- 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.
