Otherwise Homeless

Homes on WheelsLouie lives behind a woodpile in the industrial area next to the shelter.He is fresh out of prison after serving a five-year sentence for felony robbery, and the woodpile is the only place he feels safe.When it's really cold, Louie sleeps in his small car, a Toyota Celica packed with possessions and smelling of rot.Louie is tall-6'2"-and the car is uncomfortable for him so he rarely uses it as sleeping quarters.Occasionally, shelter staff coax him indoors with the promise of a cot in the corner, where Louie feels safer than he does in the middle of the floor.Although his given name is Luis and he is Puerto Rican, he speaks no Spanish and everyone calls him Louie, Crazy Louie, or Louie the Lip.Tall, skinny, and mostly balding, Louie ties his hair into a little pony tail at the base of his neck.When things are going well, he is clean shaven and wears jeans and a button-down Hawaiian shirt or a T-shirt.When things are not going well, he is unkempt, unshaven, and wears a multi-colored joker's hat, complete with jingle bells on the ends.When things are really bad, Louie carries a hatchet, which he ordinarily hides in his car for protection.The hatchet is meant to warn people that Louie is not easy prey.He also uses it to even the score if more than one person tries to go after him.In particular, Louie worries about being "rat packed" by a group of Mexicans and Central Americans with whom he sometimes conflicts.As he says, "I can deal with the bean, it's the burrito I can't handle.""I am no stranger to Santa Barbara," Louie told me."I was one of the tree people in the 80s."In those days, there was no homeless shelter, so people congregated around one of the local landmarks, the Moreton Bay Fig Tree."I met a lot of people, did a lot of stupid things.It was more adventurous then.I jumped a train once to go pick peyote in Texas.I picked in March though and it was colder than shit through Texas.You could make friends at the Fig Tree though.It's the same as

Homelessness and Social Issues

• An Analysis of Safe Parking Programs

  Open Access•Leslie R Lewis, Mirle Rabinowitz Bussell et al.•Housing Policy Debate•2025

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