Milton’s the Man to See

The word around town is that if you’re new in San Diego, down on your luck and out on the streets, talk to Milton.

Milton’s the man to know, because Milton knows what’s happening: he can tell you where to get a bed for the night, a shower, some clothes and a meal. He knows who’s serving at what hour, and whether you have to stand in line or sit through a sermon to get fed.

“How I learned about street life is, I got on the streets,” Milton said. “This whole entire thing is about survival. If you got a home or you don’t have a home, it’s about survival.”

The 24-year-old San Diego native counts his years on the street the way most people recall how long they have been on a job--”This will be my third year,” he says.

His name is Milton Davis, although he is known to most as just Milton and to some by the nickname “PR Man” because he is a walking directory of information.

If you ask Milton how to survive in San Diego, he casts his wide eyes heavenward beneath the brim of a dusty “O’Connor for Mayor” cap, and recites a litany of schedules and menus:

“At the Rescue Mission, you can get five nights, you can get clothes on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8:30. They have lunch at about 11 o’clock and they have an 8 o’clock at night meal of soup, sandwich, coffee and milk.

“Catholic Workers has a variety of food. They serve salad, bread pudding, beans and rice, at 12 noon. They pass out clothes Saturday morning at 9:30 until 10.

“In the morning at 8 a.m., St. Vincent de Paul serves sandwiches, coffee and cookies, if they have them. If people are pretty hungry, they’ll go through the line twice. Usually the line is pretty long, but on the first of the month and the fifth of the month, the line is not that long because people get their welfare, their Social Security or their SSI checks.”

God’s Extended Hand, one agency that feeds the poor, has limited seating, but the best free food in town, Milton said. The Mission and God’s Extended Hand serve up a sermon with the meals.

Milton advises that on Mondays the Farmers Bazaar produce market dumps damaged fruit and vegetables that are bruised, but not rotten.

The Rescue Mission is most crowded on Thursdays, when they serve chicken, Milton said.

“I’m a chicken eater, myself,” he said.

Surviving on the streets “takes quite a bit of your day,” and most people want to be settled down by dark. A typical day might begin at St. Vincent de Paul for breakfast, progress to one of the other agencies for a shower--men at the Rescue Mission, women at Rachel’s Women’s Center--and maybe on to another agency for lunch.

“Most people are all bummed out by that time. They go to the mission to take a nap or find some place to hide and take a nap. Me, I walk all day. I don’t get tired,” he said.

Milton often volunteers at service agencies, serving food or cooking, and sometimes collects cans or cardboard for cash, which he said he generally tries to do without.

Occasionally, Milton works in the Transient Center’s cleanup crews, sweeping streets in the Gaslamp Quarter for minimum wage.

Milton said people learn to be street-smart pretty quickly and try to stay away from hustlers, pickpockets and scam men who will take their money and run.

“Basically, you need to learn that you have to stay away from most of the strange people. There are a lot of strange people and many you don’t know. There are dope peddlers, prostitutes and pimps, people who are going to get you into trouble,” he said.

“Some people on the street can’t deal with reality. If you’re going to be on the street with them, you got to worry about them.

“You have to know how to keep yourself clean. That’s very important if you stay on the street so you can walk into the missions and the restaurants. You have to take showers. You have to have shoes on. Even if you don’t have socks, you have to have shoes.

“You’ve got some people on the street that have a health problem. They shouldn’t be on the street.”

Most of the people on the street get along with each other, sharing cigarettes and information, and calling police or an ambulance if there are problems.

Once the homeless have exhausted the nights they are allowed to stay in service agencies such as the Rescue Mission, they must find an alcove or nook to park themselves for the night. Most people who sleep on the street don’t have a permanent night spot but move around, Milton said. These days, he is sleeping at a downtown construction site.

“You’ve got street people sleeping in trucks, abandoned cars, sometimes they sleep on people’s lawns. Some people pick a spot downtown by a bank building or the bus station,” he said.

Many worry about their safety and try not to sleep.

“I’ve seen guys try to walk all night but the time comes you just got to go to sleep,” he said. “I don’t worry. I have two blankets and I try to insulate myself. I have a foam rubber pad. I lay that down and throw the blankets over me and I try to sleep like a baby until the next morning when it’s time to get up again.”