{"id":82893,"date":"2020-09-18T02:41:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T02:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/portrait\/andrew\/"},"modified":"2020-09-18T02:41:08","modified_gmt":"2020-09-18T02:41:08","slug":"andrew","status":"publish","type":"portrait","link":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/portrait\/andrew\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew"},"content":{"rendered":"<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-82893-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Andrew-Costa-interview-mixdown-compressed.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Andrew-Costa-interview-mixdown-compressed.mp3\">https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Andrew-Costa-interview-mixdown-compressed.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Andrew C. is 25 years old and was previously in several homeless shelters until he found a permanent home at KYCC&#8217;s Menlo Family Apartments. He was adopted in Germany by Italian parents and lived most of his life in Long Island. He left New York in 2015, and was briefly caught up in drug usage. He enjoys fishing, but hasn\u2019t been able to go recently because of the coronavirus. He likes to spend time with his cat, Casper, in his apartment.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Where is your hometown?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[My hometown is] Long Island, New York. It\u2019s pretty awesome. Obviously, same as L.A., there are some areas you don\u2019t want to be at, but other than that most of it\u2019s pretty great. Just all mostly suburbia. We\u2019ve got two different counties worth of beaches. [My favorite place in Long Island] is Jones Beach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve been in California for seven years or so. I\u2019ve lived in Los Angeles for six-and-a-half years, since about 2013. I was adopted. I have two sisters. They were also adopted. I had great parents. So it was good. I was actually in New York visiting them a couple of weeks ago. It was actually a lot better than I expected, especially with this whole COVID thing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Have you been anywhere else other than Long Island or Los Angeles?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve been to San Francisco, Oceanside, all types of places south of L.A. I\u2019ve been to San Clemente a bunch of times with one of my friends. We just had a good time going fishing, kayaking, and a bunch of stuff. I started fishing probably when I was about 19 or 20 years old. I started at the Santa Monica Pier with a friend. I\u2019ve just been waiting for the summertime to hit, but ever since COVID happened, everything\u2019s just so messed up right now.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve also been in the middle of the country, somewhere starting with an \u2018A.\u2019 I visited for a couple of days at a time. I definitely like the more liberal areas, like L.A. and San Francisco\u2014basically all of California. I was with one of my friends and his friend, whom I had just met for the first time. [Traveling] opens me up to other cultures. It helps me be less prejudiced against all cultures and people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Do you live or work in Ktown?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I live in Koreatown. I lived in a different part of Koreatown before, near Western [Avenue]. But I&#8217;ve been at Menlo for about two years. To be frank, I\u2019ve been telling people for the past six or seven years that [I moved to K-Town] for the three W\u2019s of life: weed, weather, and women. I just needed a change of scenery. I needed to get on my own path in life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[Koreatown] is not really that different from [Long Island]. Long Island City is a big melting pot of all types of cultures, and it\u2019s the same way here in L.A. I\u2019m a little closer to the ocean here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What led you to Menlo?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019ve worked with a bunch of different resource and outreach programs. I volunteered with a bunch of them too. Eventually, Menlo came up and I got an apartment and I was able to move in. I would say Menlo is a lot more independent [compared to] the other places where I\u2019ve lived, like the Salvation Army, Los Angeles Youth Network, places like that. But this is cool because I\u2019m all on my own.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s wonderful [having a stable home]. I have no rules. I can come in and out whenever I want, except for right now. I\u2019ve had a cat for at least 16 months. I love her to death. I\u2019ve had her for close to a year. My buddy got her for me as a present. Her name\u2019s Casper, like Casper the Ghost. She\u2019s a little annoying sometimes, but she\u2019s a cat. She\u2019s about nine months old or so, maybe ten-and-a-half.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What\u2019s it like to be at the Salvation Army?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It can be a little hectic, but overall it\u2019s pretty alright. I don\u2019t really remember exactly how I got there. I probably just found out about it through a friend or something. I turned in an application, and a couple of months later I was accepted. I wouldn\u2019t say I was homeless, but I haven\u2019t been homeless before. It\u2019s not that bad if you\u2019re on the younger side like my age, but I would imagine it\u2019s a lot easier than, say, if you were 45.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What was it like being younger and on the streets?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It wasn\u2019t really that bad. It definitely could have been better, but it wasn\u2019t all that bad. There\u2019s a lot of resources if you take advantage of them. [There are] internships, jobs, plenty of resources all throughout L.A.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All the people [whom] I\u2019ve met, all the programs, all that generosity from, whether it be strangers or strangers that became friends or staff members at youth centers\u2026[motivated me to get through homelessness].\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What are your thoughts on Koreatown?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Overall, it\u2019s a pretty nice area. I\u2019ve also lived off of Western, so I\u2019m pretty familiar with the area. [I like] the food.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What\u2019s your favorite place in K-Town?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There\u2019s this little park a couple of blocks down from Menlo. It\u2019s calm and peaceful. Sometimes, me and my buddies will all just hang out. Sometimes we\u2019ll maybe drink a beer. Other times, we\u2019ll go there and relax and just hang out. I play basketball every once in a while.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Can you tell me more about your family?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My baby sister doesn\u2019t really talk to me that much. Once in a blue moon. She holds a grudge against me\u2014I would imagine\u2014because she resents the fact that I left her in New York and came out to California. Before that, we were hanging out every day, doing different things together, smoking weed. She\u2019s only younger by three years. Her birthday is on the 16th, so she\u2019ll be 22. I would say that, no matter what she says or does, she\u2019s my family, and I consider her blood along with my eldest sister and my two parents. [I tried to talk with her] when I was in New York maybe two months ago. We hung out and it actually went a lot better than I thought it would. She got pregnant and she had her kid a little less than a year ago, so I got to meet him for the first time, and that was awesome. I didn\u2019t think she would let me play with him or anything like that, but she was more or less an open book. Maybe not about personal things in her life, but with the baby, yeah.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What is one moment in your life that you\u2019re most proud of?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Probably this internship I did up in Hollywood. It\u2019s called My Friend\u2019s Place, straight off of Hollywood Boulevard on the 101 freeway. That was a nine-month-long internship, basically a community outreach program. It\u2019s a drop-in center. You can go there for showers, food, counseling, internships, job resources; it\u2019s endless. Before, I had permanent housing at the Salvation Army, which is right across the street from [My Friend\u2019s Place]. So, I ended up going there anyway. Eventually, I started getting counseling and receiving good services. I got on really good terms with them, and eventually they just kind of offered it to me. One of my case managers at My Friend\u2019s Place in Hollywood cared\u2014wholeheartedly cared\u2014about me. Her name was Isabel, but unfortunately, she left a little over a year ago. The other person was Terry. She was my counselor at CHLA (Children&#8217;s Hospital Los Angeles). If it weren\u2019t for them, I wouldn\u2019t have housing right now. I\u2019d either be in an adult Salvation Army or just back on the streets. But I have my own apartment. All the help I\u2019ve gotten has motivated me to keep up with my rent payments and everything.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout the whole internship, I\u2019ve gotten to participate in a lot of activities there and also in the community. [I\u2019ve made connections with] plenty of people. Both clients and staff. I also got to make a lot of friends. We\u2019ve been to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, we\u2019ve seen Star Wars when it came out and a bunch of different movies too actually. We\u2019ve gone hiking in Griffith Park with a pretty large amount of people. [I remember] walking down the boulevard, going to Santa Monica, Marina Del Rey, all types of stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Can you describe your personal journey with substance use?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was adopted from Russia, and I was born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. My birth mom drank when she was pregnant with me. I was predisposed. I kind of blame that a little bit on how much I drink, because I do drink socially, but I drink more or less five or six days out of the week. Yesterday, I didn\u2019t drink at all. I was just like, \u201cI\u2019m gonna take a day off.\u201d But most days, it\u2019s two to four beers, maybe five.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What has been the most challenging part about the COVID experience for you?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The masks. It gets sweaty in two minutes, and now that it\u2019s summertime everybody\u2019s sweating and coughing and sneezing \u2018cause of COVID. I don\u2019t even want to take public transit. A month into COVID, [I went out] 8 to 16 times a week. When COVID first came out, it was pretty much every day, multiple times a day. I wasn\u2019t really taking it seriously. I try not to go out too much. Today, I had something to do, which is why I\u2019m out right now. But other than that I try not to go out unless I\u2019m just going right down the block to 7-Eleven or the bodega.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What does it mean for you to live a meaningful life?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It means everything. I mean, if you don\u2019t have something to live for, then why bother living? Not everybody always has something to live for, or at least they might not feel like it, but <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the majority of the time I try and make the best out of a bad situation. I squeeze lemons to make lemonade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What&#8217;s the biggest way that your life has changed because of this pandemic?<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Not meeting as many new faces. Other than that, besides certain restrictions, I&#8217;m Gucci. I&#8217;m cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew C. is 25 years old and was previously in several homeless shelters until he found a permanent home at KYCC&#8217;s Menlo Family Apartments. He was adopted in Germany by &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-82893","portrait","type-portrait","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portrait\/82893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portrait"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portrait"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portrait\/82893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kyccla.org\/ko\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}