((PKG)) PROFILE OF A HOMELESS WOMAN -
MOUANGJOI TRACY SAELEE
((TRT: 08:04))
((Filmed before the pandemic))
((Topic Banner: Unhoused in Oakland))
((Producers: Deana Mitchell, Wendi Jonassen))
((Camera: Deana Mitchell))
((Producer/Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Drone Camera: Dariel Medina))
((Map: Oakland, California))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male, I female))
((NATS))
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Mark Fisher.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I had a big house where everybody comes by. If anyone
wants to take a shower, want to eat or whatsoever, you
know, wanted some clothes, they always come see me and
then they’ll always be taken care of.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
My name is Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Oh, look. A cutting board.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I’ve been homeless over a year. Lost employment. And
also because the rent increased, it’s too high to afford
it. Things went bad.
((NATS: Tracy cooking fish))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The fish, it got donated this morning. When people donate
things, we like usually cook it and share with everyone else.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my community. I've been staying in this area for my
whole life. And a lot of these people that is in this homeless
encampment is my friends and family and relatives, you
know.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, even though I wasn't homeless, I was always coming
here to visit them and bringing them food or things like that,
you know.
((NATS: Tracy reading bullet points for advocacy
event))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Housing is human rights. Safety: Women are being raped
out here. People are getting burned in the fires.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I am a volunteer. I'm the head administrator of The
Village. And I'm helping the founder very closely to help
eradicate this homelessness problem, you know.
((NATS: Charlie sings))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Telling the truth isn’t going to be easy. Who broke my
window?
((NATS: Charlie laughs))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
They never know who is going to be here next. You know,
being homeless is not a crime. You know, it’s not a
choice. I know a lot of these people. Like I said, I grew up in
this community. And a lot of them knows me, you know, and
they respect me because I've always, you know, had a big
heart.
((NATS: Tracy helping Charlie and Didi))
((Tracy)) Put that down. Let’s forget about that. Let’s forget
about that.
((Charlie)) You know he’s crazy. He’s cuckoo.
((Tracy)) Alright, I’m going to tell you the good news. You
guys are going to leave for five days, right?
((Charlie)) Yeah.
((Tracy)) You leaving for five days?
((Charlie)) After I get her washed up, cleaned up.
((Tracy)) Okay, by the time you get back, your house will be
up.
((Charlie)) Oh, I love you.
((Tracy)) You’ll go inside a house instead of a tent. Okay?
((Charlie)) Thank you.
((NATS: Crook and man arguing))
((Man))…..because he’s a liar, because he’s a liar.
((Crook)) I understand that.
((Charlie to Didi)) Come on baby, let me take you and go
get you a shower.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have six children. I was 13 and I had a child when I was in
seventh grade. And by being a young teen mom, you know,
we wanted to do the best for our child, right? So, I continued
going to school and graduated from high school and
proceeded to go to college. But I never finished it because,
due to the fact that, you know, just being, just life, you know.
Things go wrong and sometimes it doesn't pick back up. So,
but I thrive. And later on, I have like five more, you know,
children. And I was holding on to being a mom. I mean a
good mom. But at the same time, I lost my house in 2014
because someone got killed outside my house.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The landlord sold the house and they evicted me. So, when
they evicted me, I don't have no money.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Everything was just like falling apart, you know. I couldn’t
afford housing.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Rise and shine everybody. Meatball.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
After that I lost my children, because CPS [Child Protective
Services] said I didn’t have a home for them. They have to
stay with my sister. I see them all the time. She has four
kids of her own. She's amazing.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I didn't want to like intervene with, you know, their
household, whatever, so. And also, you know, I'm with
someone. You know, we didn't want to like intrude or
anything like that, you know, because they was already set
for how many bedrooms they have. So, I didn’t want them
to.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I’m not wearing those fake eyelashes today.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I was staying with my mom and she had to move because of
the rent increase. For a two bedroom, she was spending
like $1600. They wanted it to go up to like $2300. She had
to move to a smaller place to which, where only she could
only have herself there, you know. I had to become
homeless and get a tent and put it here where everybody
was at.
((NATS: Tracy showing her tent))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my little bed. And my closet is back here but it’s so
messy. You don’t want to see that. And this is where it
is. It’s the kitchen, the living room, everything is here.
If I have my generator on, then I get to watch TV.
I don't believe there's such a thing as being comfortable
around here because there is no way to be comfortable
here. Now you don't even have a house to protect
us. Especially being a woman, being out here in the streets
is even worse because you got to protect yourself from being
raped. Sometimes I'll be by myself and it's scary. And when
I stay with.....I always stay protected. So, this is what goes
in my side window, my little, tiny knife.
((NATS: Tracy showing the makeshift bathroom))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is a bathroom. This is not the best-looking bathroom,
but people just go in the garbage can because the city didn’t
bring us bathrooms, so we have to make our own.
((NATS: Tracy showers))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have always tried to keep up with my image. At least that's
one thing that you got to hold on to. Even though, you know,
you're out here, but you don't have to look like you’re out
here, you know. By being out here, people already
discriminate us or even judge us by the way we are living.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, just a little bit of looking proper is a long way to go.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Being a woman and having to have women necessities and
stuff like, you know, we have to up wash all the time. And
it's hard out here because we don’t have water. We don't
have like things to keep us sanitized and keep us like
healthy.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
You know, it's cold and at the same time, you know, like
emotion and depression gets worse because we can’t have
our children here with us, you know.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
When you have children, you can't bring them out here with
you because, you know, CPS [Child Protective Services] will
be like that's child endangerment.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
We need to feel like we’re secure, you know. We need to
feel like we're human. We need to feel like we’re one of
many humans that walk on this earth. We need
respect. We need encouragement.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
A lot of us, homeless people, out here, is very smart, very
intelligent, you know. They have career goals, you
know. They have things that they want to do but they can't
because they don't even have a house to go home and lay
their head down and to think about, you know, to be able to
wake up in the morning and then get ready to go to
work. So, you know, it's not because we're lazy. It’s not
because we don't want to. This is the richest country in the
world, America. So, why are we homeless?
((Popup Banner:
Many Americans live in poverty, amounting to 38.1 million
people or 11.8 percent of the U.S. population.
In 2018, 6.5 million Americans experienced a severe
housing cost burden, which means they spent more than 50
percent of their income on housing.
(*National Alliance to End Homelessness)
On a single night count in January 2019, more than half a
million people in the United States were experiencing
homelessness.
Nearly 100,000 people were unhoused repeatedly, or for at
least a year.
(*US Department of Housing and Urban Development)))
((NATS))
MOUANGJOI TRACY SAELEE
((TRT: 08:04))
((Filmed before the pandemic))
((Topic Banner: Unhoused in Oakland))
((Producers: Deana Mitchell, Wendi Jonassen))
((Camera: Deana Mitchell))
((Producer/Editor: Jacquelyn De Phillips))
((Drone Camera: Dariel Medina))
((Map: Oakland, California))
((Main characters: 1 female))
((Sub characters: 1 male, I female))
((NATS))
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Mark Fisher.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I had a big house where everybody comes by. If anyone
wants to take a shower, want to eat or whatsoever, you
know, wanted some clothes, they always come see me and
then they’ll always be taken care of.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
My name is Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Oh, look. A cutting board.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I’ve been homeless over a year. Lost employment. And
also because the rent increased, it’s too high to afford
it. Things went bad.
((NATS: Tracy cooking fish))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The fish, it got donated this morning. When people donate
things, we like usually cook it and share with everyone else.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my community. I've been staying in this area for my
whole life. And a lot of these people that is in this homeless
encampment is my friends and family and relatives, you
know.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, even though I wasn't homeless, I was always coming
here to visit them and bringing them food or things like that,
you know.
((NATS: Tracy reading bullet points for advocacy
event))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Housing is human rights. Safety: Women are being raped
out here. People are getting burned in the fires.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I am a volunteer. I'm the head administrator of The
Village. And I'm helping the founder very closely to help
eradicate this homelessness problem, you know.
((NATS: Charlie sings))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Telling the truth isn’t going to be easy. Who broke my
window?
((NATS: Charlie laughs))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
They never know who is going to be here next. You know,
being homeless is not a crime. You know, it’s not a
choice. I know a lot of these people. Like I said, I grew up in
this community. And a lot of them knows me, you know, and
they respect me because I've always, you know, had a big
heart.
((NATS: Tracy helping Charlie and Didi))
((Tracy)) Put that down. Let’s forget about that. Let’s forget
about that.
((Charlie)) You know he’s crazy. He’s cuckoo.
((Tracy)) Alright, I’m going to tell you the good news. You
guys are going to leave for five days, right?
((Charlie)) Yeah.
((Tracy)) You leaving for five days?
((Charlie)) After I get her washed up, cleaned up.
((Tracy)) Okay, by the time you get back, your house will be
up.
((Charlie)) Oh, I love you.
((Tracy)) You’ll go inside a house instead of a tent. Okay?
((Charlie)) Thank you.
((NATS: Crook and man arguing))
((Man))…..because he’s a liar, because he’s a liar.
((Crook)) I understand that.
((Charlie to Didi)) Come on baby, let me take you and go
get you a shower.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have six children. I was 13 and I had a child when I was in
seventh grade. And by being a young teen mom, you know,
we wanted to do the best for our child, right? So, I continued
going to school and graduated from high school and
proceeded to go to college. But I never finished it because,
due to the fact that, you know, just being, just life, you know.
Things go wrong and sometimes it doesn't pick back up. So,
but I thrive. And later on, I have like five more, you know,
children. And I was holding on to being a mom. I mean a
good mom. But at the same time, I lost my house in 2014
because someone got killed outside my house.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
The landlord sold the house and they evicted me. So, when
they evicted me, I don't have no money.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Everything was just like falling apart, you know. I couldn’t
afford housing.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Rise and shine everybody. Meatball.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
After that I lost my children, because CPS [Child Protective
Services] said I didn’t have a home for them. They have to
stay with my sister. I see them all the time. She has four
kids of her own. She's amazing.
((NATS / MUSIC))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I didn't want to like intervene with, you know, their
household, whatever, so. And also, you know, I'm with
someone. You know, we didn't want to like intrude or
anything like that, you know, because they was already set
for how many bedrooms they have. So, I didn’t want them
to.
((NATS: Tracy))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I’m not wearing those fake eyelashes today.
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I was staying with my mom and she had to move because of
the rent increase. For a two bedroom, she was spending
like $1600. They wanted it to go up to like $2300. She had
to move to a smaller place to which, where only she could
only have herself there, you know. I had to become
homeless and get a tent and put it here where everybody
was at.
((NATS: Tracy showing her tent))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is my little bed. And my closet is back here but it’s so
messy. You don’t want to see that. And this is where it
is. It’s the kitchen, the living room, everything is here.
If I have my generator on, then I get to watch TV.
I don't believe there's such a thing as being comfortable
around here because there is no way to be comfortable
here. Now you don't even have a house to protect
us. Especially being a woman, being out here in the streets
is even worse because you got to protect yourself from being
raped. Sometimes I'll be by myself and it's scary. And when
I stay with.....I always stay protected. So, this is what goes
in my side window, my little, tiny knife.
((NATS: Tracy showing the makeshift bathroom))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
This is a bathroom. This is not the best-looking bathroom,
but people just go in the garbage can because the city didn’t
bring us bathrooms, so we have to make our own.
((NATS: Tracy showers))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
I have always tried to keep up with my image. At least that's
one thing that you got to hold on to. Even though, you know,
you're out here, but you don't have to look like you’re out
here, you know. By being out here, people already
discriminate us or even judge us by the way we are living.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
So, just a little bit of looking proper is a long way to go.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
Being a woman and having to have women necessities and
stuff like, you know, we have to up wash all the time. And
it's hard out here because we don’t have water. We don't
have like things to keep us sanitized and keep us like
healthy.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
You know, it's cold and at the same time, you know, like
emotion and depression gets worse because we can’t have
our children here with us, you know.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
When you have children, you can't bring them out here with
you because, you know, CPS [Child Protective Services] will
be like that's child endangerment.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
We need to feel like we’re secure, you know. We need to
feel like we're human. We need to feel like we’re one of
many humans that walk on this earth. We need
respect. We need encouragement.
((NATS))
((Mouangjoi Tracy Saelee, Volunteer, The Village;
Unhoused))
A lot of us, homeless people, out here, is very smart, very
intelligent, you know. They have career goals, you
know. They have things that they want to do but they can't
because they don't even have a house to go home and lay
their head down and to think about, you know, to be able to
wake up in the morning and then get ready to go to
work. So, you know, it's not because we're lazy. It’s not
because we don't want to. This is the richest country in the
world, America. So, why are we homeless?
((Popup Banner:
Many Americans live in poverty, amounting to 38.1 million
people or 11.8 percent of the U.S. population.
In 2018, 6.5 million Americans experienced a severe
housing cost burden, which means they spent more than 50
percent of their income on housing.
(*National Alliance to End Homelessness)
On a single night count in January 2019, more than half a
million people in the United States were experiencing
homelessness.
Nearly 100,000 people were unhoused repeatedly, or for at
least a year.
(*US Department of Housing and Urban Development)))
((NATS))
