European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 7, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A a Magazine . S Street people homeless Waon finding warmth near a steam grate on Twitt Ellipse in front of Tho White House Apo hold new York times nce Daybreak comes Willy says you can l sleep not in the entail iria Yular Park across the Street Iron the state department. The sky in Glens and the cars begin rolling in and he heels of the Early workers hurrying toward the big government buildings scrape noisily on the sidewalk. So Willy and fila other men. Street people who have spent the night on steam grates in the Park begin their Day. Four of them head for the Large Metal garbage bins behind downtown restaurants. The fifth Man who is Deal and has matted Blond hair remains on his grate turning periodically so both belly and Back can feel the venting heat Tike a sunbathe shifting to reap maximum Benefit from the rays. Willy he will not give his last name also remains standing quietly on the iwo foot Diar Nater circular heal Grille where he had slept. He will stay there All Day. In the nation capital As in every other american City men and women without Homes live in streets and Parks out or garbage cans on heal grates and Oil change from people who pass them. But there unlike anywhere else they survive in the shadows of the monuments and great buildings that Are symbols of the richest country on Earth. Few Power brokers in Washington make ii to work or Back Home without passing at least one Cluster of Street people impetus or the �50 million Aid package for the homeless that president Reagan signed in february came in part ram demonstrations on the Hill by some of Washington s Street people. Cily officials say there Are As Many As 10,000 homeless people in Washington perhaps More. Shelters and soup kitchens exist but Many people on the Street say they avoid item and would rather stay outside on their own. In Washington unlike Many other cities Thore is no Broad Effort to push the homeless of the streets and out of sight not even tha homeless who roam near the White House and other major buildings although occasionally someone is arrested for blocking a sidewalk or encroaching on forbidden ground. There have been occasional campaigns to cover the heal grates to people cannot lie on hem. But these Al templs passed and most grates remain open and occupied. The Park by the state department is a Good place to stay Willy says because pipes carrying heat of dozens of Federal buildings run underneath it and warmth blows out of several grates in the ground. Willy also likes the Park because while noisy in is not so noisy As some other Sites closer to the Bustle of the business District in the summer Willy often sleeps on the mall a vast greensward that stretches Between the Capitol and the Lincoln memorial. But these Days it is cold and windswept out there. Employees from the state department he Federal Reserve Board or other government agencies nearby sometimes eat lunch in the Little triangular Park. They Don l bother us Willy says. National Park service workers come to clean the Park but Willy says if you ask them to leave the blankets foam rubber mattresses empty milk crates and other belongings they usually agree. Willy was born in 1928. He does not talk much about his life. But 1981, he says was the year that everything Well wrong the year thai turned him into Oneal the Street people. That was the last year that he worked the year he Tost his Home a real House not an apartment a says on r Street in Northwest Washington. His eyes water and he looks away. When almost two feel of Snow fell on Washington and the temperature dropped almost to Zero the Lone stranger As the Middle aged Man in slacking Leet Calls himself found a heat Grille und Ameal a department of the Interior building sign. And there he has remained a supermarket shopping cart holding All to owns Al his Side. The heal from the Grale hisses and its air carries the saturday March 7, 1987 Lone stranger s Slench out to the sidewalk and the Street. His fingernails Are a Hall Inch Long and caked with grime. His right wrist has a Sar Penline Bend he says a policeman broke it in 19b1 while helping some social workers who were trying to haul him of to a Hospital. The Lone stranger has been on the Streel for 12 years and his voice is angry and bitter. Very few people have been through what i be been  he says. There is a cardboard hut on Frozen ground by the curb of Pennsylvania Avenue a Lew a