For the last 20 years of his life, Caughman lived on W. 36th Street in Manhattan, at the Barbour Hotel. The single room occupancy hotel now provides housing for people transitioning out of homelessness, but Caughman was not homeless. Svein Jorgensen, the chief executive of Praxis Housing Initiatives, which manages the Barbour, said that of the 100-odd residents, Caughman was one of the few who were actually permanent tenants and not part of the transient program.

Caughman took up can and bottle recycling to make extra money and keep busy. He used the money he made, in part, to help finance trips to Washington, DC, where he enjoyed attending congressional hearings. Caughman was searching for recyclables on the night of March 17, 2017, when he had a fatal encounter with 28-year-old James Jackson.