Like many Generation X people, as a kid, I was a huge fan of Jacques Cousteau, inventor of the SCUBA tank, legendary underwater explorer, and producer of many great documentaries about the ocean. The idea of decompression is from the diving world. If you come up too fast, gases can build up in your blood stream, and give you decompression sickness, also known as the bends. In my experiences struggling with homelessness, I've found there's a "decompression" period needed when coming off the streets, which makes SCUBA diving a good metaphor for exiting homelessness. If you "come up" too fast, it can freak you out.
On December 26th, I got a message from Kerry Getz, who I met because I used to go watch her perform, singing locally a lot, starting back in 2002 or 2003. We became friends along the way. She'd been keeping an eye on my blog and Facebook posts, and had helped me out while I was living homeless in the Hollywood area. She's known me long enough to know I don't do drugs, and I'm a reasonably intelligent and OK guy, in normal circumstances. I also stopped drinking many years ago. I'm not an alcoholic who had to stop. I was a very sporadic social drinker, but as a taxi driver for several years, I dealt with overly drunk people nearly every night. As a professional driver, I couldn't get caught with any level of alcohol in my blood, and I worked 7 days a week for years. So I rarely drank on my time off when driving the cab. When I stopped driving, I just decided I didn't want to drink anymore. So I just stopped. I'm not a big fan of beer or wine, and hard liquor mostly just makes me sick the next day. So quitting was easy.
Anyhow, Kerry just messaged me the day after Christmas, and said she had a spare bedroom I could stay in for a while. It was too late to make the long bus/train trip down to Orange County that day, so I spent one last night out on the streets of Studio City, which is just over the hill from Hollywood, in the San Fernando valley. I headed down to Kerry's place the next day, and I've been staying there as a guest for 2 1/2 weeks now. So I owe Kerry a huge thanks for this opportunity. Thanks Kerry!
One of the many things most people don't understand about being homeless is just how different it is from "normal" life. It's like being in a parallel universe in a way. I went to places and interacted with regular people every day. But the necessities of life mean there's a whole different set of rules and level of stress on the streets. In this article from October, I learned that 1,000 people died on the streets of L.A. last year. I already knew that I went to sleep every single night, knowing I could die in a whole bunch of horrible ways, before morning. You never take the next day for granted on the streets, if you're smart. But I had no idea that many people actually died on the streets of L.A., just form homelessness. If it was any other population of people, that would be a moral outrage. But homeless people don't really count in most people's opinion, so it's not a well know number. To put that in context, there were 252 homicides in 2019 in L.A., through December 21st.
In addition to knowing you could die quite easily each and every night, you get sick on the streets, you don't sleep anywhere near enough, or as well as you should. You eat a sketchy diet, whether you hit the free food circuit, or buy your own food. You have to be suspicious of everyone, particularly people who say they want to help you, there are all kinds of shady characters out there, some in official positions. Day to day life is simply about survival, there is no mid term or long term future. It just takes a whole different mentality to stay alive on the streets for any length of time.
In addition to that, I was basically trying to get a viable business off the ground, selling my Sharpie artwork, the one thing I could do that consistently made me some income. Here's one of my drawings, below. You can't "just get a job," without a phone, decent clothes, a place to shower, money for transportation and food, a good work history, and a whole bunch of other things average people don't realize. I showed up in Hollywood in early September with 81 cents in my pocket, a few clothes, and my art supplies. I was making $600 or more a month by December, and sold artwork on five continents in that time. Seriously. Gotta love the internet age. But a few hundred dollars a month is a long way from enough to make the jump to renting a room full time, and getting going with "normal" life again.
From previous experience, I knew that it takes at least a couple of weeks to even begin to settle down and get in some kind of rhythm of "normal" life again. That's just the psychological aspect. IN addition, there's the physical recovery needed. On the streets, my feet got super dry and I get this bad psoriasis-type thing happening. I intentionally dehydrated myself, and I was eating mostly fast food. I did that for a few reasons, the main reason is that I didn't have a place to use the restroom from about 9 pm until 7 or 8 am. I could take a leak in the bushes, but nothing more. Clogging up my gut with fast food helped keep me from needing a bathroom at night. You have to think of things like that while homeless.
Then, as soon as I get a stable environment, I not only needed to "decompress" mentally, but there's a long, physical healing process needed. I started eating a ton of fiber and some fruit and fresh orange juice to clean my gut out. Being able to shower regularly, and the better nutrition, helped my feet to begin healing up. I also found that I had swimmer's ear-type infections in both ears, so I'm using a white vinegar wash to heal those up. Basically, there's a major physical physical detoxification and healing process needed, that will take a year or more of stable life to fully achieve.
Having done this before, I knew what to expect, and I've been eating better, mixed with binging on way too much ice cream, and a few other things I couldn't eat on the streets. Now I'm through the initial part of the mental decompression, and the physical part is happening.
Now it's time to get serious about turning my art, and my other talents, into a viable living income, REAL QUICK, so I can keep a roof over my head and earn my way in this world again. I've been working long hours nearly every day, though there were a few days of 12 hours of sleep at first. I'm walking 3 to 5 miles nearly every day, and beginning to think farther into the future. Now it's time to make my freelance level art work into a legit business.
So that's where I'm at, for anyone interested. A huge thank you to everyone who has helped me over the last 2 1/2 completely crazy years. I've got a lot of cool ideas in my head; art, art shows, zines, books, and other projects, so it's time to make them start happening.
