Posted on 01/03/2004 9:16:31 AM PST by 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.
The quote below is directly from the above posted article.
Wishnie, who charges Dinarde a modest $1,500 annually to administer the account.
Clueless as usual.
Both parties as they have evolved to this day disgust me.
I don't have a dog in that fight. When we classify "alcoholism" as a "mental illness," are we defining the term "alcoholism" or the term "mental illness"? I haven't got a clue. I suspect that it's as much a legal dispute as a medical question and that the stakes concern coverage for treatment or disability.
He could have done a lot more with that money and his life than be a wino bum.
At least his dead mom is paying the bills instead of the taxpayers. Bless her.
I like to refer to them as "trustafarians."
Along with two scars on his back and a note taped to his abdomen. Now THAT would have been most interesting...
Yes. South of Broadway is a totally different world. Interesting how the Trustafarians appear to be moving west into Bushwick instead of south in Satmarlandia.
Yes, I *know* that I'm easily amused... ;)
But lock them up if they committed no crime at all? Just sleeping outside shouldn't get you locked up --- and it seems like certain types have existed since time began, the Bible talks about hermits and people begging for alms. I can see how certain things could happen in your life that might make you go this route and if you just decide to become a bum but don't harm anyone --- then why should they stop you?
I am talking about forcing these types against their will once they are deemed mental deficient in the area of self care.
I am talking about institutionalizing them in a human medical hospice for life or until they are cured of what makes them homeless. If a shrink finds that they are prone to lapse then they stay in the mental hospice.
The real answer is that some people just don't work out in life.
How Christian of you? And your solution is to allow these people to stay on the streets spreading desease and violence? TB, AIDS, theft, etc.
Now say again what you disagree with me about?
Last I looked vagrancy is a crime. Secondly few of these people are "hermits". Once a body of shrinks and a judge determine that said person has no ability to make an informed choice be they so addicted or so insane as to not take care of themselves then they need be removed from the streets and cared for. Till cured or till death.
Even if not cured those people who are both insane and drug addicted usally will be treated with humanity and their removal prevents crime and the spread of illness.
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