- [Interviewer] So, what is your name? - Yorel. - [Interviewer] Yorel? - Yes. - [Interviewer] Beautiful name. - Thank you, it's Leroy
backwards, my dad's name. - [Interviewer] Really? - Yes. - [Interviewer] Yorel,
how long have you been down here in Skid Row? - I've been off and on
down here for 18 years. - [Interviewer] Wow. - And I'm 30 in September,
young age, 14 years old. - [Interviewer] 14. So, tell me about your childhood. - Growing up I was, I was
actually a foster child. I'm starting to get the chills. My mother was a drug addict. She used to be down here. My mom tried to, she was
a really bad drug addict. She tried to kill me five times as a kid. I was the only dark skinned one and I guess I reminded her of my dad. And so she just wasn't having it. And she gave me to my
dad at eight years old. At 12 I was taken into the foster system and cause my dad, if there
was anything in the world I could take back or do over, I woulda be quiet when the
teacher told me to be quiet cause I wouldn't be down here. I went to school one day and me and this girl got into an argument and I was like in what,
sixth, five, sixth grade, and the girl was talking back and I was telling her
"you shut up, stupid. You shut up stupid." And teacher's like, "be
quiet you guys, be quiet." You got green card, yellow card, red card. You gotta take home to your parents. And teachers sent me outside,
cause I told the girl, "shut up you stupid head." And she gave me a red card, sent me outside of the classroom. And then they sent me home. My dad came home and said,
"Oh you got a red card because you don't know
how to be quiet, right?" And he snatched the extension
cord from the back of the TV and just started wailing on me. And I got bruises. I had bruises here. This one here, it took
a long time to heal up. That's why I got the tattoo here. Cause it was a big bruise here. - [Interviewer] From the extension cord? - Yeah, from extension cord. And I went to school the next day with this big bomber jacket on
and it was like 100 degrees. And the teacher's like,
"take the jacket off, you know, it's hot." I'm like, "no, it's not hot, I'm cold." And I'm sweating bullets. So I pass out and I go
to the nurses station because I passed out and
they took the jacket off and they seen all the bruises on me. And from there a bunch of
white people came rushing in and the police said "it's okay,
you're going with us now." And from there it was on, it was on, I was on my own. So I always figured if I'm not
around my parents, I'm grown. - [Interviewer] That was at 12 years old? - That was at 12 years old. So I went to my first foster home before I went to my dad's, I
was already sexually active because of the fact that my uncle raped me at eight years old. So it was like no thing for me to have sex with the foster dads and things like that. What they wanted me to do. It was Easter Sunday and my auntie had just
got done doing my hair like little ponytails
and things like that. And I was going up the stairs and I could see my uncle watching me. I could see him watching me. So as I'm going into the apartment, I stopped to the kitchen to
get me something to drink for us and I grab my red bucket. And I go into the room
as I'm trying to reach to put the red bucket up on the counter he grabs me like I have no chi-chi's, so it was just like grabbing, rubbing and all of the sudden, the door closes and he just climbs on top of me and he's like, "this is that,
just relax, just relax." I said, my auntie wants
me to come downstairs. We've got to go get those Easter eggs. We got to find the Easter eggs. He said, "I got an Easter egg for you. Just stay right here. I'll give you all of them. Just stay right here." And it happened and it
just the sharpest pain ever it hurt me so bad, I couldn't even scream. I couldn't even scream. And when we finished, my auntie was still sitting on the stairs smoking a cigarette, like
nothing ever happened. You're not asking where
your niece was, nothing? And I remember I couldn't walk, nothing. I couldn't, ugh. It tore me, literally. And I still see that
sick fuck to this day. - [Interviewer] You still see him? - Yeah, he comes down
here, he's a drug addict. Yeah, he just says little smart shit, "I got a hundred dollars for
you, go with me right now." You know, smart shit. But yeah, from 12 years old up, I was having sex and well I ran away and I ran into this guy named St. Louis and he lived in MacArthur Park, and that's where I started off at. And I went to Figueroa and Naperio that's when I took my first hit. - [Interviewer] Of what? - Crack cocaine. And I was prostituting and I had pimp and he gave me 10 rocks and he was like "just bring me back $50." I'm like, "okay". So I get in the car
with a trick, I do that, I got the $50, I don't
want these drugs on me cause I know they're illegal,
I'm like 14 then, 13, 14. So I see this crack head and
I'm like "hey, you want this?" She's like, "what, all of this?" I'm like, "yeah, just
take it, just take it, I got the money." She's like, "you don't want one?" I'm like, "no, I'm good, I'm straight." She's like, "you gotta come get some, just smoke some with me." I'm like, "all right, fine." And we go right on Figueroa and Naperio and I hit that pipe and
my ears started ringing, my throat went numb and I went running. Yeah, that was the first. I used to walk around with
the little flowers in my hair. Like, I didn't know nothing
about smoking crack. I just thought it was cool. It got me this high that I wanted to feel and a numb feeling and a spooky feeling. But you know, a numb feeling
that it was fine with me. I didn't have to worry about nothing. All I was worried about was that frog that was stuck in my throat. - [Interviewer] And it became
a regular thing after that? - Oh yeah, regular. I was getting high all day, every day. I still get high all day. You can probably tell but
it's to the point to where I feel that first hit when I wake up and after that, I'm just
smoking just to smoke. - [Interviewer] So you've been doing crack since you were- - Since I was 14. Yep, yeah. I remember my mom was to have us look in the couch for
a little white things and spare change and yeah. - [Interviewer] So did
you go to high school? - Off and on, I did. Foster care, like off and on. I was mainly in continuation schools but I did all of my
schooling in juvenile hall and I just really learned how to read a temperature thermometer in prison. And you learn that in kindergarten. So yeah, out here it's very rough. I've been raped over 12 times. - [Interviewer] Oh jeez. - So, now this one friend of mine, he has like he owns a self-defense class in Little Tokyo Mall, so I go up there, he shows me a few things. The main thing is just
to kick him in the nuts. Kick him in the nuts, get it over with. Kick him in the nuts. But yeah, it's rough out here. I have no enemies out here. I've been down here 18 years. No enemies. I've been in three fights. It's a lifestyle that
I never wanted to live. And I never thought I
would live like this, but and my cousin just got
out of the feds doing 20 years and I'm happy cause
I'm not the only person down here anymore. You know, he was the first person that found out that my
that my uncle had raped me. So it's like, I'm not alone anymore. And I seen him yesterday and
it just, it made me so happy. Cause I'm not alone down here anymore. He just got out of the
feds, doing 20 years for laundering and bank robbery. - [Interviewer] Have you
ever done prison time? - Me, yes I did. I did four years for possession. Yeah, that was scary. Jail I can deal with, prison
eh, not so good for me. And you know, it's better than jail but I couldn't do it again. That was too scary. - [Interviewer] So what
do you do for money now? - I prostitute. Yes, I prostitute. I sell conversation, I sell, ya know. So yeah, pretty much, and it's
really hard out here for me. I don't get SSI. I don't get GR, I don't get
food stamps or do nothing. All my money comes from hustling. That's what I learned. That's what I do. - [Interviewer] Did you
have dreams as a young girl of some other life? - Being a basketball player. Like I always wanted to
be a basketball player. I played basketball. I just, shit, I thought
I would be something more like my sister and my brother, they have. My brother works for a
dance studio out in Vegas. He used to work for Michael Jackson one, I think it's the MGM or one of them. And my sister works for the
Cannery, the Cannery Hotel. My mom, she's 17 years clean now. We did recovery together for a little bit. We were in recovery
together for a little bit. She's 17 years clean now. She still hasn't apologized
for trying to kill me as a kid. Now she's still kind
of nonchalant with it. Like if me and my sister get in arguments she'll be on my sister's side. That's what I said, "you
know that's fucked up". I said, "well, if I killed
myself from you'd feel better". She was like, "Hmm, you never know". I got four kids. I had five, one is deceased. He died at three years old. I have four kids, two boys, two girls. I would have 11 all together. Three sets of twins, my
four and my deceased. - [Interviewer] Where are the other kids? - They're all with their fathers. One's with my mother, the one that looks just
like me is with my mother. She looks just like me and it's scary because they treat her
the way they treated me when I was young. Then I have Courtney,
that's my ride or die baby. She's probably down there
right now with her dad. That's my little gangster baby. She just liked me. You know, she's been through some things. She didn't seen men get
their head blown off, shooting people, seeing people get killed. She's five years old. - [Interviewer] She's how old? - Five. And she done seen a man
get his head blown off at three years old being down here. I mean, I'm not proud of that. That was her dad's fault. That was not my fault. Then I have a three-year-old,
his name was Cornelius and he's adopted out the
union rescue mission. I was clean for a year and 15 days and they fucked around and
gave me a dirty drug test. I don't know why. They came and got my son. Then I have my youngest, which is King. And he's probably at work
with his dad right now, too. And then there's no baby in here. I'm just fat. - [Interviewer] You're not fat. You look very healthy and clean for- - Thank you. - [Interviewer] somebody
who's been doing coke, crack for so long. - Yeah, a lot of people say
that and I believe that. It's not like, there is a
saying, it's not what you do, it's how you do it. They're like, what are you doing, smoking pork chops and soaking your Brillo in chicken grease, like damn for real. I just maintain myself. I keep up. I eat, I sleep. That's the main key, eat sleep. I mean, I'm at ease with myself. I mean, even though I'm using,
I'm at ease with myself. I have no worries, no issues. My family knows what I do. They know what I'm going through. I mean, it's not like I can't go home. I choose to be down here. I just don't want memories
to go flowing back in my head and I lash out because that is an issue. Like I poked someone,
like three nights ago cause he crawled his self
crawling into my tent. I don't know who it was, but I poked him. I think it hit him here. That's why I keep a lock on my tent now. I sleep with my tent locked from inside. Bobby was gone and there was no nobody happened to be around that night and the guy just crawled up into my tent and a couple of my home girls, a guy had crawled into their tent, raped them recently. So I mean, I got quick hands. So I pulled this baby out and
stuck it right in the arm. - [Interviewer] Thank you so
much for sharing your story. - Thank you. - [Interviewer] Good luck out there.
