Living Rent-Free Next to Millionaires

[Music] shadow right there what is that alex zero lives rent free in the bay area one of the priciest housing markets in the country so this is your boat this is my boat the kindred spirits i grew up on the water what do you love about it i want freedom you know no neighbors i can be loud and cheap cheaper than living on land just north of the golden gate bridge the median home price in marin county is over a million dollars but that's not a problem for the free-spirited boat dwellers who have been living there for decades they're known locally as anchor outs [Music] hi there hi how you doing so i came here at the beginning of the 21st century and it's a way to get away from the pressures of onshore life why don't you want to live on shore well paying the rent to the landlord is is not my bag at the moment i mean the average rent here i couldn't people out here are different and a little more self-sufficient than a lot of people i'm sure people will lend a hand towards each other there we go it's the last little area where people live kind of to themselves you know in their own in their own way and society wants to get rid of that they want everybody in a sort of a cage or a box i don't owe anybody anything i don't owe a mortgage i don't i don't know that's nothing wrong with any of that that's fine i've done that before too but i choose this way because it's just a more peaceful way of existing so i have no worries really none of this is actually legal since the 80s there's been a local law that boats can only anchor for 72 hours but authorities look the other way marin homeowners though have had enough how many times have anchor outs crashed into your dog well the dock or underneath the deck um [Music] a minimum of 16 times 16 yeah and that's not uncommon up and down the street i mean it happens all the time you can see over there the bedroom that was where it got underneath the house over on this side where it hit us and wedged itself underneath was right where this lift is now jim robertson works in finance and lives in a waterfront home he's lobbied everyone from state agencies to law enforcement to take action against the anchor outs so the ankara community is somewhat diverse i would say 80 to 90 percent of them have made some really bad life decisions what do i mean by that um they're meth addicts they're alcoholics they're ex-felons or current felons five percent of the people just are looking for a way to not spend any money and they just don't want to pay taxes or rent this is one of the most expensive housing markets in the country where else can people live around here it's a tough question there's not any buildable land left here so probably not a lot of homeless shelters or opportunities for people to live here i have to work pay taxes and do you know everything like everybody else does it's a nice dream to live on the water and i understand why people want to do it but you went out and saw what those boats look like they're not sea worthy i got hot water here i got a shower yeah there's a stilt top right here you know if you're not dressing the polo shirt around here and khakis you don't fit in do you feel judged by the people in this area a lot yeah they just look at us discussed i'm a working man dude i work on everything motors cars trucks my boat you get dirty you know i've had people come up to me at 7 11 and hand me money and i'm like you know i mean like like i don't thank you but i don't i don't need the money you know i work i got a job you know i take care of myself but now the anchor out way of life may be coming to an end the state under pressure from homeowners and conservation groups is forcing local authorities to clear the bay by 2026 that's a task that's fallen on one guy the harbormaster you look at that boat right there you can see the underbelly of the boat and the mast is tilted to one side that boat's sitting in the mud so it's not floating it's not floating you know you take a look at every single piece of debris that's on that deck could go right in the water gas cans full of gasoline oil and other petroleum residues off of his engine you know people have died out here you know it's for the combination of both public safety and protection of the environment enforcement is ramping up the harbour master and his predecessor got rid of more than a hundred boats in the last two years many of which were labeled as marine debris and taken to be destroyed i bought my boat for 27 000 10 years ago i wanted to live on the water that was my dream because i worked with on boats with my stepdad growing up and the water life was always kind this is your bed yeah this is my boat i don't even know where to start i mean as you can see my whole life was in here tim logan's boat started to take on water during a recent storm and then was confiscated by the harbormaster so what's this this is my uh grandma's photo album that my uncle had that got passed down because he just recently this is my back bedroom and i loved it because i could look out the back right here i would see san francisco skyline i mean during the day it's beautiful do you ever feel conflicted with your role in piece by piece sort of taking apart this community i wouldn't say conflicted probably a better word is empathetic i recognize that for many of these people those boats out there are all they have that is every single worldly possession that they have is out there on the water and so in that sense yes i feel conflicted but the bottom line is you're breaking the law this is a homeless encampment where some of the anchor outs have moved after their boats have been confiscated i mean some of these people have no choice they have no place to go their boat was their home i had some things to do and i went away for i think five days i was back on the fifth day my boat was not there some people are lost they are beside themselves they don't know what to do i mean what would you do you work you come home and your home's gone the city of sausalito set up this homeless camp right next to the shipyard where anchor out boats are held [Music] they put us right there where they're crushing the boats you know we got to sit here and watch them do it you know well that's your boat being crushed today yeah i know i've seen it do you ever feel bad for the people that are losing their homes in all of this of course i totally feel bad i mean you know i don't know if i'd say it's an unfair situation in capitalism you're going to have those who want to work hard those who are smarter those who are lucky those that are unlucky i think that's what you're looking at only it's on steroids around here [Music] we're eyesores to the rich and the elite out here there's a lot of money in between these two hills we don't have the uh degrees or whatever they they got to be having their million dollar mansions or whatever i live just fine you know i mean i like the way i live and i don't bother nobody you know just go to work go fishing that's my life i mean i'm not going nowhere but they'll you know they'll probably put me in handcuffs to take me to jail or whatever and while i'm gone they'll come and grab the boat take it over there grab it with the claw and crush the velvet you talk about it like it's inevitable it's because it'll happen that's the way they're gonna do it i'd have to be probably living in that tent city it really sucks there's no no compassion around here you

Channel: VICE News

Views: 3,116,265

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2020

Id: rnbpLcH59lI

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 26 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/SuperMelonMusk]

this kind of makes me wanna go live on a boat.... down on the river.

[u/nauticalsandwich]

It's sad that the homeowner and some of the anchor-outs seem to have constructed narratives that look down on the each others' chosen way of life. I don't know a lot about this issue, and I'm sure this video is a rather opaque presentation (little doubt they're editorializing to play up the class conflict), but it seems there could be a better compromise here. We can't have people polluting the waterways and creating unsafe conditions and damaging people's property, but is the only rectification the confiscation of their homes?