Barret Kruse, 55, lives in Valencia with his two children. This transcript is based on a conversation with Kruse, and has been edited for clarity and length.
Kruse: How am I “making it” in LA? Not really, not really.
Right now, what do I do for work? I don't do anything for work. That's sort of the issue. I normally work in IT asset management. It's a fancy way of saying: counting computers and software for companies, and being able to maintain those. And as [of] December, I believe it was the 24th — just in time for the holidays — I was laid off, and I have been since.
Right now I’m doing gig work — Uber Eats, DoorDash — delivering food. And I have two kids with me, too, and one's older. They're 18. The other is a 14. I’m the primary guardian for my kids.
Those unemployment checks, they total about $840 every two weeks. Rent alone is about $3,000 here, and that's before utilities and everything else.
What little money I had saved is gone.
Am I “making” it in LA? Oh man, love to be. I came here from Chicago five, six years ago. It's a beautiful place. I really love it, but I haven't really been able to enjoy any of it. Most of my life has been somewhere between financial terror [and] sheer panic since I got over here.
How do I talk to the kids about this? Kind of in broad-based ways, in platitudes. [I’m] trying to keep optimistic because generally I am [a] pretty optimistic person. But they perceive things, and they pick up on your feelings and your emotions.
Now my youngest is over here at 14 years old, freaking out about if I'm going to make it through financially. You shouldn't be worried about that, man. He should be doing school — you should be being a kid. I got my oldest taking on college here pretty quick. And they're wanting to get a job, but they're thinking [of] this compounded responsibility. And I see them hopping on that same treadmill that I'm on — we're just go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And you never stop. You never enjoy. You never smell the roses or whatever. You never get to the Getty. You never get over to see the [Griffith] Observatory, you know? Then, hell, you're 55. It goes by in a blur.
I would define “making it” as being able to feel safe for five minutes without having to worry about work. I'm not asking for big grandiose things. I'm not getting some house over the hills there, [I want] just a little place to be able to feel at home. To be able to … enjoy a feeling of community because I'm actually able to go out, and meet people, and see things, and not have my neighbors be strangers. Maybe a couple of bucks put aside, a car that works, [and] four tires that matched — that'd be making it. I'm not asking for big things. I'm not asking for miracles, but it … feels like it now.
After over six months of unemployment, Kruse landed a three-month temporary IT job in July. Unfortunately, it didn’t come in time to avoid an eviction notice.