- [Interviewer] Mike. - Yes sir. - [Interviewer] It's good to see ya. - I wish it was under
better circumstances. - [Interviewer] When I travel to a place and run into somebody that I know, it's amazing to see them again. - Yeah. - [Interviewer] But in a year's
time, you're still homeless. - Yep. Well, I used to have a,
I had a house last year, until my fiance passed away. - [Interviewer] So after
we interviewed last year, you went into housing, you had a house? - Yeah, me and my fiance, we had a house together,
and then she passed away. - [Interviewer] And then
you ended up back outside? - Yeah. I was like, I can't be in that house. - [Interviewer] Well at
least, so since the last year you were inside for a little bit. - About four months, yeah. - [Interviewer] Now, the
reason you were homeless the first time is your son died. - Yeah. - [Interviewer] And it
emotionally affected you. - Yep. And I just lost my other
son a couple months ago. - [Interviewer] That's heartbreaking. - He was serving our country, so I'm proud of him. - [Interviewer] And you
told me how he died. - Yeah, IED. - [Interviewer] Oh my gosh. - Yep. And then my brother got
murdered a couple days later. He was supposed to come up here, but he's not gonna make it. He's up here now. He's above us, so, it's all good. - [Interviewer] And
you had other bad news. - Yeah. I've got pancreatic cancer. Stage four, they can't
do anything about it. It's already spread from my pancreas all the way to my right side. So, I'm looking at a year. - [Interviewer] Mike, that's... - I'm happy though. I am so happy that I met
so many people around here. Miss Jane. I love her with all my heart. She always helps people out. The volunteers here at Jubilee. A lot of people that are on the street. They will back you up 100%. - [Interviewer] Oh my gosh. I don't even know. You're continence, yes, I
mean, last year you were, I can't even talk, my heart is so broken. - There's nothing to talk about. I mean, I'm happy. That's what I'm proud
of, I've had a good run. 43 years, good run. It's all right. - [Interviewer] Well, is
there any help for you? - No, I'm not gonna be
sick for the past year of my life going through chemo. I'm not doing it. So I might, they said a year, a year
and a half, oh well. But if I don't do chemo,
it'll probably lessen it. I'm okay with that. I'm fine with it. At least I can't get in no more trouble. Come on, we gotta make it
a life, it's time to smile. Everybody should smile. - [Interviewer] I agree,
and that's what I was trying to say earlier is you're happier than the last time I met you, but life has taken a turn for a worse. - Yeah, it happens, but
that's part of life. - [Interviewer] Well God bless you. Oh my gosh. - No, God bless everybody. - [Interviewer] I agree. - Everybody else, they've
got their own problems. Let 'em deal with it. - [Interviewer] So were
you in the winter shelter? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] And
that closed last night? - That closed this morning, correct. - [Interviewer] Where are
you gonna sleep tonight? - I have no idea yet. Haven't figured that out. I'll find some place to rest my head. - [Interviewer] My goodness. - Cops keep on chasing
us off everywhere we go, because you got a bunch of
people that start stuff, and I'm not one of 'em. And it's sad. Got all these new kids showing up, never been homeless before, they show up, and they screw everything up. - [Interviewer] Well, Ryan was telling me that the homelessness here in
Traverse City is increasing. - Yeah, everybody's coming up here. I don't know why. - [Interviewer] There's no housing. - No, I've been on a housing
list for three years up here, but everybody else seems
that don't have jobs, that don't work, get housing before I can. And I've been working, so how is that right? - [Interviewer] Are you still working now? - Yeah, I'm working through People Ready. - [Interviewer] And what's that? - They do odd jobs here and there. - [Interviewer] Okay. - And we get paid every day. - [Interviewer] But it's
like day labor stuff? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] So you're working? - Yeah. - [Interviewer] Just not enough to... - Not afford anything
around Traverse City. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - What is it, $850 for
a one bedroom apartment? How can anybody afford this? Everybody around, the city commissioner and everybody else wants to get rich off everybody else that's working. And it's not right. It's a tourist town. - [Interviewer] Yeah. - I mean, you can go to
any hotel down the strip on Front and Munson, go down there in the winter time, it's $235 a week. In the summer time, they
jack the prices up 300%. For one night you're gonna
spend 250 bucks, why? Where's the commissioners at when they couldn't stop this stuff? No, they don't do it. They do the same stuff up in North Dakota when I worked on the oil rigs out there. Everybody gets higher pay,
everybody else jacks everything up, Walmart was even charging
$5 for a gallon of milk. - [Interviewer] I saw that
in Fort McMurray, Canada, because everybody is
going in for the oil sands and the city grew so
fast, supply and demand. There was actually engineers staying in the homeless shelter
because they couldn't afford a place to stay, and
that was kicking out beds for people that had no job. - Yeah, it's like, come on. Where is our government
at now, when people jack up their prices because
it's a tourist town? - [Interviewer] Because
it's a tourist town, there's a severe lack of housing here. I'm glad that the winter shelter opened. Last year I was here, there
was no winter shelter. - Well, no we had Safe
Harbor where they moved us church to church, now they got this one and now everything else is going to crap. - [Interviewer] At least,
you know, you had that, but now that it's closed. - Yeah, well, we'll survive. We always do. - [Interviewer] But it
shouldn't be like that. - We can't do anything
when everybody wants to raise up their rates so
much in the summer time. Can't do anything about it. The county won't do anything about it. Them judges right over there
won't do anything about it. - [Interviewer] Well, people will say, so why not move, why not go someplace else? - Where you gonna move around here? - [Interviewer] Well, as
I travel, it's people live where they feel comfortable,
and it's also not so easy to move, you gotta have money to move! - Yeah, you gotta have a vehicle to move, and I had a vehicle and Ryan
told me I couldn't park my RV. - [Interviewer] So you're in an RV? - Yeah, I had an RV at Safe Harbor, I just paid 100 dollars for it. I couldn't park it there. So I spend money to get a place to live, so I can travel wherever I get to go, but Ryan says, "No, you
can't park it here." So I had it moved at my job,
and somebody else had it towed. - [Interviewer] Oh my gosh. - So I just lost that. - [Interviewer] Oh my gosh. There must have been a reason,
'cause Ryan is a good guy. He'll work over backwards to help you. - He was afraid that
people were gonna sleep in my RV during the day. Nobody was allowed in there. - [Interviewer] Right,
'cause it's a night shelter. - Yeah, it's my RV,
and I'm not gonna drive around in a RV to go to work. - [Interviewer] What would you want people to know about homelessness? - It sucks, keep a job. If you have family, go to them, don't burn it. - [Interviewer] Don't burn your family. - Yeah, don't burn walls. - [Interviewer] There's
more homeless people out here working too, I mean we were at a tent camp this morning,
and one couple, they have jobs. - Yeah, it's too expensive
to live out here. I'd have a better chance living
in Detroit, where I'm from, but got a bigger chance of
getting killed down there. We're all pretty common with each other. We know who everybody is, we
don't step on anybody's toes. - [Interviewer] This is home for you. That's what people don't
understand about moving. Is where you feel like home and you feel safe, that's where you live. - Yeah, you're always safe here. I mean, there might be a
couple fights here and there, but that's just, that's natural. - [Interviewer] Look
at congress, (laughing) - Yeah, and then we had one
guy stabbed a few days ago. - [Interviewer] Oh jeez. - And they were best friends. - [Interviewer] Mike,
again, I'm so grateful that you walked up and said hello, but my heart really breaks for you that you lost another son,
and that you have cancer. I really, oh my gosh, I pray for you. I wish you all the best, man. - Well, thank you so much. - [Interviewer] Yeah,
if you had three wishes, what would they be? - That my boys were back, everybody would be off the street, and it wouldn't snow anymore. I'm tired of the snow. - [Interviewer] Yeah, I come
up here, it's like 68 degrees and there's piles of snow. - Well, it's supposed to snow tonight, so. - [Interviewer] No way! - Yeah. - [Interviewer] Oh my gosh. Well thank you very
much for talking to me. - Thank you. (soft music)
