Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #435

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Skribblez The Clown Panhandles His Way To Home Ownership
Skribblez the pan- handling clown buried his nickels and dimes in mason jars. When he saved enough to buy a house, he dug them up.
Now, they call him the Homeless Homeowner. But his real name is Ryan Scanlon, a father and college student with a troubled child- hood, debilitating seizures, no respect for authority and self-described men- tal issues.
Speaking with a high-pitched voice from the red ball pinching his nose, Scanlon said home- less people need to get a job or do something more than “sitting around at these day centers. They’re not even panhandling. They refuse to do that.”
Scanlon, 33, unabashedly advo- cates for begging on the streets, where he pulls in anywhere from $7 to $100 a day. If done correct- ly, he said, it’s better than minimum wage and safer than crime and prostitution — “things that, to me, are a little bit lazier than panhandling.”
“There’s also so much stigma and shame put on it that people who might benefit from it, that they won’t even try,”
said Scanlon.
In the seven years since he became a professional panhan- dler, he’s been cussed at, spit on, scrutinized and told he’s worthless. He’s accepted rides from strangers offering work — a ploy that’s sometimes a front for sexual exploita- tion, he said.
With mutton chops, a goatee and face paint, the clown is a panhandling gim- mick that lets him laugh when he has more than a few rea- sons to cry.
Scanlon was born in Anderson, Ind., to parents unfit to take care of him.
His grandparents raised him until his parents regained custody of him when he turned 8. But he never stayed with his parents.
“I was out of there. I checked in, because they only ever need- ed to know that I was alive,” Scanlon said.
In school, he was constantly in trouble and underperform- ing, but rarely absent.
“I wanted to not be home so bad,” he said. “I had to have places to go.
“Ever since I was 8
years old, I was on the street living somewhere else. ...” he said. “I could either be at home and let my stepdad, you know, he was psychologically and physically abusive. ButIseenalotof kids get beat worse than me.”
He didn’t think things would get worse. “My childhood was wild. It was ragtag. But it definitely was- n’t as hard as what was coming.”
Lack of work General Motors had to stagger work schedules to keep traffic from becoming unbearable in Anderson. In 1978, the company employed 22,000 in a town of 70,000. Today, GM and 17 percent of the popu- lation, including
Scanlon, are gone.
Long story short, he moved east for opportunity, landing in Akron where he met his future ex- girlfriend. They had two sons during the Great Recession.
Personal “bad deci- sions” — fanned by a lack of opportunity and stable upbring- ing — put Scanlon on the street. “For most of my life, I was a career crimi- nal. I relied on sell- ing drugs and things like that. When I was young, we all thought we were gangsters.
“Eventually the drugs got me too; it just took me longer than other people. It was a downward spiral. And when I got up, there was no one around me.”
He took up panhan- dling in 2010. Shortly after, he remember one of his sons asking, “Are you the bad guy, daddy?”
Force for good Scanlon can be con- sidered a founding member of what is now the Second Chance Village, Akron’s only tent city sanctioned by its property owner.
The day center began as a thrift store run by the homeless — the brainchild of Scanlon.
In March of last year, the panhandler gave $1,000 to the owner of a tax-delinquent, condemned property. The property owner then paid the back taxes and handed Scanlon the deed.
The home was reg- istered for demoli- tion, missing pipes and unfit for habita- tion. Scanlon spent $7,000 in necessary repairs, which he performed to stretch each panhandled penny.
Through the effort, he launched an online campaign to raise funds. Sage Lewis, who connect- ed with the home- less while running for mayor of Akron in 2015, was “about the only person who
responded,” Scanlon said.
Lewis, an auction- eer, offered Scanlon help. In return, Scanlon helped Lewis get rid of items he couldn’t sell, which at that time were cluttering the basement of a commercial property he owned at 15 Broad St.
Scanlon opened the Second Chance Thrift Store and encouraged Paul Hays, who now runs the entire work-train- ing, donation-collec- tion and outreach center for the home- less, to take over.
Now a homeowner, Scanlon didn’t feel comfortable being the face of an opera- tion run by and cre- ated for the home- less. So he stepped away.
These days, he takes out student loans and rides the bus to Canton, where he studies music engineering at Stark State. With a roof over his head, he said he’ll hand over the deed to his house to his sons when they come of age.
Then, entering his mid-40s, he said he’ll step back out into the wild, pan- handling for a sec- ond home.
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