The COVID-19 pandemic created some extra complications for Tito, 24, and his girlfriend Rose. He is used to staying in the shadows, moving regularly, staying with family or friends until he wears out his welcome. It’s a routine that was embedded into his lifestyle at an early age. He was born in Oregon, but his mother moved them to San Blas, Nayarit when he was a baby. They didn’t stay there long, and ended up homeless in San Diego, living in a tent on the street when he was still a baby. Once his mother found work they were able to secure real housing in Southeast San Diego.

“Southeast raised me real hard,” he said, leaning against a tree as the sun set on his favorite neighborhood park, surrounded by other park dwellers. His brother was jumped by bullies when he was in the third grade for going to school with blue hair. Another time he remembers walking with his brother to school near Imperial Avenue, at the age of 11, and hearing gunfire. After emerging from their hiding places they continued walking and saw a child lying a pool of blood. Tito ended up getting kicked out of school for playing with an X-acto knife in art class. Another student complained to the principal that he felt threatened. So Tito was out.

Tito was committed to his girlfriend and their baby till she cheated on him. “After that I lay on my mama’s couch for a year getting over it,” he said. He got over it by getting a hobby: vape smoke styling. He was so good, posting videos he shot with his cell phone, while creating unique smoke shapes, he got sponsorship from a vaping products company for awhile.

For eight years moved among different neighborhoods until he wore out his welcome, and moved on. “You have your drug users, your gang violence, your bums, hobos, and older folks who just smoke weed,” he said. Certain homeless communities have rules of conduct so they aren’t persecuted by the surrounding housed residents, and so they stay safe and under the radar of local law enforcement. “Even O.B. was like that” he said smiling, admitting he was probably guilty of “too many shrooms and acid while walking on the beach I guess.”

Now he’s back in his neighborhood park in North Park. “Everything gets stolen out here,” he said. One day he was forced to go to the Emergency Room to deal with an abscess on his arm from a place he’d been shooting up that got infected. Someone from a homeless outreach group, PATH, got his information and stayed in touch. On the day I spoke to Tito he had just come back from registering for a shared room in a PATH facility for youth (under 25) where he could sleep, get help with rent when he finds his own place, and assistance with other services. His goal is to get his GED and find a way to make a sustainable income. First he has to get his driver’s license. PATH will help out with a bus pass and assist in his renewing his CalFresh paperwork so he can buy food, now that he has a place to refrigerate it. The program lasts a year and a half and the home is in Chula Vista, which is out of his way. Tito says he is ready for a new crowd and new location to stay away from the circle of temptation. “This life is relentless,” he said. “It’s horrible to be homeless.” That first night, however, even with his new room available, his girlfriend did not have a place to go, so the two of them were preparing to spend the night in the park.