Lou

Born in Los Angeles
San Francisco resident since 1969

My name is Lou and I live in a DISH hotel, and I have been here for 5 years. Before this, things were not good for me especially when I was much younger, but now this hotel is the best thing that ever happened to me. Everything is here for me and I am pretty happy. They have allowed me to do my building in my room and that’s what I love. Machinery is what I do and I just love machines. People knock on my door and say, “Can you fix this?” Well, ok, I’ll give it a shot. I know I can fix it, I can fix anything. If somebody made it, I can fix it. I used to work in machine shops in South Central Los Angeles. I went to prison a few times for drug offences. I was homeless for six weeks, that’s all. That’s nothing compared to some of these people. I look at them and I say wow, man. Sorry about that. I don’t like to go out much anymore. What I like to do is go out to the Goodwill as-is store right over there off of Market, and man, I can get a lot of things, especially leather purses. I make my wallets. Everybody should make things for themselves.