Posted on 10/16/2002 9:06:52 PM PDT by Dallas
BRISBANE, Calif. --
A woman who called a 300-year-old oak tree home for more than a decade has moved into temporary housing, but her husband is staying put for now.
Thelma Caballero lived for 12 years with Besh Serdahely in the shelter they built with scrap lumber and corrugated plastic amid the roots and branches of a coastal oak in San Bruno Mountain County Park, about 10 miles south of San Francisco.
San Mateo County officials -- who knew about the couple but didn't realize they were on county land until recently -- issued an eviction notice in August.
The Shelter Network helped Caballero move into a motel room with a kitchenette late last week, and will help her find long-term housing once she decides what she wants to do, said Michele Jackson, executive director of the nonprofit group.
"It's going very well. I think she's grateful to have a more stable situation, even if it is temporary," Jackson said.
Serdahely, 58, has chosen not to leave, but Jackson said her group will help him if he changes his mind. The eviction is on hold as county officials try to find new housing for Serdahely.
Caballero, a former housekeeper who thinks she is in her 40s, receives Social Security payments because of a mental disability. She and her husband, a former laborer, met at a San Francisco soup kitchen in the late 1980s.
Their home in the oak violates health and safety ordinances, as well as a rule against people living in parks, but some consider the couple good stewards of the land. They kept up trails and welcomed schoolchildren who trekked up the mountain over the years to see a different way of living.
Their home in the oak violates health and safety ordinances, as well as a rule against people living in parks, but some consider the couple good stewards of the land. They kept up trails and welcomed schoolchildren who trekked up the mountain over the years to see a different way of living.
Sometimes, the jokes just write themselves, and all we have to do is stand around and watch it happen.
Right. Don't want to rush her since twelve years wasn't enough time.
As far as health and safety is concerned, the issue is irrelevant. They had lived there for more than a decade, and done just fine.
This is a government power issue, nothing more.
As long as they weren't harming anything, and were actually benefitting the area, ( as well as a "tourist attraction" ) they should have been either left alone, or provided with a small cottage and a salary for their services.
Now social services has an additional financial burden, ( providing housing ) and two "marginal" people will probably end up dying, mugged, raped, shot, because they can't cope with living in a city environment.
Land of the Free, My A$$.
I can imagine how high a pile of turds gets after 12 years!
I sure do pine for the days when I turned TLBSHOW into pulp.
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