Roger “Coffee” Dewulf, 49, stands near tents that line railroad tracks behind East 13th Street. Dewulf, who is homeless, said he was injured while operating heavy machinery and faces numerous medical expenses.Gregory Moses takes a stance in the middle of a railroad track close to what was once known as Onion Bottom near downtown Chattanooga.
“I’m the Alaska fisherman, and I speak seven languages,” he says. “I’m not homeless.”
But he is.
He lives in a tent along the tracks. And he’s not alone. There are more than a dozen tents along the stretch of rail line.
“Track rats. That’s what we are,” said Robert Dewulf, another of the 30 to 40 homeless people who live in tents along crisscrossing railroad tracks off 11th Street and near the Chattanooga Community Kitchen, where free meals are available.