- I don't know what I would do
if my RV got towed.
Without it, I think ...
I genuinely don't even wanna think about what I would do.
Because ... I just ... I don't know.
- [Host] Be out on the streets in the tent.
- Again. Yeah, just restarting again.
- They've been coming hard and strong taking everything.
We don't want to be out here.
You know, we're trying to do the best we can.
It's pretty difficult
when they don't give us very much notice.
It's pretty devastating
because people are losing everything that they own
when they don't own much to begin with, so.
- 30 to 50% of people who are unsheltered
in Seattle live in vehicles
that can mean anywhere between 3,000
to potentially up to 5,000 people.
It's hard to say because like most point in time counts
they're a bare minimum estimate.
Many cities like Seattle have regulations
that push vehicles that are oversized
such as RVs into industrial zones,
which are often very far
from where social services are located.
So there's a really systemic disconnection
between many people who are living in vehicles
and the actual social service systems.
So outreach that can come to people
who are living in vehicles
is essential for keeping people connected
to housing, navigation, social services and medical care.
- What we do is we go out,
we meet people living the vehicles.
We'll buy batteries, buy tabs,
get people things they need to move their vehicle.
Because if gonna get swept,
they'll lose their home,
they'll walk in the streets,
and there's no shelter beds available.
All this.
- [Jonah] All this is gonna get swept tomorrow morning.
- I have to work on getting our stuff out of here
so we can get hauling this somewhere.
- So you can use my truck if you have like a chain
or something like that.
- Yeah, I just have it off the front of the RV.
Getting over there in time before they take it.
- Where's nap? I can take you to Napa.
- Can you really?
- Yeah. Like the one in...
- Hudson or in Georgetown?
Yep. That's where I have the part on hand.
- Yeah, I'll take you over there.
- Let me go grab the box of stuff I have for my son,
sent to him and then I'll be ready to go over there.
I'll grab the money.
- Okay. Perfect. Sounds good.
They are our neighbors too.
So many people just like to close their eyes
and just let, you know,
"Oh, they say there's housing, so there must be housing."
Well then why are they still out here on the street
3, 4, 5, 6 years later
after getting swept around all the time.
Like there's no housing.
- We come out every day on Monday through Friday.
It's still inadequate
because I have such a large area I cover.
- We usually talk with about 50 to 60 people
who are living in RV's, vans, cars each month.
- They called it a shelter referral.
If you look at it politically,
it's really smart because administration can say,
"Hey we can justify our sweeps
because these people are getting people into shelter."
But there's no shelter to refer people to now.
This sweep happened twice a week,
but all of this is just moving 10 people
over and over again.
- Okay, go forward.
I've been in the motor home approximately nine months
and it hasn't been easy.
When you just get settled in, you've gotta get up and move.
It doesn't give you any time to really do anything.
- [Host] Where are you going?
- I don't know.
- Got round circle.
Oh, I'm gonna wait.
- [Jonah] That's okay.
- That's okay.
One more. Come on.
It's a Subaru.
- [Jonah] Oh, yeah.
- But then we all know I'm not a nice guy.
- [Jonah] He's not a nice guy.
- I've trained him.
- I've been going out with Joe for about three months now.
I'm a psychology student at the University of Washington.
I'm technically a scribe,
so I do all the paperwork unofficially.
I'm his legs, so I help out walking around,
knocking on doors, stuff like that.
We have a client down here
that we talked to a couple days ago.
We're dropping off some food.
(knocking on door)
Hey Chris, you home? It's Joe and Jonah.
We got some food to drop off to you.
- [Joe] He's been here for three years
and he has a real good relationship with the ladies
that lives in the house.
But park enforcement finally found him.
So we've gotta move him.
- [Jonah] I might need to close the back of the car.
- [Joe] Yeah.
- [Radio] I'm gonna be driving past your area
and I have winter stuff
and the Mylar blankets and the hand warmers.
- [Joe] Yeah.
- [Radio] And then I'll probably reorder
some of those sleeping bags. Those instant ones that we had.
- [Joe] Yeah.
- Now we're finally funded by the city
and we do vehicle residency outreach directly
and we work now at parking enforcement and the courts.
Parking enforcement would refer us to people
so they wouldn't get impounded.
Being homeless is traumatic in different and unique ways
and so having some understanding of that helps.
Three of our four people are formally homeless
and they've all lived in a vehicle at one point or another.
So they have a better understanding
of what comes with living in a vehicle
as well as just it takes a while
to agree to let someone help you.
- [Joe] Because I've been doing outreach for over 20 years.
I've been homeless multiple, multiple times
throughout my life.
And so, you know, I relate to people that are homeless.
I'm good at listening and talking
and responding to their needs.
Everything I do is free for the client.
The only promise I'll make is my best effort
because if I promised results,
I'd be lying and we've been lied too enough.
I'm here to help the get what they want.
I'm not gonna do it for them, we're gonna do it together.
But I'll give people gas money.
I'll give people like I did doing today,
giving people bags of food.
But what I do is build bridges.
Bridges are trust of honesty with each other.
- Joe is awesome.
Like when I first met him,
I felt so comfortable talking to him
and the fact that he's been on the streets
is a huge difference.
A lot of people down here have trust issues
but him being on the streets helps.
You know, 'cause he knows. He knows.
Not only have they helped me,
they help me help other people immensely.
Like to put gas in my truck,
so I can move RV so people don't lose their home.
The city sweeps them and takes their home.
Takes their homes.
I lived out here off and on for the past four years.
My sister lives right here.
She lost her home because, well she doesn't work.
She's sick all the time because she has cancer.
She has treatment and stuff and you know,
I take care of her as best as I can.
Her doctor said I have a choice.
You know you can spend it with your sister
or you can work.
You know, I quit that day.
- Hey, where you going?
- To my friend's place to go try to get warm.
Joe and Jonah have been coming and visiting me pretty often.
They brought me to Goodwill and brought me clothes.
They've got me food before so I really appreciate them.
I've been homeless on and off since I was about 16.
My mom was in a critical health condition
and couldn't really take care of us,
so I had to live with my stepdad.
He made me pay rent
even though I didn't even have a room, you know?
And he would kick me out randomly
when he would drink and stuff like that.
I would just kind of not know where to go.
And eventually it gets to the point
where you just don't want to come back anymore, you know.
I'm 19, I'm just making it by here I guess.
There's a lot of uncertainty.
Just dealing with today is how you kind of get by.
Because when you're going day by day,
it starts becoming more of a here and now.
What I gain right now,
instead of what's gonna be good in the long run,
what's gonna help me get somewhere?
You know what I mean?
Well I've been trying to get into housing
since day one, pretty much.
There's outreach called Youth Care, for 18 to 25 year olds.
I was working with the counselor there for like months.
I thought I was on the waiting list
and then recently I found out that
he doesn't even work there anymore
and that I have to go to a different place
to find housing, like counseling at all.
And the waiting list, if you do get on it,
it's like two years.
Joe and Jonah have a schedule thing
that they get from their work,
that says where they're gonna sweep every month.
So if where I'm at is on a list,
they'll tell me like two weeks prior
and it really, really, really helps.
Because normally you don't get any notice.
You get maybe the three day notice
that they put up in order to move.
I have to find somebody who has a usually a truck
or something, big enough that can pull this by a rope,
which is also terrifying.
Have to have someone steering it also.
And it's real stiff and the brakes barely work.
It sucks. Everything falls over in here.
And yeah, it's a huge process.
And I've only been here for about almost three years
and I've moved probably about 20 times.
Nowhere that anyone goes in an RV
can ever be seen as a permanent place.
The business can just tow it at any point
if they decide they want to.
I don't know what I would do
if my RV got towed because this is my everything.
This is my home, this is my cat.
It was basically my kid.
Without it, I think,
I genuinely don't even wanna think about what I would do
because it... I just... I don't know.
- [Host] Be out on the streets in the tent.
- Again. Yeah, just restarting again.
- I walk up to them and I can feel the trauma
and the apprehension they have.
It doesn't shut off when I go home.
And so sometimes, like the first time I met Lux,
I go home and cry.
And I don't know how to deal with that.
I feel what's going on on the street.
I feel the hopelessness.
How many people live in there?
Could you...
so you just want a permanent spot for your RV
or would you take housing if it was offered?
- That would be nice.
- Yeah. And I, you know, why should I lie to you?
Finding housing is sucked right now.
So you need a fuel pump.
What I'm gonna do now is go down to Napa
and then if they have the fuel pump there,
I will pick it up and bring it back.
- That'd be great.
- And it doesn't mean I'm a nice guy
because I'm not a nice guy.
I have a RV that needs a fuel pump.
It's a 82 pace arrow, 454.
For the homeless person, buying parts for vehicles,
especially if your vehicle isn't running,
you have to walk auto parts door and then walk back.
And not all homeless people can do their own work.
Like the guy we just bought the water pump for.
If it's coming out of their pocket,
they have to give up food,
they have to give up either medicine
prescribed or non-prescribed.
It's a point of crisis, then their SOL
and they could possibly lose their home.
So guess what?
It's in the backseat.
You need some socks? - Always.
- How about three pairs?
- That'll work.
They tried to tow me, then I sat in the driver's seat
and where they come up about six deep
telling me I gotta get out.
And I said, no, can't do that.
I'm a taxpayer. 11, 12 years through the union.
I mean, call it what you want.
I should have a right to park somewhere,
whether it's one day, three days or a week.
But these concrete blocks, they are illegal.
- [Jonah] Putting those planner ...
- They were supposed to remove them December of last year.
State or whatever, just kind of threw up their hands
and they're doing nothing about it.
But yet they'll come and ticket me every week.
I to be outta here in about a half hour.
- [Joe] Where you going?
- I don't know.
- [Joe] Okay, well call me and let me know where you end up.
- All right.
- [Joe] Well, that way I can come by and harass you.
Especially about the tabs.
- You've moved three times in the past four months.
You have until 9:00 AM to have your stuff outta there.
If not, they throw your in the garbage regardless.
They have it demolished.
They have bulldozers come in and tear it down.
Then we have to start all over again.
Like we really have it to start in the first place.
What are we blocking?
Please answer me if we're blocking a business or at walkway.
We're not. We're not bothering nobody.
We're just trying to live.
- My best year was 63 people in one year
getting off the street into home.
Some of them went to other programs,
26 of them went from the street to a market rate job,
to a market rate apartment.
This is my purpose in life.
I know the trauma of being on the street.
I know the trauma and the fear of not knowing
what's gonna happen next.
- [Jonah] You don't experience the true meaning of trauma
until you see it on the street like this.
- [Joe] Yeah.
One thing to watch things on TV or read about a theory
but it's another thing to sit across from somebody
who's hungry, who's dirty, who needs the bath,
who doesn't have enough clothes.
- [Narrator] Reducing vehicle residency in our communities
means including vehicle residents in our systems of housing
and our systems of social service care.
And that means providing spaces
for the wide variety of people to connect
with existing services that are in our community.
Sometimes that means overnight safe parking programs
for people who want to move out of their vehicles
as quickly as possible.
But for some people who are living in larger vehicles
such as an RV or detached trailer,
they may need more time
to be able to connect with social services.
Or they may just need a space
where they can live in their vehicle long term
as affordable housing.
And I think that that's really where the solution lies.
It's looking at the diversity of vehicle residents
and how we can bring them in to connect them
with the existing services.
Both overnight, temporary parking spaces,
longer term supportive parking spaces
and more permanent stable parking spaces
that are similar to an RV park
or a mobile home trailer park.
- They want to be recognized as a person.
They want to be recognized as someone of value.
Treats a person in the RV as a person
and not as one of them homeless people.