When Jerry is asked to describe himself, he pauses – long enough that you feel the weight of the years behind the silence. Finally, he says, “Father.” Another pause. “Hard worker.”
Those two words once built his whole life.
Jerry takes a photo at Jerrold Commons in San Francisco.
Jerry met his wife 36 years ago in San Francisco, where he raised four kids – one daughter and three sons. Two weren’t biologically his, but he raised them anyway. “They call me dad because they want to,” he says with pride. A Louisiana boy at heart, he and his wife escaped the city and bought 40 acres in Lake County, investing in a future they thought would last forever. “Life was good,” he remembers.
A carpenter and a heavy equipment operator, Jerry lights up when he talks about his machines, “I love moving earth; leaving a mark.”
But seven years ago, the fires came and erased everything - the land, the home, and the life they built. After that, Jerry and his wife bounced from place to place. Then, his truck was repossessed. By January, he was back in San Francisco, homeless with nowhere to go.
Jerry shares that his wife and their daughter live in Dublin. Alzheimer's and dementia have taken much of her memory. His sons don’t know he’s homeless. “They think I’m doing something different,” he says. “I don’t want them worrying.”
Since the fires, Jerry’s body has broken under the stress, suffering from four heart attacks, three strokes, open-heart surgery, and a spinal disease that’s left him in a wheelchair.
“I’m trying to be who I’ve always been,” he says, “But I can’t get housing. I can’t get anything.”
Jerry has never used drugs or drunk alcohol, yet he slips through every system meant to help. Now a Homebridge client, his needs are simple and urgent – necessities like clothes and pants that most people never have to think twice about. Unfortunately, the Client Care Fund, a pool of money for our clients’ needs, is depleted.
A man who once built homes and shaped the earth is now fighting for the most fundamental pieces of dignity. Jerry spent his life leaving a lasting mark on others; now it's our turn to ensure his legacy includes the care he deserves.
