YORK, Maine - Time is running out for York resident James Kences to find a new home. Fifty-seven-year-old Kences, who has autism-related developmental challenges, lives alone and on a fixed income.
He recently had to leave his long-term residence and has been unable to find a permanent place to state in his beloved home town of York. His predicament prompted him to take some drastic action recently. That's when members of the local community stepped in to help.
James Kences, a close friend explains, is on the autism spectrum He's high-functioning, with an incredible memory and an encyclopedic knowledge of local history. But he has what are called "non-verbal limitations."
"He does not understand non-verbal cues." That's Rev. Kari Pritchard, who is driving with me to meet Kences at his current temporary residence. She says Kences cannot interpret another person's body language and doesn't know when to stop talking. "That's a pretty big disability, when you're trying to have a conversation with someone."
Tom Porter: "You have to actually say, 'Can you stop talking?' "
Kari Pritchard: "You do, you have to literally say, 'James, we're done talking now.' And he wants that."
When we arrive to meet Kences, he's tall, articulate and friendly, and shows off a number of historical publications he wrote about the history of York - Maine's oldest inhabited town, he informs me. "To leave the town of York to me just was beyond what I could really comprehend as a real source of misfortune," he says.
But Kences is has been faced with the prospect of having to leave town since last summer, when the apartment he had been living in for nearly 15 years was put up for sale. "And I got really upset because of the fact that it meant so much to me. I'm rooted to where I live."
Kences' disabilities - which include extreme obsessive compulsive disorder - mean he's unable to hold down a job, so he's reliant on a monthly benefit check of $690 to meet his housing needs: a challenge in an expensive coastal town like York.
But Kences says he was determined to stay, and to make a statement. "We persons with disabilities can't allow ourselves to be marginalized by society."
So he drafted a manifesto and staged a vigil. For the month before Christmas, Kences stood outside in downtown York holding a sign saying "quality of life for all." Sometimes, he says, people mistook his intentions. "People were a little taken aback by seeing this character standing in the middle of town," he says. "At times they thought I was a vagrant, you know?"
Tom Porter: "They started giving you money?"
James Kences: "That's right, they did. They handed money to me and so I started putting on a coat and tie because I thought if I wore a coat and tie they would at least not think I was a vagrant any more."
After the vigil, Kences decided it was time to take more drastic action. He went on a hunger strikeand for nearly a month he subsisted on only water and juice. "It was a brutal period, because I found that hunger pangs would really get to me in the evening, and at the outset of it I had a terrible headache."
His efforts brought awareness to the issue and Kences ended his hunger strike last month, encouraged by the commitment of a growing circle of friends and supporters - people like Rev. Kari Pritchard and Amanda Parker.
"We have a great group of people in the town of York that have rallied around and work diligently and hard for him, Parker says, "and we meet weekly."
Parker is with Living Innovations, an agency that provides support for people with disabilities. She's spearheading efforts to find Kences a permanent home in the community. He has to leave his current address at the end of this week, and Parker says while more temporary accommodation should be available after that, that's not what Kences ultimately needs. "It's not helpful for people with James' type of disability to be disrupted and constantly moving," she says.
But options are limited. Any donations to Kences are considered income, which could threaten his Social Security benefits. One way around that, says Parker, is to send donations to the town of York's emergency fund, which could be used to indirectly help Kences defray his costs.
Kences says he's not looking for favors and handouts: He wants to be of service to the community, and offers to give regular talks on local history to schoolchildren. He says he could also raise awareness about bullying, which he experienced as a child growing up with autism in 60's and 70's.
In the meantime, Kences says the state should do more to address the individual needs of the developmentally disabled. "You can't make blanket applications upon individuals assuming that everybody with a disability has the same limitations."
But Kences says he values the encouraging response of a number of community members to his plight. He says it's restored his faith in humanity.