This story aired in the February 6, 2025 episode of Crosscurrents.
The rain has returned to the Bay this week. And for people experiencing homelessness, it makes life harder. The recent point-in-time counts report that we have at least 38,000 people living outside. Many of them have been unhoused for years, and in some cases, decades. Surviving outside for that long requires a unique set of skills.
Today, we hear from some of them in our new series called ‘Sidewalk Stories.’ It’s a collaboration between Crosscurrents and the East Bay’s Street Spirit newspaper. In the series, unhoused people talk about how they’ve built a life outside.
In this episode KALW’s homelessness reporter Alastair Boone went out during a break in the storms to talk to unhoused people in Berkeley.
Click the play button above to listen
Story Transcript:
CHRIS JONES: When it's going to rain, the key idea is this, get above the water.
KRISTINA ROWE: Okay, so how do I stay dry when it rains? That is like, that's a good question.
STEVEN HALL: Tarps. Tarps. You want tarps for the, uh, rain because these tents, even though they're built to prevent rain from getting in. You want that extra, uh, cushion.
GEO JOHNSON: The important thing is to get the back nailed down. Cause once the back is, you see the back is nailed down like no water can get in? Cause see when you get water up in the corners, it'll just go through the whole thing.
CHRIS: What I've been doing recently is I found a tree that had a root system that was set up in such a way that it would create some drainage. Water finds its level, all you have to do is just get above it.
STEVEN: I really just stay in the tent. I mean, it's dry enough. Find some entertainment, read a book. You know what I mean? I think that's the best time to do it. Make sure you have your tent insulated. You know what I mean? So it won't get cold inside. You know, you want to make sure moisture don't get into your tits so it won't smell mildewy.
CHRIS: I found that having a more high tech layer is better than having lots of low tech layers…Your body heat can…can dry up some of the moisture if you just happen to temporarily get caught. But if you get soaked, that's it. You need to get rid of those clothes and you need to put on some dry stuff…Because then you risk getting sick and that's what you don't want.
GEO: I had a sleeping bag inside another sleeping bag and then I had wool blankets hanging on the inside of the tent for like insulating walls. But I like to keep things simple because I don't know how, you know, this is a temporary camp and it's just a tent on the ground. So I can pack up and be gone in an hour if, you know, if they change the law and they say you guys all have to get out of here.
KRISTINA: We're over there. We're across the street at City Hall. Um, and at 4 a. m. Um, a few days ago, the police raided us. And we all had our tents built to withstand the rain. But at that time, they made us leave like we, we just had to just take our stuff.
And then whatever we couldn't take, they bulldozed. We just had to like, trawl anything we could within minutes. Just take anything we could. Just, just to like grab it. Whatever we could…And so, like everybody, it was like a mass pandemonium.
So, I don't know how everybody's gonna stay dry. That's a good question because I think we lost some tarps. I think we've lost some integrity to our tents.
GEO: I mean, when you're out here, you're just surviving.
