A Week in Watts Page #3

---

and the effects

of what that cocaine does to you,

we have a different type of prostitution.

It's called crack whores,

and they literally prostitute

just to get enough money

to buy their crack.

Oh, what did she say?

Are you homeless?

Yeah.

How come?

- Huh?

- Why are you homeless?

Why I'm homeless?

Because I refused to be abused by people.

How long you been homeless?

- How long you been homeless?

- Huh?

How long have you been homeless?

About three years,

but I'm waiting for my housing.

I'm on the list,

but haven't got my housing yet.

I'm HIV positive.

The third part we're

talking about is the human trafficking.

Gangs are now expanding into that

where they'll get foster care kids.

They'll give the kids

comfort, food, living

and then pimp them out on the street,

and it's becoming very, very popular.

Gang members will often

get girls hooked on drugs,

and that's a way to kind of

keep a leash on them.

How long have you had HIV?

When I was 11 years old,

I was involved in human trafficking.

Bad people.

Did they make you turn tricks?

Yeah, and undercover cops were in on it.

Anyone who spends any amount of time

in these communities sees drug abusers,

homeless people often

that are milling about like zombies.

- How are you doing?

- How are you doing?

...we are all gonna go up on roof.

Come here.

I'm just asking, you're not in trouble.

When is the last time you got high?

No. I got somebody

holding my basket for me.

They are just by the wheelchair,

and my mother just called.

When's the last time you smoked?

I kicked the habit

because I seen my daughter.

She was right- I seen her

a couple days ago. She's seeing her Daddy.

- Good for you.

- I'd like to go before they get my basket.

- That's a good idea. All right.

- Sounds good.

It's incredibly sad.

If you can just imagine being a child and

seeing maybe your mother or your father

walking around collecting cans

in a neighborhood

so they can get that next

small amount of drugs.

You know,

these people are treated horribly

by the gang members

in these neighborhoods.

You know, again, like I mentioned,

they often times walk around

like zombies trying to get their next fix.

Coming from specifically what we do,

we work the housing developments.

Um, I know we worked Central

which is mostly like Skid Row,

homeless communities, southwest.

You have a lot of different classes.

You have rich class,

you have a middle class,

and you have a poverty class.

More of this area,

southeast where we work,

it's mostly middle class and below.

You don't really have

anything higher than that.

And us working the housing developments,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes