On a quiet stretch of 16th Avenue downtown, Bella Roberts pushes a red shopping cart to collect trash from the sidewalks and turn the full bags in for a cash reward. Her girlfriend Amber Logan sits beside their belongings on the other side of the street, watching a friend’s cat, and organizing their belongings so they can move before the city crew arrives to wash down the sidewalks.

Bella’s parents split up when she was 18, about the time she was getting ready to go to college. She ended up quitting college to take a job at an audiology clinic. She left Florida when she was 28, for California, as far away from Florida as she could get. Even though she didn’t have a home to come to in San Diego, she ended up working at a Home Depot in San Diego. She first found her way to Crisis House, then from there to St. Vincent de Paul’s in December 2015, but the environment was not what she expected. She started smoking meth during the six months she was there. She is currently 35, living in and out of the Alpha Bridge tent while looking for more permanent housing.

Amber is a native San Diegan. Her mother still lives in Chula Vista and she has three sisters. She graduated from Hilltop High. Her first experience with being homeless was at age five. Her dad was working construction, but he was a heroin addict and spent all his earnings on drugs rather than paying the rent. He died in a car accident when Amber was six. After that accident, her mother stopped doing drugs because she didn’t want the kids taken away by CPS.

Amber was lucky to have a person step in and be the father figure in her life. Helped her get a license and a job when she got older. Her best friend in high school helped her get through to graduation. They moved in together. Amber helped her friend get through culinary school. They were together for 16 years, eight of those as a married couple. They had a house, a car, Amber was working at two restaurant jobs. When her wife left her for a man, Amber dove into drugs and alcohol. They got a divorce, and her ex now lives somewhere in Idaho.

Unfortunately, Amber got arrested when she was in a car with others who had stolen people’s mail. Since Amber’s sister worked at the post office, her sister was investigated in relation to the crime, and she stopped talking with Amber after that. She got a 30-day sentence. When she got out, her other sister was living at St. Vincent de Paul with her three children. St. Vinny’s was able to get her housing and a job, so Amber thought that might be a good place for her to get a fresh start. She moved in just two months after Bella moved to St. Vinny’s.

Bella and Amber have been together, more on than off, for six years now. Amber feels especially protective of Bella, having seen what can happen to women alone on the streets in San Diego. She has had to “rescue” Bella when she had a “manic episode” at one point. But today they are living in and out of the Alpha Project tent in Barrio Logan. When they’re out it is usually because they had an argument with someone in the tent, either a resident or staff. But they spend a few days out, cool off, and go back in. When they’re out they stay in their tent down the block among a small group who watches over each other. In fact several people take turns spending a night out of the tent so they can watch over Simba the dog, who was banned from the tent. Bella and Amber watch over Simba so his mother Melissa can have a quiet night in the tent herself. The cat Amber keeps on a leash, Handsome, walks around the camp, trying to steal the attention away from Simba. Amber complies by scratching him behind the ears, then hoists Handsome into the branches of a tree, and resumes packing up her belongings for the day.