“My name is Jeff. My last name is King. I was a skydiver in the military. So in the military, you always get a nickname. I did crazy crap up there in the air… So they started calling me Sky King. My nickname became Skyler,” Jeff King, 54, explains by way of introduction.
Skyler came to the West 4th Street motel Desert Rose Inn as part of his parole about a year ago. He has been residing there since then. “This was my parole location,” he said. “And I started working down at Tesla. And I can catch the bus for Tesla right over here. So, it was real convenient. And this way, I don't have to buy a car.”
His life has had some unfortunate twists and turns, including a nasty divorce, losing his temper with family, high diabetes and a stroke.
“I had a really bad divorce. And I blamed my brother in law for it,” he told Our Town Reno on a recent Spring day at the motel, which has resisted being sold off to Jacobs Entertainment for years.
“And I went over to his house and kicked the door in and he and I got into a big fight. They kept inviting me over to see my kids and then laughing at me from the other side of the back door. And one day I lost my temper, kicked the door in and he and I got into a big fight. So, I got assault and a few other charges thrown at me. And like I said, it wasn't my best moment. But, did my time, took my anger management classes, started working at Tesla. But unfortunately, about six months ago, I had a stroke.”
He fell near the office area of the motel while talking to the manager who immediately called the hospital for him. Since his stroke, he says he’s recovered 95 percent of his sight back in his left eye.
Skyler has different mobility options in a corner of his room, while he waits to get his driver’s license back.
Though Skyler does not have a job anymore, he is a property owner which helps pay his rent at the motel. “Luckily, I didn't lose everything in the divorce, I have some property up in Oregon that I rent, and that I make roughly about $800 a month on that,” he said of his current financial predicament.
“And that pays for my expenses like my bill here… So and with what little bit of food stamps and disability I get because of my stroke, I'm able to live quite adequately. I don't get to go see movies, I don't get to go eat out, any of that. But like I say I'm a diabetic. So I have a very particular diet, and I'm able to keep up that diet. So, there's a lot of people that are worse off than me. But I do because of my investments earlier in life. And because I'm a little bit older. I have just a little bit of funds that come in that allow me… [to] sustain a living.”
Skyler gets his internet, electricity and water paid for at a flat fee of $800 a month at the motel and considers this as good living situation for himself where everything is ‘convenient’ for him.
“I just got out of prison living so this is comfortable for me,” he said. “I can see where a lot of people would think down about living in a place like this, but this is kind of a step up. So yes it has like any motel living, it has bad nights [with close by neighbors] …we get troubled people from time to time, but a lot of the people that live here permanently are good people.”
Desert Rose Inn is one of the few motels still standing on 4th street, but its rooms remain full.
Though Skyler says he’s not very close with his neighbors, he says they watch out for each other’s vehicles, respect one another and have a decent living arrangement. Like others at the Desert Rose Inn, he feels just a few steps from being unhoused.
“What I've seen in the past year is more and more homeless. And being like, a month away from (being) homeless myself, if my renters ever quit on me, I'd be in serious trouble,” he said.
The ongoing Ukraine war, inflation, COVID and supply chain issues at supermarkets is affecting all of us, he says, and he relies on donations to get by.
“So our whole economic system is fragile. And to me…every morning, I take a trip down to the Catholic center down here, and I take about eight cans of food and bring it back home,” he said. “And I've been building up a couple of boxes, because you just don't know, in three months, what it's gonna look like.”
He plans to live in the motel until his parole is over and he gets his driving license back, after which he would work to make enough money to travel and meet the friends that he made during his time in the military. He also plans to revive contact with his children and see his parents and siblings soon after.
His main hope for now at the very least is, “ we're still surviving” in a few months.