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For months, 5-year-old Tsukiko Jack’s playtime has been out in a homeless encampment.

“If he had another relative that he could be living with, in a better situation, that’s where he’d be,” Anthony Whigham, the boy’s father, told FOX40.

When FOX40 visited Thursday, the little boy lived with his father in Stockton’s Mormon Slough.

Twenty-four hours later, Tsukiko was taken by CPS.

“My own personal issues, my own personal anger is not important right now,” Whigham said. “I need to do whatever it takes to get my son back and that’s what I’m doing.”

A touched Stockton community poured their hearts and donations to the family after seeing a picture of Tsukiko living in squalor on social media earlier this week.

“They really came together and gave me a lot of help. I really appreciate that,” Whigham said.

Whigham also said a woman asked to watch over the boy, somehow the boy ended up with CPS.

“After an extensive interview and she has a son, that’s my son’s age, I thought it would be appropriate,” Whigham said.

Tsukiko is just one of many kids on the streets.

Sal Acevedo, who helps feed families in need with Stockton’s Gospel Center Rescue Mission, said many dads fear separation.

“That’s the challenge because most shelters will take maybe the mother and the children but they won’t take the father,” Azevedo said.

Without his son, Whigham is hurt and upset. Emotions aside, his goal now is to get his son back.

“Daddy loves you, son. No matter what anybody says you know daddy always love you,” Whigham said.

The Stockton father said he is working to get a home and plans to be in family court to get his son back.