Life’s Reality Confronts Woman, 84 : Housing: Facing eviction for non-payment of rent, hotel tenant had no choice but to move.

As the first heavy rains of the year fell last weekend, 84-year-old Florence Rutherford sat inside a cluttered, downtown hotel room sorting out her life.

Surrounded by potted plants long dead, yellowing stacks of coupons and half-done crossword puzzles, Rutherford prepared to leave the place she has called home for the last 16 years.

The owner of the Stillwell Hotel, located at 9th Street and Grand Avenue, says Rutherford owes him more than $1,700 in rent and legal fees, so he is evicting her. Repeated attempts to get the money, and to settle the matter in court, have failed, he said.

Rutherford holds firm that she does not owe the money.

On Thursday, after several days of harried phone calls and the constant threat of eviction, Rutherford’s situation was largely resolved: She has not paid the money but she has agreed to move in with her sister, Marge Cook, in Washington state.

Although the situation was resolved before Rutherford ended up on the streets, many like her are not so lucky, those who work with the elderly say.

“This is how people become homeless,” said stockbroker Marcia Elliott, who befriended the octogenarian and eventually located her sister.

Roberto Aldape, who heads the Eviction Defense Center of the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, said Rutherford’s situation is a “recurring problem” when an elderly person with diminishing mental capacity lives alone.

“You have a situation where the woman does not need to be evicted, she needs some help,” he said. “It’s more (a question) of, ‘What do we do with our elderly and how do we care for them?’ Nobody seems to want to tackle that question with relation to housing.”

Noted Elliott: “It’s not always drugged out people who become homeless, it’s (people) who don’t have anyone to protect them . . . sometimes from themselves.”

Elliott described Rutherford as a proud and fiercely independent woman, who is striving to maintain her dignity.

Although she spoke with her sister regularly, Cook never knew of Rutherford’s troubles until she received a call from Elliott.

“It really hurts to see the way she’s living,” Cook said, when she arrived in Los Angeles. “I had no idea what conditions she was living in.”

In the past, Cook tried to persuade Rutherford to live with her but Rutherford refused.

Those who know Rutherford say the matter did not escalate to this point because of money--apparently she has that. But she is increasingly disoriented and at times has turned against those closest to her--even Elliott.

For four years Elliott has been something of a guardian angel to Rutherford, helping her run errands and keeping an eye on her. But within the last year, Elliott said, Rutherford began to change.

“It’s not deliberate on her part,” Elliott said, attributing the change to old age and a touch of senility.

Friends said Rutherford became obstinate, paranoid that people were stealing from her and fearful that her telephone was tapped. Most important, she refused to pay the rent.

During the last two weeks, Elliott scrambled to find an agency or person who could help. Rutherford has no family in the area and Elliott was told by city agencies that because she is not related to Rutherford there was little she could do.

The recent housing crisis began when Rutherford did not pay September’s rent, said T.S. Gill, the hotel’s owner. In October, he filed for eviction. Court records show he had problems getting the rent from Rutherford in June, but stopped short of evicting her. This time, he says he’s owed $1,700 for five months back rent, plus legal costs.

Those who know Rutherford claim they have seen the woman with money. Others say she receives monthly checks from Social Security and SSI that should provide enough to cover the $340 monthly rent. The $340 also entitles her to linen, maid and phone service.

Gill insists the move to forcibly remove Rutherford was a last resort. “We are not interested in evicting anybody but we have no choice,” he said.

Elliott said she did not know about any of the proceedings until county marshals served Rutherford with a notice on Jan. 5 giving her five days to leave.

Rutherford seemed perplexed by the entire scenario.

“I’m not an attorney or anything. I’ve got to have somebody who know’s what they’re doing,” Rutherford said, explaining her reasons for not responding.

Last Friday morning, marshals arrived to remove Rutherford from the building. The night before, she had passed out and was taken to the hospital but was released later that night.

“She didn’t remember where she was, what her name was, what year it was,” said John McMahon, the hotel’s bartender who found her unconscious.

When the marshals learned of Rutherford’s medical problems they spoke with Gill, who agreed to hold off the eviction until marshals could contact social welfare agencies.

For Gill the experience has been both frustrating and costly.

“I lost it,” he said of the money. “I’m not getting a dime of it.”

Rutherford steadfastly insists she does not owe $1,700.

“I’m not going to pay him anything I don’t owe,” she said one day last week.

Cook and her husband are aware of the bill but are simply unable to pay, they said.

Rutherford does not have enough money in her bank account to cover the debt although she should, given the amount of her SSI and Social Security payments, friends said.

But they also said that months often went by without Rutherford going to her post office box, so the checks would pile up. Some checks are missing and Rutherford is as confused about their whereabouts as she is about her current situation.

And Rutherford still believes that she only owes two months rent. She feels even that is too much, given the things she claims people at the hotel have stolen from her. Gill denies that his employees have stolen anything from Rutherford.

In the hotel’s cafe last week, Rutherford slowly navigated her way to a table with the use of a walker. Her back humped from age, she carefully positioned herself in a booth.

Immediately the conversation turned to shoes.

“You see these shoes?” she said raising one small foot to show a shoe covered completely with Scotch tape and black electric tape.

“They’re the only thing I have to wear,” she said.

Three plastic shopping bags filled with her valuables hang from her walker. She says she is afraid to leave them in the room because someone might steal them like they stole her shoes.

She views Gill’s efforts to evict her as harassment, a ploy to get her “mad enough to blow her stack and move.”

Her mood now is one of quiet resignation.

“I always said I might go back up to Washington,” she said Thursday, while waiting to leave.

As she left the hotel friends showered her with balloons and hugs.

For a teary-eyed Elliott the goodby was both happy and sad.

“I’m going to miss her,” she said. “I’m grateful she’s going to be with her family and they’re going to protect her.”

For the others, too, life will be different without her.

“She’s like everybody’s mother,” said McMahon, the bartender. “(Her departure) is going to create a void for a lot of people.”