Randell

“I don’t know why they just don’t make homelessness illegal,” said Randell, 50, as he folded up his tent for the weekly cleanup on 17th Street downtown. “They keep coming up with this measly little laws around the edge: no loitering, jay walking, no carts, encroachment. I thought encroachment was in football. California is a police state.”

He grew up in San Diego, went to San Diego High, just up the road. He said the police state concept has dogged his since he was young, and police would harass him and his friends every time he was outside trying to just live, playing ball in the street. Eventually you start hearing that you’re a thug so often, he said, that you start to believe it. He fell into the gang life, a member of the West Coast Crips, ending up in prison for 12 years. But he’s been off gang paperwork for 10 years now, and off parole.

He said the fact he’s not on parole annoys the cops because they’d love to hang something on him for a parole violation. He got arrested for encroachment while he was riding a bicycle. Not ten minutes after relating this story, a policeman chastised Randell for not moving his cart quickly enough away from the curb.

Constantly handing out misdemeanor tickets to the homeless is not fixing anything, Randell said. “It hurts these people, and it doesn’t do the city any good because we can’t afford the fines. What’s the point? It’s just harassment,” he said. “One guy here had a job, but was cited for some misdemeanor. He had to go to court to fight it, missed a day on the job and lost the job. Now he’s worse off than before. Wouldn’t it be better to have that guy working instead of out here? The city shouldn’t complain about the problem and then not do anything about it.”

Randell thinks the city should fill its empty buildings with temporary housing and counseling services. Even if it only works for 10% of the people, it’s better than nothing, he said. “How much is the city paying to keep the lights on in an empty-ass library? You could put most of these people in there, and give them some kind of counseling so they actually get rehabilitated or on the right path before you send them back on the streets.”

You can tell the people that used to work for a living, he added, just by the way the organize their belongings and the way they tackle a problem like moving or cleaning up. There’s a work ethic that’s tangible in some people even out on the street. But without something to do, nearly everyone on the street falls into using drugs because that’s what everyone else is doing. After spending 30 days in a program, when he came back out, all his friends looked like zombies, skinny and in a haze.

Randell said his prison past makes it tough for him to get into any housing, so even though he wants to change his life around, the obstacles seem too great. He could stay with his little brother, he said, but his brother and sister-in-law have a large family. “I don’t want to be a burden to them.”