Finding a 4-year-old homeless boy in Westlake at 1 a.m.

For Kristine Moreland, homelessness is personal. Her father has been homeless her entire life. She has spent the last 10 years volunteering, late at night, with the Union Gospel Mission helping people on the streets. But she has never been affected like she was on Tuesday evening.

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“We were just getting ready to end our night up at Westlake at a place called ‘The Blade,’” Moreland told Ron and Don. “We had just called an ambulance for another gentleman who was in dire need. I was walking back toward the vans we serve out of and there was a 4-year-old little boy standing on the sidewalk. He was with his ‘father.’ Hopefully it was (his father).”

“Peter was a happy little guy, but Peter was in a dangerous area,” she said. “Homeless? I don’t know, but at a spot he shouldn’t be at 1:30 in the morning.”

Moreland couldn’t say for sure that Peter and his father were homeless. But something was off.

In the past, she would help homeless children and their parents by directing them to services. She is connected to volunteers who are foster parent approved and can take kids in while parents get things in order. Or she calls Mary’s Place to provide shelter to families. She also runs the MoreLove Project which addresses homelessness and children.

“Unfortunately, in the circumstance that we ran into with Peter and his father, they refused all services,” she said. “In the 10 years of doing this, it was the most heartbreaking circumstance; I had to watch them walk into the night. It’s not illegal in the State of Washington or the City of Seattle to be homeless with a child. It’s a gray area.”

The story of 4-year-old Peter is not an anomaly in Seattle which faces a homeless crisis, an opioid crisis, and a housing crisis, among other problems — all which funnel people to living on the streets. Sometimes, children come along. Whether it’s three children — ages 6, 3, and 1 — found unsupervised living in an unsanctioned homeless camp under the West Seattle Bridge. Or a family with children living in an alley behind a big box store, on a wait list for services. Or a toddler with a full diaper, who authorities discovered eating off of the ground in the infamous Jungle. All stories from Seattle’s homeless crisis.

For Moreland, she didn’t want Peter’s story to end there in Westlake that night.

“I looked at Peter that night and I ended up getting in my own car and driving around for hours trying to find him, and I sadly did not,” Moreland said. “I cried for 24 hours after that and I even thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do this anymore.’ I decided no. I can do more. For every one Peter out there, there are thousands.”

Why does Moreland tell this story? Why does she go on KIRO Radio to talk about a 4-year-old roaming dangerous Seattle streets at night?

She wants Seattle to know that it’s the people who have to do something about the homeless crisis. The solution requires more people on the streets to get the vulnerable off of the streets.

“Accessing resources takes the ability to get places, have phones, be consistent and that’s not a viable option,” Moreland said. “We’ve done small steps, we’ve built Navigation Centers, but we need people – people to volunteer who truly love humans. Don’t complain about it. Do something about it.”