My name is Elvis Summers, and I build tiny houses for the homeless In fact and they are here wiping these guys out Me a clean house is not a solution. It'll be a free fall if I face conditions to live it to music reduce the Planet right now this city of Los Angeles Always get nervous nobody should be home anyone, but especially to one of the richest countries in the world I Build everything with screws that I make a lot of mistakes and it's easy to back out your mistakes in Compton South Central La A Pint-sized idea as Elvis summers in a battle with City authorities When you have nothing and nowhere to go you Know having something like this may as well be a castle The Mayor of Los Angeles has declared the city is in the midst of a homelessness crisis So Elvis is trying to solve it one tiny house at a time the tiny house idea is very simple. It's shelter food water and shelter are not optional they're required for human survival, so it's a Temporary solution and Like the first stone and a foundation if you will to helping people who are homeless According to Elvis these cheap and portable tiny homes are meant to be on the streets of La I Do need to fix these But right now. They're not moving anywhere because city authorities have banned them. So these are used to belong to somebody huh yep And now they're not being used No now, they've been sitting here for a better part of a year collecting dust sand People are you know struggling and suffering? Yeah, it's really sad. I mean it's see how it has human life here. You know Los Angeles authorities have accused his tiny homes of threatening public safety But Elvis is seeing the tiny house movement. Go viral online with support coming from right across the world So with the health depends net crowdfunding you've done wrote once completed. They all have a new carpet and Pad there'll be Alarms on the windows I put the vents. I leave these holes in the top You know it gets really hot in the summer here, so that way the heat will rise and go out in the city of Angels Elvis isn't considered one by the palace to be But to the homeless. He's one of the few struggling to get them off the streets I don't quit and I don't give up and I definitely don't bow down to Bullies People need shelter now, and if I have to build a tiny house for every last person Until I'm 500 years old Then that's what I'm going to do Elvis is building his next house for a woman called Raven So there's a few people that live here Ravens living under this car Pollan next to a three-day Rare A It's unhygenic and far from safe Raven a situation much worse than when Elvis last saw it even with a flak jacket while visiting Lee rare aur Metallus Hey Oh, yeah going to Ravens being on and off the streets most of their life, I think for what social narrative Yeah, sure. Yeah after fleeing a violent home when she was just 13 years old, she Once had a tiny house, but since the city forced him off the street. She's been out. Here. Are you doing all right? tired After getting the tiny house I happened to actually do pretty well I was able to accumulate and I'll say a pretty good light right right they're letting us hang out and then when I sit over Us what I do I? like ice cream Elvis is worried by the state of this communal camp and leads to by Raven a tent Until he can build her a new tiny house, I'm going to get the tent and I'll rendezvous back with you guys in a little while Alone Raven opens up about his situation It's been a struggling in there The City always kicked us out from where we're saying it says they cleaned up the cleanup and move Who want to constantly move their stuff every day not using Disco very stressful? Ravens out here because she feels emergency shelters are either overbooked around safe but City laws are designed to repeat Camps are and as if on cue she receives a visit All right, okay So he said we gotta move Gotta move all this by Saturday I better call Elvis Elvis has a truck Raven Given Matcha Waters And she's running out of places to go they want everybody downtown anyway everybody in one session It's not going to happen people are trying to scatter getting branch out Who's going to get away from downtown they want everybody downtown there's one fixer downtown today skid Row? the worst place in History to be Homeless downtown If you're homeless in La city laws to keep streets clear give you two choices keep moving 1 the months to grow This is the only place that you can set up a tent without the city forcing to leave But Elvis's tiny homes aren't allowed in Skid row is exact unlike anything else in the United States I Call it the worst man-made disaster in the us. Hi How are you doing? Okay? Andy Bails runs a big emergency shelter in the middle of skid Row Would you like to he's seen the numbers of women seeking help? You know true? Always welcome just a year. What's your name? Yes? Deborah nice to meet you. I bless you got pretty eyes Andy's on crutches with his last year he lost a lake to the flesh-eating Bacteria that exists out here still everyday he's out inviting new arrivals to the shelter because he knows just how bad it gets more than 2,000 people on these streets 49 square blocks of skid row. It's the worst that we've ever seen it Just to give you an idea you really need to look down that street. There's not one open spot of cement, sidewalk For probably a half a mile down that way Elvis's tiny houses are designed as an option to Avoid sleeping on skid Row Because here the increasing numbers of women and children are sleeping alongside drugs crime, and the mentally ill And police are the only source of protection Sorry constantly here day and night I The maintaining order here can be a struggle running with handcuffs Man was running with handcuffs. He was fast And one night every once in a while on the streets, and I can't sleep because it's so dangerous. I need to stay alert rats are running around running over people running in their tents and often people get beaten or assaulted or raped and that in effect can damage your mental health pretty quickly, so I'm all for tiny houses But there has to be restroom facilities and shower facilities Because otherwise were 30 people in treacherous living conditions. Just as if they're living in tent This is why Andy's shelter keeps an open door policy, but he's struggling to keep up demand Right across the City shelters are full up many have to turn people away Simple fact in elevators, there's just not enough shelter there are not enough dead 47,000 people experiencing homelessness and there are about 12,000 shelter beds or transitional housing beds even if people on the streets right now decided to come in There's nowhere to come in. There's no place to go What the private good? With limited access to emergency shelters and low-cost housing life on the streets in La is an endless game of cat and mouse Because the City was charged with keeping the streets clean Good morning everybody this Department of Sanitation crew is about to move through the homeless encampments skid Row Make sure you have your tyvek suits on make sure you're taped up Watch out for syringes watch out for hazardous materials watch out for human way Industrial operations like this happens daily across Los angeles to keep the streets clear forcing the homeless to be constantly on the move We are here every day in skid row. Every street is clean once every two weeks of the cycle That's a big effort that we're doing But I think it's essential it's essential to the City's livability essential to the City's Economic Growth and also the City's image This team will put more than five tons in the garbage truck today anything they seem to be unsanitary Most of this will be rubbish, but some of it will be people's kids in this few positions So by cleaning this attic is providing a statement and help the environment for somebody How's the decision on this gun? Guy you're in a waste. Yeah, okay The City gives Advance notices to clean up, but not everyone gets the message Today there's an unlucky one. How do people react when you're asking to live along? They like it because we're cleaning. I mean if you are a homeless person Living on the street. You want to live on a queen sidewalk or a focused sidewalk. They see the value of us pleading this But the City's focus on keeping the streets clean means further instability when you're living on them It's also one of the main reasons elvises tiny houses event blamed the hampering operations like this The way it's the sense that the permanent sent on the street So we can't clean the area and if you go inside, it's not a safe Conditions delivered so we basically the City has made a determination that Those should not be on the to the street It's a staggeringly quick operation here Just over 45 minutes in this section of the street outside the union mission is Done and clean and people are starting to filter back in your honor here go for it I Kind of make more of us. We like to lose that one thing that you have that handful of positions to come back and find if gone you Later that day. I arrived back at Ravenson Campus They made a mess a kick shit out of the crazy basically took what they wanted and Find out that giving me belongings to get up and be devastated Her property destroyed it You mind if I ask you what happens? Paulino did you they came in with myself? you know They said it killed me the rules they had to be 10 feet away from the driveway The tent has to be down from speak tonight And this is rainy, and that is 72 hours to move my scope Christine is new to the streets priced out of the rental market. She's desperately trying to get back into an apartment She saves money by collecting recyclables But the authorities just taken from entire week's work Dig what the recycled us for being sick? It is my room fighting. I could get it apartment. I get to be my dog again Street It is clean up means that Christine will be out here longer before anything for what matters And so I came to attend Now we should say oh well For many homeless people in la a lack of affordable housing makes it almost impossible to get off the streets Less than 3% of the City's rental market is vacant While raven wakes and tiny house from Elvis Christine is determined to make it on her own With the last week's worth confiscated tonight. She's back again collecting recyclables How you can just tell one year by the sound Okay If you were here without looking at it, what is this? Okay, yes, okay She works almost until dawn to save for an apartment with a smile Pretty much snow just by looking at what I have how much I make and I always usually make 180 to 220 a week You know and that for me is enough for me to survive. You know I talk about my tank know little by little We walk around most of the night and then Christine shows me something heartbreaking this is the famous Blue house by Festival house that I called my own Another memory fiercely so that was time, huh, this is home for me. Yeah, I was You miss it huh? I do it was home before walls. Did that's all see cheering But I'll have that again which I said God's timing at mine, okay, then keep that in mind This was my backyard So we exchange you okay? Elvis's tiny homes could help people like Christine until they get back on their feet That in Compton pressures on for him to finish Ravens tiny house But he still needs to locate a place. We can put it somewhere the city cleanup won't easily find These are just two of over 8,000 lots of the city controls But they're all fenced off and boarded up, not allowed And while searching he gets a call from Raven with an unexpected update Are you doing alright? That's a news turn around sit onto the good news. Yeah, I'm pregnant Turned out this morning that I'm crazy slut off hold on. I'm Gonna. Call my handling epic. Holy shit Hopefully hopefully by the time the baby's here. I'll have my life together Elvis is already worried about Raven, but he must have some enthusiasm all right well listen I got a run right now, but I'll call you back later. That's uh that's a great news. We have to celebrate I'm like I want to trick you. Oh, I want to jump for joy and like cry at the same time. It's like This is how quickly a change in circumstance can see your life. Go from bad to worse when you're on the street With the stakes raised for the tiny house. I want to see how ravens coping with the news of their pregnancy Despite getting quarters to move she's still here at the same campsite. Oh, God you don't want to go The other day I had a always Like I'm a little concerned regarding the conditions. I'm Living in at this time. I got a lot of business to take care of Don't know if I'm gonna have enough time to take care of it all that's what makes me feel like like Like getting off these streets but getting off the streets is difficult for even We talk more and she reveals the devastating level of violence. She said as a kid relative. Oh I was listed as a juvenile runaway. I was nine years old my Dad My Dad been in prison all our life and my mom was Five months pregnant with me. She Committed a murder and things we killed a woman a young one like this well Basically I have no choice, but to grow up before we really time Ravens had to learn to be tough, but she's right on the edge Like more and more Americans say claire. She's crept deep from the cycle of long-term homelessness With no immediate way of getting out When your life is the size of a tent, hope can be a powerful tool It's almost delivery day and with the news that Ravens pregnant. Elvis is adding a special finishing touch to her tiny house like the Milky Way Took a little something to help her feel better, and you know help her feel like she's got a night sky to look at Elvis knows how important little details like this can be he's watched too many people lose hope on the streets Since the the city forced me to take houses away from people three people have died Mainly due to being stuck out in the elements and not having anywhere to go So it's a it's criminal It's a picture of smokey sitting in a doorway of her her tiny house one of the people who died was his close friend smokey Who received the very First Tiny house New Year this morning? I found her dead in somebody else's tent not even her own because the city took that too so It's pretty simple without shelter people die It's been a few months, but she was a good person and she was my friend and I Miss her a lot Inside City hall the pressure is on to create more housing The City has approved a multi-billion dollar strategy to help homeless But it'll take ten years to build ten thousand new units. Which is well below tomorrow yet officials refuse to embrace Elvis's tiny homes for me a tiny house on a City parking space is not a solution We are doing at this service to those individuals. Who'd be stayin in these tiny homes without the adequate? infrastructure in Place City Councilor Joe Buscaino opposed tiny houses in his district because of concerns from Angry Visitors You have to have someone monitoring the site Otherwise, it'll be a free-for-all. It'll be sex drugs and rock and roll and I mean, they would rate from me you have to have some rules in price So Facebook man City is back yep And they are here wiping these guys out with that Elvis and the cities is clear intense yet again This time at Raven and Christine's camp right now that load dumping up there That was a pristine shelf that she had her boat from such on and platter Event that's considered a bulky item so it's going in the dumpster Almost half the Raven and Christine's belongings are taken by the department of Sanitation But Ravens not around so only Christine is here to see it They say you don't hit well quirements you hit rock bottom This is my rug bottom here all that money spent You can spend half of that and get these people a place to go, but instead. They're treated like animals Are you going to go? I don't know I don't think she can go much longer. It's not getting any rest. You really do in your life I do With Ravens can't demolished most of the positions gone and with a baby on the way Elvis must deliver her tiny house before my school I finally found a suitable location for Ravens tiny house in a quiet area mostly industrial It's not going to affect anybody Elvis and Raven hope this path downtown La away from skid Row will be safe from the authorities Authorities who must continue to keep La streets clean they've finally come For the tiny house delivery and how are you feeling very good? Fight everything I'm feeling very good And we won't do about a lot of drama a lot of changes a lot. I've been going through a lot of hardships lately let's help this tiny house, Lisa permanent house After the week that she's had and everything she's gone through on top of being pregnant It's more important now that she gets the house because I don't think she can go much longer was not getting any rest He's really good. Bye. Good luck I do What do you think I think I'm Gonna Say Wow all the power Johnny How take two I got a couple to practice in that way I looked I cheated I looked inside and I said Most things I do in life are out of principle. I was taught that if somebody falls down you pick them back up That's what we should do in life You remember that day when you're called? Yeah, he called me. He said you know people sit on the back porch Look at the stars, so I'm looking up at a blue tarp. Yeah Yeah, how certain you can fit another little tired of looking stars, it's cool. You got to match a little bit So finally Raven gets her own private space Hopefully the first time over a year. Good night, sir, and how long do you think it's Gonna last? I wish I'd to stay with that forever. I wish it could last forever Opera Garden from oh
people will look at this as a solution for a house crisis. But i can only think on how easy was to convince people that subhuman standards of living are not only desired but fetichised over.
Man: "what if the homeless weren't homeless anymore?"
Local government: "and I took that personally"
One interesting thing when reading older American novels from the early-mid 20th century are the cheap boarding houses (longer term hotels/hostels/individual rooms in large houses) that were so prevalent for the working poor in American cities.