A Cat and Mouse Game
Emily says she was part of a group previously living along the railroad tracks whose encampment was uprooted, only to reconstitute close by. She said there was no room left in the women’s shelter when she she tried and feels the process for the overflow is too much of a hassle.
When we visited people in tents were concerned about sleeping logistics and possible police sweeps, not the pandemic sweeping the world.
“There's only 14 beds left in [the] overflow [shelter] and those are police beds, which means that every night somebody different is in there. So you're not guaranteed a bed. And when you are guaranteed a bed and when you do have a bed, they dangle it in front of your face. They're like, ‘Hey, if you don't do this, you're going to lose this.’ It's not cool. So I'd rather sleep outside me and my dog and, and deal with it like this.”
She says she doesn’t understand why they keep doing sweeps and forced displacements, rather than just doing cleanups and letting people camp where they are out of the way.
“This is my home, this is all I have, this is everything that I own here. It is not fair that we constantly have to move and then they make us move from this place to this place. So they didn't want us here first. So we move over here so they don't want us over here. So we moved back over here. It's just a cat and mouse game and it's ridiculous,” she said.
She says because of the affordable housing crisis even friends with jobs can’t afford shelter, even those working at Tesla.
Those living on the streets with their pets aren’t allowed to bring them into most shelters, so they prefer to stay on the streets, despite all the dangers, including the current pandemic.
Every Story is Unique
She says most people living on the streets are put into one giant category, but she says that’s not fair.
“They talk to us like we're pieces of shit like, yeah, okay, you are, you're not better than me,” she said of those who look down on those without stable shelter. “You live somewhere better than I do. Obviously, but that doesn't make you a better person. It's not fair. And they don't ever take it into consideration like, hey, we're people too. Like some of them, like I get it, they were assholes and they're not even down on their luck. They just choose to be homeless. Like there are those people and I get that and they make messes and they don't clean up after themselves. And I get that. But we're not all like that.”
She says, herself, she had to escape an abusive relationship, and bad friendships, but that many others just lump her into a general stereotype.
“They put us all in the same category,” she said. “Like somebody could have a drug charge for having a little roach on them (remains of a joint) and then somebody could have another drug charge or having 20 million pounds of meth but they put them in the same category. Those are two completely different things. Yeah, we're in the same category, but we're not the same people. And it's not fair. And it doesn't matter though, nobody's gonna listen, nobody ever listens. We're all the same,” she said.
Survival is not easy, but coronavirus is really the last of her preoccupations as she just continues in her attempt to survive, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. She recently said she had to trade a flashlight to get a stick of butter.
“You got to figure out how to get your tent. You got to figure out how to get food and figure out how to take care of your dog, water bottles, everything that you need or anything that you want. Figure out how to do it yourself and then you can tell me that it's easy if you can sleep out here without any money, not one penny in your pocket. How are you going to do it? Do you guys know?”