Different Roads Can Lead To The Same Abandoned Doorways

The other day, I pedaled my bicycle by my old condo on Key West’s Fleming Street, a doorway where I slept every night on flattened cardboard boxes during the winter and spring of 2001.

I stopped off at Faustos just up and across Fleming, and went in and ordered a curried chicken salad sandwich on rye bread at the deli. A wonderful, inexpensive, filling meal, if you add all the trimmings – lettuce, tomato, onions.

From there, I pedaled up Fleming to the County Library to eat my lunch in the nice little side park, where just a few days after 9/11 I had sat on the very same bench one afternoon after leaving the library because I was dozing off in there, which was against the rules and the deputy sheriff on station would give you a really hard time. So, sitting on the bench in the side park that day shortly after 9/11, I dozed off. Probably not for very long.

I awoke, there was the deputy on station, standing over me. He said I could not sleep on the bench. I said I knew that, and told him why I had come to the bench from inside the library. He repeated that it was illegal for me to sleep on the bench. I said I knew that, but I couldn’t help it.

Actually, I had passed out. I passed out daily. Sometimes two or three times. The deputy asked if I had a medical problem? No, I had a God problem. God made me pass out in the oddest places, churches, city commission meetings, and when I woke up, there was something in front of me God wanted me to see. In this case, the deputy.

The deputy did not seem to take that well. He asked where I lived? I said I had no address. He whipped out his ticket pad and said he was giving me a no-trespass warning. “At Large,” he said he wrote down for my residence. He looked at my Alabama driver’s license, wrote down my name. Then, he ushered me out of the pocket park.

I could not resist asking if he didn’t have anything better to be doing, like criminals to catch and put in jail? He didn’t seem to like hearing that, either. He said I was banned from the library. I said, what? What did I do to get banned from the library? He left and went into the library and came back out with Tom Hambright, the County Historian, who agreed with the deputy, I was banned from the library. For what? I use the library every day! Everyone in there knows me! I was banned, they both said.

Then, the deputy ordered me off the sidewalk. I said it was a public sidewalk, he could not order me off of it. He pulled out his 2-way and called for back up. I kid you not. I asked why he did that? He had the pistol in his holster, it looked like a Glock. I was posing no threat to him. He kept talking to the dispatcher about sending backup. Hambright stood by.

I turned and got onto my bicycle and pedaled off down the sidewalk until I reached a drive I could go down onto Fleming Street. Somehow, I escaped.

Just the night before, two KWPD officers had rousted me out of my regular doorway condo next to the bookstore. I had been gone for several months, it was my first night back. I asked the two officers what had changed since I was sleeping every night in that doorway since the past April? They said they could not allow me to sleep in the business’ doorway. I had to move on, or they would arrest me and take me to jail. I said I wondered if God was going to have me sue the city about that? The officers seemed not pleased to hear that. They seemed on the verge of cuffing me. I said, no problem, I was moving on. I picked up my backpack and carried it over to my bicycle, locked to a light pole, and strapped the backpack onto the rear platform. The officers got into their patrol car and left.

Across the street, an old black man was sleeping on the sidewalk, against a building. He slept there every night. The officers had said nothing to him. So, I went across the street and set up a few feet from him, and spent the night there.

A little while after the deputy at the library called in for backup, a fellow I only had just met the night before, on hearing what had happened at the library and the night before at the Fleming doorway, said I could live with him and his son, sleep on cushions on their living room floor. He had internet access and a computer I could use to work online.

When he had met me the night before, he was interested in my saying a couple of nights before 9/11, I was asked in my sleep if I would make a prayer for a Divine Intervention for all of humanity? Which, on waking up, I did. He wanted to know what I thought America should do? I said, not counterattack. It will be a disaster for America.

He was astonished to learn that I not only knew of the Sufi poet Rumi (Sufis are the mystical branch of Islam), and could recite some of his poems, I also knew of Rumi’s teacher, Shams. After we had talked a while, he said I was a lot like what he had understood Shams was like. Shams was totally irreverent, irascible, beyond comprehension, totally unpredictable.

It was some time before I connected the dots between 9/11 and what I experienced the first night I was back in Key West in that Fleming Street doorway, and then the next day at the library three blocks further up Fleming Street. Unable to respond to the foreign perpetrators of 9/11, city and county law enforcement made homeless people the foreign terrorists’ proxy.

For a fact, that deputy at the library was terrified of me. He was shaking all over, muttering to himself, and all I did was tell him God made me pass out, and didn’t he have something better to do than be bothering me?

That deputy and the two city police officers had no clue, nor at the time did I have a clue, that when they picked on me, that was the seed that eventually launched me into Key West politics. Two years later, this ex-lawyer with two law degrees, J.D. and LLM in Taxation, this ex-published author, this ex-trust fund baby, this angel-conscripted mystic, ran for mayor the first time, while living in Florida Keys Outreach Coalition shelters. The rest, as they say, is history.

Hello, Sloan

I hope you don’t mind if I pick your brain a little. I have recently been reading your articles , which I’ve enjoyed very much, and I get the feeling that you are a straight shooter and have a great insight about the homeless situation in Key West.

I will give you a brief background of where I am coming from and try not to take up much of your time. I am 50 years old and currently reside in Jacksonville . I am currently unemployed and have no money. For someone that wants to live in Key West, that is certainly not an ideal situation. I am an unskilled worker and could go to NC and make an OK living. From my point of view, I would be living somewhere I hate and it would seem I would just be putting in time till I die. So, I asked myself if I would rather be homeless in the Keys or take the latter. I keep choosing the Keys. I have never been homeless but am not under any illusion of what that can be like.

I have read your articles about KOTS and the outreach programs. Getting to the point. I can get a part time job working 3rd shift but not make enough for sustainable shelter. I have read where up to 40 percent of the homeless have some kind of employment. How do they do that? Do they stay and shower at the shelters? I look at craigslist ads for rooms and such but am always leery of those. Do you know of the good and bad of those ads? I will also add that I am a male and can handle myself but I consider myself passive. Is being homeless present a sense of constant danger?

I don’t want or need much. To me, less is more.

Thank you for your time and for any insights you might provide.

Mark

–

Balance

Me:

Hi, Mark – you are free to pick my brain.

If you have no money, I imagine Key West will be easier on you in the cooler months, than Jacksonville or North Carolina.

You can spend nights, for free, at KOTS on Stock Island, the next island up US 1 from Key West, if you get there before KOTS fills up each evening. Some KOTS users work, some do not. But if you are working 3rd shift, KOTS will not work for you, because it is a place to shower and sleep at night. Sleeping outside at night is prone to involve being hunted at night and rousted and threatened with jail by KW police. Right now, sleeping outside during the day on beaches and in parks is still allowed, but that might not continue. There are outdoor cold showers at Smathers Beach and Higgs Beach, which you are not supposed to use for bathing, but lots of people use them to rinse off, and some people use them for bathing. There are public toilets at both beaches, adjacent to the showers. There are showers and toilets under the Martin Luther King Center public swimming pool on Thomas Street in Bahama Village. The pool topside is Olympic size, nice, with wonderful ocean view. Some daytime hours there are restricted to special classes, other hours open to the public. Day time only. A soup kitchen on Flagler Ave. serves a full meal every day at 4 p.m. There are other places that serve a meal to homeless people once a week, maybe more often. Churches and the Salvation Army store often give clothing, blankets, etc. to homeless people, or the SA sells same really cheap.

Am not familiar with Craig’s list offerings. Seeing something for rent in person can be very different, as you probably know, from seeing it described online. If your intent is to come down here and get work and earn enough to perhaps share a room in a home with other people, and if you do not drink or use other narcotics, your best bet might be to apply for residence in Florida Keys Outreach Coalition’s entry level shelter on Patterson Avenue, not far from the VFW outpost on North Roosevelt Blvd. If you live by their rules, which require clean urine and helping keep the shelter clean and some cooking, and getting paying work, you might be able to stay in that program 6 months, perhaps longer, but I think there might be a problem with working nights, as they have a curfew, 10 p.m., as I recall. You also will have to attend recovery sessions modeled after the 12 Steps. I think FKOC is offering that in house now.

You write like an educated person, and if you are interested in different things, KW has much to offer. Museums which don’t cost anything. A good branch library. Lots of passing sights on Duval Street and, during evening, at Mallory Pier, where people gather to watch the sunset and watch and/or be wooed by street performers and musicians and sidewalk artists and food vendors. The population is multi-national, lots of residents are Cuban descent, lots are African descent, lots are English and Pirate descent. British, West and especially East Europeans, Asians. A few, ahem, rednecks. Lots of Conchs – natives, mostly viewed as white, but there are plenty of black Conchs, too. There is a VA facility for Veteran’s needing services, and a VFW and a Moose Lodge, and two Elk Lodges. You will not be able to do well panhandling, as that is seriously restricted, and unless you are a musician or artist and have a sidewalk business permit, you cannot ply those crafts in Key West without being confronted by the police. You very definitely will need a bicycle to get around, preferably with baskets for hauling stuff.

Much of the above you may have read in some of my older posts, some of it not.

As I have written quite a few times, the city mayor right now is trying to build a big homeless shelter on Stock Island, and if he gets it built, which is not for sure, it won’t surprise me if an attempt is made to try to force homeless people to stay in it all the time, until they agree to leave the area on a one-way Greyhound ticket, or they get work and can get into some kind of subsidized recovery program, such as FKOC, or one of the other KW subsidized recovery or disabled shelter programs, or the Key West Housing Authority, where you can stay for a portion of what you earn – based on need and ability to pay, but a pretty long waiting list to get into their housing. If you come down here and have some basic work skills, you might find a place where a room is swapped for rent, or part of the rent, in exchange for work. If you just want to come down here and be lazy, that, too, is possible at this time, thanks to KOTS.

Maybe more later.

Later

A few more thoughts …

You do not say if you have a vehicle for transporting yourself down here. If so, you probably can leave it parked on streets not limited to residential parking only, and keep your belongings in it. If you have no vehicle, you should travel very light, as hauling stuff around is no fun, and hiding it somewhere is tantamount to it not being there when you come back for it. There are no lockers at KOTS for storing belongings. There are storage bins, which can be rented fairly inexpensively, perhaps $40 a month, on Stock Island is the only place I have heard.

Yes, being homeless can be filled with threatening situations, especially at night, if you are outside, from police, other homeless people, and sick mainstream people who like to hunt homeless people and harass or hurt them, or sometimes kill them. All of that is part of being homeless down here, where the local mainstream population is turning more and more against homeless people. The city creed, We Are All Members of One Human Family, is not viewed by many down here as including homeless people.

Your belongings will not be safe at KOTS, either. Never leave them unattended. Sleep with them beside you, tied to you is best. Keep your wallet in a pocket nobody can get into without waking you up. Be careful to avoid homeless people with open sores, which tend to be MRSA infections and are contagious by physical contact. MRSA is the terror of all homeless people down here. It nearly killed me a few times in 2003-2004. Only with angel help did I get over it, medicine was not able to rid me of it. All cuts, scrapes, scratches should be washed ASAP with soap and water, or splashed with table vinegar or hydrogen peroxide. You do not want to contract MRSA, ever. It’s rampant in the mainstream population, too, but you very seldom hear about it from the newspapers, and never from the Chamber of Commerce or the Tourist Development Council, nor from the city and county governments – bad for tourism. The water down here is alive with MRSA, as any local diver will attest.

Mark:

Wow! What a thorough and helpful response. You are too kind.

I was just going to respond that I do have a car and thank you for addressing that.

Sorry to hear about your MRSA infections. I read your articles on that and it sounds horrible.

Since I have your ear, I will tell you about my attraction to the Keys. I have visited for a week before and it was just like it had been described to me. Live and let live. No rat race and I might get a different perspective going to the meetings you attend but it didn’t seem like a “look what I got” kind of place. When I walked Duvall street, it was true that I was walking slower by the end. What’s the rush. I never wore a watch in my life and I think most time related things are restrictive. I am the last one to judge anyone but it makes me laugh when I hear my buddy talk about his new 600 dollar coffee pot. I have a hard time thinking he enjoys his coffee more than I enjoy mine. lol. I really think 80 percent of jobs are busy work. Just done so someone can buy something they don’t need from another schmuck doing the same thing. But I digress. Each their own. Years ago, my buddy and I were going to publish a project and the lady doing it told us about her time in the Keys. She was fresh out of school and her job was to keep Mel Fisher out of trouble. She said if you could work 3 days to live 7, you were a success. I like that attitude but times change I guess.

Thanks for the insight on the shelters. Fortunately I don’t have any addictions. I almost feel like I am destined to work, help, or maybe just be with the homeless. If there is an empathy gene, I have it. I say you can tell a lot about a person with how they treat and think of the homeless. We are taught early on that the guy with a sign is a bum, loser, drunk, no good whatever instead of just being a guy with a sign. I might be wrong but I see different types of homelessness. Mental illness/addictions, dramatic event, or some people just don’t want to play by the rules of society. They don’t fit in. For the mayor or whomever to think they are somehow superior to a homeless citizen because their wallet is bigger really bothers me. Money never has been character.

Last question and I’ll let you go. Is there a plasma donation center on the island? I know they don’t liking taking people that are homeless but I figure there is a way around that.

Thanks again for the reply. You represent the Keys well.

Me:

Hi again, Mark –

Yes, they are always actively seeking blood donations down here, but I don’t know if they pay for donations, as far as I know, they don’t pay.

You could try sleeping in your car, keep changing locations and the police might not catch on. If they do catch on, they will start looking for your car at night to tell you you can’t be “camping” in it and to move on.

If you get a bicycle, you will need a good lock for it, and front and rear lights for night, about $100 fine for riding a bike at night without lights. Thorn guard tubes also advised; getting a flat in some remote place is a drag, unless you have a tube patch kit, bike tools and an air pump. $50 probably will get you a good used bike, figure that again, or a little more, for the tubes, lights, lock.

You are right about different kinds of homeless people. Sadly, the live and let live is not dominant down here, if you are homeless; and living in Key West has become a rat race for many people. I hear stories of people barely able to survive on two jobs, and of people even having three jobs. I hear of people sharing rooms different times of day with other people, timed around their work shifts. Rents very high down here.

But, if you have no demons driving you to be like everyone else, if you are okay having very little and roughing it, you might really like Key West, at least for a while. Some homeless people you will find interesting to get to know, some you will not care to spend time around. Car/van homeless people tend to be interesting.

If you stay clean, don’t smell bad, twice in the past two days I went into public places and was hit by the strong stench of old urine, the Senior Center outside hallway yesterday, the County Library today. You want to avoid being like that, and if you look okay, don’t cause trouble, you should get by okay. Hell, what do I know? You might end up running for mayor! As the renaissance candidate!

Ciaosky

Sloan

Back when I was homeless in Key West, Jimmy Weekley was the only elected city official who openly maintained that homeless people were part of Key West’s One Human Family. As far as I know, Jimmy still feels that way.

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