat and you don’t have money and you don’t have a car you know, then it’s difficult.”
“I came out…and it shocked my family. A couple of them kind of showed their true colors with how they reacted. So I decided to try to get out on my own.”
“I have a for-now job that I get pretty good tips in and stuff and it’s a lot of work but I’m doing the best I can with that.”
Christina Jordan
“If I was placed in housing right now, everything else would fall in place. But it’s hard to do the paperwork. It’s hard to do everything. It’s hard––especially being in a wheelchair. If I was on my own two feet, I would have everything.”
You know, what people don’t realize, what people go through and they judge you by the exterior. I started running away because my mom and my dad got hooked on crack and heroin in the 80s. I just thought, if they couldn’t take care of me…I’ll just take care of myself.
Charles Moritz Jr
“I was put in a Project RoomKey, but ...I felt like I was locked up. The only time outside the motel was from 1pm-3pm That’s not enough time to get what we have to get done. I didn’t last a day...being cooped up in that motel. Like yeah, the shower was cool. The bed was cool. But uh-uh, I can’t do it.”
“Help us with housing but let us do what we need to do. In order to help us move up not down. I don’t want to go to shelter. I don’t. I’d rather just being on my own place or out here. Keeping us inside all day and when we get out, we’re still gonna... You got to survive out here.”
“Cops are always harassing me for no reason. Just because I have a criminal background doesn’t mean I’m going to be violent or a bad person.”
Michael Pichardo
“I’ve been homeless since I was 15. Ever since my legs could get me out of whatever group home or wherever I was, I was gone.”
“I carried myself in a way where I didn’t look homeless, because it was embarrassing. A lot of people didn’t even know I was homeless until they started realizing that I couldn’t wash my clothes. I was surviving by going to school, sleeping in parks and committing crimes.”
You can only put something through so much and make it so strong before it cracks. You know, that’s where I’m at today. I feel like I’m cracking. I’ve been through too much.
“I know for a fact that I’m gonna rise out of the streets. I’ve done it before…it’s a big difference between being hopeless and homeless.”
Marilyn Forte
“The apartments they have for seniors, they want three times your security. Well, nobody has that laying around, I make two times the rent. I make $2200. And I lived in a motel for a while thinking I can find an apartment and move in. Nope. That didn’t work out, either. So I ended up here in a shelter, until I could find me a place that I could afford.”
“I need something I can afford… My kidneys are failing. I have to start dialysis sooner than later. But I need a place of my own where I can rest. You can’t exactly rest here.”
Jeremy Jones
“Everyone says ‘just get a job and you'll be fine.’ I can’t go somewhere all day and leave my family. The only places that let us be--that don’t kick us out--are places that I can’t just I can’t leave them here by themselves. I won’t do it.”
“We were renting a house not all that far from here. I was working full time as an electrician, commuting, most of the time, to work. Really what happened was a combination of not not handling my money very well– wasting it on stuff and then all of a sudden a whole bunch of little things came together at the same time.”
Griselda Flores
“I got arrested, just for trespassing. They gave me a traffic ticket and I said, ‘but I don’t drive.’ They told me it’s because I live on the freeway. That’s why it’s a traffic ticket.”
“It’s hard to be a woman and be in the streets. Like, you don’t even know how the mentality can be. It’s really hard to survive everyday––to be sure I got what I need.”
Charles
+ Jennifer Hake
“Go look at the price of an apartment. What was $800 is now $1200. They want first, last and a deposit. They want credit ratings over 700. One out of 20 people I know may pass that. Most people burnt up their credit already. That’s why they’re here. So now you built this wall that they’re boxed out. How do you get them back into society?”
“Rent just got higher and higher and higher. We couldn't afford to pay rent. So we were forced to basically move into this kind of lifestyle. We didn't have a choice.”
Torr
‘T-Bone’ Ducey
“I’m [in] independent trucking, I’m not driving for a company...And then there’s all of a sudden, bam, a shut-down globally. And I get into the elbow incident - I chip a bone...I’m in a cast.
“I had a disability, but at the same time I had to eat. So I had needs that needed to be met. Could I find work that could meet my level of disability? I actually shouldn’t have been working, but I knew I had to do something.”
“Really everybody's trying to protect their privacy, trauma, mental illness. Sometimes we just really don’t want to show the caring side of who we are and what we really care for.”
Meet more unhoused storytellers