Why I'm not doing any drawing right now...

Janis Joplin drawing I did last year (2023), one of the most detailed drawings I've done with my Sharpies.  #sharpiescribblestyle

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't shared any new drawings in a few months now. If you've followed my blog or social media, at any consistent level, you also know I'm a homeless guy.  I'm not your typical homeless guy, by any means.  I work 7 days a week, writing, blogging, and drawing usually, and doing social media every day to promote the art and writing, and keep in touch with the people who follow my work.  

But it's winter here in Southern California, and that means it's our rainy season.  When I first moved to SoCal, back in the 1980's, the rainy season was from early December to the end of February.  Back then, by March first the rain was over.  Southern California is known for is great weather, so I'm not complaining.  But it's different here.  We rarely get a quick downpour that's gone in 20 minutes, and almost never get actual thunderstorms.  I think I've seen lightning three times in California.  

This is desert that's right next to the ocean, much different than Florida, which California often gets compared to.  We get long, slow rains that often last two to four days.  It's gray and ugly, with steady rain, almost the whole time.  All winter here, it's chilly, in the 50 to 65 degree (F) range, often with some wind.  No big deal, until you're outside in it around the clock, and it gets down to 40 or 45 degrees at night.  Now I know people in most of the country are laughing.  Hey, I grew up in Ohio and Idaho, I saw plenty of cold and snowy weather as a kid.  My family survived a week during the Blizzard of '78 with our power out, heating our living room with the Franklin stove, one of those steel fireplaces.  I appreciate the lack of weather in SoCal, a lot.  

Young Bob Dylan Sharpie drawing I did in 2018.  

But the winter rainy season here, when you're homeless, is a time of panhandling money for basic needs (food, bus fare, laundry, other daily needs) during the sunny days, then hiding as much as possible, and hanging out in dry places (libraries, fast food restaurants, buses, metro trains etc.) during the rainy days.  It costs extra money to stay dry when homeless.  

It's a time of just surviving much of the winter.  I get a lot less done as far as writing and particularly with artwork, because I spend a lot more time scraping up money, dodging the rain, drying out clothes and sometimes my sleeping bag, and hanging out in places where I can't draw.  There's more daily "work" to surviving as a homeless person during the rainy season.  

With the climate change going on, the Southern California rainy season has stretched out, as well.  We may get rain in November, and  those rain storms now stretch into March, and often April, maybe even May.  It used to be that on March 1st, there would be no rain, at all, until early December.  Now this season of having rainstorms every week lasts maybe six or eight weeks longer into the spring.  

This year, in addition to the normal rainy season to deal, a bunch of other stuff happened.  I signed up for Food Stamps again(called CalFresh), the one government program that really helps, in late November.  I got one months worth a couple days later.  I normally get those loaded on my card the 2nd of each month.  But they didn't show up in December, or in January.  That meant I had to panhandle much more to buy everyday food, right after the holidays when regular people pretty much stop giving to homeless people.  So I was struggling for day to day food in early January.  I called up the office twice, and they said, we'll load your card in a day or two.  Then it didn't happen.  

In addition, the sketchy prepaid debit card I had, that lets me get my art money out  of my Paypal, that account got shut down.  No notice, no reason.  Eventually I got a notice saying it expired, but the expiration date on the card  wasn't until 2025.  That happened in December.  After that, I couldn't sell artwork the way I normally do, using Paypal for payments,  So that was a a double financial hit during the already sketchy rainy season.  

Then I got really sick in mid January.  I was just worn down, more tired than usual, not eating much at all, and caught some infection when my system was depressed.  I went to the hospital, where I spent 2 1/2 days, getting antibiotics.  Then got shipped to a "homeless recuperative facility" way up in Palmdale.  When I left the hospital, they had either lost my sleeping bag and blanket, or thrown it away.  When you sleep outside, a sleeping bag is pretty important. The infection I got turned to cellulitis in my left leg, which got really swollen, and super painful.  Initially I was told I would be at the recuperative place for 90 days.  Then that got cut to just over two weeks.  The recuperative places are super low budget, and while the staff was really cool, I didn't always get my meds on time, and didn't heal as fast as expected.

 Stevie Ray Vaughn Sharpie drawing I did back in 2018.

I could barely walk a few painful steps when I went in there.  By the end of the two weeks,  I'd lost about 10-15 pounds, because we didn't get a whole lot of food.  by the time I left, I was walking about a quarter mile to the local library every day.  My leg was still really swollen by the end of each day, and still swells up every day.  

I expected to be sent back out to the streets.  But then I got sent to a "transitional housing" place on the outskirts of downtown L.A..  It was an 80 or 100 year old, dilapidated, building.  The rundown, old hotel was a real looney bin of characters.  One of the residents was walking around with a baseball bat under his arm in the lobby, because someone had dissed him a couple days before.  The food was pig slop.  There was mold or mildew all over the window sill of my room, and some on the mattresses.  The toilet didn't flush, and there were no public restrooms in the building, which had been a mediocre hotel, in probably the 1940's.  The elevator was tiny, and had the safety thing you had to pull across before hitting the button to go up or down.  

I was supposed to live there, with no food stamps, surviving off of their horrible, cold food, for 3 to 6 months, while they tried to find me "permanent housing."  Now, that sounds good to average people.  But "permanent housing" means being diagnosed as either having mental illness or serious addiction, then getting S.S. Disability or SSI.  Then you eventually get approved, living in poverty, in a ghetto apartment that is empty because the people in the ghetto don't want to live there.  

"Housing" programs DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT help you get back to working in some normal way, and making a good living again.  When you go into housing, you are going to rely on a government check, and several local programs, FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.  You're not allowed to earn very much money.  If you find a decent job, and start making money, you lose your housing, your food stamps, your monthly government check, and your medical insurance and prescription benefits.  My point is, there is a reason that there are 40,000 homeless people in L.A. county. If the "housing programs" were really better than living on the streets, the homeless people would flood into them.  Most people, myself included, would rather live homeless, rather than to be in the current housing programs.  The people going into housing are the worst of the worst, the people who just don't care anymore.  

I can actually work every day as an artist and writer, living outside.  I'm (supposedly) allowed to earn money, and try to get my life back on track.  The homeless programs of this country are creating a separate population of people, and they are government sponsored drug addicts, for the most part.  There are over 7 million men already living this way, and more every day.  I don't want to be a government sponsored drug addict.  I don't drink ANY alcohol.  The last beer I had was in 2009, I think.  I don't do any drugs.  I don't take any prescription drugs, except when I'm sick, like for the leg infection.  I don't do any recreational drugs, at all.  My last hit off a joint was at a Cirque du Soleil crew party in 1997 or '98, and before that was in Boise in 1987.  I don't have a work history after the years of not being able to find a job while in North Carolina, which, combined with being old and out of shape, make a "real job" pretty much impossible.  If there was a job I could have found that would pay enough to rent a place to live, I would have done it years ago.  So I keep working to create my own job, some combination of my art and writing.  Not being able to get a real bank account has been one big issue over the last few years. 

Evel Knievel Sharpie drawing I did in 2023.

 

Anyhow, I left the sketchy ass transitional housing, the government sponsored crack house in downtown L.A., after one night, and went back to the streets.  Right into the storm that dumped over 7 inches of rain in about four days.  A few nights later, someone stole my shopping bag with some of my stuff, while I was sleeping.  It had all my spare clothes in it. 

So, to recap, I lost my food stamps in late December (but finally got them going again a couple weeks ago).  I lost use of the debit card that I use to get money out of Paypal, so I can't get paid to draw right now.  I lost my sleeping bag and blanket.  A friend here loaned me a sleeping bag, but it's really not good under about 48 degrees.  It's much better than nothing.  And I lost all my spare clothes.  I have the clothes I'm wearing, and two extra pairs of socks right now.  That makes laundry a bit of a problem.  Then I left my big sketchpad in a restaurant one night, and lost that.  That was totally my fault, I was tired and just spaced off and left it behind.  I do still have my Sharpies and basic art supplies.

So I'm working to slowly replace all the stuff I lost, and get back just to a basic street survival level.  Then figure out a new debit card I can get, and get back to drawing.  This is everyday life as a working, homeless, artist/ blogger.  But it was just a whole bunch of hits in a short period of time, and that time was the worst part of the year for weather here. It's just been a rough winter.  

I'm writing a lot now, and I will get back to drawing, but probably not for a couple more months.  Check out my Substack for some of the deeper writing I've been doing link below).  Yes, this is a depressing, whiny post.  I don't write these very often.  I'm not asking for help, I'm just explaining my current situation.  My Patreon money from February and March is in Paypal, but I can't access it yet.  There's just a bunch of little steps I need to take to get back to "homeless normal," and then work to rise beyond that.  So that's where I'm at, for any of you wondering.  Lots more writing coming, and the drawings will start up again when I can do it.  

"Regrets"  The drawing that was in my big sketchpad when I left it in a restaurant one night, about a month ago.  I did this Sharpie drawing in October and November of 2023.  

I've been doing a lot of deeper writing on Substack lately.  Check it out.

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack

    
 

Creative Life- 2/12/2024

Would you sleep on this mattress, not knowing who had slept there before?  This is what "transitional housing" looks like.  Imagine a 100 year old hotel building, on the outskirts of downtown L.A., and the whole building matches this mattress.  Everything is run down.  The toilet didn't flush either.  I was supposed to live here for several months, eating the pig slop they called food, with no functional toilet, for the CHANCE of getting a "permanent" (aka 2 year lease) apartment subsidized.  There was a wet, black substance, possibly black mold, growing on the wide window sill.  I picked the other mattress, about half as bad.  I was out at 6:30 the next morning, even though I knew there were several days of rain coming.  The "programs" all of you hear about for the homeless, are for the drug addicts and lazy fuckers who never want to work again.  The system is creating government sponsored drug addicts that your tax dollars (and inflation) pay the living expenses for.  There are at least 7 or 8 million of these people across the U.S. that you're paying for already.  There are plenty of those people.  But I'm not one of them.  There are no programs (other than food stamps (Cal Fresh) for people actually trying to work and earn a living again.  See this post for more info on that.

Just to be clear, my goal is to start a small business selling ebooks, real books, a few T-shirts, and my Sharpie art.  I want to use the proceeds from this business to rent a room or apartment, buy a BMX cruiser, start riding again to the level I can, and start slowly losing weight.  That's the goal.  That's always been the goal, since I landed back out on the streets of SoCal in the summer of 2019.  

The main reason a "real job" is out of the question is that, after living in North Carolina for ten years (2008-2018), where I couldn't find ANY job (except taxi driving for a year), I have no work history.  The last "real job" I had that could verify my employment would be a warehouse I worked at in 1997, where I tested computer monitors, drove a forklift, and loaded trucks.  Every job I've had since, taxi driving and "real jobs," the companies have all gone out of business, or been bought out and no longer exist.  I'm 57, really overweight, and can't do any physical jobs at this point.  But there's a lot I can do online.  

At this point, I have a better chance of creating a small business of writing and art, than I have of getting a real job that pays enough to rent a place to live.  I also used to be a part time flipper, buying storage unit auction units, and selling the stuff for cash.  That's a good way to make some money, week to week.  With a vehicle and a place to store stuff, I could do that as well.  That would combine well with the online business idea.  I always made some money doing that, I did it part time when I drove a taxi in 2004-2007.  So that's the goal, create my own job, rent a place to live, and stabilize my life again.  Then get a bike.  That's all I've been trying to do for nearly 5 years now.  

It's hard trying to build a business right off of the streets.  Really hard.  But that's the only realistic option right now.  And we're heading into a major recession (don't believe the media hype, we're in a recession, financial YouTube is talking about it daily).  I've built online stores twice since 2019, and both times my inability to get a legit bank account held me back.  I didn't realize something that simple would be such an issue.  But when you can't show proof of a physical address, it's an issue.  And no, a P.O. Box won't work.  

Anyhow, here's the last 3 1/2 months worth of drama.  At the end of November, I signed back up for food stamps (aka Cal Fresh), mine had expired at the end October.  I got approved for six months, like usual.  They had the first month on my card the next day.  Cool.  Then I got a free "Obama phone," because I couldn't scrape up enough money to buy a Trac phone, after mine got stolen last summer.

My food stamps didn't come in December, so I figured what I got at the end of November was for December, instead of back-timed for November.  Then they didn't come in January.  I called them in January.  The woman said the money would be on my card in three days.  It didn't come.  So I called again, that woman said they owed me for December and January, and it would all be on my card the next day.  It didn't come again.  As of now, for reasons no one can explain, I haven't had my food stamps payments for December, January, or February.  I'm in the system, it says so on the computer.  But they won't send the payments to my card, for some reason.  If I don't qualify, just say so, and I'll figure something else out.  But their online system says I should be getting the payments, and I'm not getting them, I'm in the system.

I also had a prepaid bank card thing, which allowed me to transfer money out of Paypal, and similar sources, so I could get paid for doing artwork, or other work online.  That card got shut down, no reason given, in December as well.  Then, since I've been following crypto for a couple of years now, I signed up for a Coinbase account.  I know the crypto major bull market is in its early stages, and will play out over the next 12 -18 months.  So I was planning to scrape up $50 or $100, and put it in Bitcoin, Eth, and a couple others, and just let it ride for the next year, as the cycle plays out.  I couldn't fund the account, my "Obama phone" wasn't accepted.  Then, a couple of days later, the new Google account I opened, to have a separate email for the crypto account, got shut down for no reason, as well.  That's the third Google account I've had shut down with no notice, with no reason given.  

With no food stamps in January, I struggled to scrape up food money.  Normal people are pretty generous to homeless people from Thanksgiving to Christmas.  Then the generosity just shuts off.  January is always the hardest month to scrape through.  I was going through my days, and not eating much.  I actually "work" much of every day, though I have to bounce from location to location to do it.  Other than the library, I have to pay, I have to buy something, at most of the locations I work at daily, like fast food joints, Starbucks and similar locations, etc.  Buying a drink or food gives me access to heat or A/C, a place to sit, power (sometimes) wifi, and a bathroom.  So I have to buy something to use those places, and I need bus fare to get from place to place.  That's just everyday life in my situation.  

Because I wasn't eating much, and not eating well, my immune system got depressed.  I got sick in the middle of January, and went to the hospital for three days.  I had some infection that normally I could fight off.  My lack of decent food, and battling the chilly weather, wore me down.  I had some infection, and it landed in my lower left leg, a form of cellulitis.  I've been prone to that since I was a taxi driver in 2007.  When I was leaving the hospital, it took half a day for them to find my belongings, that I had to leave with security in the E.R., when I checked in. When they found my stuff, My sleeping bag and blanket were gone.  The hospital either lost them, or threw them away.  That's a bummer.

From the hospital I got sent to a "homeless rehab" place up in Palmdale.  The people working there were all cool, the food was decent, but luke warm or cold.   But the place was completely underfunded for the services they are supposed to provide.  They had problems getting me my antibiotics three times a day the first few days.  I could barely walk when I got there, and just laid in my little bed, with my leg elevated on my backpack.  I healed up, mostly.  But now my left leg swells up with fluid each day, then the fluid drains at night.  It's still improving over time.  It was back to pretty much normal size this morning.

I talked to the social workers about looking into "housing" after a few days in the rehab place.  Then I didn't see them again.  My social worker went ahead and signed me up for the housing system, at the beginning of February, and I was taken to the sketchy-ass building in downtown L.A., with the nasty mattress in the photo above, and no working toilet for my room.  So I left.

Then I had to deal with a couple of 38 to 40 degree (F) nights, the first with no sleeping bag.  Luckily, a person I know in this area gave me a sleeping bag the second day.  That was a life saver.  It's good down to about 45 or 50 degrees, so I want to buy a moving blanket for additional warmth at night.  Those are compact, and are good insulation for their size.  I squeaked through the huge rainstorm, 7.25 to 8.25 inches of rain in about four days, where I'm at.  One night, I set down my big, trash bag wrapped sketch pad, to put on my poncho, when leaving a business.  I spaced out, and left my sketchpad there.  It had the finished "Regrets" drawing (below), a large doodle art (black and white) drawing, and a couple smaller things.  Not a huge loss, but still a bummer.  So I have to buy a new sketch pad before I can do any more drawings.  Another thing on the list.

Then last night, while I was sleeping, some motherfucker stole my shopping bag, which was tucked behind my legs while I slept.  All my clothes were in it, and about 15 razors, since I have to buy a 20-pack of razors to get one, these days.  So I have the clothes on my back, my laptop, Obama phone, and Sharpies and my basic art supplies.  I have the new sleeping bag.  And that's it.  

I want to be perfectly clear, I'm NOT asking, or hinting that I need help.  I'm just writing this post to explain how fucked up life can be, to vent, and to let everyone know the kinds of things I deal with, and don't write about most of the time.  This is why I scrape by, and haven't been able to get back on my feet.  When you're homeless, things you need, everyday items, are getting lost or stolen, on a regular basis.  These setbacks can take months to recover from.  

It's a beautiful, but chilly morning here in The Valley, north of L.A..  I've been here in a fast food place for over an hour, and it's still only 52 degrees (F) out right now.  It's been a crazy winter, and I'm doing my best to survive, and keep plugging away at the overall goal of getting a functioning business going, and making a living again some day.  But it's been a crazy winter, I have a bunch of stuff to replace, and I can't even do artwork right now.  But I keep plugging away at it.  

So that's my status right now, as a creative guy working to earn a legit living again.  Again, I'm not asking for help or any items.  I'm just writing about the things I normally don't write about, and letting everyone who follows my work know how things are going.  Thanks for reading, thanks to all who have bought drawings from me, helped me out in some other way, or support me on Patreon (I can't access that $$ right now either, but will be able to soon).  More stuff to come.  I'll try to keep it interesting, most of the time.  

Both legs were swollen at this point, even my hands were.  But the left lower leg was more swollen.  This is the morning after I got to the homeless recuperation place in Palmdale, after three days in the hospital, in mid January.  

"Regrets."  This is the #sharpiescribblestyle drawing that was in the big sketchpad that I left in a restaurant.  It wasn't there when I checked a day later.  Nobody wanted to buy this one, but technically, it's one of my better drawings.  I wanted to do something weird for Halloween, try another idea, and this was the result.  I hope whomever nabbed it likes it.   

I've been doing a lot of writing on Substack lately, check it out:

Steve Emig The White Bear's Substack

 

Homelessness is an industry

Watching a whole bunch of videos about how different cities and regions are doing the other day, this video popped up in the side results.  Although it focuses on Los Angeles, the basic themes should be the same in most major cities at this point.  Billions of dollars are now being spent nationwide "to combat homelessness" in major cities.  Those billions are your tax (and inflation) dollars, and the number of homeless people keeps rising.  This video does a good job of explaining how convoluted the homelessness programs and "housing" services are these days, and why the numbers of homeless don't go down that much.  In L.A., the number of homeless people went up significantly last year.  It doesn't matter who the mayor and city council members are of these cities, the problem will continue to get worse.

I could write a book about homelessness in the U.S. today, since I've experienced so many aspects of it, and could research the other aspects.  But I don't want to write that book, because it wouldn't do any good.  The incredibly expensive current programs, which are very lucrative for a handful of people and businesses, non-profit entities, will just keep going in the direction it's already going.  

There are more spare bedrooms in the U.S. than there are homeless people.  There are more empty, livable houses in the U.S., right now, than there are homeless people.  We could house all the homeless, in humane conditions, for less money than is being spent right now on homelessness in major cities.  It's completely possible, but it's not politically palatable.  Bureaucracy, the status quo, and the businesses and non-profits now profiting, get in the way.  

In fact, at this point, the solution to homelessness in the U.S. is Extended Stay America hotels, run by Extended Stay America, or a comparable business, not run by non-profits and slumlords.  L.A. (and at least a handful of other major cities) could house there entire homeless people in Extended Stay America hotels, one person per suite, for less money per person, per night, then they are spending right now, keeping the homeless people on the streets.  It's cheaper to house a homeless person in an Extended Stay America room, and give them food stamps to buy food, than it is to house them in homeless "tiny homes."  This article has the costs of L.A.'s tiny homes.  If you double up couples, single mom or dad families, and people who could live as roommates together in a suite, it's would be totally possible, and considerably cheaper, to house the current homeless people that way.  But that would end the huge income streams to certain businesses, non-profit entities, and people, that now exists.  So it won't happen.  It would also remove homelessness as the political football that it now is in many cities.  

One more thing.  The current homeless "housing system" DOES NOT get homeless people back on their feet, earning a living income, renting their own apartments, and paying taxes again.  Yes, there are a lot of homeless that won't ever be able to work, and the current programs house some of them.  But there are a lot that could earn a living again, including many living in cars or other working homeless.  The current system is designed to create a separate population of adults, who are entirely dependent on government programs, for the rest of their lives.  There are already 7 million to maybe 10 million people living off of Social Security Disability, SSI, and other social programs, who have scammed the system, and will never work again.  Just go visit the states of Kentucky and West Virginia, stop in a small, local restaurant, and ask what most people do for a living.  "Disability" will be one of the first answers.  That's the nature of the system currently in effect.  I first learned about this while living in North Carolina, and have seen it in Virginia and here in California since.  The only academic I've seen looking into this issue is Nicolas Eberstadt, who wrote a book about it, Men Without Work, in 2016, and there's now an updated, 2022 version out.

For those of you interested, this video explains the basic systems in place really well, and may help you begin to understand why the homelessness issue just keeps getting worse, and will continue to get worse as the recession really sets in.  

Just to be absolutely clear.  THIS costs less money per day than THIS.  I know there are not enough Extended Stay America's, or comparable suite hotels, in any of these cities to house all the homeless, and I'm not pitching this company.  I'm making the comparison on what kind of amenities can be rented for the same, or less money, than the places homeless people are currently housed.  

There are no paid links in this post.  

Welcome to Dystopia... inflation and homeless and tweekers, Oh my!

 One day in October 2019, I woke up with this idea for a big writing project.  I have been an armchair futurist thinker since I was a kid.  I've been trying to figure out what comes next, and where society is heading for many years.  I'm just a geek on economic and future trends and stuff like that, I read big books and listen to content that would bore the crap out of most people.  I had a whole bunch of ideas, based on theories I first read about in the 1990's, that the 2020's would see a major recession, maybe a great depression, and a whole lot of other change.  These ideas were al kind of related, bouncing around my brain.  I hadn't tried to organize them in any coherent way.  

The big idea was to watch 20 or 30 trailers to dystopian future movies from the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's, and see how the future those writers and directors predicted compared with that year, 2019.  I realized I was living in the "future" of my high school self.  In a weird coincidence, the sci-fi classic Blade Runner, from 1982, was set in Los Angeles in November of 2019.  That tripped me out.

That idea turned into a 7 month project, and became a 20 chapter "book/blog thing" I titled:

Welcome to Dystopia: The Future is Now- Book 1

I wrote and published this project as a blog, from November 2019 until the first week in June, 2020.  So I started this 3-4 months before the pandemic his U.S. shores.  It's had a little over 3,000 page views in 3 years.  Not bad, considering it's big, theories most people have never heard of, and hard to read.  

Today I wrote a quick Facebook post, linking a news piece of how Republican judges are begging the Supreme Court to shoot down the "Boise decision," which validates the civil rights of homeless people in western states (the 9th Circuit).  The ruling allows homeless people, like me, to sleep outside legally, when the city doesn't have beds available for everyone.  

That post that I didn't think much about got 10 or 12 comments in minutes, from across the spectrum.  So I liked everyone's comment, thanking them for adding their 2 cents worth, even if I disagreed.  Then I wrote a big response of my own, several bullet points that most people don't realize about homelessness.  One major point is that the rise in homeless people is a nationwide issue, in big cities in red states and blue states, and it's not a Democrat or Republican fuck up, it's a bi-partisan shitstorm.  The homeless issue is not just a San Francisco, L.A., Seattle thing.  Pick a major city, red or blue state, and look it up with "homeless crisis" on YouTube.  There's bums (like me) pretty much everywhere.  Except Gary, Indiana, there's like 12,000 abandoned houses there.  

In that initial Facebook post, I joked that I was "just waiting for the bus ride to the concentration camp," because that seems to be the solution many people on the far right favor to deal with homelessness.  I also mentioned that homeless people were the first people in the Nazi concentration camps.  I heard that from a Pacifica archives interview, on KPFK radio, in the early 2000's.  Back in the 1960's, I believe, someone was interviewing a woman who was 8 or 9 years old when the Nazis rose to power in Germany, and she lived in Berlin.  She said the first time she realized something was really wrong was when her family drove around Berlin one day, and all the homeless people had disappeared.  Just GONE.  And the adults wouldn't say a word about it.  As a young girl, she knew something was wrong.  It was months, maybe a year or two, before rumors of intellectuals, dissidents, Jews, Gypsies, and others were being taken to camps.  But the sudden disappearance of all the homeless people was the first clue she had to how bad things were beginning to get.  

As mentioned in this You Tube short video, there were badges on the German concentration camp uniforms, designating what group a prisoner belonged to.  A downward pointing black triangle was for lesbians, derelicts (aka homeless people), and some similar groups.  There were several other badges, the most well known being the gold Jewish star for Jews.  

I've been trying to simply make a living, as a writer/artist, in a 21st century way, for over a decade now. I've spent over 15 years in and out of  homelessness, in the past 24 years.  I was working for 35 hours or more (up to 80+) a week, for 7 or 8 of my homeless years.  If there was a job I could get, and actually do, that paid enough to rent a room or apartment, I would have done it a long time ago.  

I lived in my taxi, working 70-80+ hours a week, for 5 1/2 years (1999-2007) and wound up unable to make money any more.  The taxi cost $550-$600 a week to lease, and I just couldn't make enough anymore, as the industry declined due to new technology.  I went from working 80 hours one week to living on the streets the next week, in November of 2007.  A year later, I went back East, to North Carolina, where my family ended up living, and could not get hired for any job, except driving a taxi for a year, for ten years.  I couldn't get a job as a gas station clerk, nothing, back there.  I started selling my Sharpie art in late 2015 because I couldn't find a "real" job.  I wasn't trying to become a famous artist, I was trying to make any money I could with the one thing I could do back there, and sell online.  I've been a working, if usually homeless, artist for 7 1/2 years now.  I've been able to sell art, and scrape by, but not ratchet it up to a livable income.

My point here is that the huge homeless crisis across the U.S. today is part of a much bigger transition, a change in society from the fading Industrial Age to the emerging, but not fully developed, Information Age.  There's a huge demographic issue, along with all the other issues, creating a huge number of people, like myself, who have "fallen through the cracks" of working life.  This began with the closing of thousands of factories in the late 1970's and early 1980's, and continues today.  

The homeless housing programs don't put people back to work, they put people on taxpayer-paid-for programs that house them for a while.  Most people bounce out of the programs within a few months or a couple of years.  If they begin to make a living, they lose housing, medical, and everything else.  So they don't work, just do side hustles for cash.  

Your tax dollars (an now inflation) pay for these people's rent, food, all medical expenses, and even their furniture, big screen TV, and Netflix bills.  You are already paying for around an estimated 6 to 10 million people, who are living off of government checks.  The housing programs are not set up to get homeless people working, paying their own rent, and paying taxes again.  That's reality.  

Go to any housing person and ask them, "Show me ten former homeless people who are making $40K or more a year, and paying their own rent."  They can't do it.  Only a hand full of people, out of every thousand, go back to full time work, and that's usually with help form family or friends.  That's the system, homelessness IS AN INDUSTRY.* It pays businesses and non-profit organizations, who pay employees, buy supplies, and do projects.**  Once those businesses and non-profits get going, they want to stay in business.  To stay in business, they need a continuous supply of bums.  Homeless people are a commodity in an industry now, and we all know it, but normal working people, like yourselves, generally don't.  

This knowledge, and a whole bunch of other things I've learned about homelessness, is part of a book I don't want to write.  One, I'm sick of the issue.  Two, whatever I wrote would be used against other homeless people in the future.  Most people have no idea what's going on, or why homeless people don't get jobs, and why the number of homeless people keeps going up.  

L.A., as just recently reported, has 9% more people than it did a year ago (L.A. Times article).  The problem isn't going away soon, even if the extreme right wingers had us all shipped to American concentration camps.  There'd be 30,000 more bums on the streets in a year or two, because there are many different forces leading people to become homeless.  The coming recession will make the problem worse, for a while, anyhow.

We have something like 12 million vacant homes and condos in the U.S., plus thousands of commercial buildings, empty.  We COULD house everyone in the U.S..  We, as a nation, currently choose not to.  That's the reality.  There's a guy living in a tent, on the sidewalk, in front of a vacant storefront, a mile from where I'm sitting right now.  That store has been vacant for about a year.  That's the dichotomy of the problem right now.  It's not going to change anytime soon.  

I think my big "book/blog thing," Dystopia, linked above, explains the Big Picture better than anything else I've seen.  It's based on three big theories of human society that most people haven't heard of.  If you're interested in that, check it out.  

One last thought.  The Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness rolled out in 2002.  It was adapted in many cities in the 2-4 years after that.  The overall homeless population increased dramatically, instead.  Perhaps that was really the 10 year plan to MONETIZE homelessness.  Or perhaps it just wasn't a great plan.  I'm not sure.  

Meanwhile, I'll keep writing, drawing my Sharpie pictures, and trying to create my own job, and rent a place some day.  

*OK, this former sheriff was very controversial, and I'm not of fan of him, in general.  But on this issue, he's right.

** The tiny homes in L.A. have cost an average of $42,000 per bed, PLUS $55 a night, per bed, for service fees.  L.A. could house the homeless in Extended Stay Americas for less money.  For REAL.  

As of the summer of 2023, I'm doing most of my new writing on Substack, a platform designed for writers.  Check it out:

Steve Emig: The White Bear's Substack

The Gap- A homeless issue most people don't get

The Gap- My name for the space between a homeless person having $5 to buy lunch, and the $2,500+/-  per month of consistent income it takes to actually get to the next level, which is often a weekly motel room.  Crossing The Gap is one reason why there are so many more chronic homeless people, long term street people, today.  Myself included.  This idea has been in my head for years, so I finally did a quick sketch to help visualize it.  There's a HUGE difference between having $5 -$7 in your wallet to buy lunch, and the money needed to rent a room, any room, week after week, or month after month.  A low wage job usually won't come close to the initial money needed to work off the streets.  That's a homeless person with a shopping cart on the left, my sketchy sketch.  

I avoid writing about homelessness for the most part, partly because there are just too many aspects that average working people just don't get.  People aren't dumb, it's just that they just don't live in the homeless world day to day, and see the actual issues keeping so many people on the streets.  It would be like me understanding the issues an airline pilot has day to day.  I'm not in that world, so I don't understand the nuances.  

Right about now, you are most likely thinking "but that's what shelters are for, to get people off the streets, right"  No, homeless shelters, and most programs, funnel homeless people into two tracks, addiction or mental illness, and these two tracks have a bunch of programs to "help" homeless people.  They do help in some ways. The part most people don't get is that these programs help homeless people get into a structured environment, and those vary widely.  But the purpose of nearly all "homeless programs" is to process the person through a series of programs run by organizations, some non-profit, and some for profit, that get that person on every possible government assistance program.  Those government pay for for homeless shelters, motel rooms, "tiny homes," other temporary housing, and eventually "permanent housing." This can be Section 8 housing, or another program.  

During this process, there are addiction programs, mental health counseling programs, and medical programs.  Nearly all of these are paid for by your tax dollars, or sometimes by grants, to the organizations.  In and of itself, there's nothing wrong with that, if these were all efficiently run programs, and got all the homeless people possible working and paying taxes again, renting their own apartments at some point.  Shouldn't the point be to get homeless people paying taxes again, whenever possible, instead of living off of them?    

But that is not the point of homeless programs.  The point of most homeless programs is to get homeless people into a living situation where government funds, your tax dollars, pay for these people to NOT work... for the rest of their lives.  Yes, there are a lot of homeless people who will never work a normal job again for medical or other issues.  Bu there are also a huge percentage  of people who could work again, and our current programs actually pay them not to in most cases.  Social Security Disability is full of scammers, millions of them, it appears, who live in apartments, buy food, watch Netflix, and play video games all day, usually with plenty of drugs, if they choose.  All this is paid for, sometimes dramatically overpaid for, with your tax dollars.  

To get off the streets, and actually start working and making a decent living again, IS NOT the goal.  For someone who just wants to get back working again, and renting our own apartment, we need to cross The Gap.  To go from panhandling or recycling $5-$10 to buy lunch and bus fare, to earning around $2,500 a month, from the streets, to pay for renting a weekly motel room ($450-$550 a week), or a roommate room ($7000-$900 a month) buy any meds, do laundry, have transportation money, and day to day essential items.  If you get kicked off of Food Stamps for working and earning too much, then you need food money as well.  

If you go into housing programs, and find a decent paying work, you'll most likely lose your food stamps, Disability, G.R. SSI, or other payments before your earn enough to rent a room of some kind, and pay all normal expenses.  Plus you may lose your medical, and everyone on the streets has some kind medical issues, if only minor ones.  

In addition, homeless people in prorams are often treated like little kids, have overly strict rules, curfews, and other rules that make the temporary housing programs worse than living on the streets.  Yes, rules are needed, I get that.  So what I've seen happen, over and over, is people go into programs, and they just work the system for a couple of months, maybe a few months, until they get sick of the B.S.m the rules (can't smoke a cigarette inside or outside, can't have friends into their room, etc.).  Then they have a meltdown, or just go AWOL from the program, because they'd prefer their personal freedom on the streets to the life in the program.  Then they live the street life of their choice (drugs, alcohol, prositution, or just living alone and free, whatever), until the programs seem worth another chance.  That's usually when bad or cold wather hits.  Ask a paramedic how many ambulance calls they get right before a big storm or a cold spell.  Homeless people call ambulances just to try and get out of the cold all the time.  

In the meantime, when a new program gets going, their workers motivation is to stay employed, and the program's motivation is to keep that program going, so they need a continuing stream of new bums to sign-up.  I'm not saying these programs don't have value, they help some people leave the streets, and live on a govrnment check, sometimes permanently.  S.S. Disability IS Universal Basic Income already, in effect, if not in name, for some sick people, and a lot of lazy people, usually with addictions.  These programs, collectively, now run into the billions of dollars now in some metro areas, over a few years time.  

Both of these become feedback loops.  Homeless people, particularly lazy ones, and many addicts, are used to bouncing in and out of programs, living for months on the street in between.  On the flip side, many homeless programs (non-profit and profitable) have a neverending stream of their needed commodity, homless people.  These feedback loops have been growing for 20 years or so, and those people who earn their living working in these programs plan to KEEP making their living in them.  These cycles keep growing, so the visible street (and RV/van) homless populations keep growing, and the dollars flowing to programs keep growing as well.  

Just a reminder, the 10 Year plan to End Homelessness had its 20th anniversary in 2022, it began in 2002.  There were  A LOT LESS homeless people in 2002.  

Meanwhile, the people who are temporarily down and out, and just trying to find decent work again (a "normal" job, gig work, some other legit source of income) have to cross The Gap, from coming up with $5 to $25 a day to get by, to a stream of income of around $2,500 a month to rent a room (motel or roommates), then pay for food, transportation, laundry, new clothes, a storage unit, perhaps education/training, and basic everyday needs.  They have to do all of that, while doing what's needed to survive and get by in the streets, or some sketchy situation day after day.  It's damn near impossible.  

That's why most people just lay back and bounce in and out of programs.  Some wind up in Section 8 eventually, some just bounce between the streets and programs indefinitely.  This is also why we now have about three men who are unemployed and NOT looking for work, for every "officially" unemployed man that's counted in the unemployment data (See Men Without Work, Nicolas Eberstadt).  The numbers are lower for women, but there's a similar trend.  The homeless programs are one of many things pulling working age Americans out of the workforce, permanently.  Less workers, more strain on Social Security for retires, and government programs of all kinds.  

This is just ONE little aspect of the homelessness issue, which I've learned way too much about, and which I really don't want to spend time writing about.  But the general lack of understanding of the issues involved bug me.  I'm going to get my ass kicked, in some way ,for writing this post.  But it needed to be said somewhere.  

Cheap living: Flophouses vs. L.A. homeless "tiny homes"

Though I lived in the P.O.W. House for two stretches in the early 1990's, I didn't have a video camera at the time,so I shot very little video there.  So here's a bit of Dave Parrick's video footage of Keith Treanor in the backyard, then Dave Clymer on the spine ramp out front, about 1992-93.  

Sometime around 1989, a group of BMX racers formed, rented a house, and dubbed themselves the Pros Of Westminster, or P.O.W.'s.  It was the first serious BMX rider house, a four bedroom, two bath, single story place, on Iroquois Road in Westminster.  There was a total of 22 riders that lived in the house, officially, over the course of about five years. There were also at least 200 or more traveling riders, from across the U.S. and around the world, that spent one or more nights there at some point.  The best known members of the P.O.W. house were Dave Clymer, Chris Moeller, Alan Foster, Brian Foster, John Paul Rogers, Todd Lyons, and Jay Lonergan.  

A few riders, Dave Clymer, in particular, were there for long stretches, years, and others were there for a few months,at a time.  Riders were moving in and out over the life of the P.O.W. House.  Generally there were two guys in each bedroom, usually on single matresses on the floor, sharing the bedrooms.  It wasn't as freaky as it sounds, it was just a bunch of 20-something, hardcore BMX riders, living cheap during the long recession of the early 1990's.  We had 8 to 12 paying roommates pretty much all the time, though often several were away traveling.  Rent on the house then was around $900 a month, I think.  With utilities, each guy paid from $90 to maybe $120 a month for rent and utilities.  At the time, renting a room in a nice apartment, in a traditional California roommate situation, was $350 to $400 a month.  A one bedroom apartment was $600 or so.  With rent and bills right around $100 a month, we could spend a lot less time working, and a lot more time riding our bikes and traveling, which was our main priority then, other than beer and women.  

For about $1,200 initial rent and deposit, the P.O.W. House's changing group of roommates provided a dirty, rowdy, fun, and CHEAP, but sort of decent, place ot live.  It worked for that time period, and for our group of guys, a couple of women, and Bob the Dog.  No one was trying to escape homelessness, but we had a cool, if usually dirty, self-directed, super low cost, housing solution for all the guys looking for a super cheap place ot live in Southern California.  Another house, the H.B. House, took over a couple years later, for more young BMXers, in the mid and late 90's.  

Just to be clear, to me a "flophouse" is a house or apartment with a lot of mostly unrelated people living there, with cheap rent being a priority.  In my mind, it's not a drug den, though there may be people getting high.  Those places are crackhouses, a completely different thing, in my mind.  The P.O.W. House was a bunch of us living cheap so we could ride our bikes more, basically.  Artists and musicians and many college students have been living cheap for generations, and it's normal among action sports people and  punk rock musicians to crash on people's couches and floors while traveling.  I'm not trying to diss the P.O.W. House, just use it as a personal example of living cheap, compared the the homeless world.

Now, I realize it's 30 years later, and everything, except pizza, oddly enough, have gone up in price.  OK, $5 pizzas are now $6 at Little Caesar's or 7-11 with their bonus program.  Anyhow, rent has gone up dramatically, and the whole internet age has happened since.  

In addition, the population of chronically homeless people, here in the L.A. metro area, and in nearly all major cities, has exploded.  One of the resources being used to house some of these homeless people is called "Tiny Homes."  These small, 8 foot by 8 foot, prefab shelters are built in little groups, on obscure pieces of land, since land is so expensive in Southern California.  The people in these little communities share bathrooms, showers, and get some food from the people who run the places.  They get to keep their foodstamps, to help them eat other meals.  

It gets people off the streets, and into semi-permanent places, under a roof.  These are temporary housing, while homeless people work through programs to get permanent housing, Section 8 or something like it, paid for by a group of government resources, aka your taxi dollars.

So far, that makes sense to most people.  Give people a small place to live temporarily, get them off the streets, and into programs for whatever issues they are dealing with.  But as a homeless guy myself, and a blogger, I've learned there aren't really programs for people who want to actually earn a real living again.  The housing people talked to all of us in my current area, for a while, about the options.  My first option was to share a tiny home with a street friend, a raging (though very funny) drunk, occasional meth user, who was prone to violent outbursts.  I declined.  I asked a lot of questions, since I've stayed long times in shelters while I was back east.  I know theft, daily backed up toilets, lots of drama, and occasional fights, are always issues when you put a bunch of fucked up people in close proximity to each other.  

I also did a bit of research.  Having spent a long time in various forms of homelessness, I know that homelessness is now an industry in certain aspects.  There are people working at non-profit organizations, and some businesses, making their living from "the homeless problem."  I have no issue with businesses making profits, that's a major point of business.  But back east, I learned how many crony deals work between non-pofit organizations, taking in donations, grant money, and taxpayer money, and funneling it into their buddies' businesses.  Old fashioned cronyism.  Some organizations are legit, but there's a lot of shadiness as well.  

So I began to wonder how much these "tiny homes" actually cost.  It was hard to find good numbers at first.  One article said the tiny homes cost $7,000 and up.  Another source I saw a while back said they cost $17,000.  For quite a while, I had no idea what these "tiny homes" cost.  

The subject came up while chatting with someone on Facebook, and so I took another look.  I found this report, which comes up at the top of Google now.  According to this report, by an organization that has been digging through records for years, to bring obscure info like this to the public.  

It turns out L.A.'s "tiny homes" for the homeless, cost from $32,712 per bed, to $60,047 per bed, for an average of $42,344 per bed, for the 224 beds in the "tiny homes communities, built, at the time of the report.  The report also says the service providers who are running the camps get $55 a night, per bed, for the services they provide on a continuing basis.  

OK, this is a SHITLOAD of money to house 224 of the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 homeless people in Los Angeles county these days.  Yes, Pallet, the company making these tinyhomes, is doing well, really well, their business has increased 7,000% in a couple of years early in the pandemic.  Again, I have no problem with businesses making a solid profit.  The "tiny homes" idea makes sense as one way to work on the huge homelessness issue in major cities. 

My point here is that a bunch of us young BMX riders, 30 years ago, figured out a way to house ourselves for about $100 a month, which would equal $218 today, per bed, per month, figuring in inflation.  We lived in a flophouse, a BMX rider themed flop house.  That was during the long, double dip recession, and era somewhat like today's, in that sense.  

My point is, I'm pretty sure we can do better, here in California.  We are close to 40 million people as a state.  That includes many of the most innovative people in the country.  I'm pretty sure a few businesses here could build what are bascially pre-fab tool sheds, with a power outlet, and some portable bathrooms and showers, for less than $84,000 each (tiny homes are made for two people).  You can buy a 8' X 12" tool shed, which is 50% larger than the "tiny homes," for $3,700 at Home Depot (link below).  

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of contractors who could safely wire tiny homes for a single power outlet, in a small community.  There are companies, like this one in California, that make good portable restrooms and showers.  There are also lots of other types of small housing options that could potentially work to house homeless people, like myself, at many different price points.  YouTube "real estate whisperer" Kristina Smallhorn has a bunch of videos on these options.  Here are a few:

"Real" homes made from shipping containers

Affordable "homes" at Home Depot for less than $20K

5 manufactured tiny homes you can buy on Amazon for under $40K

Tiny home kits starting under $50K

Pallet's Tiny Homes, and other small house ideas...

LA Currents segment on Pallet Tiny Homes - The ones L.A. is using now, for and average of $42,000 per bed average.

The Life Pod

The Homeless Man who built his own portable house on Hollywood Boulevard

Iglou Insulated Shelter

The Gypsy Wheeler

10 most innovative portable shelters and pod homes

These ideas don't included using empty houses, empty retail buildings, empty office properties, buying current motels out, renting apartments, houses, and any other possible options.

Way back in about 1997, before my struggle with homelessness began, I worked as a furniture mover.  one day we were moving a dirty Dogloo, an igloo-shaped, molded plastic dog house.  Joking around, I asked my co-worker, "Why don't they make these things for homeless people, call them Bumgloos?"  We laughed, and kept working.  

The idea stuck in my head, and at one point, while homeless, years later, I was thinking about writing a novel about a guy who starts making the Bumgloos, (8 foot diameter, four foot high walls, with a domed roof that fits over them- so several could be packed on a flatbed truck) and builds a community for the homeless.  That also winds up housing some artists, and BMXers and skateboarders who want to live super cheap.  They build a skate/bike park, art studios, a mini mart, a miniature golf course, a P.O. Box shop (homeless need mail) and Kinko's type office place (computer rental for homeless people).  Those businesses help put some of the people to work, and help pay for the community, drawing in business from the local city people.  That was the basic idea, not just housing, but work and fun as well.  I never wrote the novel, but I thought it out pretty extensively, while homeless, and unable to find any job, when I was in North Carolina (2009-2012, 2017-2018).  

Obviously, that idea is similar to the current tiny home communities, happening in many parts of the U.S..  What you might not believe is that even Andres Duany, a major urban designer, and proponent of the New Urbanism movement, has been paid big bucks to share somewhat similar ideas, with his clients.  

Several years ago, he was hired for a sizeable sum to help re-design, and help kickstart Highpoint, North Carolina's business development and economic prospects.  Highpoint is a former industrial city, a leader in the furniture industry, that got hit hard by factories closing down in the 1980's-2000's.  One asset they had was the dying Oak Hollow mall, a now fairly typical "dead mall."  Duany's team suggested, (are you ready?) turning the mall property into a business incubator, using lots of shipping containers to let entrepreneurs and artists build the containers into live/work spaces, as well as using the mall's indoor area for similar purposes.  Duany understands, and says so in the long videos of those Highpoint meeetings, artist, small business people, and entrepreneurs all need the same thing: CHEAP places to live and work.  Cheap live/work places help them get their ideas off the ground.  

Build a place where these people can do that, and you'll attract a lot of people with new ideas, who can then bounce off each other's creativity while living in this incubator community.  In my nomeclature, this is nurturing "Creative Scenes."  The leaders of Highpoint did not see benefit in the "crazy" shipping conatiner ideas, and they didn't apply any of these ideas.  But I believe Duany and team are right on track for what's needed in so many places around the U.S. now.   These same ideas could be used to house the currently homeless, as well as other groups of people looking to live really cheap for a while.  

So there it is, a whole bunch of potential ideas to help chip away at the homeless issue in L.A., and anywhere else.  Sheare your ideas and thoughts on Facebook, if you want to weigh in.

Got a place to live... at last!

Here's a video tour of the abandoned house I'll be moving into next week.

This post was an April Fool's joke, I DID NOT move into a 100,000 square foot, $125 million house for free.  

Almost nobody read the actual post.  It's mid October 2022, as I'm updating this, and I'm still homeless.  I have talked to the housing people.  They gave me two options:  Move into an 8 foot by 8 foot "tiny home" (actually a prefab tool shed with eletricity) with a drunk/tweeker as a roommate, or fake a disability and maybe get into an apartment somewhere by myself.  But then I'd been on record faking a disability.  While there are millions of people in this country doing that right now, I'm not one of them.  So I'm still homeless.  There are no programs for people who just want to work and earn a real living again, particularly people doing creative work.  So I'm still plugging along, selling my Sharpie art, and trying to get othe rideas off the ground that will earn me a decent living.  

As most of you know, my life took a dive about 20 years ago, when I got injured and became a taxi driver.  Then, after the taxi industry began to crash, I've struggled to find any "real" job, and took to doing Sharpie art to make some money and try to get by.  It's been rough.  

But now, as we come out of the pandemic, L.A. is looking to get the homeless population out of sight and under roof.  I just got the call from the housing people this morning that my case has been approved, and they found an abandoned house, up in the hills, that I can move into.  That's it, in the video clip above.  

Yeah, I know, it's a bit gaudy, and not really my style, but beggars can't be choosers, as they say.  It's quite a walk to the nearest bus stop, and dragging groceries home will be a bitch.  But hey, it's a roof over my head.  They said I can even find a few roommates, as long as I think they're cool, and they all qualify for Section 8.  

I'm already thinking of crowdfunding some money to put a mini ramp in the secondary living room, and I'll definitely need to build a pump track, to help me get back in shape.  The car port is a good place for flatland riding, so that will work, even in the rain.  I'm still trying to figure out where to build some dirt jumps.  Yeah, I know, I never could jump for shit, but I'll build some little ones to start.  I can build then

m up as I get back into riding, into better shape, and build my skills up.  

While it's far from perfect, and I do have to pay $200 a month in rent, this place will do for the time being.  I can always move when I find a place a little more to my liking.  Happy April Fool's Day everyone,  I hope you're having a good one.  

Blogger's note- 4/2/2022- This was my April's Fool joke.  Obviously I'm not going to get placed in that crazy house above, for $200 a month.  This monument to ridiculousness, called "The One," was initially put on the market, still not finished, for $500,000,000.  Yes, 500 million bucks, the highest priced house in the U.S..  It didn't sell.  Then the developers lowered the price to $295 million.  It still wasn't finished, and it still didn't sell.  It did finally sell last month at auction (March 2022), for the bargain price of $126 million.  And I'm still homeless.  But it's Spring in L.A., and the mild winter weather is now warmer, and the rainy season, what there was of it, it pretty close to over.  Time to promote and sell some artwork, make some money, and find a place to live. 

I have a new blog, check it out:

The Spot Finder     #thespotfinder

Yesterday I made the very first Old School BMX NFT

If you've read my blog for a while, or follow me on Facebook, you've probably seen this photo before.  It's a wall ride over my sister Cheri's head, at the Blues Brothers Wall in Huntington Beach.  This is a still from my 1990 self-produced video, The Ultimate Weekend.  To the best of my knowledge, this is the first Old School BMX freestyle NFT ever created.  #steveemigNFTs

I became a taxi driver in 1999, leaving my good paying Hollywood lighting tech job, after an injury.  I've struggled in and out of homelessness ever since.  After leaving taxi driving in 2007, which was dying due to new technology, getting a "real job" became impossible.  I drove a cab againfor a year while in North Carolina, in 2011-12.  After my dad's death, I wound up living with my mom, who I never got along with, in a tiny apartment, in a small town, in North Carolina.  

In late 2015, I stepped up my Sharpie scribble style artwork, and began to sell my drawings online, just trying to make a little spending money.  For about 5 years, I scraped by, though homeless much of the time, making money from my drawings.  My large drawings take about 40-45 hours to draw, and after a while I could sell them consistently for $150-$200.  So I have been a "working artist," but I was only making about $2-$4 an hour doing it.  It's hard to get back on track financially making that little.  It's pretty much impossible.  Like thousands, maybe millions, of other creative people, I was looking for a better way to make a decent living from my creative work in today's rapidly changing world. 

I heard about NFT's a few months ago, in an online article about a musician.  They sounded interesting, but I didn't have much time online each day, so I never dug into seriously researching them.  About a month ago, I found a library that's actually open, one of the few in L.A. County, where I can plug in my laptop, and work all day long.  I started listening to some Gary Vaynerchuk videos again, among others, and he had several videos about NFT's.  I watched two or three of his videos, and got seriously intrigued.  Then I dug deeper, and I've probably watched 80-100 hours of YouTube videos, and read 20 articles, about NFT's, in the two weeks since.  Yesterday I made my first two NFT's, and both are at ridiculous prices, intentionally, but available for sale on Rarible.  

So what's an NFT?  That's where most of society is right now, unaware of these things, or not sure what they are.  "NFT" stands for Non Fungible Token.  Simply put, it's a blockchain transaction tied to a digital file (photo, art, meme, music file, video file, in-game accessory, etc), and it's the only one tied to that transaction.  So that makes it a digital item that's rare.  NFT's, based on blockchain smart contract technology, make it possible to have a "one of a kind" digital piece of art (or music, photos, etc.).  And rare things can be collected, flipped, traded, and sold for ridiculous prices, like old BMX bikes, baseball or Pokemon cards, classic cars, Coca-Cola memorabilia, or any other collectible.  The crypto collecting began with Crypto Kitties, Crypto Punks, and Bored Ape Yacht Club.

So while you can copy that wall ride photo/meme above, only one actual NFT of it exists.  Since hardly anyone in action sports has created NFT's, only 2 or 3 New School BMX photo NFT's exist so far, and my NFT above is the first Old School BMX NFT, which will could make it highly collectible... at some point.  That's why I put it up for 1 Eth, or one unit of Ethereum, a little under $4,000 at the moment.  Crazy, huh?  It will only sell if I put out a cool collection of other, similar NFT's, and get some collectors, or flipper/traders, interested.  Until then, it will just sit at that price.  The next NFT's I do will be in the $40-$150 dollar range (+ gas/minting fees). 

What the NFT technology does for artists, is it let's us sell a digital form of our work, and even add a royalty in the smart contract.  So an artist can make more money up front, by creating their own NFT's, and can get a royalty payment anytime that NFT is resold....ever.  When traditional art, like say a painting by a really famous artist, sells for millions of dollars,  the artist doesn't get any of that, in virtually all cases.  That's one big issue of art throughout the ages.  

So NFT's, and the NFT marketplaces, and the whole crypto world they came from, now allow artists of all kinds to put work out there for sale, in a rare digital format, and hopefully make more money, and get royalties from that piece when it sells again.  That can potentially allow a typical working artist a much better chance to make a living from their work, if they're willing to learn the NFT technology, and do the promotion involved to get their work seen an appreciated by collectors.

It took me about two days of research to figure out NFT's are for real, and get past the issue that people are actually paying money, sometimes millions of dollars, for something that doesn't physically exist.  That's a head trip for most people, when they first hear about NFT's.  But people have been buying song downloads for about 20 years now, and those don't physically exist.  Gamers have been buying cool in-game weapons, skins, and other items in games, for several years as well.  So there is definitely a market for digital goods.  That market is tens of billions, already, in the gaming world.

So I decided to go all in on this idea, and start producing my own collectibles.  I'm going to start putting out collections of NFT's, starting with video stills and photos, as a way to earn money to get my life back on track financially.  Hopefully, after that, I can work on doing the long list of creative projects in my head, and those I'll dream up later on.  I'm looking at these as "digital collectibles," though I do want to do NFT's eventually with mt Sharpie artwork, and perhaps other "art."  

The NFT world is still really new, only going back to about 2017.  For you Old School BMX freestylers out there, it feels a lot like 1984-85, when we could go to an AFA contest, which were new, and see 50 different riders doing brand new tricks we hadn't seen before.  There are just new ideas popping up daily in this space.  NFT's are an offshoot of blockhain technology, enabled by smart contracts tied in the blockchains, Ethereum being the main one right now.  It all started in the crypto art world, and the crypto rich were the first collectors, and still the main ones.  

Then in late 2020 and the Spring of 2021, NFT's exploded into the mainstream art world, with the insane $69 million Beeple "5,000 Days" NFT sale at Christie's.  Now there are collections of 10,000 character-type and gaming related NFT's dropping almost daily, and hundreds, maybe thousands of new and established artists putting out NFT's.  So there's actually too much art for the number of active buyers, at the moment.  But I think that won't last too awful long.  There will be another big wave of crazy art sales before too long, I'm sure.

But it's still just crypto art projects, crypto finance, and artists in NFT's right now.  There's very little photography, there's not really a lot of music, and things like action sports art/photos, and many other future uses, haven't really happened yet.  But they will.  NBA Top Shots is one of a handful of mainstream sports NFT projects, and they raked in about $100 million.  Soccer/futbol is getting into it, as well as people like Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, Mila Kunis,  Logan Paul, and a bunch of others.  Paris Hilton has over 150 NFT's in her collection.  For real.  

This technology has so much farther to go, in hundreds of different directions, that by this time next year, everyone will be talking NFT's, and be looking to flip, trade, or collect them.  That's why I'm going all in on this idea.  It's a huge opportunity for creative people, as well as gamers, influencers, financiers, traders, athletes, real estate brokers, the whole metaverse arena, and much more.  This technology will be used in so many ways, that most of the world will be getting into aspects of it in the next few years.  Including the Old School BMX collector guys (and a few gals).  

So that's why I'm spending so much time in this blog talking about NFT's, and now beginning to create my own.  This is a form of creative work that can earn me a decent living, in time, get me off the streets and into a decent apartment, and eventually fund future creative projects, like maybe The Ultimate Weekend II idea, or a cool indie art show, among others.  

I started a Pinterest board to list and display my NFT's.  You can link to Rarible from there. 

For my first NFT, I used this photo.

 And I put it up for sale for 4.343 Eth.  That's about $17,341 right now.  Do I think this will sell?  Nope, not a chance.  That was my point.  You only get to make your first NFT once.  If you become a name in the NFT world, then that NFT becomes highly collectible, and valuable.  Most people ask a couple of hundred bucks or less for their first NFT.  But I'm an actual homeless guy, who has made my own NFT's, and I do some pretty cool art, and take decent photos.  My story is a pretty crazy one.  If I can get myself off the streets, and I do some really cool work for a year or so, then, and only then, will this NFT be worth buying by a collector, maybe.  

Until then, this is me planting my flag in NFT Land and saying, "This is a cool technology, I have a lot of ideas, and I plan to be here for a while."  A lot of people, artists, gamers, influencers, celebrities, and profile pic projects, are just trying to become "The next Beeple," and going for a quick cash grab.  Others are doing really cool art, or evolving in this world, exploring new ideas.  I see a lot of cool ideas to use NFT's for, and I plan to just keep plugging away until one of them takes off, and make this crazy panhandling sign NFT worth somebody's money.  

So that's my new direction.  There will be A LOT of NFT talk in this blog now.  But there will still be Old School BMX tales, action sports, other art, my views on our world and where it's headed, and anything else that seems interesting to me.  Thanks to everyone who's responsible for one of those 130,000+ page views so far on this blog, I'll try to keep it interesting for a long time to come. 

#SEstreetlife- I'm starting to share three years of photos taken while homeless

Rather large black woman, dancing on the train, while high AF on something, Blue Line train, on a Friday night.  The Blue Line goes from downtown L.A. to Long Beach, passing through Skid Row, South Central, Watts, Compton, and other places that are not well known from rap songs.  Things can get a bit weird on that train in the evenings.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos.

As most of you know, I've struggled in and out of homelessness for about 20 years now.  I first became homeless in 1987, while working at the American Freestyle Assiciation (AFA).  My female roommate moved out of the two bedroom apartment we shared while I was off working at an AFA comp, and disappeared, right before rent was due.  Since I made about $600 to $700 a month at the time, I couldn't make the next $800 payment for the rent, and had to move out.  I lived in the AFA trailer, parked on the street, outside the AFA office, in a Huntington Beach business park, sleeping on top of the folded quarterpipe, for three weeks.  I got a couple of paychecks, and found a crazy old guy renting shared rooms in his house for $150 a month.  He was creepy, but the other roommates were cool, and that worked for several months.  About 4 years later, I saw my roommate who bailed in a phone sex ad in the back of Hustler magazine.  I thought about calling her to say, "Hi," but I didn't want to pay $3.95 a minute.  So I put her nude ad in one of my zines.  Since freestylers knew who she was, that was a popular zine. 

But my real battle with homelessness began in 1999.  I left a good paying, Hollywood lighting tech job because of a hernia.  I saved up about $3,500, took time off, and planned to get surgery over that summer, then go back and work freelance.  But my insurance kept having issues, and I never could see the doctor for the initial visit.  Unable to do the heavy lifting, I looked for another job.  I started driving a taxi, primarily in the Huntington Beach area.  In two months, I couldn't afford my apartment anymore, and moved out.  that sucked, because I was living three blocks form the ocean in downtown H.B., on 15th street.  On the bright side, without doing a bunch of heavy lifting, the hernia mellowed out eventually, and rarely bothers me now.

Message on a table, in a cheap motel room, in Richmond, Virginia.  This one always made me laugh.  I got this room several times when I stayed there.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

So I put my stuff in storage, and lived in my taxi for about six months, working 7 days a week.  A change in the taxi industry came along, our company got the John Wayne airport contract, and for three weeks, I made really good money.  Working seven 17 hour days a week, I put $1,800 in my pocket the first week, then it ratcheted down from there.  By week four, when the company got fully staffed with drivers, I was back to $350 a week.  I was able to rent a room, and went to another company and just worked weekends through late 2000.  But that move to taxi driving, actually the hernia, began the downward spiral.  

My driver's license got suspended right before Christmas in 2000, apparently due to a clerical error at the DMV.  Around the same time, my own car, a Datsun 280ZX, got towed for parking tickets, and impounded, and shit went downhill from there.  I couldn't afford ot get the car back.  It's been a crazy struggle to just make a living ever since.  

I don't do drugs, recreational or prescription, and I was a pretty average social drinker back then, and just gave up drinking when I was driving the taxi.  Depression has been an issue much of my life, so I have battled that at times.  But I've just struggled to make a decent living since late 1999.  A lot of outside pressure got put on my life starting shortly after 9/11, and I thought my talking about conspiracies got me labeled a "suspicious person."  People got paranoid about everyone back then.  That outside pressure snowballed into utter ridiculousness, and is still an issue today.  I have some idea why it may have began, but can't go into it.  

Taxi driving from 2003-2007 was going downhill, due to the switch from CB radios to computer dispatching, and it got harder and harder to pay the $550 to $600 a WEEK taxi lease, and then another $300 to $350 a WEEK for gas.  The taxi companies just put more and more taxis on the road, so there was more and more competition for each ride.  I gained over 150 pounds, had three bouts of bad cellulitis, and walked away from taxi driving the Sunday after Thanksgiving, 2007.  I was prety sure I was going to die soon, my health was so bad.  But I didn't.  My attempts to start find a better way to earn a living just didn't work out.  I worked a minimum wage job while homeless in 2002-3, and knew that was the dumbest thing in the world to do.  You never get off the streets, unless someone offers a free room for several months, or something like that.  I thought about trying stand-up comedy, and selling stickers at a swap meet booth, but couldn't get either one going.

After a year on the streets, I took my family's offer to fly me to North Carolina for "a while."  That was the biggest mistake of my life.  That's when I lost all my video footage, a good Mac laptop, my video camera, and everything from my life in BMX.  I got stuck in NC, and couldn't find ANY job, except another year of taxi driving in 2011-12, while living in the taxi again.  Sleeping in a mini-van on an 80 degree, humid, evening sucks balls.  I was miserable.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle graffiti piece just off of Hollywood Boulevard, in Hollywood.  2021.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos 

I flat out hated North Carolina.  It may be great for some people, it sucked for me.  But, I did start my first BMX blogs there, since I was bored out of my skull.  First was FREESTYLIN' Mag Tales, stories from my short stint working there in 1986.  I followed that with Freestyle BMX Tales (the original verison, here's version 3), and I've been blogging ever since.  

Another thing about NC, I did get to see my niece and nephew grow up, which was cool, and I was there when my dad died.  But North Carolina is not the place for me.  In fact, I don't want to ever set foot in the entire state for the rest of my life.  I started trying to sell my Sharpie Scribble Style drawings in late 2015, just to make a little money, while living with my mom, after my dad's death.  I applied for over 140 local jobs, over a couple of years, and got one call back, but not hired.  I'd never had that happen before.  I got hired for every single job I ever applied for, up until age 28, so a dry spell like that told me it was pointless.  Selling Sharpie drawings helped me make a few bucks, which somehow my mom always needed for an "emergency," often involving chocolate or her late QVC bills.

That was a toxic situation, and I bailed, and wound up living in a tent, in the woods, in Winston-Salem, NC.  Yep, there's actually a city with two brands of cigarettes named after it.  Actually three, it's nickname in "Camel City," and it was home to Reynolds Tobacco, now just Reynolds.  I did start selling more drawings, and did a small art show, in Winston, while living in the woods.  That sounds adventurous, but 20-30 bug bites a day, and getting a bug lodged in my ear for a month, proved otherwise.  If you've never experienced a hardcore Carolina thunderstorm in a tent along in the woods... don't.  It sucks.  I've never seen lightning like they have in the Carolinas.  

I escaped NC in August 2018, and had enough money to get a Greyhound to Richmond, Virginia.  I landed there with about $3.50 in my pocket, I didn't know anyone, and I'd never been in that city before.  I lived homeless, and in about three weeks heard from old BMX friend Steve Crandall, founder of FBM Bikes, and now TV announcer for BMX comps.  Steve said to come meet him at Powers Bike Shop, outside of downtown.  When I did, he handed me his old iPhone 5, with a cracked screen, and a bag of food, and a little money, as I recall.  He and Chad Powers at the bike shop helped me quite a bit while in Richmond, and I used that little iPhone mostly to start taking photos.  I've take a couple of thousand pics since, mostly of just weird stuff I saw on the streets, or of my #sharpiescribblestyle drawings as I made them.   

I've decided to start sharing the funny, crazy, weird, and sometimes kind of cool photos, in a series I'm calling #SEstreetlife.  

People have all kinds of ideas about homelessness, most of them quite a bit different from reality, if not completely wrong.  There's been many years of demonization of homeless people in some of the press, and most people now seem to see every homeless person as a drunk or drug addicted, mentally ill, a complete failure, that has absolutely no chance of being a "normal person" in society again.  

Yes, there are a lot of drunks, addicts and mentally ill people on the streets.  But most addicts have homes to live in, most drunks have homes to live in, most mentally ill people have homes to live in. Think of all the well-housed train wrecks you know personally.  Addiction and mental illness are prevalent on the streets, but those are not the main reasons people are homeless.

 Public service announcement spray painted on the sidewalk, San Fernando Valley, 2020.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

The main reason people become homeless is lack of a strong family or friend support network, when they go through financial hardships.  Most people get some help when they take some kind of big financial hit, something that happens to pretty much everyone, at some point.  They have a place to stay, can borrow money, use someone's car a bit, borrow needed items, or whatever.  The people who don't have that strong network of either friends or family, fall through the cracks.  Most homeless people are never seen, and fall into homelessness, and bounce out, in a couple weeks, or maybe 2 or 3 months.  Some fall deeper, and wind up being the people you see eventually on the streets.  I'm one of those people.  For now.

  One of my "art studios."  Working on my David Bowie drawing at a McDonald's in Richmond, 2019.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos

There is no "typical" homeless person.  Most of the people I meet, especially these days, had decent jobs and made decent money, at some point.  Huge medical bills, bad divorces, house fires, car accidents, illnesses, and all kinds of similar paths lead people to the streets.  

In my case, I work as much, probably more, while homeless, then I did when I had jobs (except taxi driving, that was 70-100 hours a week).  While homeless, I've sold maybe 50 pieces of pretty cool Sharpie art, written hundreds of blog posts that actually get read, and done other creative work.  I built a small, but solid, hardcore blog following,  some of which I've sold drawings to.  

Like I said, I've also taken thousands of photos along the way, of the weird stuff I see, and documented my journey.  #SEstreetlife is me sharing some of those photos, on Pinterest, on Twitter, on Facebook, here in my blog. and I plan to start making NFT's for sale (Non Fungible Tokens), with some of these photos.  Here are a few of my photos from the last three years. I've spent all but six months of that time homeless.  These all happened because Steve Crandall gave me his old iPhone, and I really thank him for helping me out.  Like every creative project, I have no idea where this will lead.  That's part of the fun.  Welcome to #SEstreetlife.  My #SEstreetlife Pinterest board will have the biggest collection of these photos. 

Big air at the DIY World Championships, put on by Steve Crandall and Chad at Powers Bikes.  Powers Bikes' parking lot area (old location), in October 2018.  This was one great day of BMX, made even better since I hadn't been to a BMX comp in over ten years at that point.  I shot this photo standing almost on the exact spot where Steve gave me his old iPhone a month earlier.  #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos. 

I've started a new personal blog, centered around my life on the streets, and the fight to make a decent living doing creative stuff, check it out:

Steve Emig's Street Life  #SEstreetlife