Homeless man uses creativity for cash

Story and photo by Briena Sash
The Portland Upside
September 2009

Melvin McAffe uses his origami skills to help support himself on the streets of Portland.

Melvin has lived on the streets of Portland for ten years. For many, the mention of a homeless man might stir up images of a street-corner panhandler, perhaps an alcoholic, a can-collector, or maybe a person holding a cardboard sign, the message Hungry, Vietnam Vet, or God Bless, etched in black Sharpie ink. There are many stereotypes, but Melvin fits none of them.

Melvin does not panhandle, he doesn’t drink, and he has never held a cardboard sign. Melvin makes origami.

I meet him recently at Coffee Time on Northwest 21st. He greets me outside, pulling up on a bike decorated with stickers, a flag and a toy truck zip-tied to the frame. He locks my bike to his and directs me inside to a dim private booth decorated with murals resembling stained glass windows.

“This is my spot,” Melvin tells me. “I call it my office.”

Mel’s origami workshop certainly looks like an office, with piles of bright paper scattered about, a laptop and an almost-full coffee cup sitting on the table.

Melvin is now fifty-three. Growing up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, he joined the Marines as a teenager. Shortly thereafter, he found himself in a hospital in Okinawa, Japan, with a broken leg hoisted in a sling.

“A little Okinawa woman came in to care for me,” he explains. “She was so little, she couldn’t have weighed more than ninety pounds. She was so sweet. She thought I was rather cute looking… about nineteen with my blond hair and my blue eyes,” Melvin recalls fondly.

During his eight weeks in the hospital, the woman brought scratch paper pre-cut into squares with which to teach Melvin origami. He shipped his origami creations back home to his grandparents, kindling a life-long passion for folding paper.

After returning to the States and suffering a series of unfortunate consequences, including the loss of his job and the death of his wife, Melvin found himself in and out of homelessness. But throughout trying times he continued to focus his energy on his paper-folding hobby. While living in Berkeley, California, he even earned the nickname “Origami.”

“I’d get paper out of a recycle bin at a paper store,” he recalls, “I was calling it ‘recycled origami.’”

Eventually, unsatisfied with his life in Berkeley, Melvin joined a friend on a bicycle trip up north. He rode a Gary Fisher mountain bike to Washington, turned around, and in Astoria decided to follow the US-30 sign to Portland.

“I liked it here. People are nice; a lot better than California,” he explains. Melvin has lived in Portland ever since.

On a typical day, Melvin wakes up and brews himself a cup of coffee on his white gas camp stove, then meticulously packs his camping gear into his bike trailer.

“Everything goes a certain way,” he explains.

He then sets out to find some breakfast.

“I usually go to Freddie’s and get a pint of milk and something sweet,” he says, “I don’t go to places that serve breakfast [to the homeless]. I usually get sick because of my medicine.” Melvin suffers from serious illnesses, including cancer.

After breakfast Melvin parks at Coffee Time to get to work folding origami. When he has enough pieces completed, he bikes a couple of blocks to Trader Joe’s where he offers passers-by his original paper artwork neatly displayed on a Tupperware lid. He usually sells at least one a day, sometimes two or three.

Melvin’s favorite design, which he calls an ornament, is a crane sitting atop a ball of blooming flowers, inside which another tiny crane dangles from a thread. It takes Melvin one hour to make and sells for ten dollars.

“Sometimes people bring me a sandwich and juice and I give them a few dollars off,” he says.

He also creates designs based on individual requests. A patron once commissioned him to make an origami cross. City Bikes also displays an origami bicycle made by Melvin.

“If you can make a drawing or describe a shape, we can figure out something to make for you,” his web page suggests.

A friend, William Price, built a page for him and hosts Melvin on his site under his “friends” section. The page, simply entitled “Melvin McAffe,” greets visitors with a picture of Melvin that winks.

“To make it through the winter,” it reads, “I am saving up for a good 4 season tent… I try not to beg or ask for money because I repair bicycles and make cool origami.”

Two years ago, a man from Holland ordered six pieces of origami from the web page. The man paid fifteen dollars each instead of the ten dollars Melvin was asking and in addition, sent him a one hundred dollar check after receiving the paper creations.

“They were ornaments,” Melvin explains. “Each one was in a different Christmas color.”

Although origami is Melvin’s main source of income, it’s not the only one. Having grown up in his grandpa’s machine shop, he’s also an incredible mechanic, often fixing a stalled car or broken bike to make a little extra cash. Recently a man with a stalled truck was referred to Melvin, who fixed the vehicle after discovering the spark plugs were replaced in improper sequence.

“I got ten bucks and a cup of coffee,” Melvin tells me excitedly.

He admits it’s not enough to sustain himself, but when asked why he doesn’t panhandle, Melvin replies sternly, “I don’t like it. I like to have something to give back.”

Although Melvin won’t ask for money, he receives plentiful good tidings from caring individuals. Not only does he receive occasional meals and coffee, but also origami paper, an occasional gift card to an art store, and even a mini paper cutter.

“This thing comes in so handy.” He holds up the orange hand tool, a big smile spread across his face.

According to Melvin, people even salvage old wrapping paper for him to use.

“It has to be a good gauge,” he explains. “It tears too easily if it’s too thin.”

I watch Melvin work as we talk. With a bottle of Elmer’s, a pair of scissors and a couple of worn and weathered hands, he carefully folds, bends and creases ordinary paper into beautiful works of art. Various people stop to comment and several friends greet him warmly. I offer him a coffee, but he refuses.

“Thanks,” he tells me, “I already bought one. This is the hard part.”

His hands are shaking as he prepares his needle and thread to attach a dangling crane to the center of his masterpiece.

Melvin completes a beautiful ornament with ornate flowers blooming in blues and greens with matching foil centers.

“People like the paper with patterns and bright colors,” he tells me.

Holding up his finished piece for me to see, Melvin’s face displays a look of true satisfaction, the look of a man proud of his work. This truly creative man has invented his own way of survival. He places the beautiful ornament in the Tupperware container with the others, mounts his bike, and heads for Trader Joe’s.

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Email Melvin at melorigami@gmail.com or visit him online at waptek.white.prohosting.com/melvin.htm

Briena Sash is a longtime community volunteer, travel photographer and photojournalist intimately involved in photographing, chronicling, and befriending the Portland homeless community. Read her blog at www.streetquotes.wordpress.com