“Mr. Sterling! Mr. Sterling! You gotta go down to Fair Oaks and Colorado! There are people sleeping on the street!”

“I know. Haven’t you ever seen that before?”

“No. My Dad’s a Doctor [implying money] and we don’t go that way.”

“When you get to college, you’ll be on your own and able to see everything that’s going on in the world.”

“I can hardly wait!”

No, this was not about the Rose Parade. Pasadena’s not like L.A., not famous for homeless on the streets. I remember when we moved to Altadena from Riverside, even more insular, and I saw in Pasadena an elderly woman in a sleeping bag on a bench near the bushes on El Molino Avenue by the side of Robinson’s Department Store which now is Target, same building. The Star News, our local paper, had run her picture sleeping on the street, and she became something of a celebrity. People felt for her, her situation, wondered about her story, about ways they might help. We had a small but active charity that provided meals and limited beds for those who have come to be called “unhoused.”

She slept on the street, maybe out of pride, maybe because there was no room for her. People sometimes brought her food. We felt protective affection. We felt she was part of the community.

She moved from place to place, maybe because of the weather, maybe because of the time of year, maybe the police urged her along. People would sometimes stop to talk with her. They would share stories of their lives, and the world we live in. She was extended family.

It was a shock, and the newspaper covered it, when her body was found, cold, stiff, lifeless, in her sleeping bag by the bushes. If I remember, we held a day of mourning.

I see cities now confronting the problem, clearing the homeless off the streets, supporting the businesses now unobstructed. They pretend they’ve solved “the problem.”