man: we are one of the busiest recycling centers in the state of california. woman: the recycling center brings poor people from all over the city. narrator: the locals call it dogtown. man: this is the neighborhood where the poor, the unemployed-- this is where they end up. narrator: filmmakers amir soltani and chihiro wimbush follow the lives of those who survive by turning trash into cash. man: where else but america can you make $100 a day picking trash up off the streets? woman: all these people are working very hard to get this. narrator: a struggle of hardship... man: i want come out of this addiction. it's not easy. narrator: to find mercy and hope. man: in one way or another, the street's gonna pay me. narrator: "dogtown redemption," now, only on independent lens.

the corporation for public broadcasting, the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. (hammering) [gulls cawing]

radio: alliance is drugs, it's prostitution, loitering-- the list just goes on and on and on. woman: 3:00 in the morning, clink-clink-clinking down the street. it drives me crazy. woman: the cart is stolen. the cans are stolen. metal is stolen. it's taken from construction sites. radio: is there another guy with a bike and a shopping cart in there right now? man: it's a tragedy because they don't have a place to go to the toilet for those who are homeless. they don't have an income outside of the garbage. man: alliance metals is the hornets' nest

that feeds the hornets that sting the local people that live in this area. man: we are one of the busiest recycling centers in the state of california. how you doing? how's business?

where else but america can you make $100 a day picking trash up off the streets? you know, it's like the old days. when my great-grandfather came to this country, they told him, "there's money in the streets; there's gold to be made," and although it's not literally true, figuratively, it is. i mean, you can get up, be dead broke, no education, no skills, get yourself a shopping cart, walk around the streets, and make $100. recycler: i piss everyone off because i pull more stuff to any recycling center than anyone can. i tie the exact same amount of weight to one side as the other.

i put all glass in the middle, so it balances it out. i've pulled, like, 800 pounds of glass, 50 pounds of cans, about 200 pounds of plastic, all at once. [exhales] i would say it's a 15-mile day because i have to hit every street that a dump truck would hit on a truck's route. the roads you go on, i have to be in the bike lane because a bike lane is flat usually, right, and so when there's road, you know, that goes like this, i've got all that weight on there, and if you pull on the wrong side, the whole thing is gonna flip over 'cause of the road. every day, i got it all worked out--

what i'm gonna do, where i'm gonna go, and who i'm gonna avoid, because there's other recyclers who try to figure out my routes and stuff, so i gotta keep my routes secret, 'cause there's a whole lot of other recyclers trying to do the same thing. so people been kicking me out of the garbage. you can see up here, there's a camera. we have a camera on both sides for scrap metal because scrap metal is a high-theft item which costs the state and the public a lot of money. we photograph every piece of scrap that comes in. we service over 600 customers a day. she's under a lot of stress. people are trying to cheat. people are screaming. people are switching barrels. i can't weigh your glass twice, though.

that's all right. no problem. we'll throw this ticket away. no problem. you already weighed it? people are gonna try and get what they want. they're gonna argue the whole way, and then they're gonna walk out with $50-100 and come back again tomorrow happy. man: what's up, jay? jason: another day, another day. another day, another day? you did good. you did good. you know it. jason, voiceover: once you live on the street like me, it ain't gonna be my mom or my dad or ... anyone who's gonna help me out, really. it's not gonna be ... the preacher, the church, anything. the street's gonna pay me.

in one way or another, the street's gonna pay me. i'm a local painter who's been painting in the streets of oakland for some 40 years. i do quite a bit of my painting out of the trunk of my car and take advantage of parking lots or the sidewalk. well, naturally, i have to mention my best friend and my partner. she really does most all this herself.

i provide her the transportation. if we do part, i'm gonna make sure she has a setup somewhere. miss kay: he's a very kind-hearted man, and he's a good person. he worries about other people more than he worries about himself. i was roadie-ing for her band. i played drums. she's a drummer. we met backstage. man: 1, 2, 3, 4! [music playing] miss kay: in the eighties, i was the drummer of polkacide. there was 11 of us. ha ha ha! there were a lot of horns. we played up and down california for about two years straight. we had a clarinet, two trumpets, trombone, two saxophones-- oh, and two accordion players.

ha ha ha! talk to you later. bye-bye. take care. man: everyone who recycles is just not a criminal or a crook or wrong. people have had some hardships in life. some people were born into poverty. some people were born with a half a chance to really make it out here. i'm not a kind of person who is really fond of bylaws

or programs or things like that. i've been living, you know, like a mustang, so to say. i've been out here, and i'm used to not having a lot of rules and regulations to abide by. when to get up, when to go to sleep-- that's like jail to me. i got to realize that in 16 years, i'll be 70 years old. fortunately, i'm still physically strong, you know, and mentally strong. i think recycling is good 'cause it's legitimate, and it could pay good. i'd like to do it on a bigger scale or a higher level. man: this whole family has always been brought up in the church.

there's a scripture in proverbs says, "train up a child in the way he should go, and it will never depart from him." we were trained, and we were taught and trained to walk this walk of faith. even though we went off track in this walk, the walk never left us. as a matter of fact, landon was ordained. he was working in the ministry 100%. what happened? i'm gonna admit that, you know, it wasn't like, ok, well, society did this to me, and, you know, it was other people's fault. it was definitely my fault that i ended up in the position that i am today. man: right about the time we turned 18 or so was really when the crack cocaine epidemic hit our community, and it hit us like a ton of bricks. it caused our loved ones throughout the community

to steal, people that never stole before, and they were stealing from their own families, you know? it was easy access. take your family television, you know? take your mother's jewelry. we struggled with him until finally one day, you know, we agreed, my mother and i, we're just gonna wash our hands of this guy. we're gonna let him go. it was very hard for my mother. [barking] man: i think i have a tolerance for a lot of things. i mean, this is not the prettiest neighborhood. i mean, i don't mind a little bit of scruffiness, and i don't mind a little bit of edginess, but, you know, there are some things that i really don't like. i don't like the drug use, and i don't like the, you know, people urinating and defecating in public. one of the things that's wrong with alliance metals is the fact that jay still will take shopping-cart business.

woman: we get complaints about the possibility of his receiving stolen goods. we're seeing more and more metal being taken from public facilities and even private homes. man: one of my customers, observing jay's impact on the neighborhood, he likened him to a modern-day plantation owner. it's not very nice, it's not very flattering, but if you think about it, it's pretty accurate. here you'vgot a rich white guy, comes into a neighborhood, and he's got a whole bunch of black people that-- poor black people that he provides a subsistence, but that's it, and he's making a ridiculous profit off of their labors. [talking indistinctly] jay: i'm not a saint. i'm a businessman, and we do make a profit here.

i built this business from nothing. i put 16 years of my life into it. it's a business that i'm proud of. it's an industry that i can feel good about. it's socially responsible. it's environmentally sound. it's sustainable. nancy: the attitude of the owner of the recycling center is that he is helping the poorest of the poor, and i question that. i don't think he's helping them. if he--if he really wanted to help them, he would let them have a job, a real job, not be a contractor that he makes a lot of money off of the stuff that they bring, and they make a little bit, just enough money to get the crack around the corner. bill: not to say that all of alliance metals' customers are doing drugs, but there are a group, and he is financing, you know, a local drug economy here. jay: the people who've moved here

want these people to simply no longer exist in their neighborhood. well, this has been their neighborhood for a hundred years. this is the neighborhood where the poor, the unemployed-- this is where they end up. this is west oakland. i got there, and he didn't look right, and i told him, i said, "come on, landers. if you can get out of here," i said, "i'll drag you out of here, man.

you're my best friend. come on." landon: she stayed with me and had somebody go call 911, and they ran some x-rays, and they found out that i had a lacerated spleen and i had internal bleeding. there was two other gurneys in there, and i look to the side, and i see one of my cousins, and he said, "my brother reuben has a place out in vallejo. i'm gonna tell him to come find you." reuben: i'm the director of a program for men who are wanting to make changes in their lives from drugs and alcohol. i really believe that this program can really work for those who choose to come. nothing grows from a seed unless it dies first, you know? so, i've been through my valleys of weeping. i've been out here for a while, and i want to get back to some type of normalcy in my life. how you doing, cousin? what's up, cuz? it's so good to see you, man. i'm glad you made it down here. you ready to make this move now? yeah. i just got to get a little cleaned up

and do a thing, and i'd be glad to. did you bring me a... yeah, yeah. a few things? that's good, that's good. here you go. reuben: i told landon if he wanted to get himself together, that i have a bed waiting for him, so i'm here to pick him up. a lot of the family members haven't seen landon in years, and he hasn't seen his brother in 15 years. when you're out here and into drugs like this, you don't want your family member to see you, you know. you always trying to stay away from him because you feel ashamed, you feel guilty, embarrassed, you know? it's just a humiliating situation. landon: getting off of the streets, the concrete. tired of bushes, makeshift homes.

[engine starts] so, i got this map here. what lot are we on? lot 104, grave 7. i was wondering what's taking him so long, you know, and i tried to call the hospital. they didn't answer the phone. well... he had liver failure and kidney failure.

and then the next day, he went to sleep, and he never woke up. [sobs] there you are. man: her mom had had a daughter and then could have no more children,

and her father really, really, really wanted a son. hayok's father had a mistress. the mistress had hayok. girl. uh-oh. but when hayok was about 3 or 4, the kays emigrated to japan. hayok was supposed to be behind with her birth mother, and her birth mother was so angry with the colonel that she took the little girl to the airport, and there is this scene right out of a movie where the two families are standing around on the tarmac, and the birth mother's going, "you take her," and her mom, being really pissed at the birth mother and the father, not thinking about the child, going, "no, you take her." ping-pong ball, with, like, a 3- or 4-year-old kid, and finally, the colonel said, "ok, we're taking her." if there's not a clearer example of being unwanted, i don't know what is.

woman: me and jason met on a methadone clinic. we would talk every morning. i thought he was cool because he listened to what i had to say. and most people didn't. right on. i'll be right down there. heather: i used to work on the street. i was 19 or 20 when i first started working the street. i didn't want to do it, but i thought i had no choice.

when we started going out, i quit working. i didn't work, not one more time. you didn't get this block, did you? i didn't get it. let's get this in, and then we're done. leave the last one going that way, you know? we'll loop around. landon: august 1st. that was the day i left from over there in oakland, from my shanty, to come here. i learned that i wasn't loving myself out there-- or anyone else, particularly. you know, i had common courtesy, but i was destroying myself out there, you know.

here is a person who wants to better himself again, you know. there was a person who didn't, you know, care whether he lived or died, and it wasn't a garden of eden, you know. it was a babylon, more or less. it was rough. reuben: whatever your goals are and whatever plans you're making for that goal, it's gonna require some commitment. it's gonna require some perseverance , you know. it's gonna require you to develop the principles of patience, because everything ain't gonna fall in your lap like you want it to. sin is always present with me. no matter what-- whatever sin come with and try to shift me, i'm still not going back to the crack house because i'm gonna do something that's gonna keep my motivation level up high... landon: my plans are to stay sober, to stay healthy, to be god-fearing,

to one day find me a wife before i get too old, you know? i'm 54 now, ok? hurry up. ha ha! my whole purpose was for me to get myself in order so i could help other people. woman: we thank you for this day that... i believe i was called to do that, but i would have never been able to do that from there. jason: i was in the hospital for lymphedema. so, my lymph system is ... up, which is a result from endocarditis, hiv-positive or hep c or whatever. it's really hard to just keep going.

uh! ooh! yeah, i caught it. ha ha! ah! jason: normally, every sunday, i come out to my father's house so i can see my son. that's real important to me 'cause my kid is one of the reasons why i try to live a normal life-- the only reason, you know? fruity pebbles! i'd like him to live with me, but right now, he's got a good opportunity, living with my dad, to graduate from school and go to college and make something of himself. man: jason is getting so he can't pull the carts like he used to. his legs are really bad. but when he's feeling good, he can go out and get cans and stuff, so something that makes him still feel proud of himself that he can bring in a little bit of money.

woman: this is my favorite. he loved the beach. those were good times. eric: jason was a very sweet kid, and he was always liked, and he'd always say "thank you" and stuff like that when he was real young. woman: that's when jason achieved his black belt. that was a very big event for him. eric: and then, when he was 13, he used speed. at first, i didn't notice any of the drug use. it just all of a sudden became apparent. we put him in rehab. speed is the worst drug i've ever seen. it's a jekyll and hyde kind of drug. we didn't hear about it until he was older, and it generally came out when he was in a rage, usually under some kind of substance.

neither one of them wanted to say anything about it. i think something did happen, though. margie: if you confronted his brother about it, his brother was always very evasive about it, but he also indicates that something did definitely happen. jason: i wasn't raised in too normal of a setting. my dad liked to drink and stuff like that. j.j., can you move out of the way of the tv? hey, i know how to do it! do you know how to do it? here. you do it the same way you turn on the videogame. ok. go do that. such a good boy. eric: i really love j.j. i'm a much better person around him than i was when jason was being brought up.

jason: he's kind of got a chance to prove that he can raise a kid, and it's cool with me because i think he'll be able to. i mean, i'm gonna be there, too, but i'm kind of not doing so good health-wise. j.j: and another one. i've really got to cope with the fact my life's just a ... dream, because really, that's the only thing that makes me get through the day, is just hoping when i do go, which i know for a fact is gonna be a lot sooner than most, that i'll still be in someone's dream. oh! it's gonna stick to me.

as i think is evident, hayok would rather die than ask for help. did she ever ask you for anything? might have asked you for money or asked you for a beer. on up the hill, up the hill. but for any sort of substantial help, no. it's like it's not there, or it may be, but it doesn't matter. i'm gonna get a beer. i need some bubbles. it's like you only have yourself to depend on, and that's the way life is. miss kay: this will help. ah. i think i'd better go to see a doctor. i hope i don't have cancer. i feel nauseous all the time, you know. [belches] to the toilet now.

my whole family, they don't even want to talk to me, just because, you know, i give everything away. you know, that's their excuse. [slurring] i'm 50-something years old. they still treat me like a little child. now they don't want to see me. i should have been never born into this crap. some days, that's how i get. jason: finally, i was able to get a fair hearing for social security.

now we got an apartment. recycling now and having at least a monthly supplement covers most of our rent. now we got running water, you know, and the, you know, we got... we got--man, everything that you need to take care of yourself. you know what i mean? i'm able to bathe, and, you know, just being able to shave every day and brush my teeth is really cool. we got a toilet now. without a toilet, life sucks, man. and it's not a lot of food, but we got food. we cook all kind of stuff. i can barbecue better than she can. i think i probably make better spaghetti, but the--she makes better, um, stuff

like breakfast stuff. i found this for my kid when i was recycling just the other day. i still got to clean it up a little bit. i'll give that to my kid so he can learn stuff. now we're kind of back to-- back to the basics. man: poor people are seen as powerless people. poor people are seen as people who don't participate. poor people tend to be seen as people that you can dismiss. ok? they don't vote. they're not there. so if people don't have the capacity to push the levers of power, then we don't talk about them. ok. anybody else with a ticket? ticket. who's got a ticket? ok. hold on. i just got to do a headcount, and then we'll come back out. give me a second.

my name is jay anast, president of alliance metals. i've been operating alliance metals for 16 years. we are a business that is still operating in this economy. if you continue with annual reviews and politicizing our businesses, we will continue to put on hold hiring, equipment orders, and normal business functions until the end of each and every hearing. i have three vendors waiting tomorrow to find out if we have a $30,000 equipment order going in or not, based on tonight's decision. thank you very much for your time. [applause] woman: ok. i show a number of other speakers, and i wanted to seek the direction of the chair. your name, sir? my name is jason witt, and i've been a recycler for about 15 years. i was in this neighborhood in west oakland

that most people call dogtown. i'm gonna tell you right now that recycling not only has saved my life. my girlfriend was working on the street as a prostitute. she no longer has to do that because of recycling. as far as i'm concerned, if you take away the recycle center, crime will rise again in oakland to worse than you can ever think. [applause] actually--actually, the recycle center is probably one of the safest places in west oakland. man: yeah! [applause] as a person who works very, very hard for my money every day, i don't want to go to jail. i'm sick and tired of going to jail, and until i can get a job in oakland, until i can get a job, i think that you should allow me to at least recycle. all i'm doing is taking garbage. i'm not touching cars. i'm not touching cars, and i'm not selling drugs. [applause]

i do this now. [applause] bill: i came back around 3:00, and the place was surrounded with cops, and they were turning people away, and they didn't say whether it was for the day or until further notice or anything like that. man: apparently, we ended up buying some pg&e wire, and we shouldn't have bought it. it was stolen. they searched for the wire. about a half-hour, 45 minutes later, they found it. they talked to all the workers and asked questions. nobody really knew anything. right now, they're still in there, talking to jay. i believe it might have been an honest mistake. i think that the city councilwoman from last night was upset with jay, and honestly, i think it was a setup.

nancy: my job is to make sure that there is not illegal activity going on, and there is illegal activity going on there, so it's not a personal vendetta. if he doesn't want police there, he should stop doing illegal stuff. it shows, amongst other things, that for 2 1/2 years, the oakland police and the city administrator's office have been gathering material about alliance metals in an attempt to shut it down. so we're working together with a team to defend jay, defend his license,

but we were shocked. i don't know what else is there. i don't know if this is it. i don't know if it's the tip of the iceberg. yeah. can you help me, ... like-- try some pot? dude, is it? i think so. yeah. thank you. you need to let me come over here and help you throw some of this garbage away. right. ... heather. heather. yes? can i get some water, mama? please? all right. hold on. thank you. mm-hmm. thank you. jason, voiceover: the first time i kicked heroin was, uh, right before i turned 13 or 14 years old. yeah... but you did. you tied that off perfectly for me.

and i kicked in a drug program in oakland. aw, ... i just totally ... and, like, they tell you you'll never be the same. you'll never be able to drink, like, at your graduation for school. there's no way. so then you say, ... school, ... the graduation, ... the world. you know what i mean? when you're a kid and you go into one of those, those things kind of set your life up. you're a drug addict the rest of your life. starting to feel a little better. [exhales] baby, i'm gonna pull you 'cause you don't look too good. i'm gonna pull you

up to the hospital, all right? come on. step. now. ... step up. step up. slide. yeah, now. stay smiling. you want a cigarette? not like a clown. you want a cigarette? what i'm thankful for today is that right now, i can look back, and i can see all the errors and the mistakes that i made in life. i was told that i'll push a shopping cart down the street, sleeping under a bridge or a freeway for the rest of my life. lord, i got to trust in you. i want to come out of this addiction. i want a wife. i want to live a quiet and peaceable life.

and it wasn't until this year that i obtained some of that. [chuckles] and i'm still waiting on the lord for the rest. miss kay: it's crazy. it hasn't got any better. it hasn't got any worse, but it hasn't got any better. i want this madness to go away. [tapping] i do want it to go away. it's a real mess. i, uh, i'm sorry, but i don't know how, uh, how to...figure it out,

but i hope it goes away. i--i think it's 'cause my daddy's dead, fred's dead. and i don't have a family and children. i think that's what's destroying me. what have i done to deserve this? jason: he put a ... three-day notice, "pay or quit," just the other day, and my rent's not even up.

he basically wanted us to have no outside use. he wanted us to have all indoor use of the apartment, and that just does not fly, not when you're paying that much money in rent. so i had to use the inside of my apartment for everything that normally would be outside. heather's kind of lost it, and a lot of things have happened, right? but i'll stick by her. landon: i came out here to bring the little recycling i got, because i'm still doing that stuff. i got the company's truck over here, and the fourth of july is coming up tomorrow, wednesday, and i thought if a few people wanted to come out of here and go over there and enjoy a day at the park

and eat some barbecue, they're welcome to come. hey, miss kay, how are you doing? good. how are you? you know, i've been trying to get people to come out on the fourth and have some barbecue with me out there in vallejo. so i'll probably come out here tomorrow and ride around. if anybody want to go back, they welcome to. oh, ok. all right. hey, landon. yes, sir? yeah, of course you can. yeah. i understand. i understand. i understand. you know i'm pastor in a church now, huh? yeah. ok. so quit cursing at your pastor friend. oh, oh! ha ha! no. don't go all that straight. i can't bring certain spirits in the realm of other spirits

that are living clean and sober or trying to do the right thing, and then you bring that element in, even whether they're your friend or not, and they come and they bring the spirit of alcohol, the spirit of drugs, and the spirit of cursing-- things that we just don't do, and so you don't want to bring that influence into people who's trying to steer themselves away from that. it's time for a change, man. i come out of that stuff, and i never want to return to it, but the truth is, i love those people down there more than the people that i've become accustomed to now, because i can understand their plight, and i want to embrace them. i want to hug them. i... [exhales]

it's not easy. mmm! delicious. uh-huh. yeah. yeah. i learned that a person like me, with my character and personality, i never get sick and tired of getting sick and tired. i just get sick and tired because i could always go worse because i could tolerate too much. yeah. is it a problem, do you think? hmm? do you think it's a problem? hmm. when you can tolerate a whole bunch of stuff, yeah, because you'll never get past what you're willing to tolerate. you will never in life get past what you're willing to tolerate. i got to the point where i wasn't willing to tolerate it anymore. yeah, me, too. i'll get there. i wouldn't be able to tolerate it.

that's where i'm at. jay: my favorite one to throw away-- city of oakland action against us. all this was the evidence they brought against us, plus 3,000 pages of documentation. we ended up with a very good settlement. the city ended up paying us $75,000 and gave us an iron-clad contract that now gives us more rights and protections than any other recycler in oakland. this final battle clinched making the sale possible. sirs, congratulations. here's the keys to the shop. i think that we've done all that we can, and now it's time for fresh blood to come in, new people wanting to make a mark for themselves. ha ha ha!

woman: i wasn't interested in a relationship with a man. my focus is on god. thank you so much. ok, everybody. you're a sight. yes, ma'am. i'm off to see the wizard. and, um... here we are. [organ playing] landon: i appreciate life better. all the journeys of the past, i wouldn't change a thing, no matter how tragic it may have been,

anything that would alter me being with my best friend, the person i love very much. officiant: ...this man and this woman. do you take this woman to be your wedded wife? i do. i pronounce that they are husband and wife in the name of our father and the son and of the holy ghost. kiss your bride. attendees: amen. [applause] come on. let's put your hands together. galen: at first, i didn't feel the need to have to be here, but today is like the first time i've seen him since my mother passed. my mother passed in '89. well, you know, there was a company... it allows me to do the forgiveness that i probably should have done. what's happening? i would like to honor my wife...

suzette goodwin. i'd like to honor her. the best. [applause and cheering] and when i see her, i know that god loves me. to you, suzette, in the name of jesus. salute. jason: almost. man: that's good. ok. very good. see how it kind of hangs? you don't want it hanging this way. you want it hanging under, where it lays against the thing. that's it. man: we get different people that walk into here, and i was first was alerted by other people. they go, "he has numchucks in his back pocket," and i had other students, "do you want us to take care of him, take him out?" i'm like, "no. he seems fine," you know? you know? i came up and talked to jason, and he was really respectful, really nice, and i said, whoa, i kind of like this guy, you know? then one day, he just came up to me, and he said, "i'm gonna start next month." and now come straight. no, that's sideways. straight.

straight? to his head. to his head. straight to my eyes. ok? so now when you do it again, you go straight for my eyes. instructor: jason is moving forward with his life and listening to what we're saying and knowing that he's in control of the way he wants to live his life. he's in control of his reality, and i think he's starting to really understand that. what originally drew me here was, like... like, uh, 'cause i was having a hard time with the heroin. drugs and drug abuse and getting high. it was like an escape, and it was a way to get aggression out. but, like, this is, like, a way to get peace in. nothing really has ever made me feel like this. very nice, jason. very good. thank you.

it might have already saved my life. these friends, i truly look up to. hey! and i'm choosing to be around people who i see actually are doing something with their lives, you know? this just feels like a family. man: he's our brother now. he is part of our family. he is our brother. that's right. and we've got his back. [sniffling] remember that, jason.

all these spiders, nobody home.

woman: have you ever dated somebody who was on the spectrum before? man: gangs or football. it's a continuous struggle. coach: the past is gone! the future lays out there at the 50 yard line! make your own history! let's go, baby! connect with independent lens online at pbs.org. you can also follow us on facebook and twitter. watch videos and explore interactive features. there's always more to every program on our website.

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