VENICE, Calif. — Forty-two-year-old Douglas Nichols, entrepreneur and president of his own video production company, starts his mornings by getting the latest updates on the race to the White House: 

“This is a very important election,” said Nichols.

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He grew up in Portland, Colorado and California. He has a Master’s Degree in business management, and is currently looking for a job. So the economy is top of mind for him:

“Not only create jobs, but we’re talking about advanced technology, renewable energy, actually caring about the future not just profit,” Nichols said. 

Nichols knows intimately about profits and about being broke, and the desperation that brings. When he hit financial problems, he wrote a bad check, and as the problems grew, so did the financial crimes. It ended up costing him five year in prison. His biggest loss Nichols says, temporarily losing his right to vote.

“Losing my right to vote was a huge issue for me. It’s amazing, I’m excited, it’s a relief to be able to have that right back,” he said. 

So now that he can once again vote, Nichols isn’t letting anything stop him, not even his homelessness. He keeps his belongings in a storage facility, changes every day and sleeps on the streets of Venice.

Another fellow unhoused person David Busch, talked Nichols through the process.

“Give them the place, the cross street nearest to where you normally sleep,” said Busch.

There are around 2,100 homeless voters in Los Angeles County that have listed their address as a cross-street. An unknown number of others list their shelter or previous address.

“I’ve been voting since the year I was homeless, I never stopped voting, I always used my address at the shelter and then later I registered with the streets” said Busch. 

But with almost 60,000 unhoused people in the county, homeless voters are underrepresented. Nichols says that needs to change:

“We want our views to be represented as well people who have money,” Nichols said. 

And so morning after morning, Nichols will continue to follow the election, and his main issues: education, the economy, the supreme court . . . but surprisingly, not housing. 

“You know the most important thing is protecting those rights and the future because that’s going to cause much more damage and long-term effect than my temporary situation,” Nichols said.

Because Nichols says, he will always be a voter, but he won’t always be homeless.