https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/17/us/los-angeles-yale-graduate-homeless/index.html

Los Angeles (CNN)Shawn Pleasants has the kind of resume that would attract the attention of any job recruiter: high school valedictorian, economics major from Yale University, Wall Street banking jobs, small business entrepreneur. But a few wrong turns in life 10 years ago left him homeless, and today he's living underneath a tarp in the Koreatown section of Los Angeles.

He's been told before that a smart and capable person like him should not be in this situation.

Shawn chose Yale and said he received grants and several academic scholarships, which covered most of his tuition. CNN has verified that he graduated from the university.

He majored in economics, and after a few years toiling on Wall Street, including jobs at Morgan Stanley, he landed in California. Trying to fulfill a Hollywood dream, he started a photography and filmmaking company.

It was the mid-'90s, and as the DVD industry soon exploded, his company got involved in the then-lucrative world of the adult film industry. They made so much money that Pleasants wound up buying a large home in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Pleasants is gay, and considers himself to be married to another homeless man he's been with for 10 years, since before they were on the streets.

Like many of the nation's homeless, drugs, specifically meth, are a part of Pleasants' life.

He said he began using the drug before he became homeless, but insists it's not what led him to the streets.

Shawn Pleasants said he takes meth a few times a week as both an escape and to help him stay awake at night.

"Every time you sleep, that's when you lose and when people come and take your things," he said.

"I'm a heavy sleeper. I lose a lot."

Pleasants has both a laptop and a cell phone. The phone and its service are free under an Obama-era program. He spends a lot of time at the library, accessing the internet and staying on top of current events and posting on anonymous interest message boards.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4345666&forum_id=2#38847374)

Hmmmmm

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4345666&forum_id=2#38847382)

get him a moniker (if he doesn't already have one)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4345666&forum_id=2#38847391)

Also remember those 2 black homeless guys doing drugs and then eating their asses out? They could be Yale grads who worked on wall street.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4345666&forum_id=2#38849985)