From his vantage point as the leader of a homeless encampment in Seattle, Andrew Constantino is “witnessing collapse through the rubble that has already fallen.” He has a front-row seat in the “shadow underworld” which is the inevitable companion to the “golden shining empire” we have built with fossil fuels and mechanization.

Andrew has been homeless himself, but now he works to provide shelter to the homeless. As the Site Coordinator for a “tiny-house village” in Seattle, Andrew acts as an organizer, a counselor, and, when there are disputes, a judge. He has learned that human beings of all classes and conditions have conflicts within themselves, which must be reconciled if we are to find successful ways of living together.

He has discovered an admirable resilience in the lives of homeless people. Indeed, he says, when collapse comes, “these are the people most prepared to survive, because they know how to survive with nothing.”