Documentary: Homeless in New York Part 2: Homeless and Hired

Brut America

"I used to be on the street too."   Brut filmmaker Léo Hamelin met Courtney when she was sleeping in Central Park. A year later, Courtney is in recovery and has found a job. But even though she lives in a shelter, she's still homeless in New York City ...

Transcript

00:00I'm with my boyfriend in our lovely bed for the night.

00:03This is our shelter, and it is pouring fucking rain

00:06as you see in New York City today.

00:09A year ago, Kourtney and her partner Britton

00:12were sleeping in Central Park.

00:14That's roughly when I started filming with them.

00:16I had a job, he had a job.

00:17We lost both of our incomes at once,

00:19and that's when we started sleeping in parks.

00:22I was really impressed by Kourtney's voice

00:24and how she addressed the reality

00:27of homelessness in New York City.

00:28I'm sleeping in a fucking park here, dude.

00:30There's no need to be rude to me on TikTok, too.

00:33In the months after the dog came out,

00:34I kept checking in and filming with Kourtney,

00:36and a lot has happened, so I wanted to share an update.

00:39She's still sober.

00:41Her and Britton are in a long-term shelter in Brooklyn,

00:44and she recently got a job at a harm reduction center

00:47where she used to go when she was still using

00:50and living in the streets.

00:51Three of these MaxiPads, and two of these boxes,

00:58and three tampons.

01:02So they have the menstrual items,

01:04like the pads and tampons and stuff in them.

01:06Pad, tampons, anything you want, some of those?

01:09Another thing that's really cool about this place

01:11is that they have a lot of stuff

01:13that you don't see in other places in the city.

01:15So, for example, they have a lot of like,

01:17like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

01:19like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,

01:22You can wear a panty liner if you wear underwear

01:24more than one days, like,

01:25and just switch to a panty liner each day.

01:26I used to be on the street, too.

01:30I've learned so much in my time being homeless.

01:34So much about other people,

01:35and I want to change people's minds.

01:38Thank you so much.

01:42If you need more, let me know, too.

01:44It's hot out.

01:47Working somewhere like that makes it easier for me.

01:52Yeah.

01:53Housing status, if they feel safe in their housing,

01:55and where they slept last night,

01:57and then mental health and chronic health.

01:59I know that I'm working somewhere that I feel comfortable,

02:03I feel safe, I feel like I have a community.

02:14Right now, I'm giving you guys a speech

02:16from in front of my homeless shelter.

02:18And I just wanted to show you guys kind of the kits

02:21that I hand out to people.

02:22I spoke to a high school class

02:24and taught them about homelessness.

02:26My house actually burned down

02:28and I lost everything I owned.

02:30My two younger sisters passed away

02:33and I was unhoused for the first time ever at 15.

02:36I ended up with a severe mental illness,

02:40a lot of PTSD.

02:42It triggered bipolar disorder in me

02:44and I was self-medicating through alcohol and drugs.

02:47Since I'm in sobriety, I have seven months right now.

02:49I'm trying to give back to the community

02:51and be the person that I would have needed

02:53when I was in active addiction.

02:56Thank you for having me.

02:57I was really excited to talk to you guys.

03:01Stand clear of the closing doors, please.

03:07I know I look back at a lot of my friends

03:09from high school or college and I'm not where they are.

03:11And I feel like, what's wrong with me?

03:13Why am I so far behind?

03:15But then I think about it and I realize, you know,

03:17I'm allowed to be proud of little accomplishments.

03:23On Thursdays, we are trying to find a spot

03:27when we could find them

03:28because most of the time they want to get together.

03:30So we're going around in a few places down there.

03:34Hey guys, what's up?

03:37So, all right, I'm here to pick up your dirties.

03:40We got one right here.

03:44We try to get out there and do the best we can.

03:47Mike is good with directions.

03:49He knows this place like the back of his hand.

03:59This is a heroin baggie, obviously.

04:05We like put down where we found what baggies and what stamps

04:09so that way we can test them and know what's in them.

04:13Sometimes finding baggies like that

04:15will trigger me a little bit

04:17because those are the type of baggies

04:18that I used to get, you know?

04:20I'm almost reaching a year.

04:22I'm nine and a half months sober.

04:23So at this point, I've worked through my triggers

04:26and what triggers me and I can handle it better.

04:28Like I can pick up those baggies

04:29and I'm not going to go use when I get home

04:32because I've been able to handle it better.

04:41There's all those.

04:42Yes.

04:45Okay, so that's everything we have.

04:48Do you want to see if they have food?

04:50Or do you want to see if they have any clothes up for you?

04:52Because I know you need clothes.

04:54Okay, I know I don't post about my boyfriend on here a lot,

04:57but he hasn't had a real job,

04:58like a really good job in two years.

05:01But he just found out that he got hired

05:04for a really, really, really good job

05:06and he starts next week and I'm so, so excited.

05:09Look at the new worker.

05:11We're so proud of him.

05:13Hi.

05:14Hey.

05:15You're so pretty, hi.

05:18Oh my God, those are actually perfect.

05:20You don't have interview pants, do you?

05:23Okay, let's take them then.

05:25I'm currently making $20 an hour,

05:2920 hours to 25 hours a week.

05:33Which already is playing really close to the income cap,

05:37even though that's not like a livable,

05:39survivable wage in New York City.

05:41So say I even take out like five extra hours a week,

05:45my housing could be affected.

05:49I know.

05:52I wish we could live somewhere like that.

06:00When you've had so much housing instability in your life,

06:04every time you're living somewhere,

06:07in the back of your mind you're like,

06:09can this be taken away from me?

06:11Kourtney's story is so important to understand

06:14the spectrum of homelessness.

06:16Before she was in the streets, she was couch surfing.

06:18Now she's in a long-term shelter.

06:20All of these are types of homelessness

06:22and it's really hard to break out of that cycle.

06:25In fact, for adult families like Britton and Kourtney,

06:28the average length of stay in a DHS shelter is 700 days.

06:35Just got off work and I'm having like

06:37one of those stressful days where like,

06:40I have to help my friend get into a shelter last minute

06:43and it's almost six o'clock

06:44and there's almost no places to get into.

06:46And I have so much going on.

06:48And then I realized how lucky I am

06:49because eight months ago I was sleeping in a subway station

06:53and now I'm there for my friends so much

06:55that they count on me to get them into a shelter

06:57and get them somewhere safe.

06:59You were staying in a motel, right?

07:01Yeah, and so I've just been like bouncing around

07:04like with all this instability,

07:07going through this and feeling alone

07:08is more isolating than anything else.

07:12It's just the worst.

07:20Being friends with Kourtney is such a good thing.

07:21She gets it.

07:23So many LGBT youth are struggling

07:25with exactly what you're going through

07:26with their families not being accepting

07:28and you know, they're scared of being unhoused

07:30and they're gonna see this

07:31and they're gonna know like, it's okay.

07:34You know, like they'll find their community

07:37eventually one day.

07:40I hope so too.

07:42I know this sounds stupid

07:44and when people in AA would say this,

07:45like be grateful for the little things,

07:47I'd be like, shut up.

07:49But you know what?

07:50Today I'm grateful for the little things.

07:52I really am.

07:55Even though I still have some type of instability

07:57in housing and I'm trying to break that cycle

07:59to the best of my ability,

08:01every time I thought I can't make it through this,

08:04I've made it through this and I've survived.

08:08So I just try to keep that attitude

08:10and stay positive and look on the better side of things.

08:14Since we filmed this doc,

08:15Kourtney still works in harm reduction.

08:18She celebrated one year of recovery

08:20and she's just one of the 107,000 New Yorkers

08:24who slept in a shelter system last year.

Category

Transcript

Recommended