Meanwhile, illegals are camped out in subsidized housing, getting welfare and working under the table.

Tent people: Homeless couple carries on while hunting for both work and housing
Published: Sunday, October 23, 2011, 7:07 AM
By Roy Hoffman, Press-Register Press-Register


Charles Stephens pets one of his three dogs at his camp in the woods in midtown Mobile Friday, Oct. 21, 2011. Stephens, who is a U.S. Navy veteran, and his common-law wife Vonna have been living in the woods since February after he lost his job. (Press-Register, Bill Starling) COAST/LOCAL, METRO

Homeless Vet gallery (6 photos)

MOBILE, Alabama -- Hidden in a patch of woods near the urban sprawl of midtown Mobile, a homeless couple has been living for the last 10 months.

"We’re tent people," says Charles Stephens, 48, a U.S. Navy veteran who in February lost his job at a printing company, and has struggled since to find another.

"You’d be surprised at how many people there are like us," he says. "We don’t want trouble. We don’t steal."

He looks at his common-law wife, Vonna Stephens, 53, warming herself by the fire, the couple’s three rat terriers sprawled at her sock feet.

"We’re just a family trying to survive."

Stephens walks by a blanket hung over a wire. Behind it are jugs filled with water. Plastic wreaths and flowers decorate the campsite.

He got them, he says, "Dumpster diving" — digging into waste bins for discarded treasures.

"We put them up to make the place look a little better," he says.

With the aid of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Stephens is hoping to secure lodging soon. He praises the help of Kelly Estle, a social worker who specializes in homeless cases locally with the VA.

In the meantime, they make do.

You have to make a choice between paying rent and being homeless
Both hailing from Dallas, the two became a couple 13 years ago. Vonna says that she imagined them in a picturesque little house by the beach one day.

After a stint in the Navy from 1980 to 1984, Charles went into printing and bookbinding. Vonna worked for technology companies.

He had two sons from a previous life; she had no children.

"Our dogs are our babies," she says, adding that loyalty to their terriers — Clyde, Dylan and Tater — keeps them from going to a homeless shelter.

"We’d rather be together and stay together," says Stephens.

They moved to Mobile for Stephens’ job. Then came the pink slip.

"When you live week to week," he says, "you have to make a choice."

Option 1, he says: "Pay rent and be homeless the following week."

Option 2: "Take your last check and get camping gear."



Tent people: Homeless in Mobile, Alabama

VIDEO AT:
http://blog.al.com/live/2011/10/tent_pe ... le_ca.html
Hidden in a patch of woods near urban sprawl in midtown Mobile, a homeless couple has been living for the last 10 months. "You’d be surprised at how many people there are like us," says Charles Stephens, 48, a U.S. Navy veteran who lost his job last February and has struggled to find employment since. "We don’t want trouble," says Stephens. "We don’t steal." He looks at his common-law wife, Vonna, 53, warming herself by the fire with their three rat terriers sprawled at her sock feet. "We’re just a family trying to survive." Stephens walks by a blanket hung over a wire. Behind it are jugs filled with water. Plastic decorations — wreaths and flowers — decorate a clothesline. "We’re tent people," he says. With winter coming on, the couple, with assistance from the V.A., are hoping to move to a real home, soon. In the meantime, says Stephens, they do the best they can.
Watch video


In a scrubby, overgrown site shown them by a homeless friend, they made a clearing, pitched their tent and settled in.

They found a blue tarpaulin and stretched it between trees to ward off summer sun; got another tarp to stretch over a second tent to ward off heavy rains.

Walking everywhere, they found kindly folks at a nearby service station who allowed them to fetch water and use the bathroom.

One day, says Stephens, a woman passed by and saw him walking along the road and asked him if he needed assistance. When he explained his plight, she bought him a bicycle.

He now rides a push-pedal with a basket on front and American flag on back.

He goes to the store as needed, stretching the $367 a month in food stamps mailed to him via a friend’s address.

Although he is limited in how far he can travel to look for work, he has managed to find odd jobs here and there for extra cash, he says.

"I can drive a forklift. I can do warehouse work. I’ll do anything," he says.

She is far more restricted, she says, with back ailments and hypertension.

Being a tent person, she says, is harder for her.

"It’s about hygiene," she says.

"When we came here," she says, "it was scary. We didn’t know what to expect."

But now, in the evenings, after making dinner on a cooker given to them by the VA, they crawl into their tent, play card games or Monopoly, and she reads novels.

In the morning, she says, she prays, beginning with the 23rd Psalm and the Lord’s Prayer, then does her own meditations.

When she hears the bells tolling from area churches, the sound gladdens her heart, she says.

"I have great faith in the Lord," she says, trying not to cry. "He’s carried us through a lot."

They have not even seen the beach since moving here, she says.

'In this economy you could lose everything'

Charles Stephens believes that many people on the outside think of the homeless as "a crack head or a drunk that sleeps on the street."

"In this economy," he says, nobody is safe from the couple’s fate.

"You could lose everything," he says, "just like that!"

They are cautiously optimistic about a move into real housing in the near future.

Stephens has been to Pensacola with VA officials to fill out paperwork.

But there is one hitch.

Although the couple both profess a common-law marriage, that status is not honored by the state of Florida, he says, and marriage is a requisite for housing aid.

So he proposed.

This week, to their private place in the woods, they have invited a pastor.

Beneath the trees, in their surround of tents and flowers and dogs, they plan to take the vows of husband and wife. Â