MARYSVILLE — Most days, Michael Medaris is lucky if he has a dollar or two in his pocket when he wakes up so he can buy himself a couple of hot dogs and a beer.
The beer doesn’t warm him, and it’s certainly no match for the cold, wind and rain or snow that envelope his tent each night. But it gets him on his feet and launches him into his day of standing on a freeway offramp holding a sign asking for money — even a penny.
"Some folks are nice," Medaris said. "You get other motorists that holler at you, ‘Get a job!’ and all that, but they don’t understand the situation you’re in," said the 35-year-old ship painter who said he has been homeless for about five years. He’s been in Marysville about four months.
Medaris and a friend, Lanny Ore, 47, are typical of the people targeted by law enforcement agencies that recently have stepped up efforts to get transients off the I-5 ramps and overpasses in the Marysville area.
"It’s a public safety issue with these folks panhandling on the freeway," said Capt. Bob Lenz, Washington State Patrol’s district commander in Marysville.
William Sherman, 52, of Marysville died of head injuries Oct. 23 after he stepped in front of a van while panhandling at I-5 and Fourth Street.
The State Patrol, Marysville police and the Tulalip Tribes together are trying to manage the transients, not only the ones who panhandle on the offramps but those who camp along the freeway.
"They’re not using good judgment and paying attention to the traffic control devices or motorists’ speed," Lenz said. "Many of them are intoxicated. When you put intoxicated people in those situations, the danger is great."
The biggest panhandling problems along I-5 are at the Fourth, 88th and 172nd street interchanges, he said.
"There’s no crime in being homeless," Tulalip Tribal Police Chief Jay Goss said. But handing money over on the street isn’t a good way to help.
The public should support missions and homeless shelters, which would get transients off the streets, he said. Money given to such agencies is spent on counseling, food, shelter, clothing, education and jobs.
"In some cases, they’re handing money to felons and people wanted in other states," Goss said of those who give money to panhandlers. "Some have gotten themselves trapped in a life of alcoholism."
Tribal police cleaned up several camps this year in the areas of 27th Avenue NE and west of Quil Ceda Village, Goss said
Police have responded to fights at the camps, and last summer one man stabbed another in a camp. Last week, a transient sitting under the overpass at Fourth Street threw a bottle at a woman walking past and hit her in the head, Goss said.
"We’ve had three deaths from people who sit or stand on the ramps and are homeless who should have had a little bit of life ahead of them," he said.
Meanwhile, Marysville police will be sending a letter to businesses that sell alcohol near the freeway, Chief Bob Carden said. They’re asking merchants to be alert and not sell alcohol to those who are intoxicated, and asking them to stop selling fortified beverages to transients.
K.S. Kim and his wife, Hye Jeong Kim, who operate the 88th Street Shell-FoodMart, said they are concerned because transients need shelter and a place to go. Some buy food and drinks at their store and use the restroom. They’re happy with those who clean up after themselves, but some don’t.
"If they’re drunk, I don’t sell to them," K.S. Kim said. "And they don’t drink beer on my property."
Medaris says he has a severe alcohol problem and gets by on the generosity of passing drivers. He has no identification, which he said was stolen when he was arrested for public intoxication in Louisiana and the arresting officer refused to let him take his backpack with him.
When he got out of jail 30 days later, the backpack was gone, he said. Rain disintegrated his birth certificate long ago, and without that to get a new identification card, he can’t get work, he said.
"Society has done everything they can do," he said. "It’s nobody’s problem but the individual’s. They’ve gotta be willing to fix it."
Ore, a carpenter, has been homeless about five months. He has identification, but no job.
"I’m new at this," he said. "Not all homeless people are bad. We’re just trying to get by. We don’t steal. We don’t commit no crime. I’d honestly rather work than fly a sign."
Reporter Cathy Logg: 425-339-3437 or logg@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
