An enterprising homeless man has turned a New York City dumpster into a fully self-sustaining home.
Since the Summer of 2016, 39-year-old Damian “Dean” Cummings has been living in a box disguised as a dumpster, The New York Post reports. Outwardly, his home appears to be a receptacle for garbage. The inside, however, would fool any passerby.
The inside is fitted with shelving, carpet, electrical wiring to provide power, and even a hot plate for cooking. Cummings’ box is insulated and the outside frame of the dumpster provides much needed protection from the elements. The roof is equipped with solar panels, which gives his home electricity.
It isn’t the largest home, measuring 4 feet wide, 4 feet tall and just 6 foot 3 inches long, but it works for Cummings. When he lays down to sleep, he is just one inch shorter than the length of the home.
Cummings reports that he is largely left alone, other than a few people who mistake his home for a dumpster and try to use it as such. “A lot of people come by with big bags on their shoulders and try to throw them out,” Cummings told reporters. “It’s really funny. One time I laughed a little too hard, and the guy was like, ‘Hello?!’ ”
The police have only bothered him once. After visiting with him for a few minutes, they left and haven’t returned.
City officials have tried a plethora of tactics to decrease the number of people living on the streets in recent years. In 2016, the city tried expanding the heavily scrutinized program that used hotels to temporarily keep people off the streets. Despite that and other attempts, the problem appears to get worse.
The rate of homelessness in New York City is at its highest levels since the Great Depression, the Coalition for the Homeless reports. In February of 2017 alone, there were an estimated 62,435 homeless people, including 15,689 homeless families with 23,764 homeless children living in the city.
The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping in shelters in 2017 is 78 percent higher than it was a 10 years ago.
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