Louie Lactaoen collects firewood for his nightly fire. He knows an outdoor fire is not allowed where he’s living.
For the last six months, he’s been living in a makeshift box cobblestoned from a tent, plywood and tarps in a unsanctioned camp called the Cloverleaf were Interstate 5 meets Interstate 90 in Seattle.
“We have to do it because it's very cold,” says Lactaoen. He said so far, the city hasn’t come into the camp and shut down his or other fires.
He has a small metal step as a stove that he heats up by burning wood underneath it. He does it outside his box, but after he’s done cooking, he brings the hotel metal step inside to warm his tent.
“This is what I do to survive,” Lactaoen says.