Despite society’s efforts to turn a blind eye to the
homeless, the fact is they’re there.
If you’re like me and you spend time in Westwood, then you
know they are a part of the landscape. On Wednesday I set out to
speak with some of them to find out what it’s like to be
homeless in Westwood. A week earlier I tried to get an interview,
but the only answers I got were various forms of the word
“no.”
This time, however, I found someone willing to talk. He was
sitting on a bench outside Eurochow next to a small plastic bag
containing all of his clothes.
The man’s name is Walter Walter. He’s fifty-four
years old and like many people on the streets, he’s a
veteran. He was born in Oklahoma and he grew up in a bad area he
felt he couldn’t escape from.
“I was stuck there. I felt like every time I came into a
middle-class area I’d always get stopped by the
police. You know, I felt like it wasn’t my
place. Even sitting here talking to you, I feel hectic. I
was just never around this cup of tea man.”
I asked Walter what he’d do if he won the lottery.
“I’d buy myself a home, a little fishing boat, and
do whatever I can for all my children and grandchildren,” he
said.
“And the rest of it, I don’t know. As long as
I’m well off, I’d probably give it to Pastor Kenny or
Pastor Bryant, pastors that I know from church because I know that
they help needy people. They just don’t give it
away. They’re not crooks. I have much respect for Pastor
Kenny. He’s a real Christian and he’s the one that got
me close to the lord. Real close.
“I mean, the way I’m living now, I’m not
ashamed of it but at the same time I am ashamed. People look at you
in a different way. Christians don’t. They don’t
walk down the street and look down at people.”
For now, Walter gets the necessities ““ food, clothing, and
shelter ““ in different ways.
On the day I spoke with him he planned on sleeping in downtown
Los Angeles. He said he’d prefer not to stay there but he has
no other options.
“It’s the low bottoms,” he said.
“Someone’s getting shot every night. The gangbangers
are walking around with their pants half rolled up. But I get along
with everybody there.
“It’s here where I’m afraid to lay down. The
people here, they’ve got money man. The police will come and
sweep you up off the curb. I’m not gonna lay down on the
street where you can see me. I’m going to lay down on the
church stairs. I believe in God and I know the Lord will protect
me.”
As a teenager Walter was in and out of trouble and never
finished school. He was a Golden Gloves boxer for four years and
worked different jobs until he was shot in a drive-by.
“It was a flesh wound. Two or three years later I was
shot again. This was before what you call
“˜drive-bys’ but that’s what it
was. I’ve been shot once in the stomach, once in the
chest and once in the arm. I thank the lord that I’m
still alive.”
Because he’s disabled, Walter has had trouble finding a
steady job and he’s been homeless for almost a year.
He describes his average day as “minding my own business
and leaving other people alone,” but there’s more to it
than that.
Walter has four children whose ages are “grown, grown,
grown, and teenager.”
He says when he’s lucky he goes to the park and plays
basketball with his oldest son.
Walter said he doesn’t give anyone reason to feel sorry
for him He said there are more important things he focuses on.
“I don’t try to make people feel sorry for
me. I don’t feel sorry for myself because I know
I’m doing the right thing. I’m a Christian. I’m
with the Lord. I’m looking for something to do. I’m
willing to work.”
But during our conversation, a man walked by us and looked right
at Walter with disgust in his eyes.
“You know, I can see it, the way he just looked ““ it
upsets me,” he said.
“Some of these people that I speak to, they’ll come
up and they’ll actually speak to you. But other people I
speak to, they walk by and look at me like I’ve got shit on
me and that’s what ticks me off.”
The way people look at him and treat him differently is one of
the reasons Walter spends time in Westwood during the day. He said
not only are UCLA students generous, but he’s treated much
better here than he is near USC, where he also spends time.
“Over by USC, it’s nice but the police over there
are different. You know, they see you and it’s, “˜Get
your hands up against the wall.’ And this happens every time.
Once you show them your ID and they get to know you then it’s
like Westwood. They get to know you and they don’t bother you
as long as you aren’t bothering no one.
“But here, how can I put it, it’s a different breed
I guess. They give you a little more leeway,
consideration.”
Perhaps the most poignant words Walter said came when I asked
him if there was anything good about being homeless.
“I don’t like nothing about it. I don’t want
to be out here shaking a cup. I don’t want to be in a
shelter. But I’m gonna get a check eventually. I
am.”