Ronald

Part 1

I was becoming homeless right in the middle of the semester after having been in this one house for two years and had been homeless in Humboldt previous to that. This is a picture of a fifth wheel that we bought. We bought this the day before midterms for one of my classes. We stuffed everything into this fifth wheel. Me, my girlfriend, our computers, our two dogs, all our stuff. And then ... There's some stuff sitting outside still, which now ... Most of it's moved inside. But it's a matter of having to be able to get to work, still having to go to school, having to be able to do homework. Where we're at looks awesome and it's beautiful. It's a nice little grove of redwood trees that gets absolutely no cell reception very difficult internet reception and stuff. So, being there makes it a little difficult to continue to function normally on school. Usually I have to go down the hill a little bit to be like, "Oh, look, I got these calls and I got these emails and stuff." So, it's interesting. I'm going to look at the bright side of things. It's not a tent. We lived in a tent up in Redwood Park for a month and a half. So, being in a fifth wheel RV, even a small one, is still miles above what we were doing before. My now dead car is sitting directly behind it. So, the JACK pass was awesome to get us to school, because otherwise I would not be here right now.

I think you'll find a lot students ... Some students will choose to live in their vehicles more so than staying on the couch. I mean, couch surfing is one thing, but you're always on someone's couch. Vehicles offer you a little more privacy. I kind of wish there was some option like this, maybe for students on campus. Because even the ones that are paying for their own housing or whatever, say they get injured or whatever. They suddenly don't have the means to stay in a campus housing. A small space like this, or a small vehicle would be something that would definitely ... While it may not be the greatest ray of sunshine in their life, it'll definitely keep them in school. I think once that you see other students that are living in the same situation that you are, you tend to band together more so than, "Hey, I'm a homeless student living in my car. I'm going to go hang out with these other [rich] kids who are going to do this." Even though you're in college, your experiences aren't quite the same.

Part 2

I think that's the hardest part about being a homeless student, really, is that you're somewhere between a technological wizard and Stone Age caveman.

I found rent in this area to be ridiculous. And part of that was ... The answer that I got was, "Oh, we're staying with the market." I'm like, "So, the closest market you have is six hours away, and that's San Francisco. And the scummiest part of their town is still better than the best part of your town." So, maybe not charge ... It was $1,800 for one bedroom in Eureka.

The school should have a place where it's an emergency area. If the students can't afford this, they can at least pull up a vehicle here, or something, or some kind of something, because... the incentive for the school would be that you want these people to graduate. You want them to have an excellent experience because you're going to want their alumni money. It’s like a team effort here, everyone’s got to win. You can’t let people fail here, I mean the smartest kid on campus might be living in their car.

I’m probably going to look back at this picture in five years and say “I can’t believe how rugged this one month of school was.” Thank God my teachers are cool. Thank God I was able to do these things and find space. Hopefully Arcata can get it together because people that live here have a bit of a safety net, but most people are not from here and the minute things aren’t going right, it’s time to go. For any student that tells you that they're trying to isolate themselves ... I'm telling them right now, don't do that.

Part 3

This is the inside of the RV. This table is where we’re doing our homework, there’s stuff piled everywhere. This would really be a space for one student, one person to be able to function but we have two (and two dogs). I was in the Navy, I was on a submarine, so I’m pretty used to functioning in a really small space.

It did occur to me, though. I'm like, "You know ..." In Japan, they have these little, tiny hotels. If the town can't get itself together and step up and build some housing ... I was like, "HSU should put some CONEX boxes or whatever at the back field, and for a night, 'Here's your student thing. You don't have to have your stuff outside. You don't have to worry about cops banging on your door. It's out of the way, so you don't have to worry about sleeping in your car while people are walking all around.'"

I look at it this way now. They have kids coming here ... I think they said HSU has a 76% acceptance rate, or something like that. It's up there. They accept a lot of people, which is great. They could lower down ... It sounds like the town would be happy with 20% and keep it really tiny. But, to me, keeping the town tiny is the same as ... You're diminishing your capacity in every sort of way. And to have 76% of your kids come here and then alienate 10% of them because they can't find adequate housing. Students are obviously here. They're paying money to be here. Their potential is going to skyrocket the minute they get out of here. If they don't pass, if they do not get that job, if they remain homeless, you will see them quickly slip into the worst possible things. Drug use will be rampant very quickly.

They say, "A bitching sailor is a happy sailor," so ... I have a TV, I have my fish tank, I have my dogs. I lived in a tent before. This is absolute luxury. It's about half of a size of one of the dorm rooms, I think. At least the one I stayed in. So, it's about half of one of those. I don't think they get a stove or anything in there. The basics are that you need shelter and clothing. And I think in this environment today, the biggest thing is that you need electricity, and a place to plug in your computer, especially in a school environment.