Dark Days Page #7

a lot of health difficulties.

There are respiratory conditions...

from living in cool, dank conditions-

Uh, asthma I know is prevalent

amongst a few individuals.

Um- And it's just-

There's a lot of vermin and disease

that spread from the-

from rodents and vermin in the tunnel.

And, of course, the danger of living

close to high-speed trains.

Individuals run the risk

of being struck by trains.

We've had two fatalities there

in the course of the year.

One woman froze to death from exposure,

and another individual

was struck by a train.

It is absolutely a dangerous,

horrendous living situation.

Oh, this tastes pretty good.

There- There you go.

Be like it ain't right.

It tastes pretty good.

- Look at him.

- Why are you smiling though?

You better be thinking

about where we're goin'

when we get out of this motherf***er.

Maybe the cooking's over.

I'll probably go back

on the East Side.

- Yeah? You can't build over there.

- Huh?

Can't build nothin' over there.

We'll find somewhere.

That sounds shitty.

You can't go- Can't go in the park.

Damn know that.

What you gonna do?

Gotta move on.

You gotta- See, you gotta learn

how to go with the flow.

Yeah, I know, but I been goin' with the

flow, man, since I became homeless.

That's how he got in here

is goin' with the flow.

No, I'm sayin'... -Uh-huh.

Every time, I stay in the flow.

I'm sayin'... -When are we

gonna get the f*** outta the flow?

Bein' homeless, it's all types of problems.

- You never know what lies ahead.

- Mmm.

So until it comes, then you deal with it.

Can't plan sh*t,

being really homeless. -Mmm.

- You know what I'm sayin'?

- No, you can't.

- Can't plan sh*t.

- No.

You know what I'm sayin'? You say, "I'm

goin' home and goin' to sleep". -Yeah.

They f*** around. You get there,

and that motherf***er's gone.

Yeah. Your home is gone. Yeah. -Yeah,

you can put more water in there.

I remember what happened to us.

You know what I'm sayin'?

It's very hard to plan,

so what you gotta do...

is- is deal with it day by day.

Yeah, when we used to sleep upstairs,

when they were goin' home

to go to sleep-

Our home was gone.

I was gonna go down to 28th Street

and let 'em sign us up in the Y.

'Cause I ain't goin' in no shelter.

Gotta sign us up someplace.

- Shelter's out.

- Say what?

Shelter is out.

I ain't goin' in no shelter.

I'll ride the train.

I ain't gonna ride

no motherfuckin' train.

I tried that about two nights.

That ain't nothin'.

Our first response,

because of the long relationship

that we've had with our clients,

was to immediately go to court.

Previous to Amtrak's decision

to evict people out of the tunnel,

we had just sued Amtrak on the grounds

they could not throw people out of Penn Station,

a travel area here in New York City.

So when we found out that Amtrak

was gonna come in, we were-

Immediately we thought law suit,

because we knew...

we had to stop them from

throwing people out of the tunnel...

who had called it their home

for 10, 15, 25 years.

We met with Amtrak officials, and

they were very- at first very abrupt.

They wanted everybody out.

Had to be in a few days.

They were gonna fence it off,

put in security guards.

And we worked out a plan

that we would assist people...

into moving into temporary shelter

if Amtrak would not evict people.

Um, but soon thereafter

we learned of a program...

run by the federal government-

a Section 8 program-

and we guaranteed Amtrak...

that no one would be left

inside of the tunnels.

The Section 8 program, the housing

program here in New York City,

is a great ticket into housing.

It guarantees someone an apartment,

helps pay the brokers

and the security fees.

So it was a perfect chance,

and I think Amtrak knew that,

uh, it's a good opportunity

to work with advocates...

rather than having a legal challenge.

And, um, on our part, on civil liberties'

part, we were pretty confident.

Had we had to go to court,

we would have won.

It was a crystal-clear violation

of people's rights.

But we didn't want to defend people

to live on the street.

We wanted to get them into housing.

That was the ultimate goal.

And, uh, we're glad

we didn't have to go to court.

A'ight. You ready? Go!

Ah.

We're outta here!

We're outta here!

Whoo!

It's hard to believe

it's our last day in this place.

Right? I thought this day

would never come.

- Right?

- It did.

I thought this day would

never come. Right? -Yup.

No doubt.

- Are you excited?

- Excited?

- Yeah. No doubt.

- Excited.

- Excited.

- Blazing excited.

Feel like a crackhead who just found

a thousand bottles on the tracks.

- Yo. That's all dirty laundry.

- Yeah?

Yeah. -So wanna put

all the dirty sh*t in here?

Yeah. -A'ight. That way, we don't mix

the dirty clothes in with the clean ones.

All right.

There it goes!

That's goin'.

Hey! Strong hands.

All right, load it up

and make it strong.

What was it you said

about you got a job?

Oh, yeah. Got a job.

Comin' up. 8.50 an hour.

Working at King's Steak in the Bronx.

That's all right 'cause I'm gonna

blow you out of the water...

once I get this mountain bike

and start working this messenger's job.

As a cook. -Start makin', like,

seven or eight bills a week.

What you gonna do then, huh?

Hey, enough to pay the rent.

Enough to help out with food.

- I don't care.

- No doubt.

- Anything helps.

- Once we start these jobs,

ain't gonna be no more fried chicken

and sh*t like that.

Gonna be straight-up steaks,

filet mignon and all kinds

of good sh*t every night.

I'll bring steak home

every night of the week.

No doubt.

We gonna gain about- We gonna

gain about 400 pounds apiece, right?

Mm-hmm.

Break that house.

Got some good memories

here, too, in New York.

You gonna miss it?

- Sometimes.

- Definitely gonna miss it.

Not bad enough to come back though.

Just gonna miss

the freedom down here.

The thought of "This is mines, and

I can do whatever I want to with it".

'Cause in an apartment,

you can't do that.

That's all right.

What's next?

Just have you sign

some of these things.

This white piece of paper is your- It's

proof that you're actually homeless.

So long

Little chapel

Damn!

Rack up your light

Rack up your light

F***!

God! God! God! God! Damn!

All right, now!

Come on!

Whoo!

I love my apartment, Jack.

I love my apartment!

I hooked my apartment up.

All the little money I made when I

hustled or made when I was out there,

I'm putting it all back in here

on this apartment...

to make it look decent.

I definitely love my apartment.

As far as the living room's

concerned, you know,

once I get it together the way I want it,

there's eventually going to be

a nice new set of furniture goin' around.

I hope to get these corner couches-

You know what I'm talking about, right?

The kind of sectionals.

Like, this is one sectional here,

as you can see.

But what I want to do

is get a matching sectional...

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