A look at the other side of Puget Sound’s homeless RVs

While some complain that homeless RVs can bring upticks in crime and drug use wherever they park, one RV resident heard those complaints and chose to speak out.

“I thought people need to see the other side — they need to talk to the homeless, actually get to know us, and find out how we came to be this way,” RV owner Jeramie Booker told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.

Booker lives in an RV camper hitched to a truck. He holds a full-time job as a handyman, and is clean-shaven, kempt, and sober. That’s a stark contrast to reports of rampant crime and drug use among many homeless RVs. Still, as far as he can tell, Booker is less an exception and more the norm.

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“I can’t really speak for everybody, from what I’ve seen of other RV’ers like me that are out there, I don’t see all that going on,” he described. “You know, there’s only been only a couple of them out there that I’ve seen, and of course, the police took care of those and they were gone. The ones, they’re usually out there for long periods of time like me. I’ve been out there for a year-and-a-half — we’re still there because we’re not doing anything illegal.”

Booker’s own problems finding permanent housing aren’t related to drug use or crime. Rather, it’s something as simple as a credit check.

After getting involved with a girlfriend in gambling debt, a few maxed out credit cards later, he found himself moving out of his $725/month Lynnwood apartment and into the RV he lives in today.

That situation forced him to declare bankruptcy, something that to this day throws a significant barrier between him and finding an apartment. And that’s despite holding a job that pays him enough to afford rent.

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“I could probably afford what I was paying before, maybe $100, $200 more than that,” he noted.

All told, Booker hopes to show people that despite sensational reports of homeless RVs ruining neighborhoods, the people living in those RVs aren’t so different from the average person.

“I think it’s safe to say that most listeners, if they were here in the studio, they would find you completely un-threatening,” Dave Ross pointed out. “And probably if they knew it was you in the RV a block from their homes, they wouldn’t mind.”

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