- [Interviewer] Tell me about your family.

Are they there for you?

- It's hard for me to, like, put my trust with my own family members.

Like, all I have is my uncles and my cousins and my aunts.

My immediate family, no.

And it really hurts, but I know I can get over it.

I know it's gonna continue to hurt, but I know I'm better than that.

And I don't want people to feel like that, to where they give up.

It's not fair.

That's why it hurts so much to see people treating each other badly.

It's wrong.

But that's why I said I learned.

I learned from it.

And that's why it's only making me stronger, and that's why I'm pursuing my education.

I mean... And when I first came to Denver, I mean, I didn't think about going back to school, but when I first got here, I came here with an ex-boyfriend who nearly killed me.

He beat me to where, like, if he hit one more blow to my head, I wouldn't be here.

(soft music) - I've done a lot of heavy narcotics.

I did a lot of really bad (beep).

I got shot when I was 17.

It was a bad deal.

My mom told me, "Go away."

- I got 13 kids, but by my own doing and my own choice, I'm not in their lives 'cause I'm homeless.

I'm a homeless drug addict.

I ain't gonna lie to you.

- Assault with a deadly weapon, fights and all, forgery, bank robbery, theft, all kind of (beep) like that.

Drug possession.

Hey, man, I'm not gonna lie.

I'm not no saint.

- I started gangbanging at the age of 15 years old.

- [Interviewer] When you were headed to high school, you were already- - Yeah, I started gangbanging in high school because I never had a daddy in my life.

I never had a father figure.

- My dad wasn't around.

My mom wasn't around.

So it was like I was on my own when I got to 11 years old.

It's kinda sad.

My grandparents worked, but to survive, it was hard.

You know what I mean?

I had to get back into the gang situation.

- My wife passed away, and since then, I've been a pretty bad alcoholic, and it's hard for me to keep a job.

- My mother was a drug addict and an alcoholic and used to kick me out in the winter here in Denver.

I'd be out in like the blizzard- - [Interviewer] Without a coat or what?

- A blizzard.

Like, she'd kick me outta the house when I was a kid and I'd have to survive in December, and it was coming down, like, in the city.

So I was running around and doing (beep) and that's what I ran away.

- On the streets, we're all kind of a family.

Sometimes we have our differences, and sometimes we stop talking to each other, but eventually, you run into each other again.

- I mean, I have, like, street family.

Like, if I get to Grand Junction, I think it was four years ago, I met this lady and her boyfriend and they housed me up for two months during the winter.

- [Walter] Well, my name is Walter Boyd.

I currently just turned 56.

I'm disabled.

I'm in a housing program.

I got a son that's 30 years old.

- [Interviewer] What's it like living on the street?

- It's a lot of drugs, a lot of crime.

It's a lot of death.

It's a lot of just mayhem, you know?

It's hard when you find yourself going through hard times.

I believe, in life, that's when you make your worst decisions.

And I believe that could be for anybody, not just for a person that's in a bad situation, but just a person being in a bad situation.

So being homeless is probably one of the toughest things that somebody has to experience other than living with a chronic illness.

- You're a slave to yourself!

- I'm not your slave!

- Your a slave to yourself.

- You're not your slave!

- You're a slave to your emotions.

- This is not your slave!

- You're a slave to your emotion.

- I'm not your slave!

- I just started going back to school and going to Colorado Technical University online.

And I'm four months into it, and I'm working to get my Associate of Science in administrative and health services.

- And I gave up.

I didn't wanna live no more, and I just gave up everything.

So I came on the streets and started doing drugs and ran with the girl that was doing drugs a lot.

She got in trouble.

I kept on getting in trouble with the law, so I had to end that.

So I decided just to be on my own.

And then I set a date to just end it, but I'm not tough enough to take my own life.

It takes a lot to do that.

So I just, I continued carrying on, and then I met my wife.

- This is Purple Door Coffee.

We are a job training roastery in Englewood, Colorado.

I am Tami Bonner.

I work for the larger organization, Dry Bones Denver.

Dry Bones Denver is an organization that reaches out to young people that are currently unhoused or exiting that life.

- We have some good church friends because I go to a church at Red Rocks in Lakewood.

So that definitely has been really good, good community, good friends.

- [Interviewer] Why do you think you're homeless?

- Why do I think I'm homeless?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- Well, I'm homeless because, one, my family, when they kicked me out.

Two, COVID, 'cause I got on my feet and COVID knocked me down.

Then I lost my... Then, honestly, three is when I got on my feet from COVID.

It wasn't technically affecting me, but I made a bad planning decision with my apartment, my job, and I lost my job and lost my place.

So that's why I'm homeless right now.

- Purple Door is here to create space for young people who have faced immense barriers to employment.

We are here for 12 months of, first, companionship, but most importantly, job training.

We do job training.

So we are a 12-month program that starts kind of with the basics of what are the basic barriers that young people are facing to employment.

Those might be housing, transportation, education, all kinds of just in the door barriers that young people face.

Maybe they don't have identification.

Maybe they have been involved with the justice system and they need help getting some of those things resolved.

And so we start there, and we move forward over the 12 months just working through sort of a pyramid of things that will help people as they move forward into the workforce.

- Well, my name is Jerry Burden, and I'm from Anderson, Alabama.

I'm a US Marine veteran, and I worked with Denver Homes all out as an activist to try to change the way the world is treating the unhoused and poor people.

See our value got twisted back in the '80s, when the crack epidemic hit.

You start having baby having babies.

What can a baby teach a baby?

Think about it.

What can a baby teach a baby?

Nothing but how to be a baby.

And so what we're seeing right now is a result of the '80s and '90s.

And if you look around, you see a hell of a lot more young people out here.

- I was in jail for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

I was really drunk, and I beat my ex-fiance up with a rock.

- I mean, I kinda live a different kind of life than a lot of people, and that's from being in foster care.

I wasn't a very responsible adult.

I wasn't a very educated adult.

That's the only life I knew.

You know what I mean?

And then when I got adopted and mom and dad were there to take care of my brother and sister, I didn't even have to give a (beep) about anything in life anymore.

- The only family I got that is right there for me right now today is my husband.

And he's from Pueblo.

His name is John.

- She just, the spirit that she has within her, you can just see it when she talks to you.

- [Interviewer] Mm-hmm.

- It just, it lightens your heart up because you know that she's full of joy and everything.

You just see that the ugliness around her, people don't see that in her, and that just made me be a human, want me to continue living.

- He'd just always smile, and I would always, like, smile back at him.

Like, he just had the smile of him that, like, just really, just, it really just caught me.

- I don't know.

I think that God did have something...

He brought me here for a reason, and I'm still alive for a reason, and so I go with that.

Like, every morning, I wake up, I'm just like, "Thank you for another day."

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- And I'm glad to be alive.

And I just, first, I collect myself, my thoughts.

- [Interviewer] Yep.

- And then I go out into the world and see what I can do.

A lot of people on the streets, so younger guys- - [Interviewer] Yeah.

- They come up to me for help, you know?

They ask me questions.

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- I try to steer 'em the right way.

You know what I mean?

Because- - [Interviewer] Yeah.

- I'm just trying to better myself every day.

I've been to just about every major city in the United States.

- [Interviewer] Really?

- I've had a drug problem following my tour of duty in Iraq.

I'm a veteran.

I got addicted to the pain medicine.

I got hit with an RPG in the shoulder and almost lost my arm.

Now I almost lost my arm again using heroin.

I have been all over the place trying to get help.

But finally, in Denver, I finally got the help that I was looking for.

- [Interviewer] What was the help you needed?

- I needed to get onto methadone, and I needed to get counseling, and I needed to get on proper medication to conquer my flashbacks and my- - Addiction.

- Addiction.

- [Interviewer] Tell me a little bit about the shelter that you guys wanna open.

What- - Back then- - [Interviewer] What would be, like, the first thing you'd have to do?

- Get a building (chuckles), and then go talk to people, people that she already has lined up.

She knows a lot of people because she's been doing it for the last two years.

And they already told her that if she gets her own place, to just come talk to her, and then they'll help her out with whatever.

So more or less, the volunteers, donations, she has all that lined up.

And my position would be just, more or less, the strong arm, helping her out.

And I'm not really a brainiac, but more or less, I'll be strong and someone to support her, the backbone.

- I don't have a lot of money.

I have like $3 in my pocket.

But I'd be willing to give $3 to somebody that needs it, so yeah.

(chuckles) But I'll still be happy 'cause I still got food stamps.

(laughs) (interviewer laughs) - My first experience on the streets when I was eight was because my mother was not being the parent that we needed her to be.

She was addicted to drugs and was a big drinker back then.

And so my sister, who's passed away now, she was 15 at the time, decided that it wasn't a safe environment for me or her.

And so the best place she could think of was the streets 'cause we had nowhere to go.

- [Interviewer] Out of curiosity, what's your relationship with your folks now?

- Now?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- Weird?

I don't talk to my father.

I never have.

He caused a lot of trauma to me and is a sexually abusive predator, so I don't speak or talk to him.

I've seen him once this year, for the first time in years, for a funeral.

That was weird.

- When you become homeless, you become part of the streets, and no matter...

There's stuff that you've never done, but when you're out here, you look up and you do what the streets do.

So everybody does a little bit of everything.

You know what I'm saying?

Whether it's good or bad.

You know what I'm saying?

For whatever it is.

When you're on the streets, you become part of the streets.

- Why Denver?

- [Interviewer] Yeah.

- I don't know, to be honest with you.

I don't know, to be honest with you.

I just closed my eyes and pointed my index finger on the map and it hit Denver.

So I'm like, that's where I'm going.

- [Interviewer] All right.

So what's the good thing about being here?

- The good thing about being here, you know, where I come from, when people start seeing you to rise, you know, they gonna take what you have.

Jealousy equals into envy, and envy equals to hate.

And eventually, where I come from, they will kill you and try to take that from you.

A lot of people I've known out there who was trying to come up and make themselves out of something, they got killed.

But see, out here, everybody wants you to win.

That's what I've noticed so far.

Like, I have so many people who, like, just push me and push me and push me and push me.

They might be, excuse my language, an (beep) about it, but later on down the line, I understand why though.

They want you to win, you know?

So that's why I like it out here, you know?

Everybody wants you to win.

Everybody wants you to eat, eat off the same plate, you know?

Nobody left behind.

- [Interviewer] What's the worst thing that's happened... What's been your hardest day out here?

- Honestly, man, there hasn't been a worst day on the street for me.

I've been suicidal in my early youth and into my early adulthood.

And the last few years I've had on the street has been the happiest part of my entire life, the most free.

And I've met the most genuine and real people.

That's the truth, which is hard, which is really weird and hard for most people to admit or say, but that's the truth in my experience.

People on the street are the most ostracized and kinda isolated individuals 'cause they're the most unique and misunderstood.

And that's just where I found the people that I can connect with the most and truly appreciate whether that... And then there's also criminals and people who are only homeless because they can't exist in a normal society, but a lot of the people aren't such, you know?

They're the type of people that really are genuinely themselves and nothing more and nothing less, and that's why they exist in such a situation.

- And everything in this world does turn out fair because if you do make a mistake, and I'll tell you what, I won't be great, but what I will do is just one thing.

I'll work in my heart to be the diamond in your ring.

And I already said that once before, but I don't care.

No one's keeping score.

- I'm gonna go ahead and pursue what my heart wants, and this is what my heart looks like, a beautiful person.

- This homeless person, this homeless problem is not going away, you know?

It takes a village of people to get involved and really wanna make a difference.

- I mean, when people say it takes a village, it's like, I know people don't, you know...

Depending upon where you stand politically, you may or may not like that verbiage, but the fact of the matter is that is what it takes.

It takes a village.

And if you don't have a village in your family or you don't have a village in what I would call a healthy spiritual community, if you don't have those kinds of villages surrounding you, helping you with support, helping you navigate things that you don't know how to navigate, kids fall through the cracks, families fall through the cracks, and then you end up with chronic unhoused human beings who are abusing substances to survive, quite honestly, to survive what they experience every day.

- Survival, marijuana, alcohol.

- Mushroom's the bomb.

We know weed is a go.

Cocaine is cool if you get some decent cocaine.

Pills are cool.

DMT is the (beep).

- It's all about keeping warm and keeping your body medicated, you know?

It's... And betting me, see, they're saying that it ain't good.

It's good.

I'm an ex heroin addict, okay?

- So basically, I relapsed, second relapse, you know?

- [Interviewer] Relapsed drugs or homelessness.

- On drugs.

- [Interviewer] Okay.

- And I left a $350 pound home, a wife, two dogs, trucks, cars, all the good stuff.

I'm a journeyman carpenter, $32 an hour.

I've got to be crazy to leave all that for a drug, you know?

There's a mental problem.

- This is a world that you may not wanna know exists.

Oh, but it exists.

- Really, what matters?

You and what army?

Because I'm the captain of that army.

- Another dimension, another planet where the normal laws of the time and space do not apply.

- They have this stuff called spice that used to be on the shelves.

And then when it was taken off the shelves, it became much more dangerous.

They began putting drugs in the spice.

I had to get to know the dealers to find out because I became addicted to the spice years ago.

- Events of yesterday blur off and out of sequence with the next day.

- The thing is if it's worth interrupting or worth praying, watching people and whatever, I don't know, being interrupting and like making people crazy, it's literally...

I'm speaking the truth.

- Yeah, and they're blowing it in our faces.

We're waking up, like I did, with bruises between our thighs and not knowing where they come from.

- Broken glass has its own smell, like the various smells of wine bottles.

- Hi, Google.

Okay, Google.

What?

Google, Google!

My phone, no Google anything.

No matter where I went, nobody's phone, I would talk.

I was like, "Okay, Google."

They're like, "Why don't you just talk to it?

Like, wouldn't that be easier?"

I was like, I said, it doesn't rec...

It doesn't talk, it doesn't talk.

- Night train.

Thunderbird, oh, yeah.

Boom farm.

- Whether or not they want you to have a voice, and if they can't silence your voice, they'll pay somebody to take your life.

- Shut the (beep) up 'cause the Statue of Liberty is shaking her fist!

And that eagle will fly, and there's gonna be hell!

(sobs) - I think the biggest thing that's really helped humanity in any situation is compassion.

Don't just stigmatize, you know?

Even though we do have things going on, but we don't need to categorize everybody in that same situation.

That homeless person that you walk by might be one of real hurting homeless person that really needs your help.

And your help don't always come in the form of food or money.

It might just be, like, "Are you all right?"

Or when you leave, "God bless you.

Have a good day."

Every day, somebody looking for some kind of encouragement, some kind of hope, something to give to them that they know that tomorrow might be better.

- People that can get past their fear and have a conversation with someone that is unhoused, they learn more.

The more you can look in the eye of a person that is standing beside you as you sit in your car, the more you can look at them and know that's a human being, that things will change.

They will change.

They'll get better.

I believe that.

- In reality, like, everyone has a piece in themselves where they feel unhomed, where they feel a little homeless.

You move, you go to school, or you go somewhere, you're missing something.

You're not all at home because you're not whole.

And so, and when you go to like a...

It's just that everyone's different.

We all are in debt, everybody, not just like the people that are walking around, like pushing a cart, or have all this baggage.

But people that have a home, they're not happy.

When are you gonna be happy?

Like, how are you gonna get happy?

There are times where, like, I know that somebody has fallen down a little further than me, I would go through my stuff and share my stuff with them.

I mean, I've slept with like nothing but my jacket and my backpack because I gave my sleeping bag to someone else that needed them more.

But it's just... And really, the whole perspective that I've seen when I first got here is, like, how... Like, it made me really value my life.

It made me, like, see who... Like, why I was put here.

And so, you see a lot of people and when they describe people being homeless, I feel that that's like an incorrect term.

I mean, I say the unhomed, they've just fallen into a little, in a rut.

It's just like when I was going down the 16th Street Mall, I'm asking people, "Do you have a dollar," so I can get something to eat.

Or if I'm sitting down, they'd be, "Hey, how are you?"

And I'm like, "I'm good."

I'm like, "Hey, can you help me with a dollar or any change?"

And I tell 'em I'm homeless, and they tell me, "You don't look homeless."

What is it supposed to look like?

(soft music) ♪ Got a chip on my shoulder ♪ Got a ghost in my hall ♪ When I feel a bit older ♪ It's strange to start feeling small ♪ ♪ 'Cause we all got some weakness ♪ ♪ And we all, we all got some hurt ♪ ♪ Shoot the moon in the darkness ♪ ♪ And our bullets end in the dirt ♪ ♪ No, I won't be forgiven ♪ It's such a lonely livin' ♪ But who's to blame - I mean, you don't have to give back the same way that was given to you.

You give back to what's within the good nature of you, yourself.

That's what I see, and that's how I am.

- [Interviewer] Is there something we need to know about you that I didn't ask?

- Oh, yeah.

Everybody, just stay positive, you know?

Like, life is too short for all the BS.

Like, help one another, give out a hand to hand, 'cause I guarantee you, I promise you when you do good, good will come back to you, okay?

Y'all have a nice day.

♪ Got a chip on my shoulder ♪ Got a ghost in my hall ♪ When I feel a bit older ♪ It's strange to start feeling small ♪ ♪ 'Cause we all got some weakness ♪ ♪ And we all, we all got some hurt ♪ ♪ Shoot the moon in the darkness ♪ ♪ And our bullets end in the dirt ♪ ♪ No, I won't be forgiven ♪ It's such a lonely livin' ♪ But who's to blame