Born in Seattle. Left Behind by It.

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.