Jamie | Avondale
“I was born in, born in Middlemore Hospital. I was raised in Portage Road in New Lynn pretty much my whole life, moved to Avondale when I was about 15, been there since 15. I’m 25 now. I’ve been on the streets. I was on Three News. The young homeless teenagers living in the bush. This would have been about a year ago. I’ve been on the streets for two and a half years now.
I got a $150 drop last week, and I gave a $50 note to a homeless guy. I’ve connected with strangers every day, as I’m homeless, and I beg every day. Yeah, like they all saw me. These homeless people saw me get $150 drop and they were like, any loans any loans? I was thinking, okay they’re scabbing me already. You know, but I’ll just be a good fella. This fella just gave me $150. I’ll just take $100 for me and my partner, and I’ll give this fella $50 and you don’t have to pay me back. You know, and he was so, he was crying and everything. He was heartful. I felt good though.
I walked away, felt good, shook his hand, and gave him food as well, extra. So I pretty much gave him about maybe $60. Yeah, and I felt pretty much good, and I’ve seen him again and he’s given me like, what he can back, you know? So yeah, I know there’s some that if you give it to them they will not give it back. Those are the ones from, mainly Auckland, you know Queen Street and that.
Yeah, we look after each other, but to be honest, I don’t really mix with the ones in Auckland, in town. I’m homeless for a reason, you know? I was the one that was from, I don’t know if you saw it from the Three News, we’re the ones from the New Lynn bush. We, we used to look after each other all the time. You know? We used to engage with the Henderson homeless as well. So yeah.
I was in the bush with my partner, and now, but she’s doing good now. She’s got a fulltime job, but she just lost that job. She’s gone to an interview this morning for ah, another job. So she’s doing good. We’ve been together for pretty much four years, two and a half years on the streets. We’ve been through, you know thick and blood, and we’re not going to leave each other, because we’ve done everything together. We’ve been through everywhere in New Zealand. Oh, this morning we had a bit of an argument, and oh it’s just stupid things you know, like she just argues with me over, oh like go get, go make a feed. You know? I won’t make it, if she won’t. It’s just like stupid things we argue about all the time.”
