on the block at g.o.p. we're just in my neighborhood you know i. basically almost slept on every street down here at one time or another i think i would never ever live in a way else you know skid row is my home. as many as eleven thousand men and women make their home in l.a. skip around. about two thirds struggle with mental illness trying to addiction or both but it wasn't always this way. i came to skid row it was more like skid row's we identify old drunks old drunks on the street. it used to look terrible he's old chris incarnation of drunks. and when it was really safe because they were not very aggressive now we have young strong crack addicts who are many times are willing to take a chance at rolling stone to get their money to get some more crack it's

a different addition. there's always been efforts to get rid of skid row it was a war and for people who are unable to live in the world and they didn't even try to move through again and again but just moved into a different area when big money developers began to revitalize downtown the flop houses got new neighbors and penned houses and high end lofts. there are not many places where the gap between rich and poor is a striking as it is here. literally there is just a block or two separating those two things and i'm cruising where there's nothing so cruel as to science i was. really going over to some skid row this is the new or through my still to. back you were to drop it people didn't come down to see and it don't tell you this well the air without free will and of all this is dirt fields and burn barrels and they will cut your throat down to your people become past main street you didn't do. call the pittsburgh down. the people we're told is different

for go through a whole generation of. potential real straight through or ground troops here where people are interested in learning much interest from the people who are on the ground everyone who lands on skid row has a story to tell about how they got there for many it's the last stop after losing everything for some to follow says specially term magic my life you know prior to coming to escape. in some ways like most people not always it was a little bit different you know i i was born in compton grew up there with five brothers and sisters lost my dad when i was three my mom when i was fourteen at that point i moved out to california and i was an athlete in high school and decent student and started smoking weed you know in high school at the age of fourteen after my mom passed away yet and still you know i was good enough athletically to

earn a full scholarship to university of iowa state university where i was a national champion in track and field and also was able to go and qualify for the olympic games in eighty four where i actually competed in one of so medal so eighteen years old you know obviously going into the olympics a year out of high school was very exciting i had a lot of emotion going on. you know one nine hundred eighty eight i started to experiment with the drugs i ended up you know getting involved with cocaine i freebasing cocaine and that was the beginning of a twenty year journey for me as an addict i had lost everything i had lost my shoe contract i had lost my house i lost all the financial means that i head was really on the street. sleeping on the street for the first time and actually laying down on the sidewalk you know and trying to close your eyes and next to go to sleep.

when you're outdoors those are the things as an addict that most people don't really talk about so the first time i came down to skid row i was pretty much horrified. i was amazed at the number of the military down here i was amazed and where some of the people had come from. the midnight mission first opened its doors and nine hundred fourteen cents and thousands have passed through it's drug and alcohol treatment program. two hundred forty four men occupy this space here at the mission and we're going to go and see where i got my humble beginnings in recovery this is the residence when you first come into the midnight mission everyone that comes in has to come through this dormitory first. so this was my bed c three up and you can see this in the this is just the way it was when i when i got here i

did a lot of soul searching this bit right here i had to make up my mind whether or not i was going to try to stay sober what the program was for me what i was really doing here you know at forty one years old what are you going to do i mean at that point for me it was either you go forward you know what the other lifestyle or you try to pull back and do something different. any time you you fall from grace or you fall from from lofty heights if you want to use that word. it's humbling. the area has always attracted outsiders. some stay for a while. while others never. come albert olsen but everybody calls me bam bam i'm a punky ex new yorker my story starts way back when i was a kid unfortunately. nursery school would be my teacher would it chair i was thrown

out of every school with a one two i been seeing elucidating and hearing voices of since i was a kid i got i'm one of those cases where i'm bipolar schizoaffective i have anti-social personality disorder of p.t.s.d. i have intimate rage just sort of a major nightmare the sort of i also have a gender identity disorder where i'm taking hormones for a transgender issue for sexual reassignment to get my her way down the color of their good spot to summon a festering want to give her. a crack up bad weed mans out a next block i came down here following most two years ago this only to be two years for me so i spent a good two years down. jet i think i'd ever do again there commit suicide next time for. being so nasty horrible and everything's all over the place it makes you you know makes you want to do something with your life size doing this because this is really rough to do this and i went to the service i got from out of the service for

bad conduct one thing is really stinks the fact it doesn't rain here doesn't wash urine in the pool the way it to smell just gets worse and worse i beat up my mother and my sisters and i took my kid and by losing my kid and everything else i really really really was smart and i was where i first became homeless because i couldn't rationally. deal with where my life had gone i've been electrician for all these years are always worth. back in the mid seventies through the mid eighties we didn't call them homeless back then we were emptying our mental hospitals by basically saying now we have them instead of help you and you can also get on disability so go forth and take care of yourself the predominant population on the row at that time and continues to date are the homeless. mentally obviously many of them are also involved with addiction and

sometimes you can't figure out which came first and that doesn't even matter the fact is a serious mental illness because the institutions don't exist anymore breaking close down all those places they took all the mental people they gave it to society and then where do we go you either get committed and get locked in and smoke a cigarette three times a day and when they tell you or you sit on the street you become homeless and you can at least have your own life to some point. in many ways it's an open asylum for the mentally ill we don't have closed asylums anymore except for our jails in our prisons l.a. county twin towers jail is the largest mental institution in the united states. because we no longer hospital or are mentally ill so we criminalize them because of

their behavior on the streets people were really questioning me like how can you open a place just for people who are crazy isn't that really stigmatize. and i said no i think we're going to be just a. drop in center we're going to have the best food we're going to feel like a family we're going to just make it a place people want to come to. so that people had a place to stay at night. by like two thousand and two we had one hundred employees half of them were members we also set up our own permanent housing i came in contact with some of the most beautiful people. that one could ever know we're. a family. you know we cooked it together we play cards to gether we sing

karaoke i. deal with all types of people. first never any place i mean all types of people all types. come down and. i saw people just like me depression was one of my biggest things. is i was seven years old alone that i was on the pill i do it in a way ever. i have. this. girl in and out around the city nurses. my body. i know my health. my body i had my breasts removed dealing with cancer so i'm trying to be strong and i'm trying to be you know it you know and just enjoy my life what i have right now

what i'm doing right now is loving myself. taking care of my business no matter how much pain i'm me and i got to do. this on a journey to. one hundred twenty three days. through two thousand nine hundred towns and cities of russia. really by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand. in a record setting trip. their. first phase. torch relay. on r t r two dot com.

and. basic needs the economic up and downs in the final month of the deal sang i and the rest of the. take it will be every week on all things. there's a media leader so we leave that maybe. i will see the security for your party there's a goal in their shoes that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from it's all on politics only on our t.v. . right on the seat. first for you and i think that you're.

on a record. instrument. to be in the know. on. those homes for fourteen years but sure. i could get in because i didn't want to go with. the new phone the. steward came to me you sued you really become of history no so you really have. come from a home a very good home. very good home but i want to live on the street. are learning school locks because that's where to see this issue very wise to life and people. can read right away. i mean with this bitterness where you just want everybody not i just had.

a one sided. just paint. all those killed up in the spring. i was born in a trailer house over here in san pedro my father was in the service in world war two then i was raised in new mexico where my grandmother was born and from the men go client to rich and powerful plant in new mexico it and i would put four years all together in arkansas and i put the last twenty years in hail but arizona. i am the first can't swim i was three years old leaving i been feeding these for over five years now i had to pay for fifty a month or kept food i couldn't go get to cheap get food that you forget that i had

to pay two and three and four dollars a night for star phone containers anabolic skulls like eight dollars for just a few those thing that struck me worst when i saw the skid row was there was no clean fresh water for the birds and camps they let caustic solutions and all kinds of poisons go and psych drugs in the waters to camps on the verge of drinking and no clean food supply for them we should know by now if those are my children in here this care food is a lot more compact in the olympics for. kids who can't get a sick kid again say it when there is none of this is now this is the problem the uniform know this no this is the one that had the signs kid right here. the money to kitty and it looks like a rat well this last race i got it to him readers. so we hopefully will have a war. gallows kill them we once had

a lot of red in her war yeah that means i don't care for anything rare in bloom you may have room there for a purple piss or just the chance to grow before knowing that the real man with rents that was wound will last long moves a new man longing for various then last night. and guys a psycho it will incite them some loner will see on they come out of it like he sits around and do nothing all day long and harass the roof sexually harassing. that. one guy right there why don't start from within his own cycle level anything man was born a tick that me and our way the round that you are now here. yes. to what i meant to because a guy was bollinger one day and i just didn't like. people to take advantage of oh people. when he was taken advantage over so i intervened and she if you're good

enough there she just kind of adopted me as her fiance and i've been her fiance or says that's been nine years ago but didn't i started to like her as a person and i start to understand her who she is right here and her. mental illness with the collection of trash she has storage is full of cash like three different ones just completely piled up that she pay every month nothing but . but that's who she is and i take her just who for who she is and that's why she loves me and i love her for that i accepted that i guess that's how i get my blessings from god. you know because in the beginning was like i but i truly i would defend her with my life if you believe that i'll die behind this will lead you right here. to. life and. love life is a conundrum to believe. so story and everybody down

to. they're going to have to deal with me so they basically. behavior she shares all the church. richard b. a long time to people while you are off the street or why you don't you should be warned she does want to see people or understand you have to let them be who or when she's ready to go inside sure. you she was libellous should you have to live her litter slots or should i still live i'm sure even though she has little or. she needs a truly large ones they were she grew. even though as mothers will set the money he she gave him he's been on drugs and these people giving one drug no one else to buy more they keep psyching him. and he almost finished his psychology course and with three years of medical school and a drop in medical school it crackle i can end up so bad commemorating and now i see

that one back to medical school even though he has pancreatic cancer which is really a sick move. he is she is a lot of ways any cause real lot of grief. and ok we have family. paying for life. well this is. this. i was sleeping i was enjoying a blanket. a. real close friend. some telescope was sad to sleep. some time when i'm inside it reminds me of why the hell out of there at the age of sixteen. i try to have my so committed to

a hospital because i wasn't going to acting with other people. the healthy way i didn't feel connected to anything i remember feeling very depressed and. i thought wanted to save the world in myself you know a headache if i go in at sixteen then i never have to come back out again but they would accept me. they would be really bad place to be you know i ran away from home at seventeen years old and i actually got a job paid really in school. that mary at the age of twenty one had my daughter my first daughter is twenty two then my other daughter and then my last dollar baby. and their father divorced me at that point i mean. there was nothing healthy about. everything with the stored it.

was. our own how to do that i don't know how i raised those three girls like that. but he said that my father passed away that hurt me really bad i lost everyone in my life that i cared about their government when that happened i came to skid row. i developed a real bad drug and crack cocaine and came here. and i really did him and never thought about it i just know when you are wrong doing roman doing your bio spoken that's what that's what i'm going to do. but. that's what i wanted at that time and i just remember saying to myself sitting here long now and keep doing what i'm doing it's going to happen because i just knew i was glad as to say

enjoy it and maybe dials and roll. god is man good to me you say he's used down here pretty through most turbulent times now here in jos and this is true since true part of my addiction is a drug addiction crack cocaine also addicted to the lifestyle of downtown where. no one judge a single. grew up in compton rug or southern run horse i was three years old. and people warsi had horses in the back yard but they never rode i just are going to be forced to take them out no go but ya didn't ride this if you rode it was a. challenge to ride horses i knew they had like a ford and i had a stand in to the old old white guy kid so look what he did before i land they they

spark me yeah that's what i want to know too that i like the smell of eleven when they spark me awarded for. that's how i like horses they spark me to sunlight my dream would be to never the ranch. be were horses you know. just be around smell them walk ride a baby. teach people about. when to come the horses believe that. i know if they get it because of the house arrest so many people you know if i left off. if you can't place the wall of wall people up and down the whole block and you can hardly walk up and down the street cause could be a pen pal or have everything gone are everybody's either in jan they all went to santa monica venice or hollywood or somewhere else we don't need more channels people mental institutions so we need more doctors to come down here so the more

people pass now sandwiches that's what we really need we need more understanding we need the awareness that we're not told troi got x. three. things impact our central nervous system the environment that we grow up in and that we live in our d.n.a. basically what we're born with our genes and drugs. don't mean is the reward neurotransmitter i mean it's what c.e.o.'s and release is from our brain cells when we are sexually aroused when we smell something good we'd like to be where and. we smoke crack called the brain of a schizophrenia person untreated unmedicated is a wash with don't permit more souls in the brain of a person who doesn't because frankly the scripture frank brain cannot filter out

the noises the heat. the vibrations the other people talking to you it's all coming in at once so the medications that we give people for schizophrenia reduce the don't for me unfortunately they reduce it too much and they feel good in some states don't get to feel pleasure anymore. when. these folks wake up every morning and have to face another day being a stigmatized marginal person in the world and have to make decisions about using street drugs or using prescribe drugs or street drugs or easier to get them prescribe drugs street drugs feel better prescribe drugs don't particularly feel better in their hands everywhere is mentally ill people there's always a major because we need them there it's on medication for self medicate so be it

how else we're going do it what else would you like to do i can't even get my mobile telephone what am i supposed to do to get my medication so drugs soup on the street be who i am. try make it. plain mission free accreditation free transport charges free. range month free risk free studio time free. download free blog plug in video for your media projects a free media dog r.t. dot com. for it plays into the future. show thirty four countries bend over fifteen billion euros on cold feet and says to each one hundred fifty million degrees with one token much still

to sell from st petersburg to france we travel in search of the song. knowledge update we've got the future covered. at one time i saved money to hire a hitman to shoot me dead from the next building through the open window. i searched through the internet typing things like i'm looking for you i'm waiting for you i wrote and waiting for you i'm looking for you i didn't care at all what this man would be a lie deprived disabled will. be with you no you won't. the battery is thrown. i love everything about him i have come to love every here everyone is just fingertips to him actually be healthy years and other guys who drink beer in a bench i've always promised that if she ever realizes it's too much for her and she decides to leave me i will accept her decision without criticism because it's

her choice. sirius last chance is the dates for the geneva conference are being arranged the assad regime may sit across from an empty chair syria's rebel oppositions on the ground are hopelessly divided the syrian political opposition in exile is divorced from the brutality on the battlefield so what can geneva two point zero to achieve . they all told me my language or what i will only react to situations i have read the reports. put in the no i will leave them to stay current a comment on your latter point i come on to say. the security of a car is on the top you know. they do no more weasel words. when you need a direct question be prepared for a change when you have to. be ready for

a battle freedom of speech and a little down to freedom to cast. reduces

the controversial charges against. activists who try to board an oil rig in the last month. about this in just a couple of. patients with the controlled flow of illegal migrants by the arab spring. countries the country's badly hit economy is bearing. also the american police held to account for the excessive use of force take to the streets nationwide protests top stories this.