Story said they’re from the Keys.

As Jup says, most of the people down there, are from up north.
Paticularly the Keys.

Bums living on half sunk, abandoned boats EVERYWHERE down there.
Chase their dream down there and find out how hard it is.

Everytime we’ve been there, I grab the local paper to catch up their news.
News that never makes it up north.

Couple examples:

#1.
Two brothers out fishing come upon a bail of contraband. They pull it in the boat to investigate.
One of the brothers, decides it’s coke and takes a snort.
It instantly kills him.

#2.
A guy is entering the local establishment in the lower keys when a woman in front of the place begs him for money for a beer and he declined.
After his visit and he is exiting, he walks out the door where the woman is waiting.
She shoots and kills him.

#3.
On a stay at the Kon Tiki In Islamorada, Bay side, I was enjoying my morning coffee by the water when I watched a guy get off his anchored live aboard house boat (no water, plumbing or electricity) and into his aluminum john boat w/an electric trolling motor and head to shore.
These people know where they can get to land w/o issues for supplies and work, ideally as close to their boat as possible.
Most are probably bar backs, cooks etc.
They leave their tenders there all day before returning to their boat.
I just happened to be back by the water (this time w/a cocktail) when this guy returned.
Where he landed, to his boat was probably a 1/2 mile, against wind to shore, w/wind on return.
I was surprised the batteries got him to shore and expected paddling to get him back.
He got about a 1/3 of the way back to house boat when batteries died in the tender.
He cracked a beer and drifted, while the wind took him straight to his house boat!

#4.
A trip where we had one of our boats down, we were exploring hidden canals leading into Marathon Key.
A ways back one of them we came upon a commune of people living on half sunken boats tied to trees!
There were cars and bicycles parked in a nearby clearing.
The largest boat was a 50’-ish sloop that was sitting on the bottom and listing at 10*.
People were living on it!
Think: Deliverence.

Not much surprises me down there but does make me laugh.

That’s actually pretty boss action there. Lol

If it was teenagers in the op’s story I can understand some bad decisions and want to slap the parents, but these people were no spring chickens.

We were there 2 weeks ago and it was beautiful, 100 years ago. Havana is just crumbling away and needs to be pushed into the sea. We did the tourist thing in a 55' Chevy and I was in fear of a building collapsing on us everywhere we went.

With that said, if you can wing it, go see it.