The homeless population in NYC recently eclipsed 100,000 for the first time in history. The official number now is around 150,000, but the real number is likely much higher. That only counts people who live in homeless shelters and not people like Ghoul and Lil Yea Yea, the guests of this episode of We the 66, who don't live in shelters but right on the streets.

They represent a growing slice of the NYC homeless pie, which is homeless youths. It's hard to know exactly how many homeless youths there are in NYC, but after a few years of living here it seems the number has soared. We're eager to understand why and learn about the daily lives of homeless youths. Do they have jobs? Do they all do drugs? Are they happy? How did they get there? Do they have kids? What's it like asking for money? What are their plans? Do they interact with migrants? When's the worst time of year to sleep outside? Do they have regrets? What help do they want?

We had so many questions, and to look for answers we went walking around outside the studio. We started talking to some homeless people and listened to their stories. Some were clearly mentally ill, while a couple others fell on hard times during the pandemic and started bouncing from shelter to shelter. They all seemed high. One gentleman pointed to a group of kids smoking on a bench and told us that we should talk to them. He said they lived in an abandon building "up north" and that they were the homeless kids we were looking for. Lil Yea Yea and Ghoul agreed to share their stories.

0:00 Intro

2:45 Lil Yea Yea and Ghoul

4:20 How they became homeless

8:10 Their upbringings

18:30 Drugs and the homeless community

21:15 Their Fent experiences

23:45 Homeless migrant influx

27:20 Life regrets

30:30 Lil Yea Yea's music

33:00 Ghoul's kids

35:30 Fixing the homeless crisis

44:15 Their plans for their future

48:25 Yea Yea previews song

Lil Yea Yea's IG: https://www.instagram.com/lilyeayeaa/

We are awaiting other handles and will add them when we have them. They gave us their numbers but have been hard to reach. It seems they don't have 24/7 phone access. We also will add Lil Yea Yea's album when it drops.

If you have any questions or would like a part two, email us at [email protected]

Don't forget to subscribe!