{"id":16202,"date":"2021-01-20T14:07:53","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T19:07:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/?post_type=videos&p=16202"},"modified":"2021-01-20T14:07:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T19:07:53","slug":"homeless-south-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"videos","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/videos\/homeless-south-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercy (not his real name) is homeless in South Los Angeles. This part of LA is rough. The streets have their own language. A person has to either adapt to the lifestyle or get killed. If you weren’t hard before South LA, the streets make you that way.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As you listen to Mercy talk, you’ll hear stories of the cruel streets along with stories of good people helping each other. As hard as the streets make a person, they still have a heart, and there is still hope we can get them off the streets into housing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I included the beginning of our interview because I just love the interactions with Mercy and it helps explain some of the audio issues. I may have had the wrong settings too. When doing street interviews, everything happens fast. I am often in unsafe areas with a lot going on. Ideally, a proper lavalier mic would work best for audio, but I have found getting up close using a shotgun is the quickest and safest. Mercy was uncomfortable with that. You have to understand this is the Hood and his home.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

At times, Mercy may be hard to understand. He’s hardcore. The streets are hardcore. You have to listen to how he says something along with what he is saying.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mercy has been homeless for three years. When I asked him what happened, he responded “what didn’t, a little bit of that. A little bit of this,” and then went on to tell me he was shot while in his tent a year and a half ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Street Watch Los Angeles<\/a> helped me connect with Mercy.\u00a0 <\/span>They are a group fighting for homeless people’s rights. Mercy shares how a woman had her tent poles stollen, and through Street Watch, he was able to replace her tent.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Notice how our conversation changes when I ask Mercy about his future. He has a plan to start a restaurant and another business. Mercy says he is a good cook. One thing homeless services rarely talk about is how important it is for people to have a purpose. With just a little help, I bet Mercy could make his dreams happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[283],"tags":[846,13580,15928,253,7099,10363,16078,11915,7191,7282,948,832,10708,1037,515,10385,508,285,919,7195,507,299,13717,16079,924,16080,14798],"coauthors":[8319],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/videos\/16202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/videos"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/videos"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16202"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}