Feeling Heat of Homelessness

Barbara Leon looked at the clock at 10:35 a.m. Wednesday. She had a home for another 25 minutes.

“Now my fears have come upon me,” she said as she hefted a hamper full of clothes into her car at the Travelodge in Anaheim.

Leon, like several other Travelodge guests, had been staying at the Stanton Avenue motel since a fire Saturday at her former home, Anaheim National Inn.

The blaze displaced almost 40 men, women and children. They’ve been staying at nearby hotels courtesy of the American Red Cross, which also provided food vouchers and emergency clothing.

But that support ran out Wednesday morning for most of the residents, leaving many to scramble to find a place to live. While some have enough money to find new homes or may even move back into the still-smoky Anaheim National Inn, many were unsure where they would sleep Wednesday night.

Their situation mirrors the lives of 5,000 to 6,000 people near or below the poverty line who live in motels in Orange County. Because of their low income, they are never far from homelessness, local officials said. Although most residents received refunds from the Anaheim National Inn for their prepaid rooms, many could not go to work while trying to salvage their belongings, evaporating their thin economic cushions.

“I haven’t had time to cry about the fire yet. I have to figure out what we’re going to do,” said one mother of three who asked that her name not be used. She said she had not been to her receptionist job since the fire. “If I cry, my babies will know we’re in trouble, and they don’t need to know that.”

Investigators are still trying to determine what caused Saturday’s fire, which burned much of the attic above the second floor of the motel, in the 2700 block of Lincoln Avenue.

While Red Cross and Fire Department officials say most of the rooms are safe to move back into, many residents are unsure if they want to return--even though, at $185 a week, the motel offers one of the best bargains in Anaheim, they say.

“I don’t feel safe there anymore,” said Dixie Hutchins, 80, as she strapped her husband’s wheelchair into their 1986 pickup. The truck’s bed was already overflowing with their possessions, including telephone books and cans of spaghetti sauce.

But Hutchins could be considered one of the lucky ones. She and her husband, Franklin, have enough money to get a room at another motel, and most of their belongings were not damaged by the fire. Most residents had to flee their rooms without taking many belongings and are unsure whether they can afford to pay for housing and replace their lost possessions.

Victims Are Facing Uncertain Futures

Several churches and charities are stepping forward to help the fire victims. But while Leon is hopeful of aid, she said she is not truly expecting any--mainly because she worries no one will know where to find her. The 49-year-old mother of two, who estimated she had about $400 in cash, began looking for a new motel Wednesday morning.

While Leon has made the payments on her car and has a steady job as a security guard, she’s unsure how she will get by in May.

“I can’t worry about that right now. I’ve got too much other stuff on my mind,” she said as she loaded another suitcase in the trunk.

Theresa Smith and her roommate, Tony Hughes, are also wondering what the next weeks will bring. They had two VCRs, a television and a Playstation in their second-floor corner room at the Anaheim National Inn. They could only stand in the rain and watch as the fire, which started in the roof in the center of the second floor, crept toward their room.

“Please God, save my house, please God, save my house,” Smith remembers thinking as she watched the flames spread.

When the blaze finally reached the outer edges of the motel, Smith, 29, who fled her room wearing only a T-shirt and shorts, knew she and Hughes were “in big trouble.” When they returned to their room the next day, all they could salvage were nine T-shirts, a few sodden Playstation games and a green plastic bag full of socks and underwear.

“It might not have been much, but that was all we had,” she said tearfully Tuesday night. When times got tough for the roommates, who survive on Hughes’ $300-a-week salary as a carwash employee, they would pawn the Playstation for a few extra dollars and buy it back later when they had more money.

“Now we don’t even have that,” Smith said.

Like most of the Anaheim National Inn residents, Smith and Hughes cling to the bottom rung of the economic ladder, living from paycheck to meager paycheck. They have neither a bank account nor close family in the area. They have $90 in cash and a small pile of pennies and nickels on their motel dresser.

“No quarters,” Smith pointed out.

With that, the pair will have to try to replace their ruined clothes and possessions and tide themselves over until payday Tuesday. They are unsure where they will live in the meantime.

While Hughes knows the tricks of living on the street--such as staying in all-night laundermats, putting quarters in the dryers to keep warm--Smith has never been homeless before.

“I’m worried sick,” she said as remnants of her Denny’s dinner, obtained with her last voucher, cooled on the table.