Aspiring Bruin dreams of school while living off the L.A. streets

Aspiring Bruin dreams of school while living off the L.A.
streets

By Conan Ozbourne

I arrived in Westwood in August, following a dream to attend
UCLA. I stayed at a certain fraternity for about two weeks before I
was evicted due to a personal conflict with the vice president.

He didn’t care that I didn’t have any money to get a place to
stay. He didn’t care that, in two days, I cleaned up what was
supposed to be a kitchen where brothers of that fraternity cook
their meals. The refrigerator had a bowl filled with
maggot-infested slime. The living room, which I also cleaned, was a
construction site and garbage dump all rolled into one.

I told this vice president that what I had cleaned would have
cost him roughly $17 an hour if done professionally. I told him
about my plans to attend school at UCLA and that I could cook for
this fraternity to finance my education. He figured it impossible.
He had a caterer, which probably costs about $5,000 a month, and
didn’t need my help. I explained to him I could cut his costs in
half.

I cooked for roughly 500 customers a day in Sun Valley, Idaho
and for my fraternity at Washington State University, which had its
best rush week in 20 years when I did. But he evicted me anyway.
Needless to say, my arrival in Westwood was met personally with a
great deal of disappointment.

I have tried several avenues for achieving my goal of attending
UCLA since that rude welcoming committee evicted me. I have swept
streets, painted, picked change out of wishing wells and eaten a
lot of garbage. Does stooping this low make me angry? You bet it
does!

Another form of stooping is lawsuits. I have tried to file
lawsuits at the municipal court down on Santa Monica and Purdue
Avenue. But the same question keeps coming up. "What is your
address and phone number?" I tell them I don’t have either and they
tell me to put something in that space. Which means our law
officials are telling me to lie.

I am not ashamed of my homelessness. I am ashamed of the
atrocities committed against the homeless. A homeless person needs
shelter when it rains. He/she finds shelter in vacant parking
garages. But when found sleeping in these garages, security guards,
police officers, etc. kick them back out into the cold as if they
are some kind of stray dog.

I just spent 26 days in L.A. County Jail for being in a parking
garage last fall. I was smoking a cigarette while sitting on a
bench. That meant that I spent 26 days in jail before my pre-trial
hearing. On Nov. 21, I pled no contest to trespassing with a
probation to stay away from said parking garage for two years.

Who is more of a suspect here? Is it myself for sitting in a
parking garage at 1 a.m? Or are the security guards who arrested me
more of a suspect? What are they suspicious of?

Unlawful imprisonment. Guilty as charged.

Ozbourne is an aspiring student and a transient in Westwood.