Ken Kolker’s camera doesn’t open on a shelter or a warming center, but on a snow-packed trail on Grand Rapids’ West Side where a person could disappear a few steps off the road and the city would keep moving like nothing happened.
Kolker, reporting for WOOD TV8’s Target 8, describes the tent as small – maybe four feet by six – tucked up against a fence and covered in snow, the kind of setup that blends into winter so well you could walk past it and never know someone is trying to survive inside.
The detail that sticks is how ordinary the hiding place sounds, because it isn’t deep woods or some far-off campsite; it’s right there near Wealthy Street SW, just angled out of sight, like somebody learned the hard way that visibility can be as dangerous as the cold…