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Okay. Yeah, there we go. I think it's going now. I have to do my little small introduction, I'll ask one question before. Today is July 19th, 2022. And we are on New York Avenue at the Downtown Services Center. I'm here with Valet. I'd like to know, do I have your permission to record this interview? Yes you do. All righty. Can you tell us - Can you talk about - First, we would like to know your full name and where and when were you born? My name is Valet Bannister. I was born in Washington, DC, Howard University Hospital, and I'm a Washingtonian. I've been homeless for - I don't want to say, like, four years now. And it's been dramatic. From house to house, going to people's houses and stuff like that. It's a situation of this stuff, dealing with other people's situations and you have to deal with their situations and it's been a tough ride.

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So why do you think homelessness continues as a problem in DC? And I don't know if you know anything about Maryland, Virginia but it's a problem there, too. Why do you think that is? I think a problem is because a lot of projects really don't want to give people housing. People want to work, but there's no jobs out here really. They're not hiring anybody like that and I think that creates a problem, too. Do you think that's the biggest cause, people not having jobs? Or are there other things you think might go into why people are homeless? I think that's the biggest cause. Yeah.

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So you are saying, you are a native and lived in DC all your life. What has changed in ways that made homelessness more - The word there is prevalent, but like, - I see a lot of buildings being built up, but it's still a lot of people being homeless out here. And that doesn't make sense to me, why they have all these places that they are building houses. They building everywhere and there's still homeless people out here on these streets. I don't understand that. I really don't. I really don't understand that. Every way you look at, they're building up new houses or whatever. It's still people out here homeless and it's sad to me, being homeless myself. I'm in the shelter right now and it's - Just being in the shelters, it's been - it's just depressing. Yeah, I don't know what your exact situation is, but with all of these buildings, is that limiting people's access to housing? like sometimes - I don't know if people understand. I think it is because it's limited housing. And because the people who don't have a job and then their housing is so - they make it so hard for people to get in there because the - on the - To get in there, you have to have money and stuff like that. And people don't have money to get into those places.

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Hmm. So you mind if I ask, what neighborhood are you from? I'm from - I'm not going to claim any neighborhood because I lived a lot of places. I stayed at - I lived everywhere. Northeast, Sheriff Road. Yeah, a lot of places. Yeah. Could you describe how some of the places, the neighborhoods in the city have changed that you may think have impacted your housing? What do you see there when you go to some of the places you've lived before? Just a lot of people outside. I see a lot of people outside now. Just hanging around, doing nothing.

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Standing around, doing nothing, huh? Because there's nothing for them to do. And then for the kids, they took all the playgrounds away too, so I mean, what - They took all the playgrounds? Yeah, you don't see any playgrounds, nowhere like that anymore anyway.

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Wow, you know, I haven't spent much time over in Northeast, and when I go over there I see a lot of houses and stuff, but then you're saying playgrounds are gone. The playgrounds are gone. Majority of where playgrounds used to be at, they took them away. And what do you see now? Did they replace them with anything? Or are they just - Like, houses, I guess - I don't know what I want to say. It's just, no playgrounds. Kids don't have anywhere to play at anymore anywhere. The only playground you really get to see right now for me for real is at the school or something.

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And I think that kind of goes to do with what you were saying about the job situation and that impacting people's housing. If you have rec centers and playgrounds, that would give jobs to people, right? Somebody has to manage it, someone has to watch the kids. I don't know how you are looking for jobs, but what kind of jobs do you think are available to you and would they pay enough for you to have a place? What would be the quality of that job? I don't know, because even if you did have a job, if I was to have a job, your paycheck probably won't even make enough to even pay your rent by yourself. You have to have somebody else to live with you to pay your own rent nowadays, because they make the market rent so high for people to get apartments and stuff now, What's the highest you've ever paid?

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The highest I've ever made? Ever paid for your housing. How much have you? It's been a long time since I've been in a house. You were saying it's been four years, I would say - it's 22 now, last time you had a place at what? 17, 18.

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The last - the first - I had an apartment when I was 20 years old, that was the last time I had my own spot. I'm 42 now. 43 years old, I just had a birthday July the first. It's been since then, I've been out here struggling, yeah. And the prices you see are just outrageous.Then you're saying that there aren't any jobs so you think there are jobs that pay enough? I mean, it could - Probably is, but I don't know. They're not hiring nobody, I put in applications, I went to the Safeway. I went - where else did I try? there was another job I applied for. What was it? Aomewhere I applied for. I called them and they still haven't contacted me back. I had to call them. Keep calling them. They said keep calling back and still no job. You've been persistent and you've been diligent, giving them the resume, you've put in your application, you've been nice to them.

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And it's not just me. Other people that I talk to are going out, looking for jobs and stuff, going on interviews and they still haven't gotten those jobs either. So it's not that there's not enough jobs, it's just that for whatever reason people aren't being hired. That's crazy. So if the jobs thing isn't working, do social services or government services help or do they make things worse, you think? You're talking about like WIC and stuff like that? Yeah.

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I mean, I get food stamps but I don't get checks or anything. I don't get that stuff. So do you think that the fact that happens, does that make things worse or does it make it better? What do you think should happen? What if I was to get a check? Yeah, I mean how -

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Some time of income would make it a little bit better. Some type of income from somewhere, but I don't get that. Or maybe they have services to help you get employed or start your own business, I don't know. I'm just - The question is about, do government services and the changes, have they made things better or worse? I don't know, I really don't know. Because that's just sounding like a struggle to me. It seems like an everyday struggle to me. Did you find you have trouble accessing services? Like you were saying, you didn't get a check at all.

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Sometimes I do. Yeah. Was it hard to get the food stamps or - No. I mean, it's just a waiting process to get that. How long did you wait?

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Forty-five days or something like that. Almost a month. Just to get food stamps. Damn. That's interesting. I remember you said something about the waitlist. There is a question later about public housing, talking about, have the changes to public housing impacted homelessness here? I don't know if you've ever been in public housing or know what it is, but do you think the changes have made things worse, or have some impact on homelessness? Yes, I do.

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Share more about that because I'd love to hear that perspective. I think the changes [unclear] the changes on homelessness you say? Public housing, places like Woodland Terrace or Benning Terrace or Garfield, spots that the Housing Authority is the landlord. I don't know what you think of those services or how they have been changed. I've seen instances where people have to move and they're trying to build something new there and all that, but I don't know. I don't know either because I have never went there to those places.

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Did you ever sign up for the waitlist at all? No. All right. So, you say you were in, they call it Pat Handy Swing Space these days. But far as that particular shelter, what is your experience like? What is like the state of that shelter and how does it impact you now? To me, it's like living in - To me, it's like being incarcerated because you have to check in and you have to have your bags checked every day and then it's like, you have certain things you can't have, you can't have this, you can't have that. You have to get up at a certain time to eat. The food that they give you there is crappy, it doesn't even make sense. Today for breakfast we had applesauce, yogurt, and string cheese, and a piece of brie for breakfast. Yeah, that was our breakfast.

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I guess that doesn't help you get through the day. And oh, there was milk. Did it - Do they have cereal? No, just that's it. I'm telling you, that was the breakfast for them.

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Is this usually every day? Every day. That's their breakfast. Or they switch it up and put a bagel and some cheese and some yogurt, something like that. That's their breakfast on a normal day. Do you eat lunch there? Or do they have good lunches there? The lunches are better and the dinner is a little bit better than the breakfast is. Their lunches there probably have something like a salad, a vegetable, and some type of meat or something.

00:14:05.100 - 00:15:08.700

You were saying that - It seems like it kind of helps, but it doesn't. Do they have groups and programs? Not that I know of. And then if they have something, you wouldn't know about it, you have to go around asking people for their help. In there you have to go around looking for their help, asking them, "Will y'all help us with this or whatever?" Then they say, "Yeah, we have that." First time them saying, "Well we have this." I'm saying, you have to go around asking questions and stuff to find out. So they don't just announce anything. If you need pair of clothes, like you need a shirt or some socks, They have all that stuff, but they - You have to go on and say, "Well look, I need it. I need this or that, do y'all have that?" "Yeah, we have that." but you don't know until they - You want to ask them for it.

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Do you have a case manager there? What do you think of? No my case manager is not with them. I have two case managers actually and they're pretty good. My case managers are really good. I had crappy case managers before the ones that I have now, but the ones that I have now actually like them because they actually act, they help me and they care about what's going on with me. They try as much as they can to get stuff done for me. Whenever I ask them to do stuff, they act like they're on top of their game of whatever they trying to do. But before when I had my case manager be like, "I'm your case manager" and I barely heard from them. They'd be like, "Oh, I got this going on with me and that and -" It's like, "Okay, well nice to see you, and how are you feeling, how are you doing?" That's about it. The case managers I have now, they're pretty good. That's what up. Maybe you said - Overall though, it seems like when you're in the shelter, it seems like it's similar to a jail?

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For me it seems being incarcerated because you have to check in. You have to get your bags checked in, and then there's always somebody always looking over you and whatever. And you're with a couple of people in the room and you can't leave out for a certain amount of hours. And you have to be back in there before a certain amount of hours or you might lose your bed space. Do you think how the police act in the city impacts homelessness? Do I think the way the police act? The way they just normally operate.

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Yeah, I think that has a lot to do with stuff too, the police. I don't deal with the police, me personally. I don't - I try to stay out of their way as much as I can. Maybe brutality has something on the way they're, quote unquote, having this "War on Drugs." I guess just you being poor and that being criminalized is a problem. Yeah, they tend to treat you some type of way. Do you think people - Or maybe you've been impacted by possibly having a criminal record? If that's - I think it would affect you getting the place, but I don't know. It shouldn't from what I know.

00:18:01.000 - 00:18:47.200

Me having a criminal record, I don't have a criminal record. I was only incarcerated one time and that was a long time ago and I promise you, it had nothing to do with any police at all. So you think people that may have done something, maybe a year ago, maybe that gets in the way? I don't have a clue. It could, I don't know, stop them from getting housing or something, because sometimes they don't want to house people that have felonies and stuff like that, I don't know. So you were saying that breakfast is kind of bleh at the shelter and maybe dinner and -

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I call it baby food! That's what it seems like I've been eating. Do you think that being homeless impacts people's health? Do they go to the doctor more? Do they need more medical services? People that are in the shelter? I tend to go to the doctor more because I'm around a lot of people and I don't want to have anything or find out I have anything in the long run, being around certain people. So I go to the doctor a lot. And do you think those services are good for people who are homeless and -

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I can't speak for everybody, but I know where I go to, I don't know if everybody else is doing the same thing. I can't say that. So you - I guess healthcare is accessible to you. There aren't any weird changes or there may be some good changes. I don't know. But healthcare, it's good changes. To have healthcare, yeah, that's good. For me, it is. So this one is about education. Do you think people being able to go to school or the quality of folks' education impacts where they land?

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Yeah, it does. If you have a good education it has an impact of where you land, and if you don't have an education that has a lot to do where you land at, too. Because if you don't know anything, you don't know nothing about nothing. I meet a lot of smart people that are homeless so, I don't know. Do you think - I don't know if you've tried any of the skills training programs or anything? What is that about? If you go somewhere and they they train you to do computers or they train you to - What's the thing that they're doing, construction? Think they call it [unclear]. They have this thing where they teach you how to be safe on a construction site or teach you how to be an electrician.

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Do youu think those programs help? How those have changed over time? Are they helping or because - You were saying that, "Oh I'm applying for jobs and then no one's calling me." But yet you may have the skills to say, "Hey I'm the perfect person for that job." So then you go through these programs, six, eight months, you're supposed to get a job. Is that helpful, does that - Or is it just a waste of time? I feel like, you know, I feel like it would be, but I got to ask people the question because I know people do a lot of stuff - That would be helpful to have these skills if you want a job. That would be helpful. I'd have the skills, too. That would be helpful. These next few questions are kind of invasive. They talk about traumatic experiences and do those impact homelessness. This is a good one. Do you think having a family or not having family impacts homelessness at all? Having a family can help the impact of you being homeless, too. Not having family can also be a trauma, too. I think it goes both ways. Because family - You could have family but they can't help - Not help you do anything, for real for real, because some family can be cruel, some family could not be cruel. Some people families can help you a lot. You understand what I'm saying? Sometimes your family can help you and sometimes your family can be a downfall.

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I really never thought of it that way. So, my family they can help you. My family can help you. I have a big family, but it's just, nowadays, everybody is doing their own things that they're spaced out and they - I don't know. I guess as you get older and they start doing different things too and they're having their own family. So, they'll help you as much as they can, but they're not going to give you their all. What I want to say like that. Like, if they see you going down the road, whatever, they'll pick you up, but they're not going to help you all the way down that road. You understand what I'm saying? They'll help you as much as they can, but they're not going to give you their all. That's how I look at it. Yeah, I've been thinking about that question myself, anyway, just because I see both sides of that coin, too. So do you know of any groups or people who are trying to help end homelessness?

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Not offhand that I know of. No, I don't know. No groups that I know of. If there was a group you would probably be working with or like to get involved with, how would they - What would say that they're doing a good job? How should they be trying to help people? Making sure a person eats everyday or something like that, or making sure that they have clean clothes and something. I don't know. Yeah, or just somewhere to lay their head at the end of the day. If there are groups and people trying to end homelessness, they should provide food? They should be helping to provide clothing. What are some other things that they should do?

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Steer [?] people in the right place to be at to get jobs and having something for them to do throughout their time throughout the day or something. What's the most important thing for people ending homelessness? Should they focus on jobs? Should they focus on clothes? Should they focus on food? What's the most important thing? Money, too. How does money play into that?

00:26:44.400 - 00:27:46.420

Because you will need money to do a lot of stuff nowadays. You need money to do basically anything, for real, for real. So if you were in charge of a group that had money and their mission is to end homelessness, what are some things you would do with the money? I would probably get people grants and stuff, help them out. Give them a little bit of something to help them out with their housing or something. That's I would do if I was in charge of a homeless joint or something to try to get somebody off the streets. I would try to help them get a lease. Give them some type of stipend or something, some type of money to help them to help them with their first rental. Something like that. I don't know. That's what I would do. That's interesting. So, you're saying that those kinds of things would help build a better world, right?

00:27:50.200 - 00:29:02.900

If you had your own housing solution and you can go as fantastic as you want, how would that be? If you could just snap your fingers and have a place? How would that happen? Snap my fingers and have a place? Yeah. What would it look like? What would be the process of you getting in there? If you had - if you were to create a way for people to get housed at the speed that you want them to, how would that happen? I know I wouldn't make them wait. I wouldn't make them wait, and I would make sure they know - I would make sure they know what was going on at all times. And - You said - Hold up. What was the question again?

00:29:04.000 - 00:29:31.720

If you could create your own housing solution, what would it be? How would you help people get a place, if you could create a way for people to get housed? How would I create a place with - If you created some way for people to get housed. What would that be? How would it work? Oh, [pauses]

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You're saying they shouldn't wait, or - I'd make sure they wouldn't have to wait long to get into their housing and make sure it was in a safe place or something. I don't know. I guess that's about it. When you say making sure it's in a safe place, what does that mean to you? You know, safe places where you want your kids to grow up. An environment that wasn't hazardous to them or something that your kids will want to look at. A place that - I don't know.

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Were there you thought were safe? Are there places that you think are safe that you would like to live? There's a lot of places. So what's there? What's there in a place you find safe? Nice neighborhoods and stuff like that. Nice neighborhoods, nice environment. Yeah.

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And then, the same thing for the employment. If you could have the job, the job you want to do, what would it be? The job that I want to do? I would probably want to work in a supermarket or something like that, a market. Or a clothing store. Something like that. Would be the manager? Would you be at the register? Would you be on the racks? I would be probably on the floor or something like that.

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I hope that we - All of this can help make that a reality. Are there are any questions that I should have asked? I don't think so. I think you were good. Okay, okay. I just want to make sure we cover the basics. I don't want to leave out any ideas because people have good ideas. That concludes it right there, if there's nothing else.