James Harris, 54, has had AIDS for 30 years. When medication stopped working, he got depressed and was evicted. Now he feels like an outcast, vulnerable and struggling to survive.
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Tammy Stephen, 54, lives in Camp Second Chance, a city-sanctioned homeless encampment in Seattle. “Housing here is out of control. That’s why we have so many people on the street,” she said. “There’s nowhere for them to go.”
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Moi Williams, 59, has been homeless for four years and said he is comfortable sleeping on the street. “I’m not bothering nobody. I’m not being bothered.”
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Jorge Ortega, 40, has been living on the street for more than 10 years after losing his job at the Los Angeles International Airport. Ortega said he has a 14-year-old son living in Washington who doesn’t know he is homeless, sleeping on a sidewalk of Skid Row.
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Alicia Adara, 33, ended up on the street after losing a custody fight for her two children with her ex-husband. “I don’t do shelters. I feel like I’m in jail,” she said. “I’ve been like basically a prisoner all my life. I need to do this. I need to be out here. It’s freedom.”
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Bennie Sayee Koffa, 66, came to the US in 1990 and never returned, as a civil war raged for years in Liberia. He has lived in Canada and sought refugee status in the US. He ended up homeless and living on the streets of Seattle after splitting up with his wife a year ago.
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John Ruiz, 9, his parents and four siblings moved into a camper after they could no longer afford the rent in an apartment.
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Barry Warren, 52, has been homeless his entire adult life. After about 20 years without a home in California, he moved to Seattle, where he says the benefits are better and life on the street is safer.
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Bernadette Ortiz, 39, recently gave birth to her fifth child. She and her fiance were living in a tent when she found out she was pregnant. The couple lives in a temporary shelter at a local church until their move to a studio apartment. “I don’t want to live in a tent ever again,” said Ortiz.
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Harrison Perkins, 31, and his fiancee ended up on the street about two months ago after she accidentally burned down her mother’s kitchen. Perkins, a recovering drug addict, wants to go back to Cleveland, Ohio, where his family lives.
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Robert Irwin, 72, said he is planning a trip to Michigan to see his older sister. “I have my own SUV, Chevy Trailblazer. I want to go in March. It will be my last trip.”
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Dolores Epps, 41, has been homeless for five years. She had a job at a salon and still makes money cutting hair. “I don’t touch everybody, only the people that are clean,” Epps said.
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