Richard Beechler said he was homeless for a little less than a year when he had saved up enough from his unemployment checks to buy a 25-foot Owens cabin boat to call home.
The purple wooden boat has a stove, shower, toilet and enough space for himself, girlfriend Marty Brightwell and his pit bull, Cookie, he said.
“It’s hard to save, but it can be done,” Beechler said.
He did not, however, have enough money to rent harbor space. While saving up money to afford the rental fees, the trio tied off at docks in the area, moving to a different area every few days.
But on May 6, when he anchored the vessel about 20 feet off of the Washington shore of the Columbia River, just east of the Interstate 5 Bridge, the boat drifted, hit some rocks and took on water. It remains partially submerged near Who Song and Larry’s, 111 S.E. Columbia Way, tethered to a metal handrail.
