Urban Myth Turns Into A Reality On The Streets of San Francisco

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | 01.03.04 | AP

[Cathryn Crawford]

Urban myth turns into a reality on the streets of San Francisco - Homeless Poet Has Shrinking Fortune

January 3, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO – One of San Francisco's enduring urban myths – the homeless man with the sizable trust fund – turned out to be more than just a figment of the collective imagination.

Lou Dinarde, 68, is a deep-pockets drifter with a drinking problem who reads poetry at North Beach cafes over coffee when he's sober.

However, he spends most of his time polishing off bottles of stronger stuff sprawled out on the sidewalk, with the knowledge he had a $700,000 trust fund in the bank.

The money came from his mother, who died in 1992 after having her assets sold to create the fund.

The cash has dwindled to $150,000, sapped by Dinarde's many stays at local hospitals after being picked up ill or injured, and by his several attempts at sobering up at rehabilitation centers, said the lawyer who helps Dinarde manage bills.

Dinarde has slept on the streets for years by choice, his lawyer said.

"I'm rich, but I like it out here. I ain't sleeping inside," said Dinarde last summer, finishing off his morning vodka in front of St. Francis of Assisi Church. "You can't make me."

His lawyer, Dennis Wishnie, has certainly tried.

Wishnie told the San Francisco Chronicle that he has tried to get Dinarde medical insurance, but was rejected because of pre-existing conditions related to drinking, including cirrhosis of the liver. Dinarde missed appointments to get federal disability medical insurance, the lawyer said.

Dinarde was automatically added to Medicare when he was 65.

He never breaks major laws that lead to prison, and he's not so disabled he can be committed somewhere involuntarily, Wishnie said. "He's a very sweet, very spirited guy," said the lawyer, who has managed Dinarde's money for 10 years.

Wishnie gives him a daily allotment of $80 from the fund, and has tried to put him into apartments, hotel rooms and rehab dozens of times over the years. Dinarde also gets $500 a month in Social Security.

"He just walks away, leaving the key in the door. He's like a unicorn – a magical figure," said Wishnie, who charges Dinarde a modest $1,500 annually to administer the account.

Dinarde has been homeless for about 30 years, since he abandoned his career as a carpenter and moved to San Francisco, where he wanted to write poetry.

Once, 10 years ago, he got a North Beach flat, which he shared with his wife, Kate. The flat caught fire, Wishnie said, and the couple went back to living in the streets.

They were together for 15 years, until his wife died five years ago of a bacterial infection. Wishnie said Dinarde still mourns her "as if she had died yesterday."

Dinarde, who is once again at a rehabilitation center, said he's working on new poetry, but wasn't ready to share it yet.

Instead, he offered up a few verses from one of his favorites, Lord Byron:

"I have not loved the world, nor the world me . . . ," he recited. "I stood among them, but not of them, in a shroud of thoughts which were not their thoughts."

Copyright 2004 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

[Restore]

Dinarde missed appointments to get federal disability medical insurance, the lawyer said.

Whew! The taxpayers dodged that one.

[patton]

Hmmmm...which of of you is the drunk writer, and which one is the sober editor?

[biffalobull]

Can't help but wonder how much of that $700,000 went into the lawyers pocket?

Slimer, Slimer, bad, bad, how would you even dare to think that.

[CatoRenasci]

I don't think I could ever be teetotal. One side of my family was teetotal for several generations, the other side has owned wineries for 500 years. As a result, I grew up with alcohol (wine almost exclusively, with a little cognac) available, but with the example of some family members who drank wine with meals and some who didn't. Those who did drink wine, were almost never noticeably high. My teetotal relatives took the view it was a choice, and my teetotal grandmother's comment was that if everyone drank the way my father's family did, no Christian could ever complain of it. It was the whiskey drunks and families ruined by demon rum she'd seen in the South and the rural West that had turned her dry.

[Cathryn Crawford]

We could be both at different times - but he may give you a different story. ROFL

[SamAdams76]

A homeless man with a lawyer. How heartwarming.

[Cathryn Crawford]

Doesn't it just give you warm fuzzies?

[CatoRenasci]

Actually, that means $1,500 per year, which is not very much, depending on how much time he puts into it. If this is through the estate, he may get a fixed fee, a percentage fee or an hourly fee. My guess is it's a fixed fee and he doesn't really make much on this. My trust and estates partner has a number of cases where he administers "spendthrift" trusts for clients with middle aged or older adult children who cannot manage their own affairs. Some of them he doesn't even bill, we write it off as pro bono work, others he breaks even on. It's not a lucrative part of his practice.

[FITZ]

No --- only $1800 a year --- It seems that's what the bum pays the lawyer to manage his money and give him what he wants every day out of it --- and maybe look over him a little. Otherwise he probably knows he'd use it all up too quickly.

[patton]

"Whisky drunks?" Uh-oh.

[CatoRenasci]

Everyone needs a lawyer....

I mean, you should want that he has an undertaker instead?

[adam_az]

Please go look up the word "annual" then redo your math. ;)

[freedumb2003]

"charges Dinarde a modest $1,500 annually to administer the account"
>>$18,000 a year to 'manage' a $150,000 account"

---

an·nu·al ( P ) Pronunciation Key (ny-l)
adj.
Recurring, done, or performed every year; yearly: an annual medical examination.
Of, relating to, or determined by a year: an annual income.
Botany. Living or growing for only one year or season.

n.
A periodical published yearly; a yearbook.
Botany. A plant that completes its entire life cycle in a single growing season.

[Middle English annuel, from Old French, from Late Latin annulis, ultimately from Latin annus, year. See at- in Indo-European Roots.]

---

month·ly ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mnthl)
adj.
Occurring, appearing, or coming due every month: a monthly meeting; monthly rent payments.
Continuing or lasting for a month.

adv.
Once a month; every month.

[P.O.E.]

Who, me? I never drink....

...."Wine"

[martin_fierro]

The cash has dwindled to $150,000, sapped by Dinarde's many stays at local hospitals after being picked up ill or injured, and by his several attempts at sobering up at rehabilitation centers, said the lawyer who helps Dinarde manage bills. . . .
"I'm rich, but I like it out here. I ain't sleeping inside," said Dinarde last summer

As a hapless drunk on the streets of 'Frisco, pal, you won't be "rich" for long.

[FITZ]

He could have been a hapless drunk in the Senate and he'd be making a lot of money guaranteeing his wealth for many more years.

[pabianice]

"I'm rich, but I like it out here. I ain't sleeping inside," said Dinarde last summer, finishing off his morning vodka in front of St. Francis of Assisi Church. "You can't make me."

Another Liberal success story...

[PAR35]

$18,000 a year to 'manage' a $150,000 account.

Annually means "per year". So $1500 annually is $1500 per year, not $18,000.

[slimer]

A lawyer taking advantage of a homeless person? ... What the hell was I thinking? ;>)

[paul51]

OOps. Sorry. My mistake. My lawyer hate mode kicked in too early and blinded me.