Welfare (1975) Movie Script

1
(CAMERA CLICKS)
PHOTOGRAPHER:
OK.
- (CAMERA CLICKS)
- OK, that's it.
Just have a seat, OK?
- (CAMERA CLICKS)
- OK, just have a seat.
- (CAMERA CLICKS)
- OK, Mr Hamilton, just have a seat.
Hold your head straight, dear.
- (BELL RINGS)
- (CAMERA CLICKS)
OK, have a seat.
OK, sir, just have a seat.
OK. Sintate.
Have a seat.
Have a seat.
OK, just have a seat, please.
OK, have a seat.
Mr Welles, would you mind
removing your hat, please?
OK, fine.
OK, have a seat, please.
WORKER:
Three A.
Alexander Tarswell.
Four C.
CLIENT: Indian people here
don't like here, you know?
I'm...
I'm Apache from Oklahoma, you know.
Don't wanna give you nothing
because I'm a Indian.
What's happened
to the Indian people, you know?
What's happened?
He no good? No good?
I'm a human being like anybody
like white or Black or something like that.
- MAN: Get outta here, outta here.
- CLIENT: You understand?
They don't want to help you, you know.
They don't want me helping,
cos I'm an Indian people, you know?
I don't see too many Indian people
in this country, you know
in New York.
I escaped from this reservation
you got in Washington, you know?
I'm taking off from there
because in there, it's like a...
like a camp.
A concentration camp.
He's taken all my land
you know, and puts me on
a reservation like a jail.
You know?
And now he don't dig it too much.
He don't dig it.
The government,
he don't like the Indian people.
You understand?
He preyed into Indian people, you know?
Every time I go he say, you Indian?
Get outta here!
I don't want you Indian...
That's not good.
You know, that is not good.
Because you know, if you suppose...
I'm a human being, you know?
Like you, like anyone, any people,
you know.
Yes, ma'am.
WORKER:
I called 39 Broadway.
OK, ma'am.
So far as we know,
they have made no provisions
to issue ID cards to their claimants.
Right, that's right, thank you.
But on the other hand,
welfare cannot give you one either
because you're not on our rolls.
The best thing for you to do
when you get your cheque
is go to a cheque cashing place
- or maybe a landlord will cash it.
- Yes, ma'am.
Keep going to SSI
until they come up with some ID
so that you'll be able to cash your cheque.
- But, young lady...
- But, but...
- Sir, sir.
- If you don't give me the picture...
We cannot give it to you
- because your cheques don't come from us.
- Hold it, man.
Your cheque does not come from us,
so we cannot give you an ID card.
You go in with an ID card
from one department
and you get your cheque
from another department
it's not gonna help you.
I know, but I need the picture
for change my cheque.
No, I'm sorry, we won't give it to you.
You have to get it from them
- and in the meantime...
- She told me yesterday...
Yeah, listen, man.
You know, I just go in yesterday in there
you know, walk in,
because I ain't got no money.
I walk in all the way up from Broadway
thirty-nine, and I explain my situation.
He said he don't give you
a Medicaid card in there
and he don't give you ID card there,
you know?
Say going to 14th Street
maybe you can... solution your case.
- I need help.
- Nevertheless, this is a problem
that you'll have to take up with them,
Waverly's no longer responsible.
But what can I do now
for change my cheque?
You've got your cheque,
you have your cheque in your pocket?
You know, I just tried it, you know.
- To get the picture because...
- I've explained to you several times
- that we cannot give it to you, I'm sorry.
- Right, I know.
You know, so when my cheque come,
and the cheque coming...
Take it to a cheque cashing place.
Yes, but if I ain't got no ID card,
he don't give it to me, young lady.
Meantime, keep going to 39 Broadway
and tell them you're having difficulty
cashing your cheque
and you need some kind of ID.
I just said I telling yesterday
telling I supposed to get a picture here,
because, you know...
he don't give it to me.
He don't want to give it to me.
I'm sorry, Waverly can't either.
Waverly's not responsible.
So I supposed...
Oh, you lose one your rings...
Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
So, you know, what I can do now?
Go back to 39 Broadway.
When you get your cheque,
go to a cheque cashing...
Explain the situation again?
- Explain the situation, yes.
- OK, thank you very much, young lady.
So you were out of the apartment
in November?
- That's right.
- November 28th.
November 28th,
and then you went...
Over here it says you went
to the halfway house
December 27th, that's a month later.
- Yeah.
- OK...
- We were staying...
- No, what's she's saying is what did you do
from November 28th to...
December 27th, where were you?
Well, I was in and out of jail.
It was like one day at a time,
like, they would, you know...
It says you were only in jail for one day.
I know that, but previous to that too.
You know, like it was, they just...
We went into restaurants
and we were just eating
and not paying our bill
because we didn't have any money.
So they picked us up, you know,
like on that
and we'd spend the night in jail
or something
and then they released us out
into the street again.
And we were staying in...
We were staying with a friend of mine.
When you worked for the department
you know, you were making good money.
That's right.
Like I stayed in each position
for about a year
or a year and half, I kept
taking the civil service exams.
That's how I got promoted.
I started as a union clerk grade three
and then I went supervising clerk,
then I became administrative assistant.
- See, we haven't...
- It's approximately a year, two years
in each job there.
I think, you know...
Yeah.
We haven't got your accounts, right?
We just got
the letter from the bank saying
that your accounts are closed.
He lost the passbook.
WORKER:
No, no, wait a minute, wait.
And then you're telling me
that you only have these amounts
in each account, but you were
making relatively good money.
I can't understand how...
A hundred and ninety-eight dollars
in rent was one item, OK?
WORKER:
I know, I know.
And what about for food?
We had to spend on food.
That's right,
we spent money on entertainment.
WORKER:
What kinda entertainment?
- Movies.
- Movies.
Drinking.
You know what I mean?
How come you never worked?
I'm an epileptic and I can't work.
- OK.
- We had to pay electric.
Yeah, and so on.
WORKER:
Have you got a medical...
I don't have any medical,
because my doctor...
You have Medicaid,
that's the only thing.
Medicaid is the only thing I have.
Are you under any medication?
No, I don't take any medication
because the doctor told me I don't need it.
It's just that I gotta take it easy and relax
and I'm not allowed to work.
I wish I could, I would work.
They gave us the Medicaid
because we, you know...
we are in this situation.
That's right.
WORKER: Well, the reason
I'm asking you all these questions...
Yeah.
It's true you're an emergency
so we are giving you
the emergency interview.
But every aspect
of your application has to be gotten into.
OK?
OK.
I'm surprised you asked that, being that
you were a supervisor in social services.
- You should know.
- Well, you know, sure, but...
at the moment, I'm thinking in terms of
answering your questions
and of, you know...
WORKER: Did you ever get
social security under your father's...?
My father, I don't know,
because my father is in the Army
and I haven't seen him
since I'm six years old.
WORKER:
I see. Where's your mother?
My mother's on Pelham Parkway
she gave me
a little money and then she told me
go hang myself or commit suicide
and every time I contact her,
she hangs up the phone.
The counsellor at
the rehabilitation centre tried
and she claimed she doesn't know me.
He tried, my sister tried.
I got money from my sister, a little bit
and then forget it, she didn't help me
and neither did my mother,
my mother doesn't want any part of me.
I've tried calling her every single time
and she hangs up the phone
or "go hang yourself" or "sleep in a jail".
That's why I can't get any response.
My sister's out in Stony Point,
I asked if I could stay up with her.
I can't because she works.
Her husband...
If we could stay with relatives,
we would be glad to do so.
We sure would.
I've tried my aunt who lives on 14th Street
and my grandfather's got cataracts
and he needs to stay in the house
so I can't ask her for help.
- Did you both apply for the SSI?
- Yes, we have.
- You both went down?
- Yes, we both had interviews.
WORKER: Now, you're just living together,
you're not married, right?
No, no.
If I knew where my husband was,
I wouldn't even be around here.
I don't know where he is,
I haven't seen him.
WORKER:
Did you...
I have a partial disability
on my hand, I have cerebral palsy.
I used to wear a brace.
I am epileptic too, I used to take Dilantin
but the doctor took me off of it.
WORKER:
You're legally married?
Yes, I am.
I don't know where my husband is.
WORKER:
Well, did you ever go to court?
No.
- Are you divorced?
- No, I'm not.
MAN: That's family court,
I think she's talking about.
You know, your husband might be working
making a very good salary.
Now, he's legally responsible for you.
WOMAN: Oh, I know that, don't you
think if I knew where he was
I'd be going to him?
I don't know where he is.
The last time I seen him
was in the summertime.
- This summer?
- That's right.
And it was late at night.
I usually would see him at night,
it was very quick.
And he was always with me, right, Larry?
You know, when you were with your wife...
- Right?
- Do you have any cigarettes, ma'am?
May I?
No, he sometimes, because his wife
was working in the welfare
and we'd been looking...
You're married also?
- WOMAN: That's right.
- Yes, ma'am.
- I know it sounds complicated.
- Did you put down that you're married?
Is your wife working?
Is she working? I don't know where she is.
I don't have a wife.
What are you telling her I have a wife for?
WORKER:
Didn't you say that he has a wife?
- I thought he had a wife.
- She's my wife.
I don't know what I'm saying.
I don't know. Forgive me.
I don't know.
I'm sorry, Larry, OK?
I don't know, I really don't know.
Are you married or aren't you?
- To her? No.
- Not to her.
- Are you married to someone else?
- No.
So what gave her the impression
that you were?
Maybe it's a wish that she had,
I don't know.
Maybe it could be a wish, I don't know.
It's hard to say.
WOMAN:
I haven't eaten in a couple of days
and I'm hungry and, you know,
I get a little excited.
So I'm sorry, Larry, OK?
I don't feel too hot either.
You know, my system is all...
I need some food in me
and sleep, I haven't slept.
Aches in every part of me.
WORKER:
Alright, this is for the housing.
Where do we bring that?
This is on the fifth floor.
Now you have to go...
After that you have to go
to employment, OK?
- MAN: Yes.
- OK.
- So...
- WOMAN: Have we been accepted?
MAN:
If she said she's gonna house us...
If we're gonna house you
that means that...
OK, thank you, Miss,
I just want to be reassured.
Thank you.
And then we've gotta eat
because we're starving.
So could you please go up
to the housing first?
Where's that, what floor?
On the fifth floor,
and this is on the fourth floor.
The employment is on the fourth.
WOMAN: I'll go up there now
and then we come back to you?
Yes.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
WORKER: Go to the third floor,
to the replacement group.
The third floor.
Anna, tell her to go to the third floor
to the replacement group.
(ANNA SPEAKS SPANISH)
WORKER: Who's next?
Why are you here, dear?
I wanna do the...
no complete cheque.
Did you get part of a cheque?
How much of the cheque did you get?
I received sixty-six.
Sixty-six.
How much are you supposed to get, dear?
A hundred fifteen.
Fifteen.
WORKER: What do you get,
one or two cheques?
- One?
- I don't know, I think one.
Who's next?
Come on, people, let's move down.
WOMAN:
OK, group six.
Drop that in the box. Have a seat,
wait for them to call your name.
Who's next?
Come on, people, move down, please.
I'm gonna drop over dead
and they do it while I'm sleeping,
they're dope addicts.
They took everything,
they took all my Medicaid
my social security, they took it all.
Quick service group on the third floor.
WORKER (MALE): OK, in here it tells you
about the supplemental security income
for the aged, blind, and disabled.
Now if you already... Wait a second.
Do you already receive
social security disability payments?
Yes.
Well, I don't know, the supplemental bit.
You know, the increase
or something like that?
- Whatever it's supposed to be.
- WORKER: Do you get money from social security?
That's what I'm told.
See, my stuff comes
the Holy Name Society.
Eight East Bleecker Street.
Oh, and...
I get so much a day
to get a room or whatever I can.
WORKER: But you get that money
from social security?
They told me eighty-four fifty.
Now whatever it is
I've been going to see off and on...
WORKER: What I'm asking you is the people
at the Holy Name, that's where you live?
I don't live there, I just...
I have to live wherever I can.
WORKER:
OK, so you'll have to go to 39 Broadway.
I want you to go back
to wherever it is you stay
or wherever it is they get your papers
and show them this
and tell them that we said
that you had to go to 39 Broadway.
That's your social security office, OK?
Because you qualify
for social security, not for here.
You have to go to Holy Name
and talk to them.
- That's right.
- WORKER: Yeah, show them this.
- Make sure they understand what we said.
- Yes.
WORKER: And then they'll direct you
to 39 Broadway, OK?
Alright.
And that's before I can get
on the welfare or whatever it is?
WORKER:
They'll take care of you there.
Yes, at this address here?
WORKER:
At 39 Broadway.
- Oh.
- 39 Broadway.
That's where you gotta go now.
- Go 39 Broadway, downtown.
- 39 Broadway.
- OK?
- Yes.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
WORKER:
Who's next?
Is there a next?
(THEY SPEAK SPANISH)
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER
(BABY SCREAMS)
You got a cheque from social security
for a hundred dollars on Friday
and today's three days later.
They sent me back here.
- Who sent you?
- Social security.
You got a hundred dollars from
social security administration on Friday.
They sent me back here...
Wait, Mr Love.
Did you get a cheque for a hundred dollars
on Friday from social security?
- Forty dollars.
- And you'll be getting...
Two weeks, and then I had...
then I had...
sixty dollars Friday for food.
And what happened to the sixty dollars?
For food and...
What happened to the sixty dollars
you got on Friday?
You're covered by the
Federal Social Security Programme now.
You're not covered by
the local welfare centre.
- Well, social security...
- You got sixty dollars.
Social security and welfare
were having an argument on Friday.
Mr Love, if you got sixty dollars
of food money on Friday
you're expected...
it's supposed to last for a little while.
Like the twenty-eight hundred dollars
you blew in two months...
I had to pay my doctor bill,
I had to pay my doctor bill.
- You should apply for Medicaid.
- I had to pay my doctor bill.
Mr Love, if you got sixty dollars
from social security on Friday
- you're not gonna get any money today.
- Yes, I paid my...
The money was for food...
Then give me it
and I'll go back to social security and...
Where's this go?
Over here, I guess
WORKER:
Who's next?
Come on, people, please move down.
Miss Slompo...
You must bring us...
How many months pregnant are you?
Five.
You must bring us a letter from a hospital.
The doctor can write
anything that he wants to.
In order to qualify for public assistance
you must bring a verification letter
from a hospital.
Are you attending any clinic?
- No.
- Why not?
I have no money.
That is not a requirement,
that's not a requisite
for you to go to a public clinic.
You go there and tell them
that you don't have money
and then they will fill out
this form for you.
All this says is verification of pregnancy.
WORKER:
This is not what we want.
We want it from a doctor,
there's a certain form
if you go to a city hospital,
they'll give it to you.
Now, you realise that a doctor can write
anything that he wishes, sometimes...
Oh, yeah,
but five people have seen this letter.
WORKER: Elaine, are you taking this
for verification of pregnancy?
Yeah, there's an EDC date on it.
Signed by a doctor.
So that...
you'll take that instead of
the form from the hospital, right?
- Yeah, it's just a private doctor.
- Alright, OK, it's accepted.
WORKER:...indicates to me that
she may be using a loose term
broadly, very broadly.
It may not be detrimental to her.
The hospital note tends...
The letter from the hospital indicates
that there were apparently
extenuating social circumstances.
It may be a question of lousy conditions.
Now, the format is first
a home visit according to Kay
within forty-eight hours.
Second, the phone calls
to both Central Agency and SSC
and then the...
On the first sheet you'll see a nine...
I think it's a four ninety-two.
These forms, I have them there,
I'll give them to you.
They have to be processed
within forty-eight hours
of the phone calls.
- You haven't answered my question.
- What's that?
BCW already knows about it.
Why do we have to notify BCW?
Just to get a clarification on it.
Just to see exactly...
Her description of it leaves a lot open.
She describes it broadly
as a child neglect or abuse.
The woman is accusing herself.
I'm sure that...
I'm pretty sure you'll find
that she's using the term
without quite understanding what it means.
Miss Zimmerman, we're gonna take
the child off the budget
because it's not with you at the moment
and if you get the child back,
you let us know about it, OK?
OK.
She'll be back as soon
as I get another apartment.
See, that's the problem right now.
How long have you lived in this apartment?
About nine months.
But, like, there's rats
and a gas leak and...
The Central Registry,
they're the ones who took the complaint.
Now, I don't know who made the complaint.
I think it was the hospital,
women's infirmary.
Said that you have
some diseased pets in the house?
Yes, one dog is diseased.
It's not my dog though,
and it doesn't live there.
Yes, but you can't let the child
near the dog.
It doesn't matter that it's not your dog,
the dog is in the apartment
and that has nothing to do with...
Even though the conditions
of your apartment are bad
and probably you'll be able to move,
there's still a diseased dog
and they're not gonna let the child back
as long as you've got
a diseased pet in there.
It's not there all the time,
it's there once in a while.
It's my boyfriend's dog
and he doesn't live there.
WORKER: But it only has to
be there for a little while
for the child to catch something.
That's why the doctors I don't think
are going to let you have it back
until you get rid of the dog for good.
So, why don't you tell your boyfriend
to come and pick it up, OK?
OK.
But anyway,
somebody will be visiting your house
in the future, so...
clean it up.
Alright.
Do you know about when?
See, now, I put in a complaint
about three weeks ago
with building inspector,
no one ever came
and at housing, I got a real runaround
and, like, nobody knew nothing about it.
It's like they say
that there's no record of violations.
No, somebody will help you.
You need a lawyer to help you with that.
You can't do it yourself.
So I'll give you the phone number
of this lawyer
that works for the Mobilization for Youth.
- OK.
- Because, you know, you don't...
OK.
Here's her number, or else you can
go in person and tell her your problems.
I don't know why
the building inspector won't come.
They'll take a couple of months to come.
They're understaffed, et cetera, et cetera.
They won't come...
When I had to wait
for a building inspector for myself
it was a year and a half.
- So don't count on that.
- That's ridiculous.
That's why you have to go
to somebody who's legal.
- That way they can help you do it faster.
- Because the case worker says
that they don't want to move me
because there's no record of any violations
and I can't live there...
WORKER: That's why you
have to put in the violations,
and then you will be able to move.
You have to say
yes, there are violations.
I have to go to a lawyer?
- Yes.
- OK.
OK? So you have her number.
So that's OK, you can go home now.
OK, thank you very much.
WORKER: You had a fire,
and the emergency occurred in August.
You settled the emergency
because you resolved it
because you lived with your friend.
- Right.
- Now, there are new circumstances.
Now, if you want to...
If you want to correct the situation
by having a new apartment
you must make a fair hearing.
This is your only course.
- We can't solve it in this...
- I don't think this is fair.
WORKER: We can't solve it in this centre,
we won't give you this money.
I don't think this is fair at all.
Something has got to be done somewhere,
because it will continue...
Why are you so reluctant
about asking for a fair hearing?
CLIENT: I'm not reluctant
about asking for a fair...
I am reluctant to a certain extent.
The reason why is because it's gonna
take a longer period of time.
WORKER: How do you know it's
gonna take a longer period of time?
It takes at least three weeks
for a fair hearing, does it not?
Yeah, but how long...
Meanwhile, my friend is moved out
and where am I?
- Your friend hasn't moved out yet, has he?
- He's moving his things.
- He's in the process of moving his things.
- When is he moving?
All his things will be out
within the next two days.
And I have responsibilities also.
By the way, are you enrolled in a WREP
programme or any of the...
Yes, uh-huh. I am.
WORKER:
You're enrolled right now in some...
WREP. The WREP programme.
WORKER:
When do you start?
Well, the guy's been sending me out...
They sent me to the unemployment section
and now the guy's been
sending me out to different jobs
and he told me to call him this week
so he could send me somewhere else.
WORKER:
Are you...
Are you ever enrolled
in a narcotic programme?
Yes, I was.
I was a drug addict at one time.
But when I came out, I started working
and I've got my own apartment
and from there, I started
building on my own two feet
and then, from there I bought a dog,
a Great Dane
and I had responsibilities toward her.
Now I'm...
being at the fire, I only have the dog left.
And it's me and the dog,
and I had lost my job
and y'all said y'all would
give me some kind of help
and it hasn't been done yet.
And that is another reason why
the hotel wouldn't be suitable.
I would have to get my own apartment.
- Because of the dog, you mean?
- Right, because I have a dog too.
WORKER: I think there's only
one course for you to do.
And you can go to the state
and make a fair hearing
and we'll be over there...
- What happens...
- With our records... What?
What happens meanwhile,
when the guy moves out?
WORKER: He hasn't moved out yet, right?
You're still living there.
Not completely,
but within the next two days.
It takes three weeks for a fair hearing.
What do I do during that time?
Nothing that we can do, unless you come...
You want to live in a hotel meanwhile.
CLIENT: Are they gonna let me
take my dog? I'll live there.
Y'all give me furniture, clothes money...
We're not giving assistance for your dog.
I know, I know.
We're concerned about you, right?
Between the dog,
me and my friend work it out.
We work it out between me and the dog.
WORKER: And you know,
the dog can stay with your friend.
It's my dog, but I don't know.
I don't know if he wants
the dog to stay, I'm not sure.
That I would have to work out with him.
Like I said, I might be able to work out
a furniture situation with him
and the dog, I don't know.
But the fact that I came down here
was because I was told
that I would have a place to go
which is an apartment
and that is where I could take
my dog and live
and work for a living.
Where's your friend moving to?
CLIENT:
He's moving on the West Side.
You tell me you can't
stay over with your friend?
CLIENT: He told me it's too small,
the apartment is too small.
- For a day or two?
- He has his woman.
His woman is with him too.
Now, and all along
I've still been imposing...
I tell you what, let me ask you,
if this woman lives with him too
in other words, he's still living
in your apartment.
CLIENT:
Not my apartment.
Well, he's living with you,
if this woman lives with him.
Lives with him means present.
CLIENT:
Right, and he's moving some of his things.
He's in the midst of moving
some of his things
to the West Side.
- He hasn't moved everything yet.
- But you just stated
- that the woman is living with him.
- Right.
- At his apartment.
- And you're living with this man.
- Uh-huh.
- So the woman is living with him
and with you also, you're living
in the same apartment.
CLIENT:
Right, there's three of us, plus a dog.
WORKER:
Now there are three of you plus a dog.
Right, but it's his home.
It's not mine.
It's his home.
- It gets more involved as we go along.
- It's the man's home, it's not mine.
Now you have a dog and you have
a woman and you have...
- I don't have no woman, no, no.
- He has the woman.
Well, what goes on with him
is not my concern.
He just lets me...
I rent part of the apartment to sleep there.
I sleep there and do what I have to do.
WORKER: Listen, do me a favour,
make the fair hearing at 4886-550.
CLIENT:
Still, I'm being rejected again.
It's still a runaround.
Thank you for your help.
WORKER:
OK.
Thank you.
WORKER:
We're not allowed to pay back this much.
You should come in on the time...
Well, the damn hearing kept me there.
I don't want to hear that.
I don't want to hear that shit at all.
You didn't feed me, he fed me.
You're supposed to send those cheques.
I'm single issue, you never sent them.
You never sent them.
You're supposed to come in
for single issue cheques.
We are not supposed to send them.
They were sent before,
single issue always
without a fucking problem,
but now there's a problem.
You don't have to use that foul language,
cos I don't have to listen to it.
Well, can I have today's food money, then?
WORKER:
You can't have today's food money.
- Why not?
- Your date is due tomorrow.
We go according to this...
I told you that already.
The best thing I can do
is give you the rent money
from before that you didn't pick up.
I can give you your rent money
from the 1st to the 31st.
I'll give you an appointment for tomorrow
to come in and get your food money.
And I'll still have to stand out there
6 o'clock tomorrow morning.
WORKER: No, you won't have to,
because I'll give you an appointment today.
Will I still have you tomorrow?
WORKER:
There's a little problem here.
Did you apply after January one or before?
CLIENT:
Before.
You had no active case here
before January one?
CLIENT:
No.
If that is true,
then we can accept you for thirty days.
Until the social security department
gets around to accepting you.
CLIENT:
Alright, well, the girl down...
WORKER:
You have a letter from them?
Yes, I showed it to the girl.
I don't have any of my papers with me now
but I showed, you know,
the interviewer downstairs
like, you know, my psychiatric reports
I showed her the referral slip
from SSI, and...
- You have that with you now?
- No, I don't have it with me now.
WORKER:
OK, alright.
But I been coming back here
every day for two weeks.
Like, she says
get a notarised letter for this.
- A notarised letter for that.
- That's the application group.
- The application.
- Yes, yes. Yes.
WORKER:
And so now you're here in housing
so you must've had a referral
from them to housing, right?
CLIENT: Yes, because they said they only
give out a hundred and sixty dollars.
That's a lot of money for rent.
CLIENT:
A hundred and sixty dollars.
A hundred and seventy.
CLIENT: Yeah, they say they only
give out a hundred and sixty.
My rent is a hundred and seventy, right?
WORKER: That's difficult.
You live alone?
Yes.
I went to the landlord, right?
The landlord is out of town, he's in Aruba
but his attorney that's handling the case
gave me a letter
saying that they will deduct ten dollars
for some burglar alarm system.
She rejected that.
So she told me if I get a letter
from my mother
a certified letter from my mother
saying that my mother
would give me the ten dollars a month
I would be accepted, alright?
I got the certified letter
from my mother saying...
WORKER:
They can't tell you anything but...
Saying that she would give me
ten dollars a month
to make up the ten dollars difference
and she rejects that
and sends me up here.
WORKER:
So they told you you're not eligible?
CLIENT: She's told me
she's giving me the food and money
and all that other garbage, you know
but she wants me to relocate
"instamatically".
She just wants me to move somewhere.
WORKER:
Your case is accepted, though?
Yes.
(TYPEWRITER CLACKS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
WOMAN: You know upstairs,
there aren't two people
that do it the same way.
SECOND WOMAN:
There aren't?
WORKER: If you're gonna need an interpreter,
I'll have to go find someone.
I don't speak Spanish.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER IN SPANISH)
YOUNG WOMAN: The place I was in,
I ain't got no cheque since January.
SECOND YOUNG WOMAN: Don't cry,
come on now. Look, look, look, hold it.
If I get my cheque today
which I think I will,
they owe me two cheques.
You cool people with me now.
Come on, I don't do that, come on.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER IN SPANISH)
You want to go to my place?
I just got out of the hospital.
What were you in the hospital for?
I got a operation.
(WOMAN SPEAKS SPANISH)
- Mrs Johnson?
- Yeah.
(SHE SPEAKS SPANISH)
Even if I don't get my cheque,
you still can come with me.
I was put in the Markwell Hotel for a week
and my cheque
was supposed to come there
between the first and the third.
It didn't come.
The man gave me two days
and put me out the hotel.
WORKER:
Mrs Johnson, according to this
social security gave you a cheque
on the sixth of January?
For food money.
WORKER:
How much did they give you?
A hundred dollars' food money until...
And said my cheque
will be there in ten days.
It's been fourteen days.
I meet the mailman every morning,
no cheque come.
I can't pay no rent
and I'm supposed to be on hotel budget
and they ain't even had me listed.
They told me that I wasn't even on the roll.
WORKER: Were you receiving assistance
here before, Mrs Johnson?
- Yes, I was.
- May I see your Medicaid card?
This a new one they gave me
and they done put the wrong date on that.
- (PHONE RINGS)
- I got to get that changed.
Excuse me, excuse me.
They only supposed
to be issued for a month.
How long were you
on assistance in this office
before you were sent to
the social security?
Since March.
Since March of...
- This year...
- Of 1973, yes.
And your case was transferred
from this office to security?
Disabled, because I'm disabled.
She claims she's been
on assistance here since March.
She was living...
She has a rent receipt
from the Hotel Marquez
dated 1/2/74.
Mm-hmm.
So apparently it's a conversion,
but here they have her as...
Can you make this out here?
SSI beneficiary.
Which means that she was a conversion.
Which means that she was
a conversion, yeah.
For them to give her a hundred dollars
she obviously is a conversion.
- Is a conversion.
- Nothing we can do.
Either that or they would've assumed
in error that she was
and it doesn't seem like it
since she's been in
a state of assistance since March.
But I don't understand,
they're saying "needs home relief".
Well, apparently,
they just are hoping that she can get
some help here or wanted
to get rid of her, either one.
- Because...
- I was wondering if they were inferring
that her eligibility
had been denied for assistance...
Did she give us a phone number?
No, they never give us
phone numbers to call.
Now she's at the Hotel Vasquez.
Oh, yeah, well she'll have to go through
the change of address with them
and we cannot help her here.
It looks as if she's a conversion case.
She's a conversion case, obviously, yes.
Well, I'll inform her of this, OK?
WORKER:
The point is, Mrs Johnson
once a case has been
transferred or converted
to social security by this office
we are not able to...
make any address changes
that occur in January.
You must wait until
they mail you a cheque, Mrs Johnson
because social security already
gave you one hundred dollars
- for your January...
- Food money!
Food money for ten days.
Yes, until the other cheque arrives,
they are responsible for any cheques
issued you in January, Mrs Johnson.
That's what they say
- but they're saying y'all's...
- That is true.
Welfare have to make out my budget
and I'll bring it over there to them
and then they will take over from there.
How much rent
were you paying here, Mrs Johnson?
I was paying a hundred
and forty dollars a month.
One-forty a month?
Yeah, and the hotel, it's gonna cost...
WORKER:
Well, if you were getting...
Do you have cooking facilities at your...
Yeah, forty-seven dollars,
food cooking facilities
- but the hotel don't have no...
- And the rent was one-forty?
One-forty a month.
WORKER: That means it's
seventy dollars, semi-monthly.
In other words, we were...
Your budget...
the budget you were receiving from us
- was a hundred and seventeen dollars.
- That's two weeks.
WORKER:
Every two weeks, correct.
Now, the social security budget
will be two hundred
and fourteen dollars a month.
- Do you understand that?
- Yes, but I ain't got no cheque from them.
WORKER: But they gave you
one hundred dollars advance.
Yeah.
- Toward your food cheque.
- That was food money.
WORKER: Right, now they will send
you a cheque at your address here.
They been supposed to send it.
It wasn't even on the roll
but now they're gonna have to
put me in the hotel
because I'm getting
put out of this here place.
WORKER: And they are responsible
for the address change...
I'm gonna give you a letter
and I want you to go there right away
so they can make an address change
for you, Mrs Johnson.
- I'm terribly sorry...
- The man said they don't make no change.
You could call 'em, I don't have money
to be ripping and running in that...
I just got out of the hospital
from an operation, a serious operation.
WORKER: Well, I'll tell you,
with the new social security budget
there is no increase in rent,
there are no provisions made
for any increase in rent.
You are to live on a flat grant.
Not to exceed.
No more than 206.85 a month
regardless of how much rent you pay.
You will get one grant.
Do you understand that, Miss Johnson?
Whether you pay fifty dollars a month
or a hundred and fifty dollars a month rent.
- A hundred and sixty dollars a month rent.
- The fact is that social security
does not increase or decrease
your budget like we used to.
No, they said you will figure out
how much my budget will be in the hotel
and they will handle it from there.
WORKER:
But we cannot change any budgets
after January first, Mrs Johnson.
- I was...
- The person may have been mistaken.
Being put in the hotel
before January first.
Actually, your case is
probably at 39 Broadway.
They sent you to the other office
because they were too crowded.
I called 39 Broadway, she said...
She said that...
(WOMAN SPEAKS SPANISH)
I would just have to wait
and it might not be
till the end of next month
before I receive any kind of
rent money or food money
- and I'll be put out by then.
- (WOMAN CONTINUES IN SPANISH)
Now, I returned my rent money here.
I didn't return it to social service.
I returned my rent money here.
WORKER: I'm calling 39 Broadway now
to see if they could find the record, OK?
(WOMAN CONTINUES IN SPANISH)
WORKER: Could you check on
a Valerie Johnson for me, please?
The social security number
437-58-3867.
She was referred to us again
for a change of address
I understand effective January
that we are not responsible
for any address changes
or budget changes, rather.
She actually is requesting a budget change.
Yes, she wants to put in
a change of address, right.
It's 437-58-3867.
Yes, would you please?
Mm-hmm.
She's gonna check her rolls,
Mrs Johnson, OK?
(WOMAN SPEAKS SPANISH)
- OK. No se puede, seora.
- No?
(SHE CONTINUES IN SPANISH)
(HE SPEAKS SPANISH)
(THEY SPEAK SPANISH)
- OK.
- OK?
(SHE SPEAKS SPANISH)
OK, Nicolassa, good night.
Good night, bye-bye.
Bye.
WORKER:
Yes, hello.
Do you have...
Is the address 31 East First Street?
It's possible, see,
she says she was serviced
at 1657 Broadway.
Now, I don't know why
they would service her up there
if she's got this First Street address.
Do you have a birthday on her?
Yeah.
She has a Valerie Johnson there
31 East First Avenue.
MRS JOHNSON: They got the
address wrong, that's what it is.
- That's me. That's me.
- Probably the reason, yeah.
No, but she has a different
social security number.
MRS JOHNSON:
She got it wrong then.
All my ID was lost,
I had to come here
and get duplicate copies of everything.
That's me, Valerie Johnson.
Well, here, your...
your office is 125th Street.
Did you go way up there too,
at 230 West 125th Street?
Oh, this is when you lived
at East 29th Street.
You don't live there anymore, do you?
No, that was the old one
when I first got my social security card.
This is the correct number that
we have here, your account number.
Your social security number
seems to be correct.
She's checking it out for me, OK?
- Yeah.
- I'm the only Valerie Johnson there.
They told me that's where my cheque
would be returned to, that centre.
WORKER: Now you didn't pay rent
at this address for January, did you?
I ain't got no cheque
for January to pay no rent there.
And brought the two rent cheques in here
and turned them in to y'all for December
because I was moving in the hotel.
WORKER: But they eventually gave you
the December cheques, is that correct?
No, they didn't give 'em to me,
y'all still got 'em.
WORKER:
You got no cheques for December here?
No, I brought 'em into y'all,
one for rent...
WORKER: I mean your welfare cheques,
your welfare cheques.
My welfare cheques,
I turned 'em back into y'all.
- Both of 'em.
- You had no money for December here?
I had food money,
but the rent money I brought back in.
WORKER: Because you were
supposed to have moved.
Because they was putting me in the hotel
as soon as the January first.
WORKER: What happened to the rent
money they gave you for the new hotel?
They only paid it for one week.
- Here's the receipt, you got the receipt.
- OK, well, thank you.
They only paid it for a week.
I put down the seventh
and then social security was supposed
to have my cheque there
before this rent was due,
and they didn't have it.
The man was nice enough
to let me stay there two days over
and then he couldn't let me stay no more
after no cheque
wasn't coming and I couldn't pay.
WORKER: So you did not pay this
hotel any rent, is that correct?
- Yeah, I paid him this here.
- Just one week?
One week.
WORKER: And you stayed a week
and two days, is that right?
My cheque was supposed to come
on the third...
Between the third and the seventh,
and it never did come.
Now let me ask you a question,
Mrs Johnson.
Why...
Why does social security
have your old number?
Your old address.
Did you ask them that?
Because when I got put out of here
I didn't have nowhere else to go
but to that old apartment
so I went back in that old apartment.
- And this, we...
- I told the landlord.
This, all you received from this office
a week's rent to pay this hotel here?
Right, and food money.
Do you know if they made
a change of address
when you did it?
When we gave you a week's rent here
at the Markwell Hotel...
They put the address,
the Markwell Hotel then.
After I had to move out of there,
I went to social security
told them how I had to move out of there
and the only place I had to go
was the old apartment.
He sent me with this letter
for y'all to send me
with a budget.
WORKER: You spent the whole hundred
dollars since the sixth of the month?
In two weeks?
MRS JOHNSON:
I paid my lights, my electric
and gas bill out of it
bought a few groceries and it was gone.
Bought two new sweaters...
WORKER: Mrs Johnson,
can you wait till tomorrow morning?
- I think we should work on this properly.
- You know what I think?
WORKER:
This man apparently...
MRS JOHNSON:
The Valerie Johnson that they got at 39...
WORKER:
At 39 Broadway.
MRS JOHNSON:
Broadway, that's me.
They made the mistake in the number
cos I didn't see this lady person
and she took the information on the phone.
WORKER: But don't you think that if
you came in in the morning, Mrs Johnson
we could clarify this better?
Perhaps that is your case down at Broadway.
There was a different
social security number.
She got the cheque down there, right?
WORKER: Well, she didn't say,
she just gave me your name...
Would you call and ask
and I'll go down there
and have her verify
that there's no more Valerie Johnson
on First Avenue? I'll even...
WORKER:
She said 31 First Avenue.
- Do you think it's a mistake?
- It ain't no 31 First Avenue.
It's 31 East First Avenue,
they don't even have no address like that.
- It's 31 East First Street.
- Street, right.
- It ain't no...
- I asked her for your birthdate
to verify further whether
you were the person
and she did not have
your birthday listed there.
She didn't ask me my birthday
when she was asking me on the phone.
WORKER:
Then you did see someone at 39 Broadway?
I talked to her on the phone,
and been talking to her almost every day.
WORKER:
Why don't you go there in person?
Why don't you go down
to Lower Broadway right now?
Would you call her and ask her?
Well, the rent you owe is
for December, is that correct?
December and January,
I got no cheque for January.
Not for the emergency food money.
And I'm still waiting on my cheque.
- This is very complicated, Mrs Johnson.
- I been waiting.
Because, if you owe December rent...
I don't owe it, I brought it in
and gave it here to y'all.
Yes, OK fine,
then we are probably responsible
for that December cheque.
Social security would...
That's what they said,
y'all responsible for it.
- And social security...
- Now they're gonna give me January
but y'all got my December,
which puts me two months behind.
Then we're gonna have
to send you to reception
so you get an appointment for group four
which is the group that gives out
cheques here, Mrs Johnson.
Do you understand?
You want me to call reception to see
if we can get you an appointment now?
- Yes.
- For the group here?
To see about my December cheque
but would you call 39 Broadway?
This comes from 1657 Broadway.
- Whatever this means I don't know.
- Hold on a minute.
She's under the impression
that the security worker
wants a budget from us.
But according to this,
there's nothing they can do for her.
They gave her a hundred dollars on 1/6.
Now, she was referred, she claims
she was given the cheque by us
to the Hotel Markwell on 1/2
and returned the December rent cheques.
- Alright, she was probably given...
- Now she's back at this address.
She was probably given a cheque on 1/2
to replace December cheques
that were lost.
That's probably why they were
able to give it to her here.
MRS JOHNSON:
No, it was mailed to me in the mail.
And they told me
they would put me in the hotel
so I saved the cheques
and brought them in here.
Now when I went to social security
they said they didn't even
have me on the roll.
No cheque had been sent out
to me no kinda way.
So they gave me
emergency food money.
At 39 Broadway office,
they got Valerie Johnson
but they got the wrong address.
I don't see any way
that this office can help her here.
I imagine that was
some kind of replacement cheque.
I would assume.
But according to this,
there's nothing they can do for her
and she needs home relief...
She was a grandfathered-in case.
- Do we know that?
- She was, I'm sure she was.
For them to give her a hundred dollars...
Did you check the roll?
I can't get...
I can't get security.
I'll have to check the roll to see if she...
I'm sure she was.
- See if she was grandfathered in.
- I'll check the roll.
May I have your Medicaid card again, Miss?
Oh never mind, I have it here,
I have it here.
What it appears to be is
that the money you were given here
early in January
was to replace money
that was given to you in December
or that was owed to you
from December or whatever.
You are definitely
on social security's rolls.
You are on there to the amount of...
two-hundred and forty-one dollars
and forty-six cents a month.
They may give you...
hold on a minute, hold on.
You hear me through,
and then I'll hear you through.
That is the amount
that we budgeted you for
- when we turned your case over to them.
- The 31st East...
- Huh? What?
- That was the 31st...
East, whatcha-call-it.
WORKER:
OK, hold on a minute.
But you made me a new budget
when you put me in a hotel.
WORKER:
Hold on.
For two-hundred and forty-one dollars
and forty-six cents a month
they may give you some extra
to make up for the fact
that you have lost your food stamps.
I think they make
some financial allowance for that.
So you would be getting a little extra.
Now, that is for your budget
at 31 East First Street.
- You're not living there anymore.
- Yeah, but... Right.
WORKER:
But you moved after the first of January
if my understanding is correct.
- Therefore I do not believe...
- She still made out a new budget.
She still made out a new budget
and told me my cheque
would come to the hotel then.
So she had to make out a hotel budget
in order to send my cheque to this hotel
so I have enough money to pay.
WORKER: Alright, we'll have to wait
until we hear from them downstairs.
I understand somebody down there
is looking up your record.
We'll see what they did.
I'm just telling you that my understanding is
that if you moved,
your case has been turned over
to the social security administration.
OK.
Well, let's see what they come up with
from the record downstairs.
If something unusual has occurred
and that change was put through, fine.
MRS JOHNSON: They ain't doing
nothing but messing me around
because, see, like,
I'm getting put out of everywhere.
You know?
And I don't have... I don't have
no more food money or anything
because they told me definitely
that my cheque would be out
in a few days.
WORKER:
Miss Matthews, can you get Mrs Johnson
to come here in the morning?
Explain to her that perhaps
we would have more time to find her record,
we would have more time...
You can't find her records?
WORKER:
They've looked downstairs.
The woman in the group...
No, nobody, she didn't go look.
She didn't go look.
She said she...
Talk to Miss Perry.
She couldn't give you any information
without the record, that's what she said
because she don't remember it.
But she got it wrote in the record,
she said.
- If you get the record you'll see.
- Mama, if they don't have your record
they don't know nothing about you.
You could be Jane Doe.
You understand where I'm coming from?
They don't know nothing about it
so you cannot... come here,
you got something in your eye.
They've got...
That's a mole.
That man down there
could go get the record, see?
Open your eye.
That man down there
could go get my record.
Let's go downstairs,
I'll talk to Miss Perry.
WORKER:
Hey, hey, get your stuff here.
Are you ready yet?
Yeah, I'm waiting for my cheques
- to be taken downstairs.
- Mrs Johnson, in the event
- they don't find your record...
- Is this yours?
Please don't forget nothing.
WORKER:
Miss Matthews, or rather Miss Johnson...
She can stay with me until tomorrow
- if necessary.
- That would be fine.
In the event they don't find
your record tonight
please come here early in the morning
and go to the reception desk.
Can she get a receipt?
I mean, um... an appointment?
WORKER:
She will in the morning, yes.
She can get an appointment
downstairs for tomorrow?
- No.
- I doubt if they could give it to her now
but she will get one in the morning.
In the morning,
she'll get an appointment to come back
- for another day?
- On an emergency basis.
ANOTHER WOMAN:
That's not sure, that's not sure.
You know they ain't gonna give me
no appointment in the morning.
- You know that.
- What's she gonna do until then?
WORKER: Excuse me, excuse me.
See Mr Matthews tomorrow.
- Mr?
- But that's not a sure thing.
- I can't get upstairs...!
- (OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
This doesn't make any difference.
If they don't call her number
if they don't call her number
until 5 o'clock in the afternoon
she will not get an appointment
till the next day.
WORKER: No, on an emergency basis,
we can get her an appointment tomorrow.
Mine's an emergency, they just gave me
an appointment for Wednesday.
Would you give me a letter
saying it's a emergency basis?
Would you give me a letter
to bring back to this man?
Cos I'm gonna bring it back to him.
- MISS MATTHEWS: Valerie, Valerie, Valerie.
- I got to go have all these examinations.
You're not gonna get nowhere
up here arguing with him.
He's doing his job.
The man can't do no more than...
She gotta go through all them changes.
I done been here. I was here Friday.
- I was here last Wednesday.
- But he can't do no more.
He only got a certain amount of authority.
Don't feel bad.
Look here, I've been here.
And haven't even got in.
Come on, come walk with me.
Did you find her record? Is that the lady?
MRS JOHNSON:
Did you find my record?
I did get 39 Broadway,
they have a Valerie Johnson there
with a different social security number
and they got her at 31 Avenue...
MRS JOHNSON:
First Avenue...
31 First Avenue?
I know, but dig this.
Listen, this is the tenth time
that I've been here.
Makes me mad to see them...
No, but they don't care
nothing about that.
They're gonna send her
and she's gonna have to go to...
WORKER:
You know what's curious?
You know what is curious...
look at the slip they gave her to go here.
165 West 46th Street.
I couldn't even get information
to give me a number on there.
I cannot get them
to give me an address on it.
They transferred me from person to person.
- Now...
- See, that's different, she should...
But she's still a little mixed up.
- But did she tell 'em...
- Now they gonna fuck her around
- as long as they can.
- ...that she was eligible?
But did she tell them
that she was eligible...
She's mentally retarded,
if that ain't eligible, what the fuck is?
Well, does she have a doctor
or a psychiatrist or something to...
Don't you know they send
everybody here to Jay Street?
I know, but you don't see no psychiatrist
at 330 Jay Street. I've been there.
- I ain't no psychiatrist and I can tell.
- Right.
You ain't no psychiatrist and you can tell.
So you know he can tell.
They don't give you the complete test
they don't give
everybody the complete medical
over on 330 Jay Street.
Two and two ain't 22, baby.
Right, but look.
There's no sense in her
sitting there, arguing...
That's what I was telling her.
- Ain't no need in arguing with him.
- I'm fixing to get put out on the street.
No, you're not gonna get
put out on the street.
Come walk with me downstairs
and I'll talk to Miss Perry
and she'll try and find your record, OK?
Listen, they got their procedures, Valerie.
- And you know...
- She gets upset.
She gets upset,
and I don't want her to, you know.
- She had those, like, seizures.
- I know, I know.
MISS MATTHEWS:
Valerie, Valerie, Valerie, Valerie, look.
I'm gonna get my cheque.
FEMALE WORKER: So, I think what
she needs to do tomorrow is
to go to the social security office.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
WOMAN: Because they said that
you can't have your own apartment
and all that baloney if you're under 21.
- Oh, that's bullshit. I have my own.
- I know.
And I went to court.
- So now it's...
- I got an apartment.
But I'm not gonna see them
unless the lawyer comes
because then they just
hassle you around and, you know...
- I don't want that shit.
- They told me I had to get a lawyer
to get a buildings inspector
down at my house.
- To get a what?
- A buildings inspector.
Cos we got rats
and the walls are falling down.
And they're letting your baby live there?
They're supposed to come,
no building inspector.
I know.
They're supposed to come,
not no building inspector.
I came here with about
five apartments already
and they refused them all.
Yeah?
How much were the rents?
One was a hundred and thirty-five
and one was a hundred and sixty.
Now I got one for ninety dollars.
- They can't refuse me now.
- They can't refuse that.
No, like, how do you call...
My son is only five months old
and, you know, my mother's real sick
you know, asthmatic and stuff like that.
My father's had heart attacks.
We don't get along anyway,
you know
cos he's mad
cos I'm not married and I had the kid.
So now I tell them I want my own apartment,
they tell me you can't have it.
When I was pregnant, I came here.
I was five months pregnant
and they made me come in
like six or seven times
and they tell me OK,
we're gonna give you...
open your own budget,
open your own budget
and they told me no, you know?
And I didn't even have car fare
to come or anything.
This place gives you
the big runaround, they're full of shit.
What you should do is get
your parents to write you a letter.
- I got a notarised letter...
- And say that they won't support you.
I know. From my mother's doctor
that she's very sick
and that me and my son
shouldn't be living in the house.
I got a notarised letter from my father
that he doesn't want me in the house.
That's how they are.
Usually, they put the baby
in your mother's custody or something
but they put it in my custody,
you know?
But I'm on Beth Israel methadone
programme and they're pretty good.
Private programmes aren't as good
as city programmes, you know?
It's much better.
One of them, they tried to take my kid.
Now welfare, I have to have a letter
from my shrink
saying that I'm mentally stable now
cos I got off for mental disability
two years ago
and they want to know
whether I'm stable or not
enough to have a kid.
So I talked to my shrink and he says,
well, what do you want me to tell them?
I said tell them I'm not crazy no more.
So I got a together shrink, you know.
Yeah, because they do try, you know.
That's less money for them
to be giving you, you know.
They take the baby away.
Yeah, right,
they took her off my budget
just cos she was in the hospital
for a week.
So now I have to get her back.
If I get this place, I have to get her
back on before the seventh
so I have a little money to eat.
Excuse me.
Take it easy.
WORKER:
There's no way it can be reopened.
State law provides that
if it's closed for more than...
Ah man, you're giving me technicality,
I'm telling you about a condition, man
that means I might be not eating
or have no place to stay
and you're telling me about technicalities.
Man, what are you telling me?
You know, about state law?
Now, what did you give me a cheque for
when I came down here last time for?
- I've never given you a cheque.
- I'm talking about...
Now... You're that technical.
You understand what I'm saying
when I say "you".
- I'm not speaking about you, you know?
- Let me say something.
Your case was open the last time you came
in the centre, that was three months ago.
How could it be open
when I got a notification
stating that the case was closed?
What are you telling me?
You're telling me...
WORKER: I'm telling you,
the last time you were here...
Wait a minute now.
What do you mean, wait a minute?
Don't tell me to wait a minute.
WORKER: I'm telling you the last time
you were here on the eighth of November
your case was open,
which is why you got a cheque then.
Well, alright then.
I'm telling you I got no official notice
that would even indicate
- that I should come down here.
- Ask for a fair hearing.
Well, who do I ask for a fair hearing?
MAN:
I need five operations.
They have my records there
that I need these operations.
From my doctor, from their doctor.
I have a brace now, orthopaedic brace.
I can hardly walk.
Yet I have to come down here
and fight for my cheque
and some mornings I can't get up.
Out of bed.
And my doctor's mad
that I should just, you know
sign my way into the hospital.
But where would I live when I come out?
I have a tumour on my back,
I need a left ear operation
I have hernias.
They have it all down in my record.
I was at social security office yesterday
off 46th Street, the annex.
And they told me to come down here
and I would get a cheque here.
Now these people say
I'm supposed to get a cheque...
That's something that
happened to me.
The social security sends you
to the welfare
and they says the welfare
will give you a cheque
and the welfare says that
the social security's
supposed to give you a cheque,
and nobody gives you a cheque.
I have no rent money or food money
and I have no car fare money.
I don't even have...
You have to sneak under the trains
- to get in the trains to go see the offices.
- That's how I came here.
By sneaking on the train.
To get down to the offices
and once you're in the office,
you wait around for hours
and they don't care.
People got lost,
and the man at the social security
said that he's took care of
two and a half million people
he had to take care of,
so if a couple of thousand
don't get their cheque,
he's doing a very good job.
WORKER: They told her to bring in
a letter from social security
and they told her to bring...
Yeah, yes.
Well, what did they tell you today?
- They told us to come back tomorrow.
- They told her to come back tomorrow.
Fill out an application
and come back tomorrow.
WORKER: Fill out the application
and come back tomorrow.
Oh, you were given
an appointment for tomorrow.
- Listen...
- But then they don't have money for today.
But she doesn't have no money for today.
And the social workers are,
you know, real...
He says that he can't help her out
and it's impossible.
Do you have someplace to stay tonight?
Yeah, she has...
(HE SPEAKS SPANISH)
Yeah, she has her own apartment.
WORKER:
The only thing they can do
we'll give you an appointment
for tomorrow.
If you can't...
If they refuse to help her tomorrow
you come up
and I'll go downstairs with you.
But I want some money for today
so she can...
They won't be able to give you money today.
There's no way they can give you...
She got a place to live
and it's not an emergency, they claim.
MAN:
But she don't have nothing to eat.
WORKER:
Nothing we can do about it.
They claim that there's
no food money in the house, you know?
(HE SPEAKS SPANISH)
OK.
Look. That's all she has.
WORKER:
Make the appointment.
Make the appointment
and come back tomorrow morning
as they requested.
And if she runs into a snafu tomorrow
if she runs into some sort of
problems tomorrow
you and her come upstairs
and see me, OK?
MAN: But what is she gonna do
for today? That's what I want to know.
She's a sick person.
Listen, there's nothing...
They won't give her any money today.
OK?
MAN:
Not even a few dollars so she can eat?
Nothing, nothing at all.
Better come back tomorrow morning.
(THEY TALK IN SPANISH)
You see, I told her
she was gonna get a cheque today.
WORKER: I just talked to the
applications, the head supervisor there
- and they won't be able to help you.
- MAN: What's she gonna do, starve?
WORKER: What? I didn't say you should
starve, did I say you should starve?
MAN: Well, what is she gonna do?
She don't have no money.
WORKER:
You represent a poverty agency or what?
MAN:
No, a community centre.
Aldrich Community Centre.
- But she needs...
- I'm sure she has...
She didn't live in a vacuum
all these years.
She knows the grocery men
and she knows different people
she can get credit for a day.
She didn't live in a vacuum,
all these years she's lived in New York
she worked, she knows people,
she knows grocery men
she knows neighbours,
she has some sort of relatives.
- She knows people...
- She's never taken welfare before
and now that she comes for help,
you know
nobody wants to help her.
If you would tell me if she would
be here every time for welfare
then I could understand
what you're saying.
WORKER: Nobody said they're not
gonna help her, they're gonna help her.
She brought back the requirements
- as she was told to do.
- And she doesn't get no help.
She brought the requirements.
WORKER: They say they won't be able
to see her till tomorrow, that's it.
There's nothing more I can do.
I'd like to help you out,
but that's all I can do.
Tomorrow, I'll personally
go down with you, tomorrow.
If she runs into any problems.
- OK?
- Why not today?
It's gonna be the same thing today
as tomorrow.
- They won't see her till tomorrow.
- She signs an application today...
I didn't see the appointment,
originally I had not seen the appointment
when you first came up.
I had not seen the appointment
for tomorrow.
So what's so big about an appointment
when you could do it today?
She's willing to stay here.
WORKER: Did you see how
many people were downstairs?
MAN:
This is an emergency case, right?
- Every case is an emergency.
- Do you eat?
- Every case is...
- You eat, right?
- Do you eat?
- Yes.
- Do you eat?
- Yes.
- OK, I eat also.
- I work.
- That's very good, I'm proud of you.
- She's not in good health.
- I'm proud of you.
- She's had an operation, right?
Well, what is she supposed to do?
It's all I can do.
There's nothing more we can do about it.
Nothing more we can do.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
WOMAN: So like, the person that called
gave me her name wrong then.
(TYPEWRITER CLACKS)
Nineteen C.
(MAN GRUNTS)
I've made more phone calls trying to
get a job, no one's given me a job.
I'll get a job though.
Can you cook?
Cook? Yeah, I can cook.
- Anything.
- Were you ever on a ship?
Yeah, small ships, small boats.
Yeah, in fact I was on...
The last ship I was on was
a French aircraft carrier.
- Oh yeah?
- Yeah.
What were you doing there, cooking?
I was just wandering around, visiting.
- Called the Foch.
- You been in Europe and Asia?
Never been in Europe and Asia.
- You been out of the country?
- Yeah.
- Where?
- Canada.
Oh.
It's the only place I haven't been.
Montreal, Toronto.
London.
I'm marrying Governor Rockefeller's sister.
You are? That's good.
Well, I'm worth a fortune myself,
this year.
When I get my money.
Social security money.
Three thousand dollars.
Three thousand dollars?
Yeah, two-thousand five-hundred a month
from welfare,
five hundred a month or so...
You're doing pretty good.
I haven't worked since October.
- I'm gonna sing and dance on television.
- No kidding.
My brother-in-law
my future brother-in-law Nelson,
and John Rockefeller
are gonna set it up.
So what are you doing here then?
Broke.
Broke. I know how you feel.
I'm not a success.
Ah, you'll have money...
you'll get your money.
I don't even have a credit card.
I got six cents in my pocket.
I don't have a credit card.
No, I gave up on credit cards
four or five years ago.
No good.
Pay cash on the barrelhead.
- I'll go to the Bronx...
- Cash on the barrelhead.
Did you ever do any fighting?
Fighting? No.
I'm a peaceful man.
- Ever had any fights?
- No, not in a long time.
My wife hit me in the head I think.
- You still married?
- Yeah...
yeah, but they want to get rid of me.
We'll go down and find out
if I can get shelter.
at the Catholic Worker.
And possibly I can
and then...
I'll see if I can call New York
state employment.
What did you say, she said you have to
have a physical and a psychiatric exam?
No, no, no, no.
You have a physical...
on, like, the first
then you wait a day,
then you go back on the third.
Apparently they do blood tests
and things like that.
- You come back here two days later?
- You come back here on the fourth.
That would be the soonest you could
come back, assuming the fourth
is a day they're open.
- Not a weekend or something, yeah.
- It's probably another weekend.
- By then, I'll be very hungry.
- Maybe I won't have to take all that.
Oh, I'm sure you will have to.
It's procedure, she told me.
I filled out all these papers.
I could show you VA, this, that.
Wherever the Blacks dominate...
it's a...
it's a catastrophe
for any poor slob seeking assistance.
And I got stuff here.
I can show you...
so much stuff here.
This, that, and that.
All these are different things.
All these are places I've been.
Show you names, rent numbers here.
Names, all these centres.
Every one of them.
I'm a veteran,
they say I'm not a Korean veteran
because I went on 9/17/53.
And officially, according to the VA
it ain't over till 1/55.
That I'm positive of
because I would've had a wartime disability,
they told me it was before.
MAN: I was in Korea too,
in '52, I was over there.
- No, I went in late.
- I was in '52.
I was in the Navy before that.
MAN: Yeah, well,
I was in the Army at that time.
And it just don't make a damn difference.
- You can get VA assistance.
- No, they give you shit, I'm telling you.
You can get VA assistance.
Did you go up to that place,
529 Eighth Avenue?
Something's awful funny here.
Something doesn't meet the eye.
Look at all these places I've been at.
No car fare, nothing.
I don't eat.
Walk the streets.
I got medical proof of my sickness.
I'll have it tomorrow.
If this...
I'll have it Monday or Tuesday, rather.
I got to mail these letters out.
I ain't got stamps.
I been here four times this week,
four times.
And they keep sending me out
and every place I go
keeps sending me back here.
Now you figure that one out.
Here I was all day one day.
- Look at these forms they fill out.
- Excuse me.
A whole rigamarole of forms.
Papers, papers, papers.
I got more.
There's one.
There's another one.
There's another one and another one.
WOMAN:
Excuse me.
Here's my hospital card
from the VA, I'm a veteran.
And a driver's permit.
I been to 20, 30 places.
WOMAN: Hi, David, you're not gonna
believe what's happening, dear.
Tuesday morning,
I came over to the Waverly Centre.
Waverly said bring back a passport
bring a notarisation from your father
that he's not willing to
support you anymore
fill out this application
bring back letters from your doctors
for when you were dismissed,
when you entered, all this crap.
And then they gave me an appointment
for Thursday morning.
Also a notarised letter
from my roommate
that she was no longer gonna
put up with me after Friday.
Well, I have a letter from her
but the poor kid does not have
the time to notarise it.
So I came back, I really forgot
the appointment on Thursday
because I've been depressed
and kind of upset.
I come back today,
I went to talk to the worker
she would not read the letter
from the Department of...
Oh, yesterday,
I went down to the World Trade Centre
Department of Social whatever it is
for the state, yeah.
Well, she would not read that letter
nor would she read the letters
from the two doctors.
She said I'll give you
an appointment for Monday.
I said I'm sorry,
I have one dollar to my name
and I have not got a place
to stay this weekend.
She said sorry, all I can do is
give you an appointment for Monday.
I said you've got to be kidding.
I am out of an institute
for manic depression
and I am depressed, lady.
What do I do?
"Come back for your appointment
on Monday."
Do you believe that?
This coming Monday.
She doesn't really care.
None of them care.
I told her I have no friends.
I told her I have no place to go.
I told her I have a dollar,
that I walked up from Bleecker Street.
I have a notarised letter from the hospital.
I have a notarised letter from everybody.
I have every goddamn thing they asked for.
And they said all we can do,
I've spoken to the office manager
is you can come back
Monday morning for an appointment.
I said, lady,
what do I do for the weekend?
I am sick, I was discharged Monday
from a psychiatric institute
for manic depression.
This is friendly New York for you,
in the New York Welfare Department.
Maybe she thinks I should sleep
in Port Authority for the weekend.
Yeah, that's what they...
Oh, she firstly,
even down at the State Department
or whatever it is,
she said women's shelter.
She said but you really couldn't go there,
there's a lot of sickies there.
A lot of dykes, a lot of really,
you know...
bad news people.
I said really, lady, I would freak out.
There's no way I could handle that.
And she said well, I'm sorry
it takes at least maximum forty-five days
to get approved for welfare.
I said...
And they wouldn't touch me
in the hospital.
So what the hell do they expect me to do?
What?
Yeah?
That's not a bad idea.
Well, I'm writing a letter
to the Village Voice.
Maybe I'll call him too.
Geraldo Rivera?
OK.
Yeah.
I think he might be very interested in it.
You're gonna see more hanging
than you ever saw in your life.
I've seen a lot of hanging.
- Ain't seen any hanging.
- Oh, yes, man.
Lost my brother at five years old, hung.
They'll hang.
They'll hang like crazy.
- OFFICER: What can I tell you?
- It's crazy.
OFFICER:
What can I tell you?
- You can't tell me anything.
- There it is.
There's no way to control it, man.
OFFICER:
There's nobody controls anything.
What are we talking about?
OFFICER:
We all act savages.
That's right. That's the way
this country was founded.
- Savages.
- There it is.
- We're all savages.
- All of us, Black, white
blue, green, purple
all of us are savages.
There's no way we can conduct ourselves
as gentlemen amongst ourselves?
OFFICER:
There is.
That can be done,
but nobody wants to take time
or to sit down and find it.
- I do.
- You do?
By calling me "nigger"?
Telling me you're gonna shoot me
with a.357 magnum?
How am I supposed to take that?
The next time three guys
do this up against my head
- I'm gonna shoot 'em.
- OFFICER: You got a right
against those three guys.
You better believe it, baby.
OFFICER: Those three.
Only those three.
You don't come here and threaten me.
I ain't never seen you before.
- That's right.
- I ain't put my hands on you.
And you come in here
and you threatening me.
You Black are about ten percent
of the population
and you account for
sixty-three percent of the crime.
OFFICER:
Well, what can we tell you?
Statistically, you don't have to
tell me anything.
OFFICER:
What you want me to say?
How come ten percent are worth
sixty-three percent of the crime?
OFFICER: So now what you're
trying to say is all of us are bad?
- No.
- Hmm?
No. No one is all bad.
OFFICER:
So this is what the whole thing is about?
Everybody wants to judge a whole by one.
- No.
- You cannot do that.
- I'm giving you a statistic.
- Cannot do that.
- What do you mean?
- Statistics don't mean anything to me.
Really.
Cos there ain't a man out there
in the street I'm afraid of.
Nobody gonna take anything from me.
Cain slew Abel.
- Yeah, but Abel wasn't looking.
- His brother.
That's right.
- OFFICER: I don't trust anyone.
- I assume they were white.
OFFICER:
Oh, you can assume what you want to.
- Whatever.
- You can assume what you want to.
It's not a hangup about the Black...
OFFICER:
I know this.
This I know.
Why are the Blacks, er...
"Get whitey," huh? "Get whitey."
OFFICER:
So why was it before "get nigger"?
- Get nigger?
- What goes around comes around.
No, they didn't have to get nigger.
They could hang a nigger,
they didn't have to get 'em.
OFFICER: They could hang a nigger,
just like... (FINGERS SNAP)
That's your race, that's your race.
Hang a nigger any time you want to.
- Any time.
- Right after lunch, hang a nigger.
- Mississippi.
- Yeah.
- "Get outta town by sunset."
- Mm-hmm.
- Your ass is Black, get outta town.
- There it is.
- Don't be here when the sun sets.
- Right.
That's Mississippi.
OFFICER:
That's all over.
But what about my town?
- What is your town?
- New York.
- We never did that.
- New York is my town too.
- We never did that.
- You never did what?
- We never talked.
- Huh?
We never talked,
"Get your ass outta here.
"Get your ass outta New York
because you're coloured."
Really? Are you sure of this?
- Absolutely.
- You're positive?
Can't be positive.
- Only a fool is positive.
- Alright then, alright then.
- A fool is positive.
- So don't come and tell me.
If you can't tell me something
you're positive of
- I don't even wanna hear it.
- I never heard it.
Oh, you never...
there's a lot I never heard of.
But I was really amazed when I saw
these three goddamn Blacks
beating my head
and kicking my head in.
- You keep bringing that up.
- Kicking my head in.
You keep bringing that up.
- Well, it's a fact, man.
- I got nothing to do with that.
- Well, certainly, you don't.
- I got nothing to do with that.
But they got a particular sadistic delight
in beating whitey's head in.
That covered all the hangings
and all the, you know...
Covered everything.
- They didn't even know.
- That made up for all of it.
It made up for all of it.
That one little incident with you
made up for everything.
- Then everything should be straight now.
- That's how they thought.
- Everything should be straight now.
- No.
The only thing straight is
that I'm gonna get a gun
and when I see
a Black man coming up to me
I'm gonna blow his belly out.
I'm not gonna blow his belly out,
I'm gonna hit him in the balls.
OFFICER:
Mm-hmm.
- So he'll not forget it.
- You think they make only one gun?
One gun to blow his balls...
OFFICER: That's all they make,
that's all they make is one gun?
But I'm gonna...
I'm a gunnery sergeant.
- I was a Marine sergeant.
- What that mean?
I killed about 500 men
in the war, I never saw them.
- How you know you killed them?
- But now I'm gonna see that Black man
when he comes up to me,
and that Puerto Rican...
OFFICER:
Oh, now it's the Puerto Ricans?
Yeah.
OFFICER: If I talked to you half an hour,
there'd be an Irishman and a Chinaman.
- Yeah, OK.
- Sure.
But at the moment,
it's Puerto Rican and coloured.
OFFICER: Yeah, what was it,
two Blacks and one Puerto Rican?
- Or two Puerto Ricans and one Black?
- It happened to be three Blacks.
OFFICER: It happened to be
three Blacks with one Puerto Rican?
- Well, when this happened, yeah.
- Oh, when that happened.
OFFICER:
The Puerto Rican wasn't there...
Kicking my brains out.
Now don't tell me, man.
- I can't tell you anything, I didn't see it.
- They got a real delight.
- I didn't see it. I can't tell you anything.
- Kicking my brains out.
I was trying to fight 'em.
Going "Get that whitey,
get whitey, you whitey."
- Punks.
- Did you do anything to them?
- Yeah.
- What?
If I'd have got a hold of 'em,
I'd have strangled 'em.
OFFICER: I didn't say...
I said did you do anything
before they started hitting you?
- Of course not.
- Hmm?
You're just walking down the street?
One guy grabbed me
on the back of the neck
I'm down, there it is.
I'm down, I'm out.
- I got up to fight him.
- I feel for you.
They ripped me off and...
- I feel for you myself, feel you.
- Oh, you feel?
I feel for you, I'm serious.
You would've protected me.
Probably.
- Probably.
- With the badge and everything.
Probably.
I've put my life on the line
for less than that.
For a country I don't have.
- For a country you don't have?
- Country I do not have.
I don't have a country, man.
You people have got it.
OFFICER:
Oh, we got it now?
Oh, so now it's our country
and you're just living here.
I won't fight anymore for this one.
OFFICER:
Yeah?
Thirty years ago, I fought for this one.
Not anymore.
Not to bring up the swine
that's coming up on the street.
OFFICER:
What swine you talking about now?
What swine are you talking about now?
What do you want, baby?
- I don't want anything.
- What do you really want?
OFFICER: Actually, I don't even
feel like talking to you
but since you're here,
to tell you the truth.
You'd rather ignore the whole thing, eh?
OFFICER:
Isn't that what you're doing?
- No.
- No?
I'm bitching like crazy.
I come in here and they can't even
give me a room to sleep tonight.
OFFICER:
Why?
- Why?
- Why?
Well, ask them, don't ask me.
OFFICER:
They should've told you.
Why?
OFFICER: Didn't you talk to the lady?
So you tell me what she told you.
Got a fractured skull, I've been
two months in the hospital and out.
I got a letter from the hospital
and I'm persona non grata.
OFFICER:
Persona non grata.
What should I add?
For my country.
Two Puerto Rican... paramours.
Three coloured concubines?
- Now it's five of them.
- Six children, six children.
Well, it's only a story.
What should I do? I've already...
I paid more taxes than my president.
We all paid more taxes
than your president.
- Yeah.
- You ain't said nothing.
Is there anybody that'll talk to me,
or what're you gonna do with me?
OFFICER:
The lady talked to you already.
- I don't know what she told you.
- They haven't talked to me yet.
Yes, she has.
It's getting late.
OFFICER: So what're you doing,
you going to the hospital now?
Yeah.
You gotta call the hospital,
I want to go back.
OFFICER:
They're not coming.
May I use your phone?
OFFICER: Ask the sergeant in there,
he'll let you use any phone you want to.
Never the twain shall meet, huh?
OFFICER: If that's the way you feel.
If that's the way you feel.
It's the way I know, baby.
We're never gonna make it.
We're never gonna make it.
OFFICER: I'm not gonna
stop trying until I'm dead.
This is not my country.
You don't even comb your hair that way.
You're gonna be...
OFFICER:
We don't comb what hair?
Black is beautiful.
OFFICER: I got the right to wear
my hair any way I please.
Black is beautiful, man.
OFFICER:
I know it is.
- Black is... blood.
- To you.
I'm getting a.357 magnum
and blowing every Black
that I can right out of the business.
So now, two wrongs
don't make a right now?
- Right.
- Mm-hmm.
And when we finally get rid
of the ten percent of Black...
- Just get rid of all of us.
- Get rid of all of you.
Never.
Never.
- Not the way you progenerate.
- No way.
Oh man, you're like rabbits,
you're like rabbits.
- No way.
- You're like rabbits.
But where we're gonna beat you is
because you don't have any homes.
When it gets so goddamn bad
these streets are gonna run with blood.
OFFICER:
Well, one thing I can tell you is...
- And you're only ten percent, man.
- It won't be all Black blood.
Oh, you'll get some whiteys.
They're getting some whiteys.
They're getting a few cops.
They're dedicated to get cops.
There's a, you know...
The Blacks are dedicated to get cops.
OFFICER:
Oh, we all are.
They've killed many, many cops.
OFFICER:
I'm dedicated to get a cop.
Oh, you got to get 'em.
- Oh, I got to get 'em.
- Badge or no badge.
You got to get 'em.
Oh, yeah.
- Yep.
- That sounds a little far-fetched.
And that's not even the Muslim.
They're even taking 'em out
in far-fetched Muslim...
but it's not even far-fetched Muslim.
They're out to get the cops.
But we're not gonna allow it.
And because the fact
that you're in the minority
you're gonna die.
You're gonna be worse off
than you ever were.
I see.
But you have to remember...
Back to Africa, and that's it.
You have to remember,
a minority started this country.
- Not a minority.
- Oh, yes, it was.
- Oh, no.
- When the British ruled this country
how many people were in America, man?
That was a political
and a religious minority
- but they were white.
- Is that what that was?
They were white, they were white.
This is different.
- This is different.
- Different.
Like a man says, biologically...
and nomologically and...
(UNCLEAR)
...everything, the Black...
chromosominally...
OFFICER:
Is what?
Different.
- Different than whom?
- The whites.
- Hmm?
- The whites.
OFFICER:
In what respect?
(PHONE RINGS)
OFFICER:
In what respect am I different from you?
You figure it out.
Take your whole people.
OFFICER:
I'm no different from you.
- Don't put it specifically.
- Except maybe a little prouder.
Don't put it... Prouder?
OFFICER:
Maybe a little prouder.
That's right.
Man, you got nothing going.
OFFICER:
Who got nothing going?
I got everything going.
Nothing.
- You got nothing going.
- Really?
- Really.
- Looks like I got more going now
and I'm only 22
than you have your whole life.
- I'm 51, man.
- That's right.
- Twice as old as I am.
- And I've fought wars. Twice as old.
Oh, I've fought 'em too, ain't no big thing.
Ain't no big thing.
And I fought in a war
that was worse than yours.
Cos I saw who I was killing.
You never see.
Oh, I saw who I was killing.
Every man I shot down, I saw.
I never saw the men that I killed.
That's the difference
between your war and mine.
I had an order.
We all had orders.
You're prejudiced,
that means that you had...
At whom?
- You had a particular reason to kill a man.
- At whom am I prejudiced?
I never killed a man I ever...
- Tell me whom I'm prejudiced against.
- I never killed a man...
I never killed a man that I...
Never had anything
against a man that I killed.
So then what were you doing
in the war, then?
Survival.
- Isn't that what we're doing?
- Simply survival.
- Isn't that what we're doing?
- Oh, no.
Not the way the Blacks coming up now.
Black is beautiful,
Black is perfect, Black power.
Still survival.
- Power, power, power.
- Still survival.
- It's all survival.
- You got nothing going, man.
I got everything.
Man, you say Black is power,
you're gonna eighty-six out.
Eighty-six out? I might as well
get all my business together.
- Get all your business together.
- Say goodbye to everybody.
Say goodbye to everybody.
OFFICER: Well, see, I didn't know,
you know. Now that I know...
You don't think you're gonna make
too goddamn much.
Hm?
You don't think you're gonna make
too goddamn much?
OFFICER:
Oh, I'm gonna make everything I want.
Well, take a look at TV right now.
We're in the greatest goddamn spot.
- I got everything I want.
- What do you got?
OFFICER:
What do we have?
What do you got?
- Not even expression.
- Tell me.
- Not even leadership. Nothing.
- At what?
At any level.
OFFICER:
At any level?
You Blacks can't even lead each other.
- WORKER: Why waste your time with him?
- You can't even lead each other.
OFFICER:
I ain't got nothing better to do.
- OFFICER: Don't have anything better to do.
- WORKER: It gets on my nerves
- and I can't work over here.
- Alright, I'll finish in a minute, OK.
Alright, it was nice talking to you.
I learned a lot from you.
It wasn't.
You haven't learned a goddamn thing.
OFFICER: Yes I did,
I learned that I don't have long to live.
That's good to know.
You're killing yourself.
OFFICER:
I don't want to die just like that.
If I know it's coming,
I can prepare for it.
All depends on who shoots you,
who hangs you.
- OFFICER: Really?
- MAN: I got no respect.
OFFICER:
Well, that's you.
MAN:
No respect.
OFFICER:
I got enough for both of us.
- MAN: Oh?
- OFFICER: I got enough for both of us.
I hope it'll keep us alive.
OFFICER:
It's gonna keep me alive.
- Your name is MacDonald, right?
- Yes.
- OK, Mrs MacDonald, I...
- And they say I'm not supposed to...
- Sweetheart, listen to me.
- No more white tickets.
I done got about four of 'em already.
- Will you listen to me?
- Yes.
I asked you to be patient
and when the lady comes back from lunch
I told you that I would come over
and let you know, right?
I would check it out for you, right?
Yeah, but is she back?
No, she's not back.
She's not back.
Well, there ain't but three chairs in there.
Be patient, alright?
Have a seat over there
and I'll take care of it for you, OK?
Please, cos I got to go to my programme.
Alright.
Excuse me.
Listen... go on, out.
You have to leave.
Go any place you want, you have to go.
Just get out of the centre, alright?
This is warfare.
Oh, boy.
Mister, just get out of the centre.
You know, the interesting thing is
that I see every cop is Black.
What is this?
If I were...
If I were a white man,
or any particular thing
I'd probably think we were prejudiced.
What the hell?
Is everybody in social welfare
and everything Black?
- Cos we want to help.
- Oh...
I think I'll get a...
What the hell is it?
An NAAWP?
- CP. CP.
- CP, for white people.
That's good.
The whites here,
they've got to protect themselves.
- Don't touch me.
- See, the reason I didn't break your hand...
The reason I didn't break your head
was because I knew...
- Get your hand off me.
- Goddamn well I could do it.
But you hit me like a tiger.
You actually wanted to do it.
But I knew I could've busted you back
and if it weren't for these guys...
Mister, why don't you go on out now?
Won't you please go now?
You couldn't put him
in a ten-pound bag
when I get through with him.
- OK, fine, yeah.
- Would you believe it?
Right, OK, so go on...
And that's with the badge right on top of it.
You're that great, man.
But if you think you can take me,
take my hand right now.
Put one foot to me
and show these Black men
how great you are.
Mister, will you please go on out of here?
Go to the hospital,
go where you're going.
No, I want to get an interview.
Come on, the day is over, man.
(INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE)
Just push the man out.
Alright, everybody, just push the man out.
- Out!
- Oh, Jesus Christ.
You're all, you're all gonna get it...
- You wanna go? I'm sorry.
- Man, it's alright.
(INDISTINCT YELL)
Don't know why you always make me
get stuck doing this forever.
(OFFICERS CHUCKLE)
(DOOR CLATTERS)
(KNOCK ON DOOR)
- (INDISTINCT YELL)
- (CLATTERING CONTINUES)
Hold it a minute.
Somebody show me to the elevator?
- Elevator?
- Yeah.
- Here.
- Thank you.
Well, I don't know.
I need a new Medicaid card.
Just sit down here,
they'll take care of you.
They're gonna take care of you.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
WORKER: The reason why they
want to close your case
is because they have tried
to verify your husband's income
for several months,
and nobody's cooperated...
He brought the income in,
it's right here in the record.
We brought it in,
and they took a photostatic copy.
Would you look in the record and find it?
Every cheque I have to go through
all this bullshit?
There was one time he did bring it in.
It's in there, the photostatic copy.
That's it right there.
They gonna keep telling me
he didn't bring the pay stub in?
He don't get paid off in cheque,
he get paid off in envelopes.
WORKER: What did they tell you at
the conference that was held on this case
when you received a notice
that your case was gonna be closed?
They did not send me a notice
telling me my case was gonna be closed.
WORKER: Well, you had a conference,
didn't you go to the conference?
Yes. And they did not...
WORKER: You wouldn't have known about
the conference unless you had known
your case was going to be closed.
I asked for this.
WORKER: Yes, but I mean you asked
for it because they sent you this here.
CLIENT: They didn't send nothing out to me,
because when I came into the office
I asked them for a fair hearing.
So they advised me
to go upstairs to this lady.
And she sent me a notice of...
appointment when to come in.
And that's Miss Horowitz you saw, right?
CLIENT: They did not discuss nothing
about no case closing or nothing.
You think if they told me
my case was gonna be closed
I'd be sitting up here?
Well, the conference was held,
according to all of this.
I'm gonna ask my supervisor about this,
if you just wait here.
- No, Tom, you're misunderstanding me.
- Yes, I know what you're...
- She got this.
- Right, right.
She called the number.
- And she denied the fair hearing.
- She got this conference.
The conference said her case
would be closed
so they're sending her this notice saying...
Yeah, but she didn't in fact
have a fair hearing.
- It was a conference, right?
- Well, my question is this.
She says that she gave them
the information they wanted.
And if you look in the record...
- Yeah, but I'm asking you, did she...
- You will see that in fact she did.
- Yeah, but I'm not...
- So I wonder why they're closing her case.
Oh, that, OK.
This is from George Drew's office.
Horowitz worked on this.
Should I go up and give
Horowitz a run for her money?
Yeah. Go up and ask Horowitz
why they're closing her case.
- Fabulous. Let's go.
- Right.
That puts a whole...
Thanks, Noel.
Thanks, Noel.
Excuse me, is this Miss Horowitz's office?
And you agree that the case
should be closed.
Is that what this means?
"Client working for five years..."
Yes, that's what it means.
Whatever action is necessary.
Because I have no proof
that this man has left the home.
In fact I don't believe he has.
Well, no, but she was asked to bring in
the pay stubs, right?
That's what the closing is for.
She says she brought them
and there is a copy of them in here.
Did she show you that?
She asked...
She asked me to, uh...
change the budget
put it back in her name,
that he's not living with her.
- You know about that?
- Is this what she brought you?
Is that sufficient,
does that answer the closing notice?
There's more involved
than just what the man is making.
Yes, I know, there is more involved,
I agree with you
but we have to go
by what is on this paper here
and it says we're closing it
because for the last...
five years, you have never
brought your pay stubs.
- He's bringing them now.
- Yeah.
So you have to leave it open.
He's bringing them now and he's saying
he's living with his wife...
Well, we'll get into that later.
That's the thing
that you have to go into now
- because that's the case decision.
- Yes, of course.
So finally they find out
how much money he's making
and now she says
he's no longer in the home.
But my point is,
you cannot go ahead and close it
because she brought the stuff.
If she has complied, you know
I'm not the fair hearing section.
Yes, but you had the conference on it.
Yes, at the time I had the conference
I didn't have proof of current income.
He showed me
something from a year or two before
or something, I didn't see that one
from the current pay slip.
Well, is that sufficient,
what I showed you here?
Yes, I would say it is.
OK, so it can't be closed.
Are you gonna void this nine-thirteen then?
Because her case is going to be closed
unless someone calls up and says stop it.
Or however you do that.
I have to change it to not upheld.
That's all I do.
So her case will remain open?
Yeah.
OK.
Thank you.
Tom.
Yeah? What did she say?
I pointed out to Miss Horowitz
the error of her ways.
- Yes.
- She's upset because
she doesn't believe the woman's story
that conveniently her husband
has disappeared
as soon as this is taken care of
or rather that he's out of the home.
She wants the case transferred to her name
because the cheques
are going out in his name.
I think we just don't do that on her say.
We'll have to find out where he is.
Meaning, write to his employer,
see what address is there
check housing,
cos they live in public housing
see if he's listed on that.
Send a letter,
a registered certified letter...
Now, you should also know that she says
her children are starving.
Her what?
She wants some money.
- Do you want to give her any?
- Well, they can't...
- OK.
- Yeah, they can't close it on that.
- They have to...
- No, the closing, yes, they will not close.
But she wants the money today.
Of course, they can't give her any unless
the case is reclassified into her name.
TOM:
Well, they have to reclassify it then...
Well, they can't do that
until we check it out.
TOM:
No...
Well, I don't know how they...
Now let me tell you,
they have to reclassify into her name
before they can give it, right,
under the cheques?
- Right.
- However, she has a perfect right
to ask for a fair hearing,
despite the hearing she had upstairs.
NOEL:
No, she doesn't need a fair hearing.
We've already decided her case
is not to be closed
because she did at the last minute
bring the pay stub.
TOM: What I say is they would,
I would suggest...
But now she's saying
don't count the pay stubs
cos the guy does not
live there any longer.
TOM:
If she's without funds
they have to service her financially.
They'll have to make the switch
- on the basis of our ongoing investigation.
- You really shouldn't say that because
that's the group...
they'll have to decide.
That's their decision, but that's...
- So I'll just work on our end.
- Right.
TOM: They'll have to make
whatever change is necessary
to service her,
and on the basis of our investigation...
we'll either...
Miss Horowitz had made a mistake.
You did bring the pay stub,
or your husband did, whoever did.
We have to verify
where your husband is now.
NOEL: Did you tell Lillian Wald Houses
that he had moved out?
Yes.
NOEL:
So he's off their records?
Yes, because I have the new lease
they sent in the mail yesterday
for me to fill out for that.
NOEL:
Are you married to him?
Yes, I'm legally married to him.
I have my...
papers here.
NOEL: Do any other children live in
the home besides these listed here?
Patricia, Leroy, Priscilla, Denise
and there's another Patricia?
No, they have...
Gwendolyn's supposed to be.
It's Gwendolyn, Patricia, Denise,
and Leroy.
Michael and Irvin have left.
NOEL: Well, we'll have to
refer this to family court.
CLIENT: So why can't they give me
just an emergency cheque?
- For some food for the kids?
- Well, it's not that simple
because they have to
take your husband off the case
and they can't do that.
They can't make any changes
in the welfare budget
without sending a notice to you
and giving you fifteen days
to say go ahead and do it
or I don't care, or say nothing,
or protest it
or whatever you want to do
even if this move is in your favour.
In this case, it would be in your favour
to take your husband off the budget today.
They can't do that for fifteen days.
So I think you're in a bind.
But I'll take the record up to the group.
It's not my responsibility, money matters.
And I'll explain to them
that we're referring it to court
and...
since welfare's really based
upon what clients say
they really have to believe
what you tell them.
Until it's proved otherwise.
NOEL:
How long have you been on welfare?
Let's see...
About eight or nine years.
Maybe ten.
NOEL:
Well...
we can take this up to the group.
NOEL: Do you want to sign this, Tom?
TOM: Yes.
And that's all we have.
Do you have an entry in the...
- No, no, I haven't.
- OK, right.
- I'm still working on that.
- They have to process it
until our investigation is through.
Whatever manipulations they have to make.
WORKER: To start with, the reason
that we send people to Jay Street
the reason that we send everybody
to Jay Street
is because we want to see
if you're able to work or not.
Because that's the most important factor
in determining what type of
assistance is appropriate.
So we have different types of assistance
based on whether or not
you are able to work.
And the Jay Street report says
that you are employable.
How much school have you had?
Well, I went to the ninth grade.
WORKER:
In New York?
Yes, in New York.
WORKER: And what do you have in
the way of an employment background?
Well, I don't have too much of
an employment experience
due to the fact that, you know...
I've just been released
out of prison after eleven years.
WORKER:
Where were you?
You know, I was in Clinton, Comstock,
and what have you.
Nevertheless,
I was released out of prison.
WORKER:
Oh, so you've been in jail several times?
No, this is my first time in prison.
But I did eleven years in prison.
So I don't have too much of
a backing, you know, background.
WORKER:
What was the charge?
Homicide.
WORKER:
Are you now...
You served the complete sentence,
or are you on parole?
I'm still on parole, for four years.
WORKER: Did you manage to pick up
any special training or anything like that?
Well...
Yes, tailoring.
My first few years in prison,
I picked up tailoring
but I'm not that well...
you know, skilled in tailoring
due to the fact that I dropped it,
you know.
I have to brush up on it.
So what happens is we send you over today
to the WREP office,
that'll be this morning, right from here.
And first you're seen by somebody
from the New York State Employment Service
because they would have full-time jobs,
and certainly if you can get a full-time job
that would be anything that
that WREP would offer.
If they don't have a full-time job
or it looks as though
they are not going to have one very soon
then they forward you to the WREP
and you'll have another person
like another case worker, who will again
ask about your employment background
and see if they've got anything
that looks good.
It's very important
to get the phone number of that person
because just in case, let's say
you're unable to keep an appointment
or something
they right away start telling me
to close the case, you know?
And this is one of the problems
that you might have.
So in general, I'm also going to
give you my phone number
because I'm going to have your case here
so that, I mean,
if some complication comes up
right away call
so that there won't be
any misunderstanding
cos it's much easier to, you know,
settle things out before they happen.
Hold on. This is not it.
Hold on.
Hold on.
This is what you're telling me...
WORKER:
I've been a supervisor since 1966
and I see people
who've been supervisors since 1969
who are getting all the very best jobs
and I don't like it.
WORKER (MALE):
Who has the best job?
Well, you take Zannoni, she's frozen in.
No one can touch her.
You take this woman here,
she's pleading hardship.
You take Mr Morris,
he's pleading union delegate.
- He can't be moved.
- She's a union delegate.
Right, that's what I'm saying,
and they pull super seniority.
So by the time they finish,
I have no seniority at all
cos everybody else is going...
you take Saskia
who should've been out of here,
and she's pleading hardship.
- Well, it's more hardship for me.
- She is a sick woman, she had a...
I have to come from New Jersey,
what are you talking about?
I get up at 5:30 every morning
and spend a lot of money.
I spend more money to get to this job
than anybody else on staff.
You wouldn't believe it,
the money I spend to get to this job.
That's right.
Whether I come by train,
whether I come by my personal car or what
it's very expensive
to come from New Jersey.
You know, at one time,
the department didn't...
have anybody on the staff
who lived out of state, you know that?
WORKER: Don't give me about out of state.
I've been on...
When I first came to the department,
I lived in New York.
Not only did I live in New York,
I was a home owner in New York
having a house, sixty by one hundred
at one-fourteen forty-five
179th Street, St Albans.
A very wealthy section.
- Right?
- I know that, I know.
Now, I own property in New York.
I'm entitled to work in New York
- and lived there for many, many years.
- I know that.
The reason I went to Newark
was because my stepfather died
left my mother all alone in the house.
So I went to live with her.
When she died
the house came to me by inheritance.
What am I gonna do,
throw the house in the street?
- Right?
- Well, if you have any grievance
why don't you discuss it with Stanley?
It's useless to discuss
with Stanley, he his favourites.
Just like before.
I should've gotten the...
I should have been
the supervisor of general service
because I had the seniority,
I had the training
I've had the courses.
I've been to Fordham,
I've had Casework One
Casework Two,
Personality and Behaviour One
Personality and Behaviour Two
Administration and Juvenile Delinquency.
Now that fits me for something,
I haven't been just sitting on my rear
not keeping abreast of the times.
I've always kept up.
And I think I deserve better
than the kind of fair shuffle
that I've been getting here
in this welfare department.
Because this man is a czar
and he's going to put in
who he wants to put in.
- Why don't you discuss it with him?
- That's all.
- If you have a...
- What's the use in discussing it?
Why are you taking it out on me?
Because you called me in.
And that's why I resorted to CO
because I figured they must have
some kind of job down there
even if it's no more
than interviewing people for
maybe jobs in the department
or whatnot because
- I can do interviewing and whatnot.
- So you're forgetting about this memo?
If Mr Seligman wants to speak
to me, you know...
you can tell him that this came through
and that Miss Hightower
would like to see him
- in reference to this memo.
- OK.
Before I have to resort
to grievance machinery.
Listen, I didn't hear anything further
on our friend Curtis Rosser.
Because he was going to Legal Aid
or MFY, one or the other.
So if you should get a call,
the big question is, who is he?
- Getting assistance under how many names?
- Three different names.
We don't know,
and each one uses the other
as the landlord in the particular case
so if he's being evicted,
who is evicting who?
- I spoke to the arresting officer.
- He's evicting himself.
- When you had him arrested the other day...
- Yeah.
- He had a record a mile long and...
- Yeah, he had a big record.
Big record. You know,
he doesn't fear getting busted.
- He doesn't fear getting busted.
- No!
All these guys.
It's a normal routine of things.
They're not excited about it.
- He wasn't excited about it.
- Nah, it doesn't bother them.
They're accustomed to it.
Anyway, I'm only letting you know this
in case that you should get a call.
But the big problem is, who is who?
We don't know who the man is
we don't know that he...
Well, I called out "Jack Williams"
and he answered to Jack Williams.
STANDING WORKER:
Alright.
Now it's Curtis Rosser.
There's another guy, Jack Kiger.
(HE LAUGHS)
Well, this is why I put it in each record.
Besides, we don't have
the record of this one.
SEATED WORKER:
Yeah, I called out, "Jack, Jack."
He answered, you know,
and he came over.
Anyway, the district attorney
has all the records anyway
so we take no action
until this is disposed of by the court.
SEATED WORKER:
How stupid can he be to come in today?
Over here, he knows the...
They have chutzpah to the end.
SEATED WORKER:
You locked him up and he still
came in again for
his welfare cheque.
STANDING WORKER:
What's he got to lose?
- Unbelievable. I'll see ya.
- OK, Sam.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I was here Friday,
I was too late with this
and she told me to come back,
or maybe you did
to get an appointment
for tomorrow maybe.
It was too late, when I came down
from upstairs, they were closed.
WORKER:
It's on Thursday.
Was it Friday?
WORKER:
No, you're supposed to get it in the mail.
You were supposed to bring this in
this morning, Mister...
But you said you'd give me
the appointment for tomorrow.
- I mean, I thought...
- Alright, I'll give you one for tomorrow.
That's what you said last Friday.
(WOMAN SPEAKS SPANISH)
(SHE CONTINUES IN SPANISH)
- That is my food block, right?
- That's correct.
I get forty-two dollars for food, OK?
Now, if...
Is that all the money I'm gonna get?
- That's correct, they will not pay the rent.
- That's it? Alright. That's it.
Now when it goes to getting my...
- Unemployment.
- Yeah, unemployment.
- They take that into account.
- Are they gonna deduct that figure?
- Yes, yes.
- They're gonna deduct.
In other words, if you get
twenty-five dollars a week unemployment
which is the minimum, minimum
that's fifty dollars every two weeks
which is in excess of our budget
which means they would close
your case immediately.
OK, so the maximum allotment
I can get approximately right now
from you, coupled with unemployment
is about fifty dollars a week.
- As you see it?
- Even less. No, no, no.
Alright, I'm trying to find out
the figure that I get.
WORKER:
They won't pay this rent.
See, in the event that you were to find
an apartment for a hundred and fifty...
Wait a minute, wait a minute, OK.
Now, all I care about is
if I had a hundred and fifty
instead of hundred and seventy-five
you're telling me they would pay it?
WORKER: OK, let's assume it
was a hundred and fifty.
Alright, now.
Because they won't consider...
they won't put a maximum limit
on that and say
ah, this is, you know...
we will treat this as a hundred and fifty,
and the rest she has to make up.
WORKER:
They can't do that, that's all.
Well, then, what am I supposed to...
- I'm supposed to relocate?
- That's correct.
This isn't my...
- That's insane, alright.
- Be that as it may, that's... OK.
I want to find out how I get that maximum
allotment for a hundred and fifty dollars.
WORKER: You would have to live in an
apartment for a hundred and fifty dollars.
They will not allow you to live
in an apartment for more
and only pay partial.
That's not legal.
That's, you know...
this is the city or actually state law
that they allow only
a certain amount per person.
How do you contest it?
- You file for a fair hearing.
- OK.
That's insane.
So your beef is not with me,
the beef is with the law.
Now, the law that I'm citing you,
that I'm telling you
is that the fair...
rent allotment...
for one person...
may not exceed
one hundred and fifty dollars.
This is state law,
and this is what your beef is.
You wish to either question my...
CLIENT: No, I wish to get
that hundred and fifty, period.
Then you would have to go
and, you know, that's what it is.
Your rent is hundred seventy-five,
your contention is you're entitled to that.
- You're willing to make up the difference.
- Yeah.
And what I'm contending is that it's not...
you know,
they're not gonna go for that.
You can ask them,
that's what they're there for.
OK?
WOMAN:
What are you searching for, fraud?
I don't know.
Well, it just seems if you work
and if your rent is over a certain amount,
you have the problem.
This is the Taft-Hartley Law,
established in 1937.
Ain't a thing but old charity.
What?
The Taft-Hartley Law imposed
on the welfare system.
- Thank you, OK.
- OK. This is garbage?
Thanks a lot.
They told me to come tomorrow,
they told me...
It has to be the sixth.
- Alright.
- OK?
- Thank you.
- OK, you're welcome.
What I can do for today?
I don't know.
Twenty C.
WORKER:
Edwin Assavedo!
MAN:
You don't have no place to live?
No, I have no place to live.
That's why I'm here by the welfare now
to see that I get me a place to live
so I can live like
a decent human being, you know?
Because...
Not that I feel like I have a right to.
But I think when you be...
in this country,
I think you have a right to
if you're American or are not.
And I believe in that, you know.
I think this country is still a good country
who really would like to help, you know?
But right now, they don't know about me.
So I have to go there and find out.
Because when you
got hurt on the brain
they not declare you for crazy
but, eh,
you never can tell with the doctors
what they might find, you know.
I mean,
I don't run around with a machine gun
and a knife and an axe, you know?
I'm not that crazy yet.
But I'm a nice guy, you know.
I just want to be...
in fairly good condition
like any person has the right to, you know.
So...
Although if they don't like me anymore
I guess they have to
send me back to Germany.
But I don't think they will do that
because I am too long in this country.
So...
they don't want to send me to Germany
and they don't want me to give any here.
Gee.
I think I better look
for a nice tree to hang.
There must be a nice,
good hanging place, you know?
But it gets a little short down in here
when you're getting any air.
Oh, oh, that will be some fun.
MAN: But that will only last for a
few moments if you choose that way.
Mm, well, it'll only last for a few moments
but it takes a long time
to be down there in the dirt.
- Oh sure, a long time in the grave.
- You never come up there.
You never come back again.
You'll just be...
down there forever
and that's the way that goes.
And I guess everybody has that luck too.
I think so.
I'm positively sure of it.
Cos everybody has to die, you know?
There's nothing you or me can do about it.
It just comes around.
You see, God is not a man
like the social service, you know?
He doesn't come around
and say well, this man is poor
let's give him a couple of hundred bucks.
No, He only helps you
when He feels like
and sometimes...
MAN:
Sometimes He does.
He wants you to die too, oh yeah,
and there's nothing you can do about it
because He is God,
He made the human being, right?
And He can do what He feels like,
you know?
And there's nothing
anybody can do about it.
Even Jesus Christ, you know?
You ask Him, He would say, well...
you're not in order with God,
you have to die
because you cannot fool around
with God that much.
You have to be all the time good.
Well, once in a while,
you can be bad and He forgive you.
- Once in a while.
- Oh, yeah. He forgive you, you know?
But you better not do something real bad.
Then He says, alright Jerry...
down in hell you go
and you never come back.
MAN: But you've been
a pretty good man, haven't you?
Well, but right now, when you ask me...
- You wonder.
- How do you feel in your head?
I said, well...
I don't feel like going to
a nut house, but...
I wish I could see a doctor.
Maybe I could go to a hospital.
MAN:
Maybe welfare can help you see a doctor.
Yeah, maybe they'll send me
to a hospital, you know
and I get straightened out
by a doctor, you know?
Maybe it is something wrong
from an accident I had.
You know? I don't know.
I just walk around.
One time I went downtown,
I blacked out.
MAN:
You walked all the way downtown?
They stole from me fifty dollars,
two packs of cigarettes
my driver's licence, everything is gone.
The only proof I have is...
my passport from Germany.
That is all what they could really get.
But I got an American licence in there too.
MAN: And how old is your passport?
I imagine it's...
Oh, it's still good until seventy-six.
- Until seventy-six.
- Yeah.
WORKER:
Antonio Sanchez.
WORKER:
Constance Jackson, Constance Jackson.
Jackson.
Francisco Sepulvera.
WORKER:
OK. You legally married?
Lillian?
Mary Corman.
Mary Corman.
Check it, Miss Corman,
to see if it's correct.
WORKER: Cos she's pregnant doesn't
mean she automatically gets welfare
she has to answer a few questions
and that's what was happening
when she got up and left.
But she's been pregnant since, see,
since October of...
WORKER:
And what does that mean?
That means that somewhere along the line,
either Waverly or Lower Manhattan
are not understanding the problem.
The immediate problem here
is food for her baby, right?
WORKER: She has to be eligible,
and we want a few questions answered
and in the middle of the interview,
she got up and left.
Now what do you want me to do?
I want you to give her food
for her baby, right?
She has to be eligible
before she gets food for the baby.
MAN: But she is eligible,
she showed you a prenatal form.
OK, so someone is pregnant,
they just come into welfare and get money?
Is that in the rulebook now?
I must be missing something,
cos I've never seen it.
Will you show me in writing...
you show me in writing why,
that she's not eligible
why isn't she eligible?
Who's showed you in writing
that she's not eligible?
- Pardon?
- What are you talking about?
- What do you mean she's not eligible?
- You say that she's ineligible.
- You show me why she's not eligible.
- I didn't say that.
I said she was being asked a few questions,
in the middle of the interview...
About her husband?
That's secondary, about her husband.
Do you have a complaint?
I have a complaint, yes.
Well, what do you wanna do about it?
Well, what I want to do,
if you can't answer for me
I want somebody that can
answer it for me.
WORKER:
She declined to be interviewed.
If she's willing to come back,
she'll be interviewed again.
MAN:
But why wasn't the interview finished?
Cos she got up and left
in the middle of the interview.
MAN: Because you were asking
her about her husband.
She wants food for her baby, right?
WOMAN: The baby's not even born.
How's the baby gonna eat?
She needs food,
and she needs a layette and so forth.
According to the rules
and regulations that I know of
the first thing that's primary
is getting food for her baby, right?
Secondary is finding out about the husband
as far as I'm concerned.
Now if you can't answer it, can you
direct me to somebody that can help her?
Does the client want to be
interviewed again?
MAN:
Right now, yes.
Well, she'll have to wait until
this worker's able to call her again.
By the way, another thing happened.
She was told to come in on Friday
by the... I came down here,
personally got an interview for her
and when she came in on Friday,
she was turned away.
- She was turned away.
- You personally got an interview for her?
MAN: I came down here,
and I talked to the people at the desk
and they said that
they would interview her on Friday.
She came in on Friday,
they say we can't interview
because we're working on cheques.
- Well, this is the first time you've...
- I don't put clients through a hoop.
- Well, are you assuming that we are?
- What?
WORKER:
Are you assuming that we are?
I assume that you are,
if you're interviewing her
and torturing her by asking about her...
her husband and so forth...
- That's torture?
- I think it is.
Oh.
Well, I don't think it's torture
to ask somebody...
- Close to it, anyway.
- OK.
But anyways, will you see her today?
WORKER: Why don't you have
a seat in the waiting area
and when she's finished
whatever she's doing
and when she has nobody else to call,
she'll call her again
but she's gotta go through all these slips.
Cos she left
in the middle of her interview.
When she's finished with all these slips,
she'll then call the client back, OK?
You know, keep as calm as you can
and I'll try to find out...
I'm gonna try to get a social worker
to call downtown
to find out what's happening
because yours is a special case.
You're the first case that I know of
in which you're in the federal system,
and you're pregnant
and you're gonna have a baby,
you know
and somewhere along the line
you have to receive money
for that unborn child.
And in the past
ADC mothers were given
allowances four months
after they're pregnant.
Now you're being denied this
and I want to find out the reason why.
So just be a little calm.
If they...
if they come up to you and say
that they can't do anything for you today
come up and see me,
and meanwhile I'll try calling...
- the prenatal clinic at...
- I think we're too late
because they went to lunch
and, like, she's taking a long time.
She's got about six to eight people
before she's, you know...
call me again.
And that'll be around four o'clock.
Well, I'm gonna call Mr Inge again
and find out what we can get you,
you know, a little ahead of time.
Try to be patient, OK?
And I'll do my best.
- Alright, thank you very much.
- You're welcome.
Hello.
Could Mr Shipulski be seen there
by our clients
to change a lease?
The client is
Miss Sandra Oppenheimer.
Alright, this is the problem.
Mrs Rivera is the tenant that you have
but Mrs Rivera moved out October
and our client is saying that her husband
from whom she's separated
got the apartment from his sister.
The landlord has not been informed of this,
I'm calling to inform him
and ask him if he'll put the lease
in the name of Oppenheimer.
I know this, but I'm asking you
if I send her there,
can these arrangements be made?
When is your appointment for Manpower
to get a physical examination?
On the 20th.
- On the 20th.
- Of next month.
From here to then...
When did you lose your job?
About two days ago, she told me
she don't want to use me anymore.
She told me she's tired of...
In other words,
your situation has changed
- since the last time you came here.
- Oh, God, has it changed.
Well, then what do you think?
We're magic?
That we guess at what your problems are?
No, it's not the idea of you guessing.
It's the idea that
you verbally promised my wife.
You told my wife don't worry,
go home with your husband
we're gonna give...
We're gonna send you a cheque
by that amount
so you can be able to eat and this,
until you go to Manpower.
Now I turn around...
Does the wife have an active case here?
Uh, I don't know whether
we accepted her or not.
Alright. Check it out.
We'll have to...
We'll have to give an appointment
for the interview group today.
Give this fellow an appointment
for the interview group today.
- He didn't come over here yet.
- No, no.
- He just walked over.
- Alright, alright.
Give him one now,
because he's supposed to...
He's supposed to see
the interview group.
- Thank you.
- She'll give you an appointment.
Let me go over and talk to Elaine about it.
OK.
OK, hold on to this, dear.
Drop this in the box.
Wait for them to call your name.
(CHILD WAILS)
You didn't get any part of your cheque?
Not the probation cheque either?
- When did he last get paid?
- I don't know,
but you better call up the landlord
and find out whether this is actually so.
He said he lost it two or three days ago.
Well, he's not supposed
to get paid until the 10th.
- That's what she said.
- Well, you better call up the landlord
and find out what it is
because if he doesn't have anything
- we'll have to give him something.
- And then Miss Robinson
had called on Friday about that case
and I was going to...
- She mention he was laid off?
- No.
Well, it's very strange
that the social worker
didn't mention over the phone
that he was laid off.
Well, you better check it out anyway,
because...
Well, he has to be seen right now,
meanwhile...
I only have two or three workers in.
I need some workers.
I'll work at the desk this morning.
And also, she's leaving in half a day
she's gotta go disaster training
or something.
Who has to go to disaster training?
- Roz.
- What kind of disaster training?
You know the thing where you go
every six months or something
in case there's a fire, flood or something.
Well, we'll keep her here today,
she can find out some other time.
Who does she have to
go to for disaster...
Roz, excuse me.
What's this thing with disaster training?
Can you take another day?
Or is it definitely today?
ROZ:
It's definitely today.
Mazzy knows best.
Well, we can't release her today.
It's...
Boy, look at this book.
ROZ:
I'm telling you, it's a whole thing.
This is disaster training?
Yeah! Here, I got notes.
I got...
in case of disaster,
I man the telephones.
We have artificial telephone calls
coming in from central office.
I swear, we answer it,
and we have to go back...
- How long do you have to be there?
- ELAINE: Preparation for the atomic bomb!
All afternoon. I go twice a year.
- Yeah, last time I went was...
- ELAINE: Today's the day!
Today's the day.
I went December fourteen, '72.
And today is February fourth.
And the last time I went was
February '72, twice a year.
ELAINE:
Look, is he...
Is Arcadie Rivera here
or just the wife?
He's here.
Did he keep his Manpower appointment?
- He gets no money until...
- No, he's not going there until the 20th.
But you better check him out anyway,
just to make sure.
- Let him get a slip from the desk.
- He got a slip from the desk.
- Alright.
- ROZ: What do I do with this?
We need some more workers.
Frank Farkis hasn't called in.
Frank Farkis hasn't called, alright,
we'll try to get Peter Barry.
- Alright.
- ROZ: Oh, I have notes, I have...
We'll try to get Peter Barry
and let's see, who else?
ELAINE:
How about Larry Janice?
MAN:
How about Larry Janice? Alright.
I'll see if I can get him.
WORKER:
Soonavin Ali?
Miss Ali, you're gonna have to go back
to Waverly Welfare Centre.
We're very sorry,
it was some mistake.
Take this message back.
WORKER: He's legally responsible
to take care of the children.
- We know that.
- And her, as long as she's married.
- Yes.
- But she went to court...
That's why she got another court date, yes.
She's got another time to go,
cos he didn't show up.
WORKER: It has to be in the court's
hands, as long as he's getting income
and that he's not using it
while he's in the hospital
it's for the children,
it's for the use of...
What is the alternative, what's she
gonna do? Take the cheques from him
if he don't want to give 'em to her?
- CLIENT: I been to court.
- What's the alternative?
- WORKER: When did you go to court?
- Yesterday.
- We went yesterday and went last week.
- WORKER: What did the court say?
He didn't show up,
they sent out a warrant for him.
WORKER:
Well, he's in the hospital.
Well, what do you want her to do
if he don't show up?
And he got the cheques
and won't give 'em to her?
WORKER:
The only thing I can suggest is that
I talked to the application supervisor
and she said if you feel
you've been treated...
Of course we feel,
why you think we're back here now?
WORKER:
You have to apply for a fair hearing.
In the meantime, what they gonna do
before the fair hearing?
What they gonna do, starve to death?
He's in the hospital, she's sick
she got diabetes, she got arthritis,
she got heart trouble.
What is she supposed to do
while she waiting for a fair hearing?
Since November,
I've been running around with this woman.
WORKER: You know, you're making
it sound like it's my fault.
- I'm telling you...
- Well, it's not my fault either.
It's not his fault he's in the hospital.
It's not her fault she's sick.
Whose fault is it?
WORKER: I'm telling you what
they're telling me. They have...
Who is responsible for her?
If her husband is sick,
he's in the hospital, and she's...
WORKER: He's getting disability
payments from the union.
Can she take the cheques from him?
- He is legally responsible for her support.
- That's why she's taking him to court
cos he's not taking care
of his legal responsibilities.
- It's in the hands of the court.
- The court sent her here.
I have a letter from the court
telling her to come here.
Well, this was... Now, this is
before the case was rejected.
The case was rejected on the 24th
and this was given to her...
The same day I came here.
When you rejected her,
she had this letter.
And told me to go here, social security,
and that's where I went.
She went to social security,
social security sent her back here.
They gonna take care of her.
Well, social security
is evaluating her application
that's a different thing altogether.
OK, so meanwhile
who is responsible for her?
Mr Gaskin.
He's in the hospital,
as you very well know.
I understand he's in the hospital.
Now, what is she supposed to do?
WORKER:
Cheques are coming...
Go down there and take cheques
that don't belong to her?
- They belong to him.
- He has a responsibility...
He don't want to give them to her.
We're going into a vicious cycle again
and I'm getting tired of it.
WORKER: Well, as I said before,
you'd have to apply for a fair hearing.
Oh, and how long is
a fair hearing gonna take
and what's she gonna do in the meanwhile,
while she waiting for the fair hearing?
She's been coming here
since... since November.
WORKER: Well, it's her
responsibility to try to get...
What do you think she's trying to do?
Why you think she's going to court?
WORKER: You keep shouting
at me and you don't...
You sending me around
into a vicious cycle.
- I'm trying to tell you her hands are tied.
- I'm not sending you...
She is sick, he is sick,
who is gonna take care of them?
WORKER:
I am not sending you anywhere.
You're telling me now to wait
for a fair hearing.
What's she gonna do in the meanwhile?
WORKER: Well, you have to as
the application supervisor
to re-entertain the application.
What do you think I'm here for now?
Why am I talking to you now for this?
WORKER:
You're shouting at me.
I'm gonna do more shouting
if you don't stop this.
Ever since November...
You talking about shouting
I've been trying to take care of this woman,
what do you want from me?
Sending us around
all over to these different places
and they sending us
back around in circles.
CLIENT:
Where are you supposed to go?
That's what I want to know,
she said go to court, she went to court.
Go to social security,
they sent her back here.
They up there
sitting on they behinds upstairs
that's why they can't do nothing
for nobody.
Have you sitting here all damn day
and then sending you all around the
courts and the courts send you here.
She refused you.
It doesn't mean...
It doesn't mean she's getting any,
and she's got a point.
She did go to court,
she's got proof in her hand
that she went to court.
So that's why I'm suggesting
you re-entertain the application.
OK, however, we want to know...
we don't know where she's even living
at the present time.
- Well, that you'll evaluate...
- And I think she's living uptown.
She may very well be living uptown,
but you don't know until you interview her
and ascertain her whereabouts.
Well, she's paying rent,
is she paying rent now?
You can check through the court
what address she applied from.
Yeah.
What is it, eighty-seven dollars
she's getting a week?
No, it's in his name,
it's a union benefit.
- Right.
- In his name.
But if he is hospitalised,
why isn't she getting that money?
It's not...
See, we cannot tell him.
The court's telling him to give it.
Yeah, but we want
to call up the social worker.
You have a seat outside, please.
We're discussing it, Miss Gaskin
just wait outside over there.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
- Excuse me?
- I told you that wasn't the same daughter.
Send her back home to what?
Alright, do we have
to call the hospital to find out
if he actually is hospitalised?
No, the only place I called was the union.
- Right.
- But see, the cheque's in his name.
Yeah, however,
if he's hospitalised all the time
where are those cheques going
and who's cashing those cheques?
If he's coming home on weekends,
he may be...
Did we verify that
he's coming home on weekends?
This is what she said
and I didn't verify a thing.
I just got to it this morning,
she stormed on me upstairs.
On the fourth floor?
- The daughter?
- Yeah, the daughter.
ELAINE: I'll tell 'em I said it's OK
to give them a slip, then we'll see.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
The money is in his name.
If it was in her name,
it'd be different.
ELAINE: No, if it's in his name
he is responsible
for his wife and his children.
He is,
but that's why she went to the court
cos he's not giving a penny.
- Well, alright.
- She has the slip from the court.
Alright, tell her to get a slip at the desk.
MR RIVERA: Now they're telling
me they want me to go to work
while I got a letter from the doctor
saying I'm not supposed
to be working.
DAUGHTER: And one of them
tore your letter up?
She went and tore
the letter yesterday.
- Ask the supervisor.
- Get another letter.
- Let her tear that one up.
- Yeah, I'm gonna get another one.
The doctor told me
to pick one up today.
DAUGHTER: Let her.
She won't tear nothing of mine up.
My father is sick.
He's in the hospital since November.
I been running back and forth
with this woman for months
but they send us back in a circle.
We go to court,
from the court to the hospital
from the hospital to social security,
to welfare
back to social security,
to the hospital, to the court
she don't have one dime!
And we're all suffering trying
to take care of her.
Then when you try to help yourself,
they don't help you at all.
MR RIVERA: And what they do is
give me a runaround too.
That's how it is, that's what's wrong
with the whole damn system.
When you try to help yourself,
nobody helps you.
MR RIVERA: Not only that,
but then if I come around
and then she comes
to tear the letter
and I beat the brains out of her,
then I go to jail.
Then you got to go to jail,
and then where's your wife?
- Right back in the circle again.
- No, and then they gotta help her
- whether they like it or not.
- Well, I guess that's what you gotta do.
- You gotta do it, you gotta do it.
- That's what I'm gonna have to do.
I gotta come here with my mother,
I got...
I got children I gotta take care of,
all my family got children.
My mother is a woman
that had fifteen children.
She took care of every one of them.
My father worked like a slave.
He's sick, he's gotta go through this?
I gotta go through this?
No. Somebody gonna
do something for her.
And I'm not gonna leave here
and I'm not gonna go not one more day
because I am tired and she's tired
and we got the kids out of school,
they don't even have no shoes.
What do they want from us?
I know you're tired of it
cos I am, and I'm just...
MAN: The welfare department
is actually the New York runaround.
You better believe it cos that's all
you gonna get, is a runaround.
Did you go upstairs?
MAN:
No, I don't go upstairs.
You'll go up there one day.
MR RIVERA: Sometimes they don't
even allow us beyond certain points.
They get angry with you cos
you're interrupting their coffee break.
I made the mistake of
interrupting their coffee break
one day when I went there.
Five hours, I sat there.
You know what they tell me?
Come back tomorrow morning.
Stop kicking.
Stop kicking.
You stop kicking.
You stop kicking, you stop kicking.
DAUGHTER: Yeah, she lives
in North Carolina,
she's here on a temporary basis
because her husband
works here in New York
but she lives in North Carolina.
Her husband lives in New York,
that's why.
Excuse me, please.
Miss Silver, would you...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
I asked Mrs Gaskin
for proof that she's living
at eighty-nine Columbus, she has...
ELAINE:
This is a housing project?
What address did you give
the court as your home address?
MRS GASKIN:
Uh, Lilybelle's address.
ELAINE:
How long were you in North Carolina?
I'm not here to stay,
I'm only here on a temporary basis.
ELAINE:
Then why are you even in New York?
Because I'm sick.
I've been...
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
When I was living here...
Let me explain it to you.
WORKER: When did you go
to North Carolina, Mrs Gaskin?
- Three years ago.
- Three years ago?
Yes.
Alright.
ELAINE: So for the last three years,
you've been living in North Carolina?
Yes, but I've been coming back
to this doctor, she can verify it.
WORKER: When did you come
back to New York, the last time?
DAUGHTER:
In November.
In the first part of November.
ELAINE:
Came back the first part of November.
Why'd you come back to New York?
MRS GASKIN: I had to come to the
doctor and when I came here...
ELAINE: This is the only doctor
who can take care of you?
- That's the only doctor.
- And what do you suffer from?
Don't you see it on there?
ELAINE: Diabetes, I mean,
no other doctor in North Carolina
can take care of you?
Well, it was too expensive.
DAUGHTER:
Do you mind if I explain cos she can't...
ELAINE:
No, I do mind.
You mean you came all the way
back to New York
to go to Nina Health Clinic
because there's no other doctor?
I'm trying to tell her now.
The reason why
I went to North Carolina to live.
- We were living in the housing projects.
- In New York.
Yes, my husband was working.
Every time he got a raise,
they wanted a raise
so he decided he wanted me to move.
ELAINE:
He decided what?
He wanted her to move.
So in order to move down there
he had to go to the VA
the VA gave him...
lent him money to buy his house.
ELAINE:
Was VA welfare?
I don't know,
I didn't take care of that business.
ELAINE: Alright, he might've
been on welfare
in the Veterans' Administration.
- I don't know...
- It's a form of welfare. Alright.
MRS GASKIN:
He got money from the VA.
The VA lent him money to buy his house.
It's not paid for yet.
ELAINE:
Oh, to buy his house?
If you can get accepted
on welfare in New York
which I don't know,
you're gonna have to sign over
that whole entire house
to the Department of Welfare in New York.
- It's not my house.
- You are co-owner of it, aren't you?
My husband is the one that...
Well, you will have to sign over that house.
You'll have to bring the deed to welfare.
MRS GASKIN: I don't have the deeds.
This is what I'm telling you,
I don't have anything.
You'll have to go to your husband
who's hospitalised, and get the deed.
MRS GASKIN: Didn't I tell you,
that every time I went to the hospital
they tells me I'm not to bother with him?
How can I get anything
if they don't let me to?
For anybody who has a resource
such as a house
or a co-op or anything like that,
they must sign it over
to the department
before they can get assistance.
That is considered a resource.
You have money invested in that house.
DAUGHTER: She don't have no money
invested in the house.
Look, I don't know too much
about resources.
We've got a resource consultant...
Excuse me.
(OVERLAPPING CHATTER)
DAUGHTER:
You're gonna tell her that she can
sign over a house that
belongs to her husband?
Her husband's responsible for her.
- The children have to go on...
- That's why she had to go to court now.
She is very much aware of that.
She can't make him give her anything.
ELAINE: We would like to see the deed,
see whose name is there...
Then you have to get it from him yourself,
he won't give her anything.
MRS GASKIN: He didn't even make court,
that's why I'm back here.
She was in court yesterday with him,
he did not show up.
What do you expect from her,
to take the deed from him?
If he maintains that
he's not gonna give her anything...
You're the one told her to take
his cheques out of the mailbox, right?
- What do you want her to do?
- ELAINE: The interview cannot continue.
- What do you want her to do?
- I am just telling you this.
- Take money from him?
- I am not yelling
and there's no reason
for you to continue yelling.
Why should you yell?
ELAINE: If you go on yelling,
the interview will not continue.
- You gonna tell her that she must go...
- If you continue raising your voice...
You are telling her...
you are telling her
she don't want to talk about it.
You see, my voice is down.
- Come back tomorrow morning.
- No, I'm not gonna go back tomorrow.
You are telling her to go
and break in the mailbox
and take the man's cheques.
How can you tell my mother
to take his cheques?
You see how she walkin' away from me?
How you gonna tell her
to take his cheques out of his mailbox
when his name is on them?
He said he's not gonna take care of her,
she's taking him to court.
Miss?
Will you give me my papers back?
My letter.
Give it back to me, please.
DAUGHTER: It's easy for her,
she's not gonna use this as no cop out
after she gonna tell her
to break in a mailbox
and take some cheques
that don't even belong to her.
And if the cheques...
- No one said to break in...
- That's what she told me.
If the man has got the deeds
to the house and he maintains
that he's not gonna give it to her,
what is she supposed to do?
Take it from him?
Huh?
I'll go back up and see the...
What you call 'em again?
She just wants some excuse
to walk out of here
after she gonna tell you
to break in some mailboxes
- and take stuff that's not even yours.
- That's what she told me to do.
And go and tell him... How you gonna
make him sign over a house?
Let her go over there
and tell him to sign the house over.
Your problem is being taken care of
by the other lady that went upstairs.
Yeah, but I want to know
what's the problem with me.
Excuse me. Let me just speak,
let me just speak.
His wife's case is being accepted
through the mail
and he should leave the centre.
He will be getting a cheque in the mail.
So as far as I'm concerned,
this case is over with.
Well anyway,
the worker's been talking to him...
Well, the worker walked away, no.
The worker is not seeing him anymore.
No, she didn't walk away for no reason
because I was quiet.
- She went upstairs...
- I was quiet.
I know where my worker went.
- My worker is not gonna see him anymore.
- Why don't you talk to...
Who's your supervisor down here?
- Who's your supervisor down here?
- Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
- Wait, let me just talk.
- You, go over there...
Go over there and sit down
and be cool, alright?
Look, I am the supervisor
and I know where my worker went.
The worker told the client
to leave the area.
He's walking away.
The worker asked
the clients to leave the area.
The termination of the case was made,
they will get a cheque in the mail.
Now he is carrying on disrupting
and I would like him removed...
OFFICER: Let's take care of this
problem we're dealing now.
Which problem you wanna
take care of first?
OFFICER:
The one you're having right now.
ELAINE: I'm having two problems
right now which is quite obvious.
Which one are you gonna deal with now?
ELAINE: Alright, you want to deal
with these people?
Me?
You asking me?
ELAINE:
You're disrupting the area.
- My workers cannot work.
- I'm not disrupting anything.
And there's a whole commotion
around here.
OFFICER: Let's take care of the
problem that you're dealing now.
- Which problem is that? These people?
- Whichever one you're taking.
OK, these people will be interviewed
any time they want to lower their voices
and conduct the interview...
DAUGHTER: When I lowered my voice,
she still insisted on walking away.
She's just using this as a cop-out.
She's gonna tell my mother to go
and break in a mailbox
and take some cheques
that don't even belong to her
that belong to my father.
She's gonna say she want the house, OK.
My mother don't own the house,
how can she give her the house?
- MAN: Are you finished now?
- OFFICER: Listen, go over there and sit down
wait for your wife and people
to come down, alright?
- Do you have a supervisor?
- MAN: Yeah, I'm the supervisor.
OFFICER: Alright, well, why aren't
you dealing? Cos I'm the patrolman here.
The only thing I can do,
if there's an arrest to be made
I'm here. Otherwise,
social worker is social worker.
ELAINE: Excuse me, Mr Vallant,
Sergeant, whatever you are...
Can he sit here till five o'clock
and five o'clock you put them out, right?
ELAINE: My workers will not work
if this man sits there without an interview.
The interviewer is not coming back.
The interview is over,
Miss Bale walked away.
OFFICER: Listen,
let's deal with what you have here.
This man is...
Go over there, man,
go over there and stay over there.
Let's deal with what you have now.
ELAINE: OK, this interview will continue
any time they lower their voice
and conduct the interview in a low voice.
DAUGHTER: I lowered my voice,
and she still persisted...
- You have to be there.
- We're gonna take care of you.
Let's all calm down.
- OK?
- Who's taking care of this lady?
- Nobody?
- Miss Bates is talking to them
but they continued to cause a scene
and have a very loud voice
and they're disrupting.
- I told you that you told me...
- Alright, can we try it again?
Can we try it again without any problems?
DAUGHTER: I would like for you
to at least sit in on it
because she's asking questions.
She wants my mother to sign over
something that don't belong to her.
Excuse me, what it is,
they own a house in North Carolina
and I told them
the resource policy concerning.
If you own something...
Alright,
but just a moment, just a moment.
We understand that.
It's not that my mother's not cooperating.
My mother never signed any paper.
Why don't she get it from my father?
She don't have the right
to give him anything.
- Where is your father?
- In hospital, she knows where he's at.
She knows this.
What's the problem on the whole case?
- Problem is...
- MRS GASKIN: The problem is I asked...
I went to the hospital
because my husband was in the hospital,
I asked the people at the hospital
told 'em about my health,
and they told me to go to welfare.
So I didn't go to welfare,
I went to court first.
They gave me a referral to come here.
When I came in Monday,
they told me to go back to social security.
Social security told me...
give me a referral to come back here
and said get for the children
and not for me.
Because she said
she can get some social security.
What's this, an ADC case
for the two children, or?
- MRS GASKIN: Yes, I have two children.
- Two children?
- Yes, sir.
- What's the story?
All I know is her legal residence
is North Carolina
wants welfare in New York
cos she's here on a visit.
Seems to me that's the story.
- MRS GASKIN: After my husband...
- No, ma'am.
No, my father works here
and he was sending her money
to North Carolina
after he took sick, after he got sick.
ELAINE: And there are no doctors
in North Carolina
and the only doctors that can take care
of her diabetic condition
is a New York doctor,
so she came up here.
MRS GASKIN:
The doctor there was too expensive.
- DAUGHTER: She's dramatising things.
- MRS GASKIN: I went to a doctor there before
but I had a doctor here, and...
SUPERVISOR:
Is your legal residence in North Carolina?
But my husband is here.
- Is yours?
- I don't know how it's done.
ELAINE:
They own a house in North Carolina
so I would assume
it's a source of legal residence.
- Were they on welfare in...
- She claims no.
She claims no, did we check it out?
No, we haven't done so as yet.
She claims that her husband
was sending her cheques
and now her husband is hospitalised
and can no longer send her cheques.
- MRS GASKIN: He's in the hospital.
- SUPERVISOR: Can he write us a letter?
I don't know, see,
when I went to the hospital...
ELAINE: We'll have somebody
visit him in the hospital.
To see his social worker...
ELAINE: If they will lower their voice,
I can continue the interview.
SUPERVISOR:
Alright, alright.
Let's all be quiet, let's sit down.
Let's see if we can get this show
on the road.
DAUGHTER:
And you request that we lower our voice.
I request that you stop being so dramatic
and putting words into my mother's mouth,
saying things she did not say.
She never told you there's no other doctor
in North Carolina, don't be like that.
SUPERVISOR: We're never gonna get anyplace
this way. Let's continue the interview.
Alright, let's solve the other problem.
Miss Bale is not continuing
that interview over there.
The determination on the case was made
and I want the patrolman
removing those clients
- from that area over there.
- We can't remove him till five o'clock.
This waiting area is over there, I...
We'll put him,
I'll put him in the waiting area.
Well, you...
DAUGHTER: She's disgusted.
She has a right to be.
Let's sit down and interview this client.
ELAINE: Well, Bates is doing it,
they can go back there.
MR RIVERA: Since I came here,
she's been giving me a hard time
because she must don't like me,
I guess.
SUPERVISOR: You've been
giving us just as hard a time
as we've been giving you, I think.
This is the first time I come here
and even yelling.
We've been here three... since October
I've been going back and forth
and they've been giving me
the same rap.
Bring another letter,
so I bring another letter.
That's not the one,
bring this one, so I bring that one.
ELAINE: You've got the
runaround since October,
we've only seen you this month, right?
So obviously other people
are giving you runarounds.
- Yeah.
- It's very strange.
Everybody's giving you runarounds.
You were in another centre,
you were in Waverly.
- I was over here, and they closed my case.
- Alright, I'll tell you something.
See, all centres work the same
and all centres want proof.
They just don't hand out money.
- And we're not the only centre who does it.
- I got all the proof you want here.
Every centre works by certain rules
and regulations and procedures.
And when you come in to us,
we all work the same way.
The other centre that gave you
the runaround since September or October
and now you think
we're giving you the runaround
but we're only working in the same way
that they are working. OK.
SUPERVISOR:
You're just using the wrong language.
This is it. OK, I...
Because you're not bringing the information
we need, that doesn't mean...
May I ask you something,
you said that my sponsor
is legally responsible for me.
Well, he's my guardian, right?
ELAINE: Your sponsor is more
responsible for you than welfare is
and we like to have contact with him
before we give you money.
Why is it that with my sponsor,
I could not get permission
to marry with my sponsor?
- Yeah, you tell us that.
- If he's responsible for me...
ELAINE: I don't know,
I'm not a marriage counsellor.
I don't know anything about
marriages or anything like that.
I know about welfare.
MR RIVERA:
How long you think it'll take us to get help?
At least, man.
- This is...
- We're accepting her case now.
I mean, you're just killing a dead horse.
MR RIVERA: I'm just asking you because
I'm uptight, man. I'm really uptight for money
I'll show you what I got in my pocket
and what I have ate all day today
since I been here, you see?
That's what I got in my name,
you understand? That's all.
Pull out my wallet
and I'll show you the same thing.
I don't have a dime to my name,
practically.
ELAINE:
Get a job.
Yeah, you want to help me get a job?
That's your only vocabulary, "get a job"
to everybody that comes in here.
MR RIVERA:
What about the letter the doctor sent you?
That said that I wasn't able to go to work
because I have to be rehabilitated?
ELAINE: It's inconclusive,
the doctor's statement.
That's why we're giving you
a medical examination.
With you, everything is inconclusive.
All I wanted to do is get help
until I get on my feet
and believe me,
I wouldn't be here after you.
Man, I wish I were by myself, God.
Maybe if you were by yourself,
she'd gladly help you.
Of course, if I were by myself
she might just do that
help me then.
I'm a man, am I?
Now, sir, what do you suggest?
I go home, of course.
- We're accepting her case.
- OK.
- Let's leave it at that.
- Alright.
Let's not bring it any further,
let's not quarrel about it.
The fact is her case is being accepted.
We're not refusing her.
But there were certain other items
like the letter from her uncle that we need.
That's all there is to it.
MR RIVERA:
OK, then for the bills that I got
all the doctor bills,
what I'll do, I just hold onto them?
I got plenty of bills, sir.
Right now, there's nothing much
we can do about your bills
until we find out
whether you're eligible or not.
She's eligible.
But the meantime is that since October
I've been,
you know what I've been doing?
I have to sell my medication,
my methadone, you understand?
And I'm not about to go to jail
for nobody anymore, you understand?
SUPERVISOR:
Right, right.
That's what you're gonna...
they're gonna make me do here.
SUPERVISOR:
That's up to you.
I mean, the path you take is up to you.
We've accepted her.
Now, if the situation changes
and we accept you
that's a different story,
but right now...
MR RIVERA: Hold up.
I really, all I want right now
is concern that I get something
to help her, you understand?
We're not accepting your case,
we can't give you a Medicaid card.
MR RIVERA: If you accept her,
you can give her a Medicaid card.
- Not me.
- She's getting a Medicaid card.
She'll get one.
MR RIVERA:
OK. OK.
That's settled then.
Then I'll go home.
SUPERVISOR:
OK now.
- Thank you.
- Alright.
CLIENT: No, we can't give you
an appointment, it's too late.
You have to come back tomorrow.
Right?
I said I don't have any money,
I got ten cents.
My rent is due tomorrow,
I have nothing to live on.
I haven't eaten for three days.
SAM: You just told me
you ripped off a Korvette.
CLIENT: I got caught
ripping off Korvettes
for a hundred and
ten dollars worth of stuff.
And they let you go, right?
CLIENT: That's right,
after I spent two hours explaining
how I ripped off the other four stores
over the last six months.
And you just ripped off...
You said you ripped off
Woolworth last night.
Today.
Seven bars of chocolate.
SAM: Seven bars of chocolate.
And you believe that's...
I ate three and I gave four away.
SAM:
And you believe it's right to steal, right?
No.
Absolutely wrong.
- Absolutely wrong to steal.
- You just told me before.
Did I say it was right?
I said it was necessary.
There's a difference
between right and necessary.
- Why's it necessary?
- Because I don't have the money
to buy what I have to steal,
because the social service department
doesn't see fit,
or the social security administration
doesn't see fit to give me
enough money to live on.
SAM: Excuse me,
you're a social security case now?
- Yeah.
- So why do you come to welfare?
They sent me.
With a referral slip.
Which was stolen last night,
along with a billion dollars worth
of original research that I've been
working on for three years.
Psychic research.
Mind control research.
In a red folder.
Stuff that was hand written.
SAM: Why don't you go
downstairs, make an appointment
do what's right, make an appointment
with the income maintenance people.
- For tomorrow.
- Yeah, do what's right.
What do I do for tonight?
What do I do for rent money?
What do I do for food money?
I haven't eaten in three days now.
Except what I steal.
Except what I steal.
I can't steal a chicken.
I can't steal a steak,
it doesn't fit in my pocket.
I can only steal Hershey bars
and packages of cheese
and, you know, cans of fruit.
Mr Hirsch, there's nothing
we can do for you.
MR HIRSCH:
I know.
- There's nothing we can do, I'm sorry.
- I know you can't.
Social security can't,
because I'm over the maximum.
You can't because it's too late.
SAM:
You received a cheque from us recently.
No, I didn't, it was sent back.
A hundred and forty-seven dollars
and thirty-five cents.
I never got it.
It was sent to the hotel I was at
but I had to check out
because I didn't get it on the sixteenth.
It came on the eighteenth,
and I wasn't there anymore
cos I didn't have the money for the rent.
So the manager sent it back
on the nineteenth
and then Mr Fagin, for some reason
sent me to social security,
I don't know why.
Without any money.
Without ever seeing that cheque.
Fagin says you received the cheque.
MR HIRSCH:
I never received any cheque.
Then discuss it with Mr Fagin,
don't discuss it with me.
- Where's Mr Fagin?
- He'll be here shortly.
Have a... Wait outside.
Sure, why not?
I'll wait. I've been waiting for the last
hundred and twenty-four days
since I got out of the hospital.
Waiting for something.
Godot?
I mean, you know what happens
in the story of Godot.
He never came.
That's what I'm waiting for,
something that'll never come.
Equity, justice.
Justice.
Under this great democratic society of ours
where everybody is equal
under the law, you know.
Lincoln said that, didn't he?
All men are created equal?
Lincoln never took
an army physical, you know.
He should've known better.
Equal, what's equality?
Equality is when somebody has
and somebody hasn't
and the one that hasn't
tries to rip off the one that has.
And the one that has
tries to keep what he's got.
And there's nothing in the middle anymore.
You either have it or you don't have it.
You know?
It's not a matter of middle, you know.
There's no middle class anymore,
there's just the rich and the poor.
And I'm one of the poor.
In fact, destitute, not poor.
And I don't like the feeling.
Not with twenty-two years
of education behind me.
Not with seventeen years
of service to this state.
Not with a twenty-two thousand dollar
plus income when I was working.
Plus my private practice which brought in
another three or four thousand.
No, but after being in the hospital
for seven months and eight days
up until September
and not being considered fit
to go back to work
and having to resign
rather than being fired...
Sit outside now.
MR HIRSCH: Cos I've only got
another eleven days to go
until they fire me
from that seventeen-year job.
SAM:
Go and sit down.
Sure, I'll sit down and shut up.
Cos why not?
You're the law, man.
You're the man.
Everybody's the man
when you don't have anything.
Everybody's the boss.
It's gotta change mighty fast.
Cos of it doesn't change in the next
fifteen years, by 1988
there will be no United States of America.
There will be nobody here worth saving.
Everybody who was worth saving
will be someplace else
and I'll be the first to leave.
Because for forty years
and seven months, I've tried.
God knows I've tried to help.
Now I can't even help myself,
let alone anybody else.
How can you help anybody on eleven cents?
Five days.
(HE SIGHS)
Lord, I don't know why,
but you still don't want me to live.
You still don't want me to do anything
that I want to do.
Still want me to do Your thing.
And suffer.
I guess suffer for everybody else
who's gone before.
OK, if that's what You want
that's the way it's gonna be.
We've had this agreement for a while now.
I'm not backing down.
If you want to, that's Your business.
I'll stay with it until it's over.
Whenever that is.
And if You don't want me to eat
if You don't want me to sleep
if You don't want me to work
I won't.
And if You want me to keep wandering
the way we've been wandering
for five thousand, seven hundred
and thirty-five years
I'll keep wandering.
You know that doesn't bother me.
Even if there's no one,
no one in this whole world
that will listen to me, I'll wander.
Until You're ready to decide
where I belong.
A place, a home.
People, friends.
Whenever that'll be.
I got all the time in the world.
And thank God, all the patience.
And the strength
and the understanding.
Thank you.
(TYPEWRITERS CLACK)
(CLINKING OF COINS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)