City Clearing Old Vehicles From Lot : Disabled Man Faces Loss of Junkyard ‘Home’

“It ain’t much, sir,� said Samuel Spivey, pointing to a battered Ford pickup truck and camper, “but this is my home.�

Spivey’s home is surrounded by tons of junk, debris and a couple of dozen inoperable trucks and cars--the main attractions of what is ostensibly a used car lot.

In January, Spivey, 60 and disabled, struck what he thought was a reasonable deal for a home with E.L. Scholder, owner of the lot at 7th Avenue and Martin Luther King Way. Spivey said that he agreed to pay Scholder $2,600 for the 15-year-old truck and camper, and Scholder agreed to leave the vehicle on the lot.

“But he took the starter out to keep me from moving it,� said Spivey. “He said he doesn’t want me to move it until I finish paying for it.� Not that Spivey would want to drive it, since he suffers from glaucoma and does not have a driver’s license, he said.

Now, Spivey is in danger of losing his “home.�

On Wednesday, city officials, armed with a court order, successfully ended a seven-year legal battle with Scholder and began towing the inoperable vehicles from the lot because they were in violation of city zoning laws. In effect, Scholder was illegally operating a junkyard on a license granted for a used car lot, Deputy City Atty. Joe Schilling said.

Zoning Department officials said they will look into the possibility that Scholder may have violated other ordinances by renting inoperable vehicles as residences to Spivey and another man.

“Living in a vehicle would be a zoning violation. The (property) owner will be issued notice to remove the vehicles from the lot and not have people living there. . . . It is simply not permissible to use a junked vehicle as a residence,� said Ty Rogers, a senior planner with the city Zoning Department.

Rogers said that, by Thursday, the city had removed 14 cars and 5 1/2 tons of “miscellaneous debris� from Scholder’s lot. According to Schilling, police also recovered two cars from the lot that had been reported stolen.

In the meantime, Spivey continues to live in the camper, at the junkyard where he has lived for two years. On Thursday, the South Carolina native expressed concern that the city was going to tow away his home and leave him on the street. But county and city officials said that they were aware of Spivey’s situation and were trying to find him new accommodations.

Since January, Adult Protective Services of the county Department of Social Services--acting on Spivey’s wishes--has sent Scholder a check every month for $200 as payment on the truck, plus $50 for the electricity that Spivey uses, from Spivey’s monthly Social Security disability check.

Spivey gets his electricity from an extension cord stretching from the lot’s dingy office, across a field of junked cars and debris, and through a side window on the camper.

“But this isn’t the first truck I’ve bought from him. I’ve traded in two other trucks that he sold me. . . . I lived in them, right here, until I got this here camper,� said Spivey.

According to Spivey, two years ago he paid Scholder $1,195 for an old GMC truck that was parked in the back of the lot. He said that Scholder “persuaded� him to “trade in that old truck� for another old truck, which he sold to Spivey for $1,800. In January, Scholder persuaded him to trade in the second truck for the camper, Spivey said.

In the two years that he has lived at the junkyard, Spivey said, he has paid Scholder $250 a month for a “home� and electricity, a total of $6,000. He uses the bathroom and shower facilities at a nearby mission for the homeless, but these days Spivey is afraid to leave the camper.

Since he moved into the camper, robbers have broken in and taken a propane stove and three television sets, Spivey said. He now keeps a large brown dog (named Doggie) tied to the camper’s door to ward off intruders. The dog is wedged in between the camper and a panel truck that saw its best days decades ago.

But Spivey is not the only resident of the junkyard.

James Aloysius Joyce, who lives in an inoperable Chevrolet Impala that was converted into a bulky camper constructed from plywood, said he pays Scholder $120 a month as rent for the vehicle. However, Joyce declined to talk further to a reporter and rode away on his 10-speed bicycle.

Scholder failed to return several phone calls made to his home.

In August, Scholder told The Times he had a unique plan for getting rid of his junked cars and providing sleeping quarters for street people. He offered to pay buyers $1 per car to cart away the 50 inoperable vehicles on the lot.

“I figured that if I offered to pay them a dollar to take the cars, I’d get a flood of bums coming in and put the cars on the street so they could sleep in them,� Scholder said.

But Spivey, who lives on a fixed income, said that he was persuaded to purchase the camper. Adult Protective Service officials declined to discuss Spivey’s case, citing privacy laws. However, Department of Social Services spokesman Marilyn Laurence said that the county acts as a sub-payee for Spivey and helps him manage the money he receives from Social Security.

The county has no authority to dictate to Spivey as to his living accommodations unless the court appoints a conservator, said Laurence. That has not occurred. Instead, Spivey has agreed to have Social Security send his monthly check to the county, which in turn makes the payments to Scholder and gives him a weekly allowance of $52, Spivey said.

Spivey acknowledged that county social workers have often tried to persuade him to move into a better place. But he said he does not want to move because he fears he will lose the vehicle he is paying for. Laurence said that Spivey’s disability income is enough to enable him to live comfortably in a board and care home.

City officials said that, at first glance, it appears that Scholder may have violated several zoning and housing laws.

“If any structure is being rented as a residence, it must meet health and safety code standards,� said Ben Montijo, head of the City Housing Commission. “I’ve heard of people living in abandoned cars, but this is the first time I’ve heard of someone using a junked car as rental property. It sure seems to me that something is wrong here.�

Meanwhile, the city will continue to tow the junked cars from Scholder’s lot and clear it of junk and debris. Schilling said that the city will also remove two boats from Scholder’s Ingraham Street residence on Crown Point.

Schilling said that the auto dismantler that contracted with the city to remove the cars will sell them as scrap. He estimated that the cleanup will cost the city $3,500, and said a bill will be sent to Scholder. If Scholder refuses to pay, the bill will become a lien against the property, Schilling said.