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By Jeff Hansel

The Post-Bulletin 

LIVING ON THE EDGE
In the overnight hours of Jan. 11, temperatures hovered near 23 degrees as Ricky Chilson slept outside in the woods.

He had built a shelter a short walk from a Rochester bike trail, draping a green tarp on four sticks, with a stick in the middle to make a sort of roof. Inside, Chilson used a coffee can as a stove to keep warm, with other cans strung together on a pipe to funnel the heat toward him from the fire. He believes deep slumber came because of medicine for mental illness.

"I've had schizophrenia through the years, off and on," he said recently from the Olmsted County Jail after being arrested on a charge of domestic assault.

Chilson has been homeless off and on for nearly 40 years. His life illustrates some of the characteristics often seen among the homeless population: He struggles with mental illness, he has a criminal record -- including a conviction for failing to register as a sex offender -- and he is a veteran.

And, on his 51st birthday, he experienced another ever-present danger for those who live on the streets: severe injury directly related to his homelessness.

Chilson awoke to the realization he was burning. His warming-stove fire had spread to the makeshift shelter and engulfed his clothing.

"When I woke up, I just had no shoes, and my pants were burnt. All I had left was my belt. It looked just like a Tarzan suit," he said. A motorist called 911 when Chilson stumbled onto West River Parkway. He was taken to a Twin Cities burn center for treatment of burns over 40 percent of his body.

At least three people during the past several years have died homeless in Rochester of cold, alcohol, violence and mental illness. Chilson nearly became a fourth.

Chilson eventually returned to Rochester. But if he goes back to the streets from prison -- earlier this month he received a 15-month prison sentence for failing to register as a predatory offender -- he doesn't plan to stay in Minnesota.

"Because of my injury, I can't feel my feet if I get cold," he said.