Students film documentary to show life on Boulder streets
Raelene Johnson reaches into her jeans pocket and pulls out a wad of crumpled bills and some loose change.
She spreads it all out on some brick steps on Pearl Street where she sits and smiles at her earnings. It is only 2 p.m. on April 12, and she has already made $100.
Johnson is 51 years old and homeless, living with her fiancée Amos Washington, 48, under a bridge in Boulder.
She has been acting as a guide to four students, three from CU and one from CSU, who are making a documentary about homelessness in the city.
Ryan Devereaux, a 23-year-old sophomore philosophy major, said that the 24 hours he spent with Johnson opened his eyes to the way that the homeless live.
“There is a constant sense of insecurity,” Devereaux said. “Everything seems so unstable. You can imagine over a decent amount of time how that would wear on you.”
The group of students spent the morning selling the Denver Voice, a newspaper devoted to local homeless communities, with Johnson. Buying the newspapers for 25 cents each, they distributed them for donations of $1.
With about 10 hours of footage from their time with Johnson and another nine hours from interviews with local people who are homeless or work with the homeless, the group is compiling the documentary to show to the CU community. The film will premiere on April 30 at 6 p.m. in Hellems 252.
“The documentary is about homelessness in general, not just our experience,” Devereaux said. “We were trying to get all different perspectives of people who have to deal with homelessness on a daily basis.”
Breana Prince, 18, a freshman integrative physiology major, said she realized how the inability to get out of homelessness is a tough reality.
“That’s the hard thing,” Prince said. “We get a break but others don’t.”
The group tried to capture an accurate representation of the homeless experience on film. Johnson said she looks forward to the premiere of the documentary, and said that she hopes it will open up people’s hearts and minds.
“If only one student learns something, it’s a blessing,” Prince said.
Some people already understand Johnson and her fiancée’s situation, Johnson said, such as some police officers who have taken a particular liking to Washington.
However, not everyone is so considerate. Johnson is currently trying to pay off a $100 camping ticket given to her for sleeping outside. Many other homeless people are dealing with court fees and similar tickets.
Devereaux said moves like these are directly targeting the homeless population.
“How are you going to alleviate the bigger problem of homelessness if you give them $100 tickets?” Devereaux said.
Despite dealing with problems like these since she moved to Boulder in November, and during her three years of being homeless, Johnson said she remains optimistic.
“I am happy, even though I’m going through this trial,” Johnson said. “I’m more spiritually happy than I’ve been in my life.”
This happiness is apparent in the way she treats the people around her. She said that she is used to hunger and can go a week without eating, but doesn’t want others to do the same.
“If I see somebody hungry, I make sure I’m going to feed them,” Johnson said.
Her kindness has even extended to the squirrels. She has a pocket full of nuts she feeds them when they hang around the bridge where she sleeps.
But Johnson and Washington won’t be sleeping with the squirrels or any other wildlife for long.
In June, they are moving into a two-bedroom condominium with three of their friends. The five will split the rent of $1800 a month, a payment she is convinced she can make by continuing to panhandle and selling the Denver Voice.
While Johnson and Washington are able to get into a home, most aren’t so lucky and are limited to Boulder’s resources for the homeless.
The Boulder Shelter for the Homeless serves meals and provides a warm place to sleep. While the shelter can house about 150 people, only women can get in every night. There are so many people needing a place to sleep that men are on a lottery system, and most are turned away with only a hot meal and a blanket.
Other resources, such as the meals at theCarriage House and the clothes given out by the Boulder County Cares Project, are also invaluable.
Devereaux said that he understands the importance of these organizations and has learned a lot during his experience about the little things that can be done.
“The best thing a person can do is be more conscientious,” Devereaux said. “The first step is to treat everybody with a sense of decency.”
Austen Grafa, 20, a sophomore accounting major, said that many people who the group encountered were not friendly or did not even acknowledge them during their 24 hours of homelessness.
Grafa said he felt most people were automatically assuming they were better than the group, which included Johnson, Devereaux, Prince, Grafa and Brooke Sweeten, a junior philosophy major at CSU.
“But the barriers we think divide us aren’t that big,” Grafa said.
Johnson said these barriers are hard for her to understand, and homeless people do not deserve to be treated the way that they are.
“Just because we’re homeless, it doesn’t mean we don’t have dignity about us,” Johnson said. “And we’re not all the same.There are those who are seriously trying to get somewhere.”
Johnson said she does not let being homeless define her. The group knows her for her perpetually warm hands, her sockless feet when she is sleeping in freezing temperatures, her success at staying clean after her crack addiction and her constant kindness.
While she may not have a place to live yet, Johnson said she has found her home.
“I still love Colorado,” Johnson said. “I was here 36 years ago as a runaway. When I saw the fountain on campus in November, I knew I was at home again.”
You can contact Campus Press Staff Writer Morgan Keys at morgan.keys@colorado.edu.
