She has been living on the streets since August, she said, but in that time she has quickly come to know the injustices of homelessness.
“It hasn’t been that long, but it feels like it’s been forever,’’ said King.
King ended up at Occupy Boston, she said, because she feels safer there than in a shelter: no curfews, no fight for beds. Still, she said, many people in the Occupy Boston movement do not understand the challenges she and other homeless people face.
When the police approached Monday night, she crossed the street to watch from a distance; she said she cannot afford to be arrested, because it could jeopardize her ability to get a job or a spot in a shelter.
“A lot of people here are just playing house,’’ King said. “They have a home to go to or a dorm to go to or a dad or a mom to bail them out if they get in trouble.’’
When Bob Funke, 59, was 12 years old, he marched with his neighbors for civil rights. They were Jewish, he recalled, and explained to him the terrible things that could occur when people are afraid to do what is right.
Occupy Boston, he said, awakens those same activist feelings inside him.
Funke spent 13 years on and off in the military, and he served in Vietnam.
Now, he is unemployed. He and other members of Veterans for Peace have been at Occupy Boston since the first day, he said.
What he wants is a job, for the wealthiest Americans to pay for higher taxes, and an end to American-funded wars overseas.
Now, his son, who lives in Lincoln, Neb., , has also joined the Occupy movement.
“He called and said, ‘Dad, I’m involved with this thing now!’ ’’ Funke said. “It’s really got momentum.’’
Next to Funke was Lisa Doherty, 56, munching on a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich while waving at motorists honking their approval.
Doherty has spent her whole life in Charlestown; since losing her job three years ago, she has moved in with relatives who live nearby.
