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Homeless Man Defends The Big Screen Projector And Sound System Inside His Tent

Photo: YouTube & TikTok
Pedro Rameriz

Pedro Rameriz is a 33-year-old man living on the streets of Los Angles in a tent in a life starved of luxuries except he has still found a means of enjoying himself while he camps out.

Rameriz's tent is equipped with an entertainment system that he says makes "it feels like home." But, when a passerby documented the setup on TikTok, Rameriz's living situation quickly went viral.

While being homeless and living in a tent, Rameriz has set himself up with a projector and generator to keep him entertained.

However, his situation has generated judgment from people who don't understand the reality of how homelessness happens — or how much more affordable it is to buy a projector than it is to afford rent.

Photo: TikTok

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Fox 11 News covered the story, reaching out to Rameriz and city officials to investigate if what he was doing was legal.

Rameriz has two tents on the street — one for living in and another one for storing belongings. In his living quarters, he has carpet flooring, a full-size airbed, a projector, and a sound system. To stream and soundcast his entertainment, Rameriz explains that he uses his phone and laptop which are connected to a hotspot.

Speculation that Rameriz could be hooking up his devices to city lighting for power prompted Hugo Soto-Martinez, a city council member in Los Angeles, to raise safety concerns to Fox 11, noting the potential fire hazard. But Rameriz insists he is not plugged into any street lights. Rameriz claims, “I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not stealing power from no one. It’s coming from my generator.” 

To recharge the generator, he takes it to the train station every two weeks and plugs it in there. Because the station is under the jurisdiction of Metro and not the city, Rameriz is not doing anything illegal.

Rameriz claims he would rather stay in his tent than live in permanent housing.

Permanent housing offers transitional help out of homelessness to people like Rameriz through a combination of supportive services and short-term or long-term rental subsidies. But Rameriz feels happier staying where he is. He claims the strict rules that were enforced on him in permanent housing before made him unwilling to live there again.

“They treat us like prisoners in there. You can’t even take a lighter in there,” he explains. “Before you go in the building, they’re searching you with a metal detector.”

“I signed up for housing, not for rehab or prison,” he says.

Viewers online noted that Rameriz's situation is far more accessible than paying Los Angeles' staggering rent prices and praised him for being resourceful in a broken system.

One user writes, “Very smart economic move. He escaped the matrix and is not paying $3000 a month for a studio in HW. Has all his necessities met. Good for him.”

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Maddie Haley is a writer for YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers pop culture, celebrity news, and entertainment.