Hungry For Love - Homeless Documentary

[Music] it takes a toll on you mentally and physically it can be unsafe but it's people out there that don't take the time to sit down and get to know somebody you know without saying oh they're homeless they must be trash or they must be junked either they must be alcoholics according to the United States interagency Council on homelessness as of January 2018 North Carolina had given an estimated nine thousand two hundred and sixty eight people experiencing homelessness on any given day of that total eight hundred and ninety seven were family households 884 were veterans four hundred and seventy eight or unaccompanied young adults ages 18 to 24 and one thousand two hundred and ninety three were individuals experiencing chronic homelessness my name is Heath Pritchett the director and founder of a group that works with homeless communities called Watchmen of the streets the Watchmen of the streets crew is an outreach of a nonprofit called habit missions and currently serves in Charlotte winston-salem Hickory Asheville surrounding areas and throughout North Carolina [Music] what a privilege it is to live in large growing cities and bustling towns throughout our beautiful state with so much to offer eateries pubs theaters malls parks natural beauty sports teams and booming businesses you get the point but in the midst of nice things luxury entertainment and convenience there are so many lonely and dark places there is a hidden world where many people facing homelessness are suffering in silence behind malls gas stations amusement parks or anywhere there are trees far back in the woods and away from the view of the public people live in tents under tarps and under bridges a shunned hurting and helpless society that often feels rejected worthless lonely and unloved mother Teresa once said the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved people everywhere are hungry for love [Music] [Music] now let's start our time in Charlotte North Carolina with my dear friend ray I have known ray for around 4 years he currently lives under this bridge and is a trustworthy pleasant person to know ray serves others through our organization and through experience knows a lot about being homeless meet ray this is my house where I sleep back every night and I spend my days here you know it's when I'm not at the library or something like that this is my house no I don't get cold or anything I don't get wet it's not the best place but for right now it's throwing the place I have right now to live at and nobody messes with me the cops know I'm here and they don't miss mess with me I keep it you see I keep it clean but a lot of places they don't keep it clean that's why they get run off but I don't get run off I've been here for so long they know I'm here they don't mess with me out of spirits homeless probably 20 years ago but it was off and on due to medical of my back and I got anxiety and depression but the past 10 years it's been steady being homeless for the past 10 years day to day life right now I would say just it's actually boring there's not much to do that I go to the library and read or I'm down to urban ministry you know taking a shower or doing laundry done there's a place called urban ministry where you can go take a shower at eat do your laundry I'll go there and then after that go back to the library or I come back to the bridge but other than that it's pretty boring that's me takes it it takes a toll on you mentally and physically and it can be unsafe you know there are some people don't like the homeless and they might you know I haven't experienced that yet but I've heard her people talk about people being jumped because they were homeless that's you know somebody do that that's just you know you already have enough problems being homeless you don't need something like that somebody trying to be jet crush you're homeless yes you know I just can't understand why somebody would do something like that [Applause] you know they could be homeless the next day their selves you know people putting the homeless down everybody thinks being homeless you know you got a drug problem or alcohol problem or you getting mental problems yeah they are you know I drink but I really don't have a drinking problem I drink but it's not to excess I don't do drugs just what I take for my doctor and it's its experience you won't never forget long as you live even if you get a place to stay you're always still remembering being homeless originally live I don't care what anybody says you're not gonna not thinking about that anymore once you get a place or change your your surroundings of whatever you're still going to be thinking about that I don't care what anybody says you're still going to have that [Music] [Applause] just [Music] when I was first introduced into the hidden world of homeless camps deep into the woods Charlotte North Carolina in 2013 Ronnie was one of the first persons I had met I met him at an amazing place called the FreeStore I was serving as a youth pastor at the time and our group provided a Bible study and breakfast Ronnie loves to play the guitar and used to enjoy coming to the free store in the mornings and since then we have become really good friends [Music] it's back in 2005 I was living in New Orleans and all that deer was crazy it was a bad year anyways Hurricane Katrina came and for those who know about Hurricane Katrina when the levee broke everything got flooded I lost my truck music studio all my possessions I really kind of never bounced back from there I [Music] was real into in New Orleans they're really heavy drinkers and partiers and I was I was pretty much in the scene for like ten years and because of alcohol I lost my final job went on the street and I guess I was drinking myself to death so I came to Charlotte in 2012 nine nine years ago the thing was in 2011 I had heard that Charlotte has a good base for helping people starting over and so I did I got off the bus here with a backpack when I left New Orleans it was 71 degrees when I got here it was April 1st it was 31 degrees I was in shorts and no shirt oh gosh I had a shirt it was a short sleeve slept on a bench the first night I met somebody the next day pretty much went from the bench to cardboard to a sleeping bag to a tenant I did that for about three years I got hooked up with Kings kitchen which is an amazing amazing place and they have what they have a discipleship program lasts a year comes with a job you got a Bible study for five days a week go to church on Sunday volunteer and through that and completing that program I have to do it twice because I got fired twice because I kept screwed up but uh finally I got a place I maintain that place for three years I lost it again went back out it was a year ago this month that I made a decision should quit drinking I quit drinking for a while but I was drinking vodka I gave it up my stock I went to detox I had a friend help me get into a condo I stayed for a while and then it was about eight months ago I I was working a full-time job I was working 45 50 hours a week and I ended up renting a motel room which was out of my price range there's $1,000 a month I was paying $200 a month to get back and forth to work I lasted about nine months and I couldn't take anymore cuz at the end of that didn't have any money hence the issue in Charlotte and North Carolina and around the ground in the United States is affordable housing so I came back out here I've been out here again I think I'm going on month number three and I took about two months off just to get reacquainted with having to be back out here on the streets and stuff and this past week I just started another full-time job so I'm gonna I'm on that staircase trying to get back up one more time and slow go you know I don't feel sorry for myself as you can see I got a beautiful spot you know it's safe I got a roof over my head where some people don't you know I got a little bit of money in my pockets I can meet my needs but you know like I got goals and you know hopefully in the near future I'll get all that back again I got ad to army in 2011 and I've been homeless ever since I've been homeless eight years every time I get a job or try to keep a job a man's ID bunch puts me back in the place of being homeless I'm at Joshua a couple of months ago he like all of us has his own struggles some as a result of his service Joshua looked after me one day when we were visiting camps and I slid down a muddy Hill I was in the United States Army third intra vision 11 Bravo 130m Tree regiment at Fort Stewart Georgia I served from oh three - 2011 eight years and I got discharged for post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety attacks and I'm posed to be receiving a check every month that I do not get but I have a lawyer looking into that but I do get to go to the veteran clinic and get all my medicines and see a doctor for free the Veteran Affairs really only have about enough resources to provide about half for all the veterans so the other half is like me are out here living on the streets not getting any help and stuff like that not all homeless people are drug addicts or alcoholics and stuff like that me personally I only smoke cigarettes I just have anxiety and when my anxiety is really bad it keeps me from doing stuff like I used to before I got inside before I went to war three times I could work and live a normal life now mine's ideate like makes me depressed and keeps me back from doing the things I like to do and I say if you see a homeless person out there cuz you're gonna see one in pretty much every state I've been to 48 states Florida's got two I think the most homeless people cause it's hot all year round but when you look at a homeless person in need of help don't always look at them like they're a drug addict or an alcoholic because not all homeless people are well I mean that's a hard question and really cuz if I had to say that can be in truth it feel like I've been homeless my whole lot about six years ago I don't even know that happened really uh I wasn't rolling working for a Gaylor electric and the girlfriend I was with in short she uh she lived in Ballentine she had money and we were together for six years but I just kidding I guess did what she want me to do was just quit drinking and quit drugging because I like the drinking drug but I'll just go ahead and tell you I do right now having teams and stopping I like smoke pot I like to drink beer mainly what I do it hasn't called me someone yet but I'd say that's when I first become homeless um and I didn't know how to do this at first I really didn't I've learned from guys like my friend over here and I started my girlfriend Melissa Muncie I've learned from my art mother I forgot a few close friends I heard it a little close friend I consider them brothers not just friends and we are what try to stay real I've only had a couple places that were in my own name they piled in my name and all that stuff on I didn't last long stableness has not been something I've ever known [Music] I'm gonna be back [Music] I was on Social Security income and it was canceled also my home children wife all that good stuff had to come stay here there was more resources here why easier to live rather than in a country town but yeah like I say about five years ago normally get a home with pounds probably get a shower check in there cuz if you don't check in at least once a week then your housing goes back to the back of the list I've been waiting four years so go there first thing pretty much every day get a shower finally change clothes cuz you know you can't wash clothes I try to leave the ones that wore the day before is there because they'll wash them and recycle them somebody else will get him I was fine until they took my Social Security I paid my bills on time I had a home I had a wife I had children I had a normal life just one unfortunate event calls five years of health and that's what it is I mean what's hell you got to look over your shoulder everywhere you go everybody on the street kiss your face and then stab you back you know they lie manipulate steal and that's the way they have to be there's this heart out here you got to do what you got to do it's a dog-eat-dog you know people are very judgmental of homeless people I can't sit in front of a gas station for more than five minutes before someone's calling the police I mean literally and I've got cerebral palsy I got to sit you know walk around all day with a big camping pack on your back you know you got to pack everything up because people steal it so you're walking around with chant tarp sleeping bag all your clothes cookstoves everything and you walk around all day because you can't sit anywhere steal most of the homeless people I've met I hear all better than any of the people you'll meet in the world they're the kind of people I get a shirt off their back and that's why they don't got a lot because they're more willing to give to the point where they don't even have anything and that's my fault that's my problem too you know I got ahead and make money and I give it all the way you know I'll be sitting there late at night sure got something you know but I know my buddies warm cuz I got it in that sleeping bag you know so it's all good I mean but just don't judge you miss it's wrong [Music] nothing about two years ago went through a divorce and so that left me out on them to fend for myself basically and at the time I didn't kind of buy a real heavy Edition so what's up - had the financial means that going and get another place to stay it's crazy - it's like a deer inside the city limits they get adapted to what you're leaving around these cars and how I've gotten Apted to be kind of like right here this is not really deep down this is not really what I want to be doing at all but I don't have the financial means to rent a place in Asheville in Buzzard County really thousand dollars a month rent I don't even make out a month how could I pay that and survive and eat and everything else I can't get a job because I don't have actually my ID in my back pocket I can't go back to a day laborer company that I worked for for ten years off and on cuz they signed a new policy saying you gonna show your ID we're driver license every time you sign over you sign your tax papers I feel sorry for the ones who has bad health problems that's out here their inner struggle we're don't have the means to buy their own medicine that's that's the people who has a really rough fortunately I'm at a place where this place right here is on considered private land this ain't state property now you're gonna sign that fence you'll be on state property that means that our truck people you off for us to get running off from here would be the owner of this land going to the apt and say guys we don't want nobody on our property and they had to post that posting signs and then they would arrest us for trespassing but until they do that we can basically we're gonna run off him up here you know I left convenience I love going right down a hill and getting on a sidewalk and catch the bus like I've seen homelessness is something that is a 24-hour day job it's either you gotta get some water you got to get this power for this one or about who's been up iron soldier stuff keep an eye on people and guys this in discussing bad anymore - if you carry a backpack on your shoulders people say oh he's homeless he's homeless now if we're going to a job interview and that's three go intern and I'm only one carrying the backpack because I'm always I got my most valuable possessions the only way you know for sure nobody's gonna tell you steal your stuff you take it with you you've got to take your valuable possessions with you if you don't they might not be there to get back so Louie that fortune Colonel backpack but what today's society is cuz you got a backpack on your shoulders they going judging I may say you're home sir I'm gonna give you a job a lot of places and people uses that word homeless is like you're oh you're a bad like you got your curse or your larder - whatever it's no I get some of the best people I met my life spent homeless and this way it is they actually started about two years ago when was a Stanley rant knock on Monaco and we had some disagreement and he kicked us out so we thought we'd come here for help and from other brother and that turned out he wouldn't help us so we we ended up getting stuck out here so there for about two years people will assume that well homeless people are bad people you know who do nothing but Charles trouble which is not the case we're just trying to you know but you can get out of this so people like alright in our case to like when we go for a job they find out we're homeless they gonna hire us on that a lot of places won't they don't even have anything to do is to get that misconception that we're bad people that we do nothing because trouble and that's not all that's not always the case I know some good people around here that's homeless that you know anything and don't like it try to get a job for Red Lobster down here yeah don't yell try to transfer back down yeah yeah that's what I'm trying to do the energy something that happens so fast there but we're still gonna keep trying we're still hanging out here everything buzzer I try to get him dummy in okay not now we're gonna stay out here and save our money and so we can build it up yeah we have we look at it no matter what goes on that day it's gonna be a good day because God woke us up how we originally became homeless mine was bad choices mine was my ex those with for six and a half years every time and he would drink or whatever get mad at somebody he would come back to me and figured I was his punching bag me and him left Charlotte went to Oklahoma City for two years and they ended up in Vegas in August of 2012 met him in Vegas in October of 2012 but me and him didn't get together until April the 5th of 2013 then we ended up in Charlotte North Carolina September the 8th of 2013 and we've been here in Charlotte ever since he finds it hard sometimes to manage out here with his leukemia which most people they have it it's just it's in their blood cancer of the blood his it's not only in his blood system but it has also taken up residency in one of his lungs even though I don't have it I wouldn't wish this on anybody I mean I don't care if you you know stay in a 400 a month's rent one-bedroom apartment or if you live out in a three point two five six million mansion in Ballentine nobody should have to go through chemotherapy and all that that's hard enough to you know to begin with its then you get these stereotypes or maybe if you weren't such a piece of crap and you weren't homeless you know all the duck you know I mean only I mean I can't sit there and make people not want to stereotype people I mean but all I ask is that if you see somebody homeless before your residentially challenged as we like to call ourselves don't just sit there and turn out and walk away look at the person and be like hey look you know I've never talked to anybody before but hey you know do you drink coffee let's go get coffee and get your note you know or are you hungry I can bring you something to eat a lot of people oh I'm not helping homeless because you're they only want money they only want money yeah you do have a letter you know some homeless people out there that are like that but you also have people that live in houses that will sell their mamas cremated ashes to get alcohol or drugs so people living in house the stereotype against homeless people when those who live in glass houses should not cast stones when people ask me every day that what can we do why don't that well one guy asked me why do I get a job why don't I get an apartment and and why don't I do all the things that will consider me a normal productive citizen of society well what do you consider society because me being out here in the streets society has forgotten about us they have left us for dead Society is all about that almighty dollar now but if you really want to help somebody out there might be listening that actually wants to help and find a true result to all of this madness and circumstance there's Charlotte North Carolina's being thrusted into then I would say my words to you would be put on some just ordinary clothes become an ordinary human lead a professional CEO office boardroom conference room and come out here and walk with me one night and be homeless for one night because I've been homeless for about year and a half maybe two years now with no help no place to go nothing to eat got a walk 25 to 50 miles every day with blisters on your feet don't walk so far and it's so hot and so cold you never know from one day to the next or one minute to the next if you're gonna make it to the next day so for all of you out there who might want to help there might have the services and finances there may be help the right way instead of donating it to a company and we won't see it I say come out here and walk with us and see firsthand I like to call it the dark mop walk the dark mile with me one night and let me show you firsthand we have all the security around us we don't we don't even need the city police we got our own security because that's one thing I can also express to you about the homeless we have a security perimeter too we have people watching out for us too that protects us while we're trying to sleep at night my vietnam brothers left the community services that helped us that so-call helped us so much that public service don't know about Vietnam vets people who have protected you while you were sitting in those offices they're still out here at night and they're still on guard come out here and walk with us and I'll show you firsthand know nothing happen to you because we got it like that I hear that's one thing we know about being homeless out here in the streets that you don't know that you put down on paper that's just something you read some documentation or whatever you might have just jotted down to get the grant money for your next business I know how it is I understand but if you want to learn firsthand exactly what you can do out here in the community to really help those in need due to circumstances rather be drugs alcohol a mother with three children homeless disabled veteran and had two heart attacks those two strokes came fine nowhere to live thrust it into a shelter that he can no longer find a bed in then come out here and walk with me Sean Carl well home this Avenue you'll be protected I'll even show you where we eat how we eat where you take a bath that when to take a bath without to take a bath and where you can wear that if there is any to take a bath come out here and I'll show you and put your money to use the right way you're labeled you use the right way your volunteer work to use the right way instead of giving it to a company that might not even give it to us the reason why we're still homeless and you're still living good come out here and live first hands that way when you put it down in the books you put it on the news on a documentary it'll be the truth it won't be something you heard my name is Shawn Caldwell and I'm the homeless advocate as Charlotte is looking for solutions to its affordable housing crisis we're taking a hard look at the population that's at the bottom Mecklenburg County has more than 1,400 homeless people 15% live on the streets there aren't enough services out there for people there's so much need and a lot of the needs aren't met there's a lot of criteria people have to fit there's a lot of documentation there's so much that goes into getting housing and getting off the streets that unless you have not just a social worker but a team of people that love you and care for you and are advocating for you a lot of times you're not going to get housing just because the social workers are spread thin the agencies are spread thin I mean the biggest issue right now I'm having with finding housing for people is that they give these vouchers they're decent vouchers but then you have to pay to apply to some of these apartment complexes and homes and the applications are hundred dollars so when you don't have anything and you're applying at a hundred dollars and there's still that chance you're gonna be told no they get you like into this like sunken system where we're wasting money we're wasting efforts and at the same time people's morale dropping because that makes you feel hopeless like you think you're almost in and then they're like well you didn't pass a background and backgrounds a really vague word getting people housing background can mean you have a criminal history it can mean your credit there's so many variables to what background means even if it's an employment I don't think they realize that there's some of them are one paycheck away from being exactly where we are I know that I sometimes laugh I didn't do because I'm out here right and I mean I don't nobody stress like you know I try to dress where it looks like I'm not but I have people that know and then they have no idea that maybe they know I sleep in until they don't know I could haven't go to work you know they I think they they put a stereotype us all and being the same during the drunk their own drugs or all they want to do is party and that's not the case I know the people I know a person without here right now that is are in and the nurse but because they can't afford housing or because their past nobody let them have a place to live they're forced to be out here you know it's it's not always a sometimes it's a choice they're up there chronic homeless people who just don't want to help themselves they want to stay here for it and because it's easy you can find you can become very complacent being out here because it's easy you got nothing you get all your needs man what do you need and I mean but there are people out here that don't they don't have a choice you know and I feel like I feel like sometimes the cards are stacked against us for no other reason than affordable house and that's my biggest you want to say it you know they got all this money and they in all this empty buildings I got all this stuff I'm gonna say it I'm totally against taking some money and putting them somewhere and let them live rent-free that's that that to me is crap that doesn't help anybody I how about for those of us like me that are really getting up every day of tired working 45 50 hours a week and needing a need into place and willing to pay so that's at work some inside I wish to I wish I hope somebody sees this who can make a decision who can allocate money to fix that situation because they've got it where they all they do it all the money they using themselves or there are people out here they're really trucker and I'm one of them I don't want to be out here you know I made light of it and have fun with it but reality is a little different like living at it I want to I want to get up just instead of walking outside peeing in the woods I want to go to bathroom you know and I can pay for it [Music] it's they're not to rap you because it can be fixed the people living wherever the who boats on that or whatever they do sitting there little offices they could fix it but they're not doing that good ready to build a shelter stick everybody at it and just forget about it that's the way up you sorry [Music] [Music] the relationships and the friendships that I have or are not with people in the street there were people like life connections there were people from a church there are people from work the people I try to I try to have relationships with people that have goals or at least they're settled or I don't want to hang out with somebody's gonna doesn't want to do anything because that's gonna make me don't want to do something you are who you hang out with you know if you're a group of people are just supposed to hang out party all the time you're never going to go anywhere you never don't do anything but if you have established some relationships and people that can actually help you or doesn't even so much help you but lift you up tell you positive things like hey you're doing a good job or hey I'm proud of me for you know at least you're going to work or you know you're not just sitting around getting drunk all the time or building bonfires that seem kumbaya so I think relationships are important but I think it depends on the kind of relationships I have been with watching of the streets for just over four years now Keith Burchette invited me to come out you know just one night and kind of get the experience of it and I immediately fell in love with just how compassionate the Watchmen team is and how caring and how receiving a lot of our friends on the streets are you know going around the different camps giving people stuff they interact with the homeless they pray for that you know in they've helped me out tremendously and I returned you know volunteer twice a month helping to Washington's other Street wanting to the camps giving that supplies and everything they talk to people that's the main thing they don't have nobody to talk you know outside people being homeless I don't think they have too many people for they could you know actually talk to about something so we go out the first and third Tuesday of every month serving Charlotte and surrounding areas the vibe and the feeling that we get you know watching our friends receive something whether it be you know toothpaste to a sleeping bag pillows temps whatever it is that we may give out you know is a very special feeling you know you'll you'll get a smile on their face from my experience what I received from it is a lot of the the one-on-one personalization the hug the handshake you know watching them smile as we approach them and making our presence known and then you know them coming out in open arms is the biggest thing gratitude that that I can receive being able to help somebody in need in this area is probably one of the best things that you can do knowing that at any moment one of us could be put in that position hearing the stories about their their trials that they have faced and the circumstances that put them into homelessness is you know you can see the the fear and the and the tears coming to their face when they express that so us being able to give a handout or even just a compliment sometimes is is amazing and then we have friends that we are able to kind of help move into their new apartment that they've been you know waiting for for a long time and on a waiting list trying to get paperwork together moving them four times from the camp to camp but you know finally being able to hand them the keys their own place and walk them into the door of their own apartment we can meet our friends on the in their camps or on the streets and hand them tangible items like a tent and ask them how their day was and give them hope that there is something out there we can pray with them and a lot of them will actually pray for us for our safety and our well-being as well as being able to continue to serve you know our God and love on them just as much as they love on us organizations like y'all are really a great thing for people like me like right now I'm not out of a job some people are here on the streets they don't even have a team or they got a tent the doors ripped off of and he's sleeping in it so I'll help out a whole lot people who are in need I've known I've known watching the street for quite a while they have they had been there for me when no one else was I remember a couple times when we were camping at some spot there's this one spot we were camping at and we had a rat problem tonight every other week I had big old holes in my tent and that you know there's watching them it always replace it you know and it was cold there but always you guys I guess I could say you always are there you know for a pair of shoes or a flashlight or so to nibble on the middle of night or something warm a sleeping bag you know the basic necessities of being out here yeah I'm a huge fear to watch through the streets they've been a friend of mine [Music] [Laughter] [Music] mother Teresa once said people everywhere are the same they are all people to be loved there are so many ways that we all can help it could be as simple as shedding a smile to the next homeless person you cross paths with or even going out serving with Watchmen of the streets if you want to get involved or learn more about this check out watchman of the streets calm I challenge you to go out and see firsthand what people experiencing homelessness are going through every single day after all everyone in life whether they be homeless or not they are all hungry for love Jay Z [Music] one day [Music] enough [Music] you can [Music] slap your [Music] changing [Music] okay anymore is it

Channel: Instilled Visuals

Views: 67,162

Rating: 4.8471909 out of 5

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Id: 9Gposvq8s_w

Length: 47min 43sec (2863 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 23 2020