USA: Homeless Baby Boomers | ARTE.tv Documentary

[Music] it's 4:00 a.m. in Phoenix Arizona and it's still 29° C God bless you guys the zone is the homeless area of the city how old are you babe 69 69 baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 the generation that heralded the economic upswing in the USA now homeless and living among young drug addicts two people died over here here few nights ago a g got oh yeah yeah I and then I had a ranch I gave to my daughter and I just couldn't handle it no [Music] more it's 6:30 a.m. and Peter MOA senior aged 62 heads out with Superman under his arm have a good day brother how you doing tomor brother my name Moya in Spain means winner or Champion I started that limousine business out of the fluke and we just flourished we just it just flourished and my name of the company was SP Transportation strictly professional I've had big names like uh Diana Ross hollly Berry Carl Santana B mler Barry mandalo they were all my clients and then my wife got sick and uh some of my big clients said don't don't shut the company down we got plans no brainer my wife needed me right there and there so I had I had to shut down she needed me 24 hours she uh was on dialysis and uh I was getting two hours of sleep at night I was taking care of her going to going to work to try to get some bills paid and and uh went through my savings uh do doctors ate ate up $65,000 in 4 months in between that time uh we got Op with $1,300 from his Disability Pension he was also supporting his best friend's Widow then happened what has driven many people to the streets a rent increase from 700 to $1,500 in 3 months the last 2 years I've lived in and out of us some shelters and uh on the street in my car I I I saved one of my Town Cars and my compan and I was living in there and here recently a month ago the car finally took a caput on me and I I couldn't afford to fix it so I had the junkyard come pick it up and I came straight I didn't know what I was going to do I was sleeping on the streets behind a building just garage during the day Peter likes to go to the Justa Center an NGO for homeless seniors here he can get breakfast lunch dinner and just as importantly air conditioning which is a relief when temperatures outside are as high as 48° C this summer oh yeah that Rudy Solis is one of the directors at the Justice Center he himself was homeless for 5 years the Justice Center helped him to get back on his feet those were very different times it's become really bad before coic we were able to move people in it was easier for us to move in in there was more government vouchers there was more government assistance Co kit and put a stop to that and then the after Co is the effect of these apartment complexes going up Sky High and uh people on Social Security their their limit is $800 and if you're making $800 a month and all of a sudden your rent goes up $200 more well your neighbor can pay it but you're facing homelessness for the first time in your life you're being evicted and put on the street Street and there's no nobody thinks twice about it we had a 90-year-old lady that called for all they all her life she never been homeless she never knew nothing about it until the new landlords bought it the new owners bought it and they gave her 10 days till leave they evicted her 10 days and she was put on the street men and women over 55 who live alone run the biggest risk of becoming homeless in the USA young people become homeless too but the elderly tend to die more quickly on the street largely due to their ailments and illnesses Donna May Wilson aged 62 has been homeless for over 2 years I got a commercial for you she is a veteran her father was the captain of an aircraft carrier she studied was a retail manager before tragic circumstances meant she became homeless but she hasn't lost her wicked sense of [Music] humor has anybody ever heard that these believe me cuz I wear them one is white the other one's black this is black and they got trousers to go with them have you try them out and they're very comfortable so try them out you might like them and they cost about the same as the other depends only difference is they come in variety of colors Deborah flame age 61 never dreamt that an increase in rent would make her homeless one day she has epilepsy and that is very dangerous out on the streets in Phoenix Summers so hot so hot see live here here that was skin graft was the concrete the concrete you know I was at a bus stop so what it's around it I felt I had a seizure Grandma seizure seizure and fell on the concrete and was flopping like a fish for 10 minutes before paramedics got to me because our average temperature of the concrete Pavement in Phoenix Arizona is 178° according to the news station I have fourth fifth and sixth degree burns over 30% of my body because I was on the concrete for about 10 minutes before paramics got to me and this is they had to take do a skin graph from my thigh to I had burned the back of my arm to 6° burn and that is this arm now the one that we had shown before that's what it looks like I don't know if you can get both or digital Necessities which homeless senior citizens no longer have are available in the justce center a computer with internet connection for example mobile phones and most importantly charging points Peter wanted to check his bank account balance he has to call the bank using the just to Center's phone uh I'm trying to get into my account online to update my address but it won't let me get in it's saying uh too many attempts to get in my account to try again later this has been since yesterday morning everything was everything was lost in the move I I I got robbed I got robbed and they took my they took my suitcase with all my paperwork in it and and uh I'm I'm I'm an old man I I'm without a vehicle I I'm calling you from a company phone because I don't even have my cell phone because I got robbed of it and I got robbed for my for my phone and my shoes at gunpoint uh some young kid he he just woke me up and then then he said let me have your money I said I ain't got no money you might as well just shoot me and he didn't so I know God had something to do with that and that next morning I thought what the hell am I going to do I'm I'm out here behind a building sleeping Rudy is very familiar with stories like these baby boomers of all people the generation born after the second world war that experienced economic growth and progress on a scale never seen before in the history of humankind in the USA and in Phoenix [Music] Arizona I think there's about 70% of seniors now 17 70 the senior population is outdoing the younger the younger group these are the people that built America to where it is now why are we hurting them like that you know they broke their backs to do what we did to have what we have and I don't know I don't know the answer really to be honest with you but I just see that if somebody doesn't step up and be serious about this instead of just throwing the millions of dollars around the senior population will outgrow most of all of it and then what's going to happen with the the population coming below them it's going to triple it and Society is not looking at that our government official aren't looking at that 1500 homeless people are living in the Zone near the city center Phoenix has been booming and growing for years because companies along with their employees moved from California to Phoenix as things are less expensive here in this Desert State in Sun Valley in Maricopa County on the one hand City authorities are proud of this rate of growth we not only have a lot of Baby Boomers in in our community um but knowing that they're on fixed incomes and when when uh housing prices do increase and their rent may increase dramatically they're not able their their income is not increasing so they're not able to keep up with it so here in marobo County we are finding that people over the age of 55 on fixed income is one of the fastest growing populations of people experiencing homelessness what we really need to do is focus on preventing people from coming into homelessness until we are really able to help prevent as many people keep as many people housed as we can we're we'll sort of always be in this crisis mode of trying to find someplace for them to go someplace safe for them to be and necessary resources to help them get back into housing so really that's where the city is not only focusing on those immediate crisis situations but preventing people from um going into homelessness and then helping them exit quickly into housing but this is also a question of changing the laws how is it possible that house owners in Phoenix Arizona or Arizona can lift up the rent that quickly well so we as a city of Phoenix are helping to create new affordable housing we we fund new develop velopments constantly um my team in fact we just bought a hotel that we are converting into affordable housing it'll be specifically for older adults age 55 and older um who are very low income in January 2023 the official number of homeless people in Maricopa County including Phoenix stood at 9,642 49% of them had no emergency shelter overnight [Music] out of the 1500 homeless people in the Phoenix Zone 900 at least have a roof over their head at night 600 sleep outside like Vicky Eichelberger aged 68 and single first she lost her home in Nebraska and then she lost her papers on the way to Arizona in the eyes of the American authorities she doesn't exist anymore I was married 38 years worked at a feed lot for 38 years and I started working when I was about nine mowing yards raking yards I've worked all my life yeah I finally got my teeth today after they was stolen and they was only 2 weeks old when I moved down here they stole them from the where I had my clothes and stuff I had my clothes stoen three times since I've been here and the last time they stole my clothes they took my teeth right out of the container that they the that they was in the cleaner with yeah I'm surprised that I've seen people my age or older that are homeless I mean I'm not really homeless I just got to wait to get my ID and my social security so I can even fill out an app to even get an apartment because they're going to want all that information otherwise I wouldn't be down here I mean I might be crazy but I ain't stupid I wouldn't want this kind of Life Vicky goes to her social workers office at the Human Services campus an area in the zone with 6 partner organizations they provide support to all the homeless young and old today Vicki is sorting out her new health insurance a crucial step on her journey to bureaucratic existence in the eyes of both the authorities and landlords yeah this is a Vicky iberer and I need to talk to an agent about my health insurance EI CH e l b e r g e r I'm just waiting to get the insurance card through the mail cuz they mailed it to the wrong address well you can't even see if that's the insurance I got I guess that's who I have to talk to no God I hate talking to it automated this no like to talk to a white person transferring me to an advocate this is Vicki Eichelberger EI c h e l v r g r well yeah see they they sent the new card to address 206 and it's I don't know how they got that address address but the address is 232 12th Avenue Phoenix Arizona half an hour on the phone and a few days later the health insurance card arrives at the Human Services campus 12,000 homeless people get help here every year Amy schwaben lender is the CEO of the Human Services campus with its 16 partner organizations she looks at the portraits of homeless people who have found a home again and from her office window out at the 600 homeless people they are unable to house overnight it hurts me every day it it hurts me to know that the resources are available in the US to be able to help everyone and we're not doing it as a society it hurts me that we're not treating homelessness as a Public Health crisis we know housing is Health Care people can't be healthy without a home yet we can have almost 600 people living right around us and all the organizations here are doing everything they can to connect people to Services put them on a path to housing but we can't end homelessness today for every single person we are standing on holy ground and I know that there are angels all around Let Us Praise Him Praise Jesus now we are standing in his presence I'm holy thank you very much appreciate you thank you father father precious spirit Spirit spir hey how are you how you doing you doing better good good at around 5:00 p.m. Peter Moyer heads to the Human Services campus he wants to spend the night there check in folks thank you appreciate you guys work we're home buddy we're home get a good night for us okay in the evening we can only accompany him to the dormitory door Vicky eikelberger came to Phoenix in January initially she wanted to stay with a friend but that plan fell through without any paperwork she couldn't even rent a room despite having a pension of over $1,300 a month Vicki knows the dormitories at the Human Services campus stay in there for three and a half months when I came here in January but there's too much drama and all the women are fighting and screaming at each other and I'm an outside person anyway so I just prefer to be outside well how is it here at night well you always got people arguing and fighting rain a night that goes by that there ain't something that happens but if it don't involve me I just mind my own business I mean if they come and give me I'm going to give them back during filming Vicki had already been waiting for her ID for a month it's supposed to arrive within 5 to 10 days the next morning we were allowed to film Peter in the dormitory after some tidying up following an eventful night this is where I lay my head down at night after I take care of my business during the day this is it yeah didn't sleep at all last night Superman was up and about uh got King hearing he helps me with my hearing so the Thunder and the lightning had him startled so uh it was a bad storm it it was our monsoon season that comes in every night and um we didn't sleep last night at all Peter and a lawyer are still fighting to claim the pension from his first employer that would be $2,200 added to his Disability Pension he would get the rather tidy sum of $35,000 a month that should work out next year he hopes then he may go back to Globe the town where he was born 90 Mi away from Phoenix his grandparents and parents were immigrants from Spain and New Mexico and they were dirt poor but then they made good money in Globes copper mines his father made a career in the trade Union that's why they moved to Phoenix when Peter was 10 years old there were 11 siblings Peter the only one still alive at the cemetery he's looking for his grandfather's grave to no end and eventually he finds his grandmother's [Music] grave They're All Dead I don't know why God left me here look everybody it's lonely just a lonely ugly ugly feeling it's like it was yesterday 50 years just gone you know I get tired of trying to get me out of this situation I don't know what I'm doing situation with that same blood that runs through them it runs through me so I'll get out of this I got no time for no though I got to want some peace in my life peace that's all I want I think I need you to come out of here just I hurt myself today to see if I still feel I focus on the [Music] pain the only thing that's real Employers in the industrial area in the zone took the City of Phoenix to court over the 600 homeless who are living in tents in front of their premises close to the Human Services campus a judge ordered the eviction together with NGS and other partners the city's been trying to find accommodation for everyone for several months now the University of Pennsylvania estimates that 2 25,000 people over the age of 55 could be living without a roof over their heads in the US by the year 2026 that's 32% more than in [Music] [Music] 2017

Channel: ARTE.tv Documentary

Views: 1,204,734

Keywords: documentary, arte.tv documentary, arte tv, documentaries, arte.tv english, @artetvdocumentary, documentary 2023, homeless in the usa, usa homeless, baby boomers usa, USA: Homeless Baby Boomers, phoenix homeless, phoenix homelessness, phoenix arizona, pheonix arizona homeless, us homeless, the zone phoenix, the zone phoenix arizona, homeless baby boomers, rent crisis usa, rent crisis 2023, rent crisis phoenix, rent crisis arizona, homeless, homeless documentary

Id: HhlIiMgDxm4

Length: 24min 20sec (1460 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 07 2023