Last night I met a wonderful homeless man. Bruce is kind and gentle with simple desires. His first wish all he asked for was a warm bed without bedbugs!
After Bruce gave permission for the interview, I started to record. It was cold, and snow was coming down. The camera lens and equipment I used is for stationary interviews, so when Bruce began to move, I just followed along the best I could. A bit of this is out of focus, and this production sure is not the best. Bruce’s umbrella kept hitting me and the camera. I was worried about him as we crossed the streets a few times positioned myself to block traffic.
To keep authenticity and integrity, we never edit interview videos, so anything and everything is there – mistakes and all. I decided to upload this because I really enjoyed talking to Bruce and wanted to share that experience with you.
More importantly, Bruce has physical challenges and should be in housing. People see homeless men and women like Bruce and never get to know their stories. Our work is not to show you there is homelessness because we all know there are people living on the streets. Our work is to educate the public that homeless people are humans. They are real people.
Bruce was a lawyer for 33 years. After his wife died of brain cancer, he ended up homelessness. He traveled to Washington DC to see his daughter. She would not have anything to do with him. Bruce has lived in a homeless shelter for the last two years.
