A veteran, and himself a father of two grown boys, Tyrone has, for two years, made his regular home outside a newly-closed health clinic near Van Ness where he lives with Charease, his partner and friend of 14 years.
Tyrone is a long-time resident of the Bay Area—Vallejo and San Francisco. The blonde Charease hales from the Bayview. They are an attractive, slim, and muscular couple, wearing baseball caps and matching blue outfits. Both are polite, intelligent, and warm.
Tyrone is self-effacing, respectful and well spoken. I occasionally embarrass his natural humility by agreeing with one of his high school teachers that he has “leadership qualities.”
Tyrone became homeless after a career as a cross-country trucker. He made good money and loved traveling. He described with great pleasure the mountain peaks at sunrise.
While he was traveling, a cousin ran up $7,000 in tickets on a second truck. After Tyrone didn’t pay the fine someone else had run up, the Vallejo Department of Public Works suspended his license for three years. He lost his excellent income and ended up on the street with Charease. Relatives occasionally help. “Next month, hopefully—God’s will—I will be able [after three years to] get my Class A commercial driver’s license back so I can go back to driving trucks.”
“I’ve got résumés. I got a good work record.” However, he is “taking a day at a time on that particular future. He must, “come up with the money to get the license and the physical.” Also, he has to re-take the test. Since his recycling earnings—$25 to $50 a night—cover only his food, he needs help with costs totaling $300.
Recently, Tyrone reported he had twice been a victim of theft by San Francisco Department of Public Works employees. Two men showed up in a truck ordering him to move. Tyrone had obtained permission to stay on the site of a recently-closed clinic from the clinic manager, building owners, and their security guards. But he avoided a confrontation and temporarily relocated his belongings—a shopping cart, and bedding.
“The following day, I went to get something to eat.” Gone under 15 minutes, “I come back, and the same two Department of Public Works (DPW) workers had all my stuff [piled on their truck] and were laughing at me.”
A week later, “the same guys struck again.
“‘Man, it’s my stuff. Why can’t it get it back?’
“He said, ‘Well, once he puts it on the truck, he can’t take it off.’
“I said, ‘But you know, it’s mines.’
“’I don’t want to lose my job.’
“‘Who’s going to know?’
“He was just being a jerk about it.”
He questioned DPW workers’ removing anything because, “This is private property. I felt they had no right to bother me.” They claimed the owner must pay them for the pick-up. That didn’t make sense when the owner could hire a private company.
The DPW worker said the SFPD sent him. But an officer told Tyrone the police show up first or along with DPW. There were no police in sight.
“They are not law enforcement officials.” Only the SFPD have authority for property confiscation.
He guessed they took everything to the dump.
Tyrone understood they had no right to take his things, but he knows the drill. “I could go to civil court,“ but “that’s just a lot of paperwork.”
“I should be reimbursed. All our personal belongings, everything we had they took… clothes, bedding, my cell phone, her cell phone…all our belongings!” including a $125.00 air mattress that protected their sleeping bones from the concrete. Tyrone earns only food money from back-breaking recycling work. “I’ll never accumulate no more stuff like that.”
Nights are cold. “We have no blankets. I’m having back problems sleeping on hard cement.”
He is, “in a bad space.” Insecure about the last bit of stuff disappearing, he seldom leaves it alone.
There is mental suffering. “Dealing with this takes a toll on a relationship.”
Tyrone plans to approach the Private Industry Council about a $300 grant to cover his trucking re-certification costs. I remind him of his intelligence and “leadership qualities.” A shy grin. “End of the interview,” he kids.
Carol