Today is Kara Zordel’s last day in her San Francisco home. The homelessness advocate recognizes the irony of the situation – she is leaving because she can no longer afford it.
Zordel, 43, is being treated for conditions including myoclonus-dystonia, a movement disorder, and seizures, and is unable to continue leading Project Homeless Connect, a major social-service organization. Her condition is so severe that her neurologist would like her to have an aide who can help her use the stairs. Her marriage has dissolved, and the rent on her 700 sq ft home, in the picturesque Bernal Heights neighborhood, is too much for one person. On Wednesday, she is moving to southern Spain, where she will have access to cheaper medical care.
“I thought I did everything right as an adult,” she said. “I worked as hard as I possibly could because I didn’t want to struggle with poverty like my family. And even doing all that you can correctly, you can still end up in a place where you’re alone and sitting here with a calculator and wondering how you can make it all work.”
It is a reminder, she says, of the thin line that separates so many people from bankruptcy and homelessness. According to a Fed survey, 46% of Americans cannot afford an emergency expense of even $400. Zordel’s own childhood was spent in poverty. Her father was a Baptist preacher, sometimes working for minimal pay. When she was six years old, Zordel recalls, she was living in a home with at least 15 other people, and her father invited a homeless family to move in. The residents had been living off pancake mix, but for the new arrivals they made a special gravy from the only meat they had access to – a dead squirrel. (It was “delicious”, Zordel said.)
Kordel’s plight is even more bitter because when she was a child, she set herself a goal of ensuring no one else would have to live in a state of such extreme want. Now she feels as though she needs a new purpose. “It leads you into a place of starting to wonder what your value is,” she said. “Every day I walk by and I see somebody sleeping on the streets and I feel personally guilty. I wish I had more energy. I wish I could do more.”
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What we published
- “My brother was homeless for 25 years. He just got an apartment. Now what?”
- In the aftermath of the California wildfires, rent appears to surge and residents report price-gouging.
- This couple is housing a homeless man in a tiny home in their back yard.
- After waiting 13 years, residents of Los Angeles get a window of only two weeks to apply for low-income housing.
Behind the scenes
Kelly Davis, our reporter in San Diego, writes:
In early October, heading to a meeting in downtown San Diego, I took a detour to say hi to Eric Arundel. You could always find him sitting in his folding chair in a corner of Fault Line Park, a rare bit of green space popular with homeless folks. But he wasn’t there. No matter, I thought; I’d have another reason soon to stop by.
I first met Eric earlier this year. He was just the kind of person reporters love: Eric seemed to know everyone, know their stories. But more than that, Eric was calm amid the surrounding chaos, and perhaps that’s what drew folks to him. Talking to him as he sat in the partial shade of a park trellis felt like you were hanging out on his front porch.
For all that, he never quite found his place in the world, his sister, Sue Hartmann, told me. He grew up in Colchester, Connecticut, did a four-year stint in the army and worked odd jobs. After his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the late 1990s, Eric became her primary caregiver; her death in 2003 hit him hard.
“That’s when he lost his way,” Sue said.
I last saw Eric in mid-August, when we discussed the hepatitis A outbreak that sent many people he knew to the hospital. He said he’d been feeling short of breath and a little weak. Those symptoms grew worse until, a couple of weeks later, friends called 911. Eric was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and moved to a hospice, where he died on 14 October at the age of 58.
One image in particular has stayed with me. Eric was a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit challenging restrictions on sleeping on the street. He told me how he’d push his sleeping bag as close as possible to the side of a building so as not to take up any space. He didn’t want to make trouble or attract attention. He just wanted to sleep.
Bookmarked
- A touching obituary for a homeless man who died because of the heat in Phoenix. [The Arizona Republic]
- How do you let the mayor of Los Angeles know that you’re angry about the lack of bathrooms available to homeless people? Occupy the ones in City Hall. [Los Angeles Times]
- In Arizona, registered sex offenders who are homeless can’t be jailed for failing to register a place of residence [Arizona Daily Sun]
- The Bay Area loses 4,700 jobs – and some say it’s linked to a lack of affordable housing. [The Mercury News]
- “Only two people have found permanent homes through Seattle’s new low-barrier shelter.” [Seattle Magazine]
- The former mayor of Houston explains how her city reduced homelessness. [San Diego Union-Tribune]
- An operation that moved hundreds of homeless people away from Salt Lake City’s main shelter was a “disaster”, says an expert. [The Salt Lake Tribune]
Last but not least
It’s a perennial question: should you give money to homeless people you pass on the street? We covered this conundrum in the case of a San Francisco woman who was panhandling with her newborn. For my own part, although it’s context-dependent, I’m inclined to say yes. Is it any of my business what the cash is used for?
In the New Statesman recently, the writer Matt Broomfield took a similar line, advising that we give “unconditionally”. He notes: “Those who think begging is a shortcut to easy money should try humiliating themselves daily in front of thousands of total strangers who won’t even look at them or acknowledge their existence.
As for drug and alcohol abuse, he cites a homeless charity staffed by former addicts. Their line of thinking is not one everyone will be able to stomach: “If your money funds the final hit, accept that the person would rather be dead. If your act of kindness makes him wake up the next morning and decide to change his life, that’s nice but not your business either.”
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