The boy’s journey from an encampment littered with rat droppings and urine bottles to a classroom began in October 2025, when Moreland and her team first visited the tent where he was alone. His mother was struggling with fentanyl addiction and being sexually exploited. His father refused offers of housing, food, and services.

Neighbors had called the Seattle Police Department and Child Protective Services repeatedly. Each time, authorities determined the boy was not in imminent danger.

“Everybody kept saying the same thing: He is OK. He is safe,” Moreland said. “We continued to show up at that tent, knowing that that was not the case.”

In December 2025, KIRO Newsradio reported on the boy’s situation, drawing widespread public attention to the case. Moreland was recorded offering the family immediate shelter — a private room available that day. The father turned her down.

“Not from you,” he told her.

But neighbors kept watching. Moreland’s team kept showing up. And in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2026, a Seattle police officer called Moreland to say the mother and boy were ready to accept help.

The mother entered care for active fentanyl addiction. The More We Love connected her with recovery services and arranged behavioral health treatment for the boy through Seattle Children’s Hospital. Moreland said the organization partnered with another mission for long-term housing, but that agency was unable to handle the boy’s behavioral challenges and released the family back to the streets.

“We said, not a chance,” Moreland said. “Our case managers have dug in day after day, helping this little man get through this.”

The mother remains in recovery, Moreland said, calling it “a big deal” while acknowledging the difficulty of learning to parent while breaking a generational cycle of trauma and addiction.

“She has been in the cycle predominantly her whole life,” Moreland said. “We really have to work on her traumas as well.”

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The More We Love recently received a $500,000 matching donation from an anonymous donor to fund rescue efforts for women and children in encampments. Every dollar donated to the organization through its website, themorewelove.org, will be matched, Moreland said.