A Crippled Youth’s Life on the Streets

Jose Andrade’s background is murky. Even his age--17 by his count, 19 according to a friend--is a matter of dispute.

But people who know him agree on these basic facts: He is an illegal alien, probably from Ensenada. He is crippled by polio. Until a wheelchair was donated to him several months ago, he got around on a skateboard. He is homeless and has lived on the streets of downtown Los Angeles for about two years.

Despite an offer of temporary shelter over the weekend, Andrade is still in the open, where he apparently feels safer than being pinned down in a hotel room.

Familiar Figure to Many

Andrade’s refusal of shelter last Friday--after workers at the Inner City Law Center spent the day trying to help him--was the latest round in a long-running saga of the mysterious Mexican youth who has become a familiar figure to many in downtown Los Angeles. He is particularly well-known along Broadway, where he darts in his blue wheelchair from his normal sleeping cranny in the alley behind a glass-and marble-skyscraper several blocks away.

He has survived by selling toy cars, by begging and through the help of Catholic Church-affliated social service workers, business-people and retail workers in the area who have befriended him with regular donations of food and clothing.

He clearly has charmed many.

“He’s got a fantastic character--always up, always smiling,” said Brother Phil Mandile, director of Angels Flight Runaway Youth Center, where Andrade has been a regular visitor for about 1 1/2 years and which helped him get a wheelchair. “He’s just such a neat guy. Even though he’s too old for our services, we just can’t let him go,” Mandile said, explaining that technically the day center, funded by the Los Angeles archdiocese, isn’t supposed to help anyone over 17.

“He always has a smile--a really happy guy,” said Myung Kyun Kim, a Korean restaurant owner who frequently gives Andrade meals.

But Andrade’s personality hasn’t conquered reality.

“He does not qualify for any (public) aid program because he is an illegal,” Mintie said. Andrade was turned down by shelters for a number of other reasons too, she said, including being either too young, too old or because the shelters had no facilities for handicapped people.

Tomorrow morning, Mintie and workers at the St. Francis Center, which provided the vouchers for Andrade’s room, will meet to see if they can come up with a longer term solution. But Mintie is not optimistic. “At this point we’re kind of at the end of our rope for long-term solutions,” she said.

Drop in Income

Andrade himself seems to be a realist as well as a charmer. During an interview and a tour of his haunts last week, Andrade said his wheelchair (“It’s got a two-year warranty”) and relatively clean clothes--which are washed by a Nicaraguan woman who works at a Broadway magazine stand--have cut into his panhandling income.

“People think I get assistance because I’m always clean,” he said through an interpreter, Martha Lopez, who works in a jewelry store. “Business was better when I had my skateboard. I used to make about $100 a week. If I get up early and I really try hard, I can make about $70 (a day) but it’s hard on my arms getting around that much.”

Los Angeles police officer Guadalupe Ruvalcaba, who patrols Broadway on foot, said he frequently has warned Andrade against begging over the last 18 months. “I always tell him not to put his hand out,” he said, adding, “I feel for him.”

Andrade said he contracted polio at age three and fled to the United States about two years ago because he feared his family, with its 13 children, was about to throw him out or have him institutionalized. “I wanted to escape. . . . My friends would tell me to just go, go to the U.S. I would get a chair and be better off,” he said.

Checks on Andrade’s background by Angels Flight workers found that the youth was frequently treated for his polio at a San Diego hospital and that his mother took him back and forth across the border frequently for those treatments, said John Knickrehm, a former Angels Flight worker who has known Andrade for about two years. Andrade has has more than 10 operations to repair damage to his legs from the disease, he added, noting that Angels Flight arranged for another operation here late last year. Knickrehm said hospital records he had seen indicated that Andrade is 19, not 17 as he claims to be.

Streak of Independence

Although everyone who knows him spoke of his good humor, Knickrehm said Andrade’s stubbornness and streak of independence are partly the reasons he has remained on the street. Andrade once left a shelter for runaways after only a few days because of arguments with other residents, he explained.

“It’s hard for him to fit into a lot of structure,” Knickrehm said. “He was in this house and he had trouble with a couple of kids. . . . His temper has messed him up.” But Knickrehm also believes that Andrade’s self-reliance eventually could help him build a stable life.

“If he got into a situation where he could learn a trade, he would jump at it. He’s very independent and doesn’t need a lot of help,” Knickrehm said. And Knickrehm added that “Jose is one of the rich memories I have” from his time as an Angels Flight worker. When he and his wife had their first child last April, Andrade gave the baby boy a toy car, he said.

Brother Mandile and other social service providers see a host of other reasons why Andrade is still on the streets.

His illegal alien status, which Andrade freely admits, is a major roadblock, they said, because many agencies for the homeless can’t legally provide assistance to non-citizens.

Eventually, Knickrehm predicted, life on the streets is bound to take its toll. “The longer he stays on the street, the shorter his chances are,” he said.

Mintie agreed that the outlook for Andrade is not good. “People out here get mugged for their crutches and their shoes,” she said.

Andrade was less glum about his future. “What can I do?” he said with a shrug. “I feel happier than most people I see on the street. I have no reason to be sad.”