Chase
Chase Langley, 41, knows he's lucky to be alive. It was 11 years ago, at the age of 29, he first was hit with the lymphoma cancer that killed his twin brother at the age of nine. Of six children, only he and his brother got the disease, but he's also had two nephews die of it. Born in Illinois to a rear admiral father and medical officer in the Air Force mother with a high security clearance, battles raged at home when it was clear Chase was gay. His father put him up for adoption and worked to throw gay men and women out of the Navy. Chase got a bus ticket to San Diego, learned to be an excellent pastry chef, and had a nice life living in North Park. Until he got sick. Medical bills made it impossible to afford to stay in a home. He's been on the street for two years now, when he's not in the hospital.
Read More
Randy
Randy Ferris, 62, joined the USMC at age 17. His military family moved around so much he had trouble focusing in school so he decided to learn about life by living it. Stationed off the coast of Vietnam for most of his years of service, and returned home to a less than warm welcome. He had anger issues and nearly killed someone. After 15 years in prison he chose living in a van in San Diego over returning to Rhode Island. After being pulled over, and having marijuana found in his car, he served a second stint in prison, and learned to curb both his attitude and his smoking. He hasn't driven for 14 years, but would love to be able to get some paperwork squared away with the military so he can get a check and some health care. He currently lives off the $195 from an EBT card, sharing with other veterans in his camp.
Read More
Scorpio
Scorpio, 53, moved to San Diego in 2003 when his two favorite football teams, the Raiders and Bucaneers, were playing in the Super Bowl at Qualcomm. A skilled worker in carpentry, roofing and cement, he figured the proposed residential high rises that were slated to go up around Petco Park would mean plenty of work to go around. Not so. He ended up in his car, doing a lot of crystal meth and spending time in jail here and in L.A. Having frown up in the Pacific Northwest skiing on snow in winter, lakes in the summer, he prefers being outdoors anyway, he said. He said most homeless are fat and lazy and need counseling. He also feels the city's politicians are taking money earmarked for homeless programs and putting it in their pockets because there are no public showers or bathrooms.
Read More
Tshakalisa
Tshakalisa, 34, emigrated from Zimbabwe as a college student, intent on medical school. With the help of friends and scholarships he earned a degree in biology and a secondary education in nursing. He worked at fast food restaurants until he had his degree and then worked in health clinics, in a jail clinic and with the healthcare company HCA as a surgical nurse. Until his visa ran out. He couldn't get help renewing the visa, so couldn't keep a job. Back home, war was threatening his family so he was granted asylum. But the stress took its toll on him. The stress and his dyslexia made taking medical exams difficult. He was worried about what his parents would think of him if he failed. He turned to drugs, did a few too many, and pulled a knife on someone. He went to jail. When he got out he fled that scene, coming to San Diego to start life over.
Read More
James
James Forristal, 40, grew up in Kansas City. His father had anger issues, and his mother wasn't around much. His sister moved in with her boyfriend, and he earned his GED so he could get a job and move out on his own. He did clerical work in a bank and a corporate office, but it became boring. So he moved to San Diego, where his family had spent a happy vacation. All was well until his uncle got cancer last year and James returned home to be with him through is passing. A sensitive, introverted individual, James is affected deeply by global crises like Fukushima and war refugees. Since returning to San Diego he has had stress issues, been beaten and was recently hospitalized with pneumonia. He turns to opiates for comfort but retains his quiet independence.
Read More
Frenchie
Frenchie Jackson, 56, retired USMC, graduated from Lincoln High, has strong opinions. His father was a great role model, who retired from General Dynamics, his mother was a social worker. He has four siblings, and reveres his youth where kids danced and played football, rather than running in gangs and shooting at eachother. After five years in the U.S. Marines, he did manual labor jobs and laments he didn't have a life plan. He got into drugs and was arrested for sales. He went into a program to clean up. Now his main purpose is staying positive and saving money to buy a fishing boat and Harley-Davidson. He hates homeless who use the street as a public bathroom, opposes swearing in songs on the radio and takes the "don't give someone a fish, teach them how to fish" approach to life.
Read More
Duck
Don "Duck" Wills, 64, remembers important dates. Like the Christmas Day his mother told him she wished he'd never been born. Or the day when he was 10 that his father committed suicide. He remembers every Friday when his stepfather beat him with the buckle end of a belt until his 13th birthday when he stood up to the man and threatened to kill him. He remembers joining the Air Force and trying to commit suicide. He left Texas on January 1, 2001 and came to San Diego. He has lived on and off the streets here ever since.
Read More
Enrique
Art is Enrique's happy place. North County native Enrique Alonzo Cabrera, 53, migrated to the east coast when his parents disapproved of him being gay. He lived in Baltimore with his partner nearly a decade before missing the California sun. He moved to Hollywood, found a new partner, who survived longer than most with AIDS. Enrique soaked his sorrows in a bad decision, having sex with someone in a nightclub bathroom, who told the police Enrique had assaulted him. After three years in prison, seven on probation, Enrique keeps a low profile, watching his diet because he is insulin-dependent, painting paper roses in exchange for coffee and a combo meal, and sleeping in a secret spot away from the downtown homeless scene.
Read More
Brittany and Joey
At the point most people would call rock bottom, these two met. And through an act of compassion they became an unlikely but complimentary couple, married nearly four years now. Both were abused as children, were in and out of CPS, CYA, and had seriously combative home lives growing up. After his mother committed suicide, he suppressed his emotions and lashed out at everyone, including prison guards. She went through the foster care system and escaped being sex trafficked to fend for herself. Despite physical ailments and no reason whatsoever to trust anyone ever again, they found a quiet storm in supporting each other against the world. They would really like to find a normal living situation and even menial labor so they could start life afresh together.
Read More
Red
Red knows how to fight. As the only fair-skinned white kid growing up in South Central LA, being called Carrot Top set him off. He slipped right into a gang culture and never left it, gaining a reputation forbeing the one to do the craziest stuff, “like jump through someone’s window to grab their jewelry box,” he said. Hi father was a hard-working machinist who eventually stole something to feed his large family. He went to prison for it. Red was in and out of CYA camps, then prison himself. A road trip with a friend took him to Canada where he fell in love, started a family, but was chased out by his girlfriend's mother, who alerted authorities to his illegal status. After 20 years on San Diego's streets, Red says he's ready to go inside and settle down, but no one will rent to a man with no real income and a prison record.
Read More
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.” Randell grew up in San Diego, went to San Diego High. He wonders why the city doesn't open up it's empty buildings for the homeless; since they're paying for electricity to be on, and the property taxes, he said, why not take the people off the street, give them real counseling. "The city shouldn’t complain about the problem and then not do anything about it,” he said.
Read More
Louis
Louis Roldan, 29, is traveling the world playing music and philosophizing through his experiences. Born in Chicago to a hard working teenager and a Puerto Rican heroin addict. His father would sell the food from the cabinets, even the t.v., to get high. Every time he was in prison he swore he would change, but never did. Louis has learned how to not treat people, has studied political science and hopes to some day become a judge. In the meantime, he plays his ukelele for the Universe, mostly in the U.S., Mexico and across Europe. In the U.S., people see him as homeless, but in Europe they see him as a young traveler and invite him in, thanking him for his music and his fresh attitude.
Read More
Steve
Steve Hillard, 52, grew up just a mile from where he is now living on the street under a freeway bridge. He laments the way many of the drug-addicted homeless will stay up all night going through trash "like it's a treasure hunt" leaving the place a mess that reflects poorly on everyone else. He wishes the police and the city officials would treat them like citizens with more money that the homeless have, and give them a decent job with a living wage so they can get a place to live that a person on a minimum wage can afford.
Read More
David
David, 53, born in LA grew up in a patriotic, Christian home, moving around the country. He studied teaching English while wandering the library reading books on chemistry and calculus, which came in handy calculating coordinates for missile strikes while in the US Army. From there he joined an evangelical group converting Taiwanese to Christianity, but soured on their methods. Back in the States he fell into drugs and alcohol but sobered up, fell into a compassionate relationship, but suffered again when she died. Now he plucks out Bowie tunes on the four remaining of a six-string electric guitar.
Read More
Tom
Tom, 63, has a degree in physics. Life was good, raising a family in small town Michigan, working for a company that installs fire sprinklers, designing their systems. Then his marriage broke up, and the people he worked for discovered he had Jewish ancestry. He moved to St. Louis, and his new employers at a similar business were associates of his old company, so he felt he was being pressured out. He traveled the country in his car, with his dog, doing odd jobs, landing in San Diego to live with his son, a machinist in the US Navy, until the son moved. He feels he's escaped death enough times he keeps looking over his shoulder and never sleeps in the same place two nights in a row. Lately, he feels God is telling him to find a safe home indoors finally.
Read More
Joel
Joel, 36, originally from Alpine, went through some tough times trying to stay in touch with his son. His ex-girlfriend made it a moving target, however, enough to drive Joel into drugs and depression. After getting clean, he relapsed and losing his car made it tough to get to work on time, so he lost his job. Now he lives for the moment, keeping track of his few possessions, moving them around when the police conduct sweeps downtown.
Read More
Danila and Darrell
Danila Hendrix, 57, and Darrell Eudell, 38, met on the street a year ago. Their dream is to buy and operate a hot dog cart, but city restrictions prove restrictive to them with no address and no way of setting up a port-a-potty and wash station nearby. She was trained at the Cordon Bleu cooking school and worked as a private chef in Scottsdale, AZ. He sold cars in his home state of Florida. They keep God and the beauty of the natural world in their conversation, trying to stay positive about their situation.
Read More
Danny
Danny, 46, has been out of prison for just over a year. A skinhead from Santee, he served 14 years for selling drugs. Now he's finding an unsympathetic world, unwilling to give him a decent job or housing for himself, his girlfriend and her 14-year-old son as he tries to start over.
Read More
Nomad
Nomad, 23, grew up between Kentucky and California, from abusive parents to grandparents, back to parents then a group home where his finished high school. After witnessing someone fatally caught in a woodchipper as a child, he developed paranoid schizophrenia and still suffers from it. He and his infant son weer kicked out of his father's home, then his mother took custody of the boy. Nomad doesn't trust anyone. Street people call him the philosopher because he writes poetry and tries to empathize with everyone.
Read More
Steven
Steven, 24, grew up in Fallbrook, never quite got along with a mother addicted to methadone, so he moved to Memphis to be near his father and work in construction. After his wife cheated on him, he left that world to return to San Diego, where he lasted just four days at his mother's place, and can't find a job. He and his girlfriend share a tent downtown and aren't sure what to do, now that she is pregnant.
Read More
