"I used to be on the street too."
Brut filmmaker Léo Hamelin met Courtney when she was sleeping in Central Park. A year later, Courtney is in recovery and has found a job. But even though she lives in a shelter, she's still homeless in New York City ...
Brut filmmaker Léo Hamelin met Courtney when she was sleeping in Central Park. A year later, Courtney is in recovery and has found a job. But even though she lives in a shelter, she's still homeless in New York City ...
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00:00I'm with my boyfriend in our lovely bed for the night.
00:03This is our shelter, and it is pouring fucking rain
00:06as you see in New York City today.
00:09A year ago, Kourtney and her partner Britton
00:12were sleeping in Central Park.
00:14That's roughly when I started filming with them.
00:16I had a job, he had a job.
00:17We lost both of our incomes at once,
00:19and that's when we started sleeping in parks.
00:22I was really impressed by Kourtney's voice
00:24and how she addressed the reality
00:27of homelessness in New York City.
00:28I'm sleeping in a fucking park here, dude.
00:30There's no need to be rude to me on TikTok, too.
00:33In the months after the dog came out,
00:34I kept checking in and filming with Kourtney,
00:36and a lot has happened, so I wanted to share an update.
00:39She's still sober.
00:41Her and Britton are in a long-term shelter in Brooklyn,
00:44and she recently got a job at a harm reduction center
00:47where she used to go when she was still using
00:50and living in the streets.
00:51Three of these MaxiPads, and two of these boxes,
00:58and three tampons.
01:02So they have the menstrual items,
01:04like the pads and tampons and stuff in them.
01:06Pad, tampons, anything you want, some of those?
01:09Another thing that's really cool about this place
01:11is that they have a lot of stuff
01:13that you don't see in other places in the city.
01:15So, for example, they have a lot of like,
01:17like, like, like, like, like, like, like,
01:19like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like,
01:22You can wear a panty liner if you wear underwear
01:24more than one days, like,
01:25and just switch to a panty liner each day.
01:26I used to be on the street, too.
01:30I've learned so much in my time being homeless.
01:34So much about other people,
01:35and I want to change people's minds.
01:38Thank you so much.
01:42If you need more, let me know, too.
01:44It's hot out.
01:47Working somewhere like that makes it easier for me.
01:52Yeah.
01:53Housing status, if they feel safe in their housing,
01:55and where they slept last night,
01:57and then mental health and chronic health.
01:59I know that I'm working somewhere that I feel comfortable,
02:03I feel safe, I feel like I have a community.
02:14Right now, I'm giving you guys a speech
02:16from in front of my homeless shelter.
02:18And I just wanted to show you guys kind of the kits
02:21that I hand out to people.
02:22I spoke to a high school class
02:24and taught them about homelessness.
02:26My house actually burned down
02:28and I lost everything I owned.
02:30My two younger sisters passed away
02:33and I was unhoused for the first time ever at 15.
02:36I ended up with a severe mental illness,
02:40a lot of PTSD.
02:42It triggered bipolar disorder in me
02:44and I was self-medicating through alcohol and drugs.
02:47Since I'm in sobriety, I have seven months right now.
02:49I'm trying to give back to the community
02:51and be the person that I would have needed
02:53when I was in active addiction.
02:56Thank you for having me.
02:57I was really excited to talk to you guys.
03:01Stand clear of the closing doors, please.
03:07I know I look back at a lot of my friends
03:09from high school or college and I'm not where they are.
03:11And I feel like, what's wrong with me?
03:13Why am I so far behind?
03:15But then I think about it and I realize, you know,
03:17I'm allowed to be proud of little accomplishments.
03:23On Thursdays, we are trying to find a spot
03:27when we could find them
03:28because most of the time they want to get together.
03:30So we're going around in a few places down there.
03:34Hey guys, what's up?
03:37So, all right, I'm here to pick up your dirties.
03:40We got one right here.
03:44We try to get out there and do the best we can.
03:47Mike is good with directions.
03:49He knows this place like the back of his hand.
03:59This is a heroin baggie, obviously.
04:05We like put down where we found what baggies and what stamps
04:09so that way we can test them and know what's in them.
04:13Sometimes finding baggies like that
04:15will trigger me a little bit
04:17because those are the type of baggies
04:18that I used to get, you know?
04:20I'm almost reaching a year.
04:22I'm nine and a half months sober.
04:23So at this point, I've worked through my triggers
04:26and what triggers me and I can handle it better.
04:28Like I can pick up those baggies
04:29and I'm not going to go use when I get home
04:32because I've been able to handle it better.
04:41There's all those.
04:42Yes.
04:45Okay, so that's everything we have.
04:48Do you want to see if they have food?
04:50Or do you want to see if they have any clothes up for you?
04:52Because I know you need clothes.
04:54Okay, I know I don't post about my boyfriend on here a lot,
04:57but he hasn't had a real job,
04:58like a really good job in two years.
05:01But he just found out that he got hired
05:04for a really, really, really good job
05:06and he starts next week and I'm so, so excited.
05:09Look at the new worker.
05:11We're so proud of him.
05:13Hi.
05:14Hey.
05:15You're so pretty, hi.
05:18Oh my God, those are actually perfect.
05:20You don't have interview pants, do you?
05:23Okay, let's take them then.
05:25I'm currently making $20 an hour,
05:2920 hours to 25 hours a week.
05:33Which already is playing really close to the income cap,
05:37even though that's not like a livable,
05:39survivable wage in New York City.
05:41So say I even take out like five extra hours a week,
05:45my housing could be affected.
05:49I know.
05:52I wish we could live somewhere like that.
06:00When you've had so much housing instability in your life,
06:04every time you're living somewhere,
06:07in the back of your mind you're like,
06:09can this be taken away from me?
06:11Kourtney's story is so important to understand
06:14the spectrum of homelessness.
06:16Before she was in the streets, she was couch surfing.
06:18Now she's in a long-term shelter.
06:20All of these are types of homelessness
06:22and it's really hard to break out of that cycle.
06:25In fact, for adult families like Britton and Kourtney,
06:28the average length of stay in a DHS shelter is 700 days.
06:35Just got off work and I'm having like
06:37one of those stressful days where like,
06:40I have to help my friend get into a shelter last minute
06:43and it's almost six o'clock
06:44and there's almost no places to get into.
06:46And I have so much going on.
06:48And then I realized how lucky I am
06:49because eight months ago I was sleeping in a subway station
06:53and now I'm there for my friends so much
06:55that they count on me to get them into a shelter
06:57and get them somewhere safe.
06:59You were staying in a motel, right?
07:01Yeah, and so I've just been like bouncing around
07:04like with all this instability,
07:07going through this and feeling alone
07:08is more isolating than anything else.
07:12It's just the worst.
07:20Being friends with Kourtney is such a good thing.
07:21She gets it.
07:23So many LGBT youth are struggling
07:25with exactly what you're going through
07:26with their families not being accepting
07:28and you know, they're scared of being unhoused
07:30and they're gonna see this
07:31and they're gonna know like, it's okay.
07:34You know, like they'll find their community
07:37eventually one day.
07:40I hope so too.
07:42I know this sounds stupid
07:44and when people in AA would say this,
07:45like be grateful for the little things,
07:47I'd be like, shut up.
07:49But you know what?
07:50Today I'm grateful for the little things.
07:52I really am.
07:55Even though I still have some type of instability
07:57in housing and I'm trying to break that cycle
07:59to the best of my ability,
08:01every time I thought I can't make it through this,
08:04I've made it through this and I've survived.
08:08So I just try to keep that attitude
08:10and stay positive and look on the better side of things.
08:14Since we filmed this doc,
08:15Kourtney still works in harm reduction.
08:18She celebrated one year of recovery
08:20and she's just one of the 107,000 New Yorkers
08:24who slept in a shelter system last year.