Braddock Man Lives in Car

Billy "CityD" Huffman might not be in the doghouse over a dispute with his sister, but as far as his neighbors are concerned, he's not far from it. For the past seven years, Huffman, 70, has been living in his car parked in the backyard of a house his sister owns.

Huffman said the two have "been having troubles" since 1999 and that he's been out of the house since about 2000. His sister still lives in the home.

"She's not going to support me not having a job and bumming around," Huffman said. "I'm trying my best to get a job and get up out of this rut."

But his neighbors, who say Huffman plays loud music, often spouts obscenity-laced tirades and uses his yard as a toilet, aren't amused. They have asked the county to prohibit such living arrangements.

"You can't enjoy your backyard," said Jackie Thehut, whose backyard is across the alley from Huffman's property.

Thehut and her family are among more than a dozen neighbors who presented the Braddock County Commission with a petition in July asking it to prohibit people from living in their cars on private property within Braddock city limits.

Truman and DaShonda Marlin live in property adjoining Huffman's, near a park and across the street from Happy Hill Elementary School.

"Every day he's out there. He never goes into the house," Truman Marlin said. "He sleeps out there, he eats out there, he watches TV, he plays guitar. ... Everything that you do in your house, he does out there."

Huffman acknowledged that he watches TV, listens to music and sometimes sleeps in his blue, 1979 Buick Regal. The car is parked on a concrete slab, mostly covered by a large, blue tarp that is secured with bricks and cinder blocks.

An extension cord from the house to the car provides power for a 13-inch TV, an oscillating fan and a radio.

"I get better reception there than I do in there," he said, pointing at the house. "I listen to Rush (Limbaugh) and Sean Hannity every day, just about."

The Marlins said they tried at first to get along with Huffman, but by the second year, they were calling deputies on a regular basis. At first, they were the only neighbors upset by Huffman's living arrangement, but now they say more neighbors with children are moving into the area.

The neighbors say one of their biggest complaints is that Huffman may be using his yard for a toilet.

Thehut said when her neighbor's son-in-law was back from Iraq in mid-June, Huffman began to burn trash and other debris across the alley.

"I walked out there, and (the smell) was terrible," she said. "Then Ronnie came out the back door and said, 'It smells just like back in Baghdad.' He said he'd been on detail where they have to burn excrement and said that was exactly what it smells like."

Huffman denied that he used the yard for a toilet.

"No, I go to BCPL for that," he said. "I don't expose myself to people here."