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The Art of the Streets by Doniphan Blair
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The homeless cineaste Eric Protein Moseley and his daughter, Erica. photo: courtesy E. Moseley
MAKING FILMS IS NOT EASY UNDER ANY
circumstances—imagine doing it while homeless.
Ten years ago, cineSOURCE published a story about someone doing exactly that, see “Homeless Cineaste Eric Moseley” . Indeed, despite being homeless, Eric Protein Moseley had notable success getting his story and work out, including airing scenes on PBS.
A decade later, we wanted to see how he was faring.
Guess what? Moseley and his daughter, Erica, who he raised on the streets, as a single father no less, have been hard a work, both on media projects, homeless activism AND their own lifestyles.
Both off the streets for almost a decade—Eric now working as a temp server (sometimes for Wolfgang Puck) in Los Angeles and doing some acting, Erica as a homeless advocate in San Francisco, where she recently published a book and is hosting a cable television show—they continue to give back, in a big way.
Indeed, Eric recently produced arguably his best documentary short, “Homeless Corona Virus Outreach”, which stars both himself and his daughter, features artistic camera and editing work, and joins his interests in film, outreach and philanthropy. It shows how he and Erica set out to bring Corona virus information to San Francisco’s homeless, 50% of whom didn’t know about it, he learned as he worked with them.
“I got a gift from God to do it,” Eric told me in our recent phone conversation. “We didn’t know about the dangers either. When we first went out, we didn’t have mask or gloves. No one was prepared for Corona. I educated myself by watching the news.”
As detailed in “Homeless Corona Virus Outreach”, featuring music generously provided by Eastside Tiggy, Erica and Eric give out public safety information and gift bags with hand sanitizer and some masks, some of which they put together and paid for themselves.
Moseley is a big believer in getting and giving good information—his top picks for California shelters and assistance are at the end of this article—honed by his own years on the street and his intense hustle. Indeed, he sometimes goes by Protein.
“I forget if a woman called me that or if it is just a positive element that everyone in their life needs. People don’t use real names out on the street. Everyone calls me that.”
Another aspect of Protein’s outreach is into regular society.
Moseley recording narration for his film. photo: courtesy E. Moseley
“I am trying to educate people about the three classes of homelessness,” he told me, “The upper, middle and lower. Not everyone is poor person pushing a ‘buggy’ [shopping cart]. An upper class [homeless] person tries to maintain their hygiene. Going to shelters is more like couch surfing for them, as they try to make it back into society.”
“The lower class is content living out on the street. They feel it is not that bad, most have been living there a long time, and they don’t see themselves coming out.”
“The ones on drugs are the ones who mostly like living out on streets, because it is more convenient,” Eric explained. “I think we need counseling to find out what they really want to do before we put them into a shelter.”
“If they want to live on the streets, there is not much [councilors] can do, until they get into mind frame that they need help. They need to get that first.”
The Corona situation “was so bad before we went out on the streets. No one was talking about what happening. At the time we were out, a lot of people weren’t tested. After we went on the news, things improved. London Brie [San Francisco’s mayor, who is Black] waited a while before she took action.”
“I think there was outbreak on Bryant Street Shelter. There were 75 confirmed deaths. After that the city officials got on it. They put the people into the hotels.”
“My daughter and I had hand sanitizer and some masks. We were also helping with the census, with the city of San Francisco. They didn’t even have a system to get the info sheets about the Corona or the census out there.’
“There should be different programs to assist the different needs.”
“I started a program called Each One Teach One Infrastructure to educate people to help hire them. The tech companies didn’t want a bum with body odor to come their office, but there are homeless walking around with nice thrift store clothes. There are regular people who are homeless.”
“My daddy always told me, ‘You could be a productive citizen even if you were homeless,’” Eric’s daughter Erica told me in a recent phone call.
“I had to do volunteer work, after school work. While we were walking down the street, he would be saying, ‘What are you going to do? What are you going to be?’”
“Even the time I was on drugs,” which was crack, for 18 years, Eric said, “I would work on my craft. I knew I would come out of it, eventually.”
Erica's appearance in this billboard provides welcome realism to the Catholic Charities campaign. photo: courtesy E. Moseley
“I would write songs as a kid,” while growing up in Detroit and attending North Western High, the same school as The Temptations. “I always wanted to be on TV and tell people the news.”
And now he does, through his films. He is also getting gigs as an independent model and actor, recently doing scenes or walk-ons for Visit Burbank, a tourist agency, a couple of restaurants and a video about how to talk with substance abusers.
“I am my own agent,” he explained. “I book my own things, by looking at different sites that cast people. They do online auditions. It is a hard game. Out of every 100 applications, you might get one or two jobs.”
“Every time we got a new place, first thing he did was put me in the school,” Erica told me. “By the time I was in the sixth grade I was getting all As, and I graduated high school in 11th grade. I became an A student at school AND in homelessness.”
“Because everyone always considered me the new girl, I had to try to blend in. But I didn’t fit in. No one understood me. I was not only homeless but I didn’t have a mother… I didn’t gossip on the phone like other girls.”
Erica’s mother was with her and Eric until she was fou. Alas, also a drug addict, she left them to pursue her powerful street dreams.
“I started to notice kids getting jealous of me, because I had a father but I didn’t have a mother,” Erica elaborated. “It would have been easier to be homeless with a mother—we could have gotten into shelters faster. Even today, there is no shelter for men with children, because some women have domesticate violence issues and are scared of men.”
“We had to sleep under bridges because there was no place. My father would tie a shirt to my and his arm and, if someone moved me, he would know.”
The entire time, she would have her bag with books and, in the morning, go to school.
“Every night it was: ‘Where am I going to go? Did my dad come up with something?’ My dad was a hustler, always selling T-shirts or something. He would often come up with a hotel room or something.”
Eric’s homeless period was off and on for 20 years, sometimes living with people, sometimes in shelters, but always as an “upperclass” homeless. In the end, he was on street for six solid years. He finally got an apartment four years ago.
“We would travel to different cities,” Eric recalled. “In the South, they would put her in an advanced grade. I helped her with schoolwork. I was a father but I was still addicted.”
“‘She was like a military brat but with a crackhead father,’ was how I explained it on the Ricky Lake Show, in 2013. We were also on the Robert Irvine Show [2016], telling our story.”
Eric's portfolio shots, with which he obrtains acting and modeling gigs. photo: courtesy E. Moseley
Indeed, Eric brilliantly translated his street hustle skills to both his current careers and to raising his daughter.
Each One Teach One Infrastructure, his organization, is growing and looking to get a fiscal sponsor. He lives in downtown LA, in an older building but refurbished.
Meanwhile, his daughter has a show in San Francisco on Community Television Channel 29 called “The Homeless Diary” and has an apartment downtown in a nice neighborhood.
“I got to SF because my friends told me to come back,” Erica explained. “First, I was staying with a person with Section 8 [welfare housing], so I had to go back on the streets. But I am a homeless resource master.”
“I ended applying for all sorts of apartments and ended up winning a two-bedroom apartment in SOMA out 10,000 people. They said, ‘You can’t get it but I did out of 10,000! These are not low income but low market value.”
“I was working for the city and country of San Francisco at $15 an hour. I didn’t qualify, so I went to Hamilton Family Shelter, where I work sometimes, which provides umbrella social services. I begged them and they went on my side and helped me. After two years, I ended being a case worker and outreach advisor.”
“My clients didn’t believe I was homeless. I always looked like a professional. So I decided to write a book to my clients, ‘Trapped in the Homeless Hustle’ [available on Amazon].”
“It is about how I could motivate them and how to overcome battles and to get resources in SF but also around the world. I went to speak at Sales Force for Hamilton and helped them raise $400,000. I was the only speaker with a rabbi, real popular Jewish homeless advocate.”
“You never get over homeless,” Erica said. “God directed me to that path and now I serve homeless people and tech companies doing diversity inclusion. I feel their pain. There are 10,000 people homeless in SF.”
“Now with Covid, you get all sorts of people: nurses, CEOs, people from tech—people are losing their houses, their apartments. Now it is called ‘room checking.’ If you don’t have a lease, you are considered homeless. Those people are asking me, ‘Where can I get a roommate?’ No one can afford $3,000-5,000 a month.”
“On my TV show at first I was interviewing homeless. Now my email is flooded with professionals, trying to get information about services, about housing. I always wonder if they went to The Tenderloin,” the traditional prostitution and drugs neighborhood, near downtown San Francisco. “That is the choice, either you go all the way down or go to friends and family.”
Erica Moseley and her 12-year old daughter, KaMya McCrea. photo: courtesy Erica Moseley
“There are no resources in the City. It is challenging and humbling. We went out and advised over 100 people. Half didn’t know about the Covid. We gave them bags and masks but we were just a Bandaid, paying out of our own pocket.”
“We don’t want be a Bandaid. I am a problem solver. I am an incredible resource for non-profs to strategize, to diversify their platform.”
“I want to give you the pathway for your success. If I can do it, everyone can. That is what I believe during this time of Covid.”
“You have to be creative. Right now they are SIP,” sheltering in place, “but they are going to start kicking them out. They are getting angry at mayor and governor because they don’t have anywhere to go.”
“People think housing is the end result. They don’t have a strategy or a way to start their own business. You need to give them a strategy and motives.”
“This is the reason why the cycle continues. I want to end the cycle. I have a 12-year-old daughter, she does art and she also codes. I am trying to end the generational curse with children, to help my child and her friends to bridge the gap. Homeless kids are just running all over the place because their parents are stressed out, they are traumatized.’
“I want to instill in my kids what my dad instilled in me,” Erica said, and she has been very successful with her daughter. While she aspires to be an architect, KaMya is currently learning to code and planning to teach kids experiencing homeless or non-traditional lifestyles coding at the shelters.
“My dad was on crack. He didn’t hide that from me. But I didn’t see the actual drugs. He always told me, ‘Don’t do drugs, don’t be like me.”
“I never did drugs.”
“He always respected me but one day he almost overdosed. He did it in the bathroom and he came out and I knew he was high because he would kneel every five seconds. One day I asked him, ‘Why do you kneel?’"
"He said, ‘God punished me and I kneel and pray. God told me that he is going to kill me if I didn't turn my life around.'"
“He said when my mother did [drugs], she would be gone for days. He was different. He would do it and still take care off me.”
“For my day job, I work at PRC, which is for mental health and substance abuse. I am learning more and more. My main goal is to partner with nonprofs and tech companies to bridge the gaps in resources and diversity. They are taking care to make sure we are all taken care of,” Erica concluded.
“People often take to me,” Eric told me in his summing up.
“I encourage them to stay off of drugs and to work on their craft. If you don’t have a job you can work on your craft, go to a library, study what ever you dreamed of as young girl or boy and never give up. I have a whole list of resources: you go here to get a shower, here for a counseling. I am like the resource king.”
I know a lot of cities, New York, Florida, because I have travelled across the country.”
“Homeless resources in Los Angeles? The city of LA gives the homeless $ 221 and $194 in food stamps. They have a program call a pilot program, where they will pay up to $400 for a shared living apartment where there are at least two to a room in neighborhood such as South Central.”
“My favorite shelter in Los Angeles is The Union Gospel Mission run by Andy Bales. Reason being is that Mr. Bales is known for having a compassion for the homeless. He is a hands-on type of guy, who used to go out on the streets of Skid Row to uplift and console the homeless. He discontinue doing so when he lost a portion of his leg that some believe came from something he contracted while going out on the streets.”
“San Francisco provides the homeless with $66 and put individuals on a (SRO) Single Room Occupancy waiting list.”
San Diego gets a failing grade for how they assist their homeless. To my understanding, they have a wonderful program but in order to get into it, one must jump through many hoops. But they do have a wonderful day shelter called San Diego Day Center. Great place. They also help with showers, lockers, housing assistance, a day room and much, much more.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer, musician and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached Posted on Sep 26, 2020 - 03:49 AM