Man Evicted From Van

Thelmon Green, the cigar-chomping old man who for the past seven years has lived happily in a Chevrolet van, is being ordered to move by the Marion County Health Department.

Sheryl Crum, of the department's Housing Division, visited Green's digs Thursday and pronounced the arrangement "not a healthy place to live."
In his gentle way, Green pronounced Crum's ruling "bull" but was resigned to it. "I'll just find me another place," he said Friday, while on his morning walk.

One option for Green, said Melissa Eisele, a Health Department social worker, would be government-subsidized senior apartments.
But Green said Friday he detested apartment living -- "too many people too close by." "He'd have a choice where he lives," said Eisele, adding there were some houses with subsidies that Green might qualify for. "There's some (housing) right in his neighborhood," she said.

Green, who is either 93 or 86, is a longtime fixture in the area around 38th Street and College Avenue, for years having made his living repairing kitchen appliances.

He was the subject of an Indianapolis Star story on Tuesday that described his unconventional yet fulfilling life: no income but social security of a different kind -- a huge social network of neighborhood folks who look out for him and provide for him.

The story also talked about his phenomenal legs that allow him to walk miles every day -- and an attitude that makes him want to walk miles every day and cling hard to his independence.

Crum said the Health Department would try to "relocate him to a place suitable for him, that's agreeable to him and is healthier and safer."
"Lord have mercy," said Philip Hall, a friend of Green's who often brings him food. "What this is is government people who have a mandate to save us from ourselves."

Green's van, its tires long flattened, rests in the parking lot at Big Red Discount Towing, in the 3800 block of North Keystone Avenue. It is on the edge of one of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods. But Green is well-known -- as either "Mr. Green" or "Old Man Green" -- and universally liked. Nobody touches him.

Joe "Red" Long, the Red of Big Red Discount Towing, has known Green for years and has allowed Green to use his business's bathroom and plug an extension cord into an outside electrical outlet for heat and cooking.
Crum, who learned about Green through the Star story, said the arrangement violated Marion County's housing code, which insists a domicile have running water and electricity.

Long, Hall and others bring Green food and pocket change, the money principally to finance Green's one vice -- cigars (Swisher Sweets, which he doesn't smoke but, rather, chews).

Through Hall's doing, next month Green, a World War II veteran, will begin receiving a monthly check from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Eisele gave no timeline on Green's removal, other than to say it would come "as soon as possible."

Source: Indystar.com

**This is in response to an earlier article the Star wrote on the man, really an interesting read and attached slideshow: Mr. Green Is Doing Just Fine, Thank You.

Pretty sad, really. Paper publishes a story on an old man who lives in a van, government reads story, government evicts old man from van and way of life.