Lauren is 45 and gets into any car that stops for $20. A man she knew raped her and forced liquor down her throat, and she was back in a stranger's car soon after. She grew up spoiled in a nice town. Now she smokes crack in Camden and says she's saving marriages.
She's from Pitman, New Jersey. A nice little town. Oldest of six kids. "I had a very good life. I was kind of spoiled."
Two years ago her mom kicked her out over drugs. "I brought that all on myself." She has kids. She says she wants to get home and put things back together.
In the video below she explains her day like it's a shift at work.
What does she use? "Dope and hard." Fentanyl and crack. She smokes it.
How does she pay for it? "$20 every car. Six, seven cars a day."
Is there any car she won't get into? "No, sir. It doesn't matter."
Do men try to lowball her? "All the time." Some offer $5.
What's the worst thing that's happened? A man pulled a gun and took the money back. And then: "I've been raped. It wasn't that long ago."
It was a guy she knew. He was picking up the girls he knew on purpose, because he blamed them for his relapse. "Stick a bottle of liquor in your mouth. Drink the liquor right now."
How soon did she get into another car? "Not that long."
Her birthday was October 10th. She spent it sick in bed.
Does she have a boyfriend? "Can't really have a boyfriend out here. Not when the first thing you're doing is cheating on somebody."
Then she explains her philosophy, completely serious. The married men who pick her up go home feeling guilty. "Maybe you're going to be nice to your wife. Maybe you're nice to your girlfriend." She calls it "kind of like a service." And she's proud of the economy: "We add to a lot of revenue and commerce out here."
Then she does a little dance for the camera. She calls it the Camden bop.
At the very end she drops the act. "I really am tired and I really wish I could go home and do stuff with my family."
Some people will laugh at the dance. Others will notice she got back in a car right after she was raped.
A 45-year-old mom from a nice town, smoking crack in Camden, telling the camera she's good for marriages.
Is Lauren delusional, or is this just what you have to tell yourself to survive out there?
Julia has been raped more times than she can count. The tranq knocks her out and she wakes up not knowing what was done to her. A man shoved her head into his car seat, she jumped out while it was moving. Cops curb-stomped her on day one. She used to be a hairstylist.
She's from North Jersey. Her mom is from Ukraine. She had her own apartment and five cats. She did hair, danced, put on fire-spinning shows at music festivals.
Then a maintenance man illegally evicted them. Unscrewed the door hinges, let the cats out, screwed the door shut and threw their stuff outside. She's been on the street since October.
Her very first day in Kensington, police pulled her girlfriend out of a U-Haul. When Julia wouldn't get out, an officer pulled a gun on her. "I got thrown on the ground, curb stomped." No shoes, in shorts, in the cold.
In the video below she tells you what being a woman out there really means.
Did she dance at strip clubs? "I did. My family knows too." She misses the pole.
What does she want other girls to know? There are men who watch you for months, learn everything about you, then act like it's their first time.
What happened to her? A man offered her a job. She got in. "They shove my head down into the seat. 'Don't move.'" She waited for the car to slow down at a turn and jumped. "I f*cked myself up, but it probably would have been better than that."
Anything else? "I've been held at gunpoint. I've been raped more times than I can count."
Why? The tranq. "It knocks you out. You don't really know what's going on."
And her body? "It's ruining my skin. I have burns all over me now."
She's so thin she has to roll up her jeans. She forgets to eat until she sees people walking to the free meals.
Her mom can't even go back to her own house in Ukraine. That part is under Russia now. So Julia prays for them too. And for everyone sleeping outside next to her.
Some people will say she chose the drugs and everything that came with them. Others will say nobody chooses waking up not knowing what was done to them.
A hairstylist who used to spin fire on stage now jumps out of moving cars to stay alive.
Does Julia make it back to the life she had, or does Kensington keep her?