Alvin “Tramp” King has been camping for 15 years “up and down the cricks,” he says, and he readily admits he’s homeless by choice.
“I prefer it this way. I have no obligations except to take care of myself and my friends. I don’t like four walls.”
He also admits to being an ex-con, and though he won’t say what he did, he owns up to it. “It was one of my choices. I ain’t gonna blame no one else. But once you’re branded, you’re branded for life.”
He can’t get a job, because he has a heart condition and seizures, so no one will hire him, he says. Yes, he drinks, “but I’m not a stupid drunk. I don’t get violent. Some of those (drunks) piss me off.”
He picks through trash bins to get enough money to buy cigarettes. “I don’t steal," he says, "but I’ll dive in a Dumpster in a heartbeat.”