An experiment in giving cash to recently homeless people [video]
Cash will help some homeless people like me. I have endured five years homeless in Los Angeles. Still here, somehow, despite covid, curfews, looters, lack of police, being shot at twice and attacked more than a dozen times.<p>I managed to setup my hn login last month but have yet to figure out how to follow the comment threads effectively from my phone.<p>Yes Los Angeles. Some call it ground zero of the US homeless problem.<p>It started on a Friday morning in December 2015 when my roommate&#x2F;landlord rushed me from behind with a knife at 8 am in Santa Monica California. Long story short, police believed my white assailant when he lied and said I made it all up. They put his lie down on the report and lied further saying I was agitated and looked crazy (i was in shock because the attack was a huge surprise, and had I not sensed the attack in time it would have been a 7&quot; henkl straight through the heart from behind). I left next day, homeless day#1, but filled with hope for a better tomorrow with no further unprovoked attacks from behind.<p>I got a job at McD and worked min wage living out of an old chevy cavalier i bought off craigslist for $300. And it took a full year to save up enough to rent a small room. Just as I was calling the first ads, in Feb 2017, an armed forces veteran rear ended me in broad daylight breaking my neck and totaling my cavalier. He told me it was his second accident in two months. Hmmm so i guess he fuct up someones Christmas before messing up my Valentines day.<p>I went to an accident attorney who sent me to a chiropractor who broke my neck further and also broke my back. I was expecting therapy, just as any of you might expect. But I was served pain instead, essentially giving me a replay of the original knife attack trauma.<p>So I was not happy when they next recommended I now needed surgery. It was just to use me as meat to bid up the price of an insurance settlement. The surgeon they sent me to wore makeup. As easy as it sounds now to say no to that...it was hard to say no because I have been in constant pain every hour of every day since that car accident.<p>Arg this is too tiring to type this much with thumbs. From my meager start on hn a part of me feels like it isnt even worth sharing the rest of my story. But I am a social creature and I do not want to be homeless until death which is what the Santa Monica police want at this rate.<p>So consider experimenting more please, and you are welcome to start with me.