Born in Seattle. Left Behind by It.
- projectUmbrella
- May 28
- 1 min read
JD was born and raised in Seattle. He’s of Filipino descent and has spent his entire life on the streets.
“This is all I’ve known,” he told us—not with bitterness, but with a quiet resignation that hits you harder the longer you sit with it.
JD loves Seattle. He talks about the weather like an old friend—especially spring, when the skies break just long enough to feel hopeful again. And he speaks with pride about the diversity here. “You see people from everywhere,” he said. “It reminds you that you’re part of something bigger.”
But for JD, surviving in this city hasn’t been easy—especially when it comes to accessing help.
“You gotta give an arm and a leg just to get what they say is available to us,” he told us. “It’s like they make it hard on purpose.”
His words cut to the heart of a deeper truth: that systems built to offer help are often full of barriers, paperwork, and hoops that keep people like JD stuck in place.
Still, he shows up. He moves through the city he’s always called home with resilience that can’t be measured on paper.
JD’s story reminds us that being unhoused doesn’t mean being unseen. It means the system has failed someone who’s been here all along.
I understand JD completely. Getting assistance while experiencing houselessness is extremely difficult when you consider a couple of basic facts:
Getting a bed (etc..): There are generally not enough of those. Maricopa county reports that there are over 4,700 shelter beds, while the last point in time count revealed that there are over 9,700 people experiencing homelessness in the same county.
I invite you readers to research the amount of shelter beds verses the homeless population for any large city in the United States; The conclusion will generally be the same.
Getting public assistance i.e.( EBT and medical assistance) isn't difficult, however being able to keep those from being stolen by other homeless folks, or some nefarious agencies is in…