10 GROUNDCOVER NEWS STORIES Reimagining Walden, a loathing A few years back during COVID I had the unfortunate luck of getting what I thought was a good job doing plumbing and electric as a contractor in sunny Brighton, Michigan. I found the job on Craigslist after I had an issue at Lowe's because I couldn't furnish I-9 documents such as a social security card or a birth certificate. What I did have was a voter registration card and an ID; documents were being stored at a buddy's place who had headed for the hills in order to avoid new-worldorder checkpoints. However, it meant zero pay for me because the smooth brain jerks at Lowe's wouldn't take my registration card — but in order to vote one must be a citizen unless one happens to be an immigrant in places like New York or California. This was lost on nice people at Lowe's. Not to be deterred by mere tax-cattle BS, I got off my high horse and found a job on Craigslist. I lost my home in Hartland, ended up in jail a few times and needed a better place to stay. In my humble Jeep Liberty, my legs had developed severe blood clots nearly concealing my ankles; I risked my swollen legs because of the upright position I was sleeping in. Back then my life hadn’t been totally violated by a system — between lame jobs and my family, I still owned a few things. I was living high on the hog with my five or six pairs of pants and my other personal items in storage. The first few weeks of the electrical legs were healing and I had money left over for minor luxuries like dinner, gas and smokes. About two weeks into my job, my boss asked me what I was paying for my hotel room. “$100-120,” I said, “not much, but most of what I earn every day.” “You can sleep on my couch for a lot ANTHONY SMITH Groundcover contributor and plumbing job were great. I busted ass, my employer was full of praise and I was able to afford a room at the Hartland Best Western. My legs healed and I had a decent continental breakfast every day — it was pretty good for a one-horse town. A Smooth Operator can slide into these places during the morning peak rush hours and eat for free just so long as one looks the part of the clean, wellrested travelers. I've done this countless times as well as sleeping in U-Hauls which are seldom locked. Being homeless outside of the big city is way different from the risks of the urban environment. Living deliberately in nature is cool, but what does one do when the Windigo* comes calling? Don't respond? If a familiar voice calls your name, say nothing in response, especially if no one should know where you are deep in the woods. It happened to me once. The Best Western was $100 a night and more on the weekend. It didn't matter to me — I had ankles again, my less than that, you just gotta buy your own food and do some dishes,” he offered. This sounded great because I was saving most of what I earned for Best Western. I didn't have many options during that very weird time. I thought at the time that it was an experience, an opportunity and I was very optimistic. The huge statue of Baphomet (a Satanic symbol of the occult) in his backyard should have been a red flag. The first week or two were okay, then slowly things started to get funny. He would say how great we were doing. I was taken out to a 12-acre parcel of land in Cahopka there. I set up a modest marijuana grow operation of a little bit more than 100 plants; he promised me free reign on the property to grow whatever I wanted. It was not to be, however, and the fruits of all of my hard work were later taken from me. It was after about a month or so of living there that I became acquainted with the neighbor across the street. He was an old Indian who told me to be careful because he had seen Scott (boss) cheat people many times. The old Indian was a character in his own right. He lived alone with ill-tempered dogs and drank constantly in his home, had only electricity, no running water or gas. He got his drinking water with scavenged garden hoses deployed across the neighborhood, and the water with which he occasionally bathed and flushed the toilet was gathered with an elaborate system that caught rainwater and funneled it into a food safe barrel with a spigot on it. The inside of his home was adorned with many skulls and an assortment of swords, knives, axes and spears, like some kind of trailer park witch doctor. I spent many nights there after work drinking whiskey by the fire out back. Accompanied by an army of bats above and his two ill-tempered dogs below, during these times, he would tell me stories about contacting dark spirits with his ouija board and hunting iguanas as a kid in the jungle, and oh, that time he accidentally got kicked out of the Marine Corps for stealing a bomb. He would always say, “Be sure and watch Scotty.” I did, and some stuff began to get funny. It wasn’t enough to jump ship, and given the situation at the time, I couldn’t jump ship anyway. TO BE CONTINUED… *The Windigo (or Wendigo), associated with winter, is a cannibalistic monster that preys on the weak and socially disconnected, and is found in some indigenous American tales. JUNE 27, 2025 SPANISH from page 4 her, which meant that it was difficult for her to explain her unique needs as a transgender woman. Abreu was still at SHINE in February. That month, he had an accident and broke his leg. The evening that he was released from the hospital back to SHINE, another program member attempted to rape him. Abreu said that he tried to communicate what was happening to shelter staff, but according to him and Andrés Meza, staff refused to call MPD and made no attempt to use the Language Line. Instead, as photos Abreu took of a staff member’s phone and shared with Street Sense show, staff Google translated instructions, telling Abreu: “We just moved him from his room, you can go back,” referring to the alleged assailant. “I called Andrés. He usually never answers me at night because it is not during his work hours,” Abreu said. “But by the grace of god, he answered me, and I told him to call the police, to call me the ambulance.” Street Sense obtained a copy of the DHS unusual incident report filed by SHINE, which aligns with Abreu’s account of the attempted rape. It notes, “Due to some language barriers [DA] was on the phone with a case manager from SMYLE and that case manager unbeknown to CHDC called MPD and reported a sexual assault occurred at the Shine facility.” While Jones Hackley could not speak to the specific incident, she said that Covenant House is cooperating with the police. Andrés Meza said that Covenant House did not offer any “supportive services”, such as legal help or therapy, after the incident. Moving forward, Jones Hackley said, Covenant House would “make sure we go back and retrain and re-communicate with our staff as well as our values when serving youth.” “We want all young people to feel welcome when they walk through our doors, and we follow all District laws,” she said. Following the incident, Abreu began to take steps to exit the SHINE program. He now lives in SMYAL-provided housing, which has its own challenges — he doesn’t get along with some of the other young people he lives with — but, he said, at least he’s able to express himself. Currently, he is focused on healing from his accident to feel more settled and in control of his life. But he underscored his belief that the city needs to improve language access in homelessness services so that everyone can be understood. “There are a lot of people who are just trying to live life, and find resources, and oftentimes they can’t find any help because of the language barrier,” he said. Graham Krewinghaus and Cody Slutzky contributed reporting and translation. Quotes from Kiara Meza, J, and Davyd Abreu were translated from Spanish. Courtesy of Street Sense / INSP PUZZLE SOLUTIONS
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