Dave Shoop and his brother, Daryl, are identical twins.
“We’re exactly the same size, the same weight. People seem to get a kick out of it, which is something I enjoy,” says Dave.
Their mother loved dressing them alike, but when they got older, he says, “if my brother came out of his room and had on a black shirt and I had on a black shirt, one of us was going to change.”
While the brothers look alike, their personalities are different. Dave is in the Street Roots office for the interview because, he says, “My brother is a lot more reserved than I am. If somebody has to do the talking, then it’s going to be me.”
After growing up in Ohio, the brothers moved around the country.
“I’m a carpenter by trade,” Dave says. “We do all kinds of stuff, framing and siding. I’ve done more framing than anything.”
When the recession hit, new housing starts, along with framing jobs, fell by the wayside.
Most recently, the brothers were in the Seattle area running a small handyman business. They started out with a few jobs, and with word of mouth, their workload grew along with their reputation for good workmanship.
“You want to see some pictures?” Dave holds out his cellphone and swipes through photos of attractive landscaping jobs, a rebuilt greenhouse, a house addition and an extensive retaining wall project with several levels of stonework. The brothers also do odd jobs like spraying weeds and pressure washing. Dave says, “There’s a photo of my brother again. I always try to get him in the picture.”
The resourceful brothers have found ways to complete handyman jobs while homeless.
“When you’re traveling from a campground or homeless encampment, you get your nail bags and get on the bus. You can still work,” Dave says.
After seven years living near Seattle, the brothers moved to Portland two months ago.
Dave explains: “Every holiday season we would go broke because nobody wants their walls ripped out at Thanksgiving or Christmas. I couldn’t get out of the campground, paid upwards of $600 per month. We realized that’s as far as we were going to get there. Looking at rent on Craigslist in Portland, we’ve got a lot better chance of getting a place here.”
Dave says, “Now we’re camped out. We’re on the street.”
The brothers sell Street Roots wherever it looks promising for sales.
“Street Roots gives me a way to make money,” Dave says, “and I can see things have the potential to get better in the future. It means quite a bit.”
In the meantime, the brothers give each other pep talks.
“Complaining has always been out of the deal,” Dave says. “We always try to look on the bright side. If you see the other guy getting aggravated, you remind him of rougher times: ‘At least we’re not on the Jackson Highway or still in Vegas.’ There are a lot of examples,” he says, laughing.
For future jobs, the brothers have building equipment, such as ladders, levels, trowels, drills and an electric saw, stored in Washington. They hope their next steps are to get a similar handyman business going here and to move into a permanent place.