Walking the 65-acre homeless encampment called “The Jungle” in Silicon Valley with an outreach team of former homeless workers opens up a lot of doors — but not Troy's.
Troy was reclined in a folding chair behind a green five-foot privacy screen when Business Insider met him in mid-July. He agreed to speak with us, but declined to let us into his camp.
The outreach team asked Troy if he was interested in putting his name on the list for subsidized housing and he shook his head. “Nah,” he said, “This is the first time I haven't had a mortgage in my life. I'm good.”
Troy explained he'd lost his carpentry job nearly four years ago and finally settled here. His carpentry skills explained the elaborate fencing, shower and makeshift hut with a hinged door standing behind him.
We weren't talking long when Troy said he'd had enough and told us to check out his treehouse 30-feet up in a tree behind us. “Climb it,” he said laughing. When we didn't reply, he continued: “It's there to stay. I'm a carpenter for Christ's Sake.”
The Jungle in San Jose is filled with elaborate shelters and camps, but Troy's compound was unlike anything else around.
Following the path and reading the screen, it was clear Troy had suffered some trespassers and was doing all he could to enforce some personal security.
The farther we walked the more instructions there were. The police had swept the camp four months before so everything here had been built since then.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider