Timothy Sommers

Nobody knows how many people have been forced to live in the woods of Lehigh because of tough times. Guestimates range from 20 or so to a thousand. But the fact is there are people who have no place live and have been forced to live in the wooded areas around Lehigh.

Nobody really knows for sure how many people have been forced to live in the woods.

One such man who lives in a wooded area of Lehigh Acres is Timothy Sommers, 53, who said he has been living in a wooded area in Lehigh for the past two years, ever since he had medical problems and lost his job and has been unable to find work.

It’s a way of life for me,” he said.

Sommers says there is another man who has his own pup tent and they both live close by mainly for protection.

Helping to load watermelon: Timothy Sommers says he is homeless and lives in the woods in Lehigh. But during the day, he spends much of his time helping others load up at a local flea market. Here he is shown loading a melon in the backseat of a car. The woman is Marie St. Piere of Lehigh. Photo by Mel Toadvine

Sommers is also a veteran, having served in the U.S. military, and is seeking treatment for his injuries with the Veterans Administration Hospital in Bay Pines. But getting to Bay Pines cost money and sometimes he doesn’t have the $3.50 for a round bus trip. He plans to enter a rehab unit through the VA, he says, to change what he calls “his drinking.”

In the U.S. Navy, he said he served for eight years as a cook. After he was injured and lost his job, he said he and his wife became divorced.

“It’s not so bad living in the woods,” Somers said. “I sleep on a pad with a partial sleeping bag under a pup tent. The only problems sometimes are the animals such as the bears.

“Oh yeah, we have black bears in the wooded areas around Lehigh, but they don’t bother me, but when I hear one coming up to the tent, I hit two sticks together real loud and the bears leave,” he said.

“The big problem for the homeless is protecting their food,” he said.

Somers says he goes to the church food banks in the area for food but doesn’t take very many items that are perishable.

“The raccoons in the woods will steal your perishable foods, like crackers and bread,” he said. “So sometimes I have had to hang them up in a tree to protect the food.”

Somers said he mainly eats out of cans that he opens with a knife and hammer. He doesn’t cook or warm the food because of the possible problems with fires, he said. And he doesn’t have a can opener.

When he was working and making a living, he said he worked with dry wall construction and stucco during the housing boom. Then he had the accident and then came the crash and only a few construction jobs were available.

“I do some yard work if I can find it, but it is hard to find,” he said.

Sommers hangs out during the day mainly at a flea market in Lehigh and helps people take things to their cars and the owner of the flea market gives him a few dollars a day for his help.

“And I have cut down on my drinking,” he said. “And I never ask people for a handout. I just can’t do that, but I do go to the various churches where food is being given away.”

When asked how he bathed in the woods, Sommers said he bathed at night, using an outside spigot at a business place in Lehigh

“I don’t use much water, but I keep myself clean,” he said.

The life in the woods is something he says he has become used to.

“Really, like so many more in Lehigh, I had no place to stay, so the woods become my home.”

Lee County Sheriff’s Lt. James Loethen, second in command at Bravo Station on Homestead Rd., said his department mainly knows where the homeless are located.

“We try to keep aware of that,” he said. “Mainly for their safety and if there were to be a hurricane or other disaster, we would get them out of danger.”

Somers says he has no savings and cannot afford a place to stay.

“When I was working, it never crossed my mind that one day I would be homeless. I just never thought it could happen to me. If it could happen to me, it can happen to others if they lose everything they have, their job, their home and end up with no money,” he said.

Over the past few weeks during the almost daily rains, Somers says he keeps from getting wet by being under cover somewhere in town.

“But when I am in the tent and it is closed up, I don’t get wet.”

He said most people don’t know that he is homeless. He doesn’t tell most people when he helps to load their cars with things they have bought at the flea market and he says he will not ask for money from anyone.

“I treat people kind and I help when I can and because of that nobody has mistreated me,” Sommers said.

As to his location in the woods, Sommers said he lives about 175 feet inside the woods and near a canal.

“Sometimes there are alligators in there and the bears,” he said. “But those of us who have found the woods to be our home are careful.”

A flashlight is a must, he said.

“But mine doesn’t work all the time. I have to hit it up against something to make it work, but at night, I don’t walk through the woods without it,” he said. “I don’t use candles or set any fires either. I am afraid they could cause problems,” he said.

“Living in the woods just becomes a way of life if you have nothing to fall back on that is just the way it is with a lot of us who do live in wooded areas,” Sommers said.

“But I am doing my best to get into a rehab service through the VA and get some help in getting some type of work, but until then, I really can’t do anything different.”