SLIDESHOW

Joseph "J.D." Osborne has been summering on the James River for the past 12 years. The waterfront property in the heart of downtown Richmond isn't his, but it is where he eats, sleeps and bathes. Not everyone is happy about it.

Osborne, 53, and a couple of friends live on a small island called Devil's Kitchen in the middle of the river just west of the 14th Street Bridge. They are, by most definitions, homeless, though none of them care for the term and its connotations.

"I just come out here to get away from everybody," said Osborne, who only stays in the warmer months and uses his disability money to rent an apartment in the winter, temporarily removing him from the list of about 1,000 homeless people in the Richmond area.

"I don't have to pay anything to live out here," he explained.

Paradise it's not, but the living isn't bad on 3-acre Devil's Kitchen Island, one of about a dozen pieces of land amid the rapids between the 14th Street and Manchester bridges. It's one of two regularly inhabited islands, the other being Vauxhall a few hundred yards north.

Accessible from land only by a railroad bridge, the lush slivers of land provide plenty of shade, water and privacy to Osborne and a rotating cast of campers. But a renewed effort by the city to clean up the islands is resulting in a gradual push to get the squatters off the islands, addressing concerns that the camps are unsafe, unsanitary and unsightly.

Both islands sit in plain view of Vistas on the James, a high-rise condominium building that opened last year.

Richmond police confirmed that officers have been working since about that time to help those living on the islands find other accommodations in response to increased calls about the camps.

"We received some complaints last winter and spring from the community because of the visibility," said Sgt. Shane Waite with Richmond police. Waite said the island dwellers have been warned that walking on the railroad tracks is trespassing, but no citations have been issued. A Norfolk-Southern official said the railroad was not aware of any problems on the bridge.

"There's not an edict to get everybody off the islands or anything like that," Waite said. "Police have just been working with social services to make occupants aware of services available to them and point them in the right direction. But not all of them want to participate."

. . .

James Anthony Borst -- Tony to most -- was among the first to inhabit one of the two small islands that have served as a home to squatters over the years. He set up camp 22 years ago on Vauxhall Island and only recently moved to the slightly larger Devil's Kitchen to join Osborne, who jokingly refers to himself the "king of the island."

Most mornings, Borst crawls from his tent about 6:30 a.m., trims his beard and washes off in the river before climbing a rickety ladder to the railroad trestle and crossing the river to head to work as a landscaper.

"I might have a couple beers when I get up to level me off and get rid of the shakes," he said recently, sipping a cold one after a day's work. "But I live out here by choice. I just like it. It's like a little piece of the country -- downtown."

Borst said he returned months ago from a stint in jail to find a cabin he had built from scrap lumber and billboard signs on Vauxhall years ago torn down and many of his tools and possessions gone.

Ralph White, who oversees 550 acres of shoreline and islands along the river as manager for the James River Park System, has worked with police during the past year to help clean up the islands, which had become littered with trash. White lamented that Borst's cabin was razed and says he wants no part in future cleanups on the islands, noting that they are not part of the park system.

"That effort was a failure," he said. "Everybody moved back in, and I don't want to kick people out of their homeless encampments. This needs to be rethought and handled with more delicacy in the interim."

Groups of students and volunteers have worked with a police task force on the homeless to remove garbage and debris -- bicycles, beer bottles, cans and mattresses -- from the islands. Some of the trash never made it off the island. Overflowing garbage bags and a mattress still sit next to the bridge on Devil's Kitchen. Tony's former camp on Vauxhall lies in ruins, its remains piled in a burn pit in the center of the island.

"They say this place is trashed, but they're the ones that trashed it," Tony said.

. . .

Osborne this year is living on Devil's Kitchen in a two-room tent with a mattress inside and a well-appointed camp site outside.

"This is just a place where people been hanging out for years, and it ain't too bad," he said with a smile.

Osborne, who collects $637 a month in disability, leaves the island for only a couple of hours during the day for supplies and his morning coffee. He stops by area churches for canned goods and goes to the store when he must.

When Borst gets back from work, the friends often cook dinner over an open fire, sometimes with guests, always with beer. They pile the cans beside the fire, listen to a radio and talk until mosquitoes drive them into their tents for the night. They use the river, too -- bathing and washing their clothes in it. They also like to fish, sometimes for dinner. They say they dig pits to use as toilets.

Their camp in a small clearing in the middle of the island is anchored by Osborne's tent and a folding table surrounded by chairs. They use a gas-powered generator to watch television and DVDs, charge their cell phones and listen to music.

It's not exactly roughing it, but there's no lack of nature. Osborne said he regularly encounters snakes, raccoons, rabbits and even an ill-tempered possum that guards the rails at night.

Taylor "Billy" Jenson, 34, a regular visitor and former full-time island dweller, said he moved from Vauxhall last year after his belongings were taken during a cleanup and he was told by police that it was time to move on.

"I was scared of the repercussions if I stayed," he said.

But Jenson said he finds it hard to stay away for long.

"I wish I was still out here," he said. "Why would I want to go to work every day when I can be out here fishing?"

The group was joined weeks ago by Harley McMahan, a younger man who brought with him a tent, an inflatable boat and unbridled enthusiasm for the lifestyle.

Prepping some chicken for dinner recently while talking to his grandmother via cell phone, McMahan summed up his feelings: "God, I love the river."

. . .

Each summer, the population on the islands goes up with the temperature, according to White, who has gotten along well with the squatters over the years. Osborne estimates that he has seen as many as seven to eight people living on both islands at their peak years ago.

But citing concerns of sanitation and urban blight, White said the islands are not meant to be a home.

Richmond police Sgt. Shane Waite said he has been involved in numerous visits to the camps and said police became more concerned last year after a stabbing on one on the islands and some squatters were arrested for stealing copper from nearby railroad tracks.

"There was some sort of criminal element down there," he said.

Though the island-dwellers confessed that they weren't always model citizens, and island parties have been known to get a bit wild, they argue that there are few problems compared to other parts of the city.

"These guys are good people," Jenson said. "They don't get in no one's way and they don't hurt nobody."

Borst said he didn't see why he should have to move when the islands aren't being used for anything else. He blames the increased scrutiny from police on the condominiums that went up overlooking Vauxhall last year.

"It has to be, because for years and years they never said anything about us being out here," he said.

Vauxhall, assessed at $17,000, is owned by Jess Duboy of Glen Allen. He bought the island years ago as an investment in case it could someday be developed and said a billboard visible from the 14th Street Bridge just about pays for the taxes. The squatters have never been an issue for him, he said.

"I don't have a lot of concern," he said. "They're not destroying anything. What's to destroy? My concern would be with kicking them off."

The city of Richmond has no tax records for Devil's Kitchen and representatives from the city have said they do not know who the property belongs to, if anyone.

Rachel Flynn, Richmond's director of community development, said the city has no immediate plans for either island.

Settling in for the night with a beer and a book, Borst said that news provided some solace, but he doubted the tranquillity could last long.

"Once they make me move, I'll find another camping site, I guess," he said. "But I'd prefer to be out here." Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or whester@timesdispatch.com.