By Camille T. Taiara

Mel Beetle, Bobby Bogan, Joanne Smith, and Ron Lasher are all in their 60s and were recently homeless. But the four friends share more than their experience as seniors struggling to survive on the streets of San Francisco. They also share a vision: to found a housing cooperative for elderly and disabled adults.

"There's nobody speaking up for the seniors," lamented Lasher, who's 65 and legally blind and who lost his home of 26 years when the Salvation Army decided to demolish a single-room occupancy hotel in the Tenderloin (See "Down but Not Out," 5/14/03).

So they got together three months ago and formed Seniors Organizing Seniors. The plan is still in its early stages, but it basically entails lobbying the city to donate one of its abandoned buildings to the project and highlighting the harsh living conditions faced by homeless seniors.

To publicize their quest, they've begun writing letters to ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and key TV personalities in the hope that someone will help with the necessary renovations and funding. Regardless of whether they actually gain the support of Oprah or Dr. Phil, their vision addresses a dire need among SF's elderly poor: a place they can afford where they can access the services they need without fear of being evicted, abused, or ignored.

Advocates say only 10 shelter beds remain that are specifically set aside for homeless seniors – who number at least 300, probably more. Mayor Gavin Newsom's Care Not Cash initiative gives shelter bed priority to people on city-paid General Assistance, from whose checks the city deducts money for shelter. Those who don't qualify for city welfare payments – like seniors (who tend to receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income benefits) and immigrants without green cards (most of whom are ineligible for government benefits) – are sometimes left with no place to go.

Those who don't receive a placement must wait in line, outdoors for much of the day, missing meals, in the hope of getting a bed for the night, then make their way from a central registration point to the shelter.

"The setup, whereby you have to go sign up, then they provide no transportation, is a real mess," Senior Action Network (SAN) housing organizer Barbara Blong told the Bay Guardian. "Newsom has always insisted he wants to get rid of the shelters," so he hasn't done much to address problems at the shelters, she said.

Dariush Kayhan, the mayor's director of housing and homeless services, did not return our call for comment.

SOS has already achieved some small victories. Late last month, staff at the Sanctuary, a South of Market homeless shelter operated by Episcopal Community Services, kicked more than a dozen senior women out into the rain at 8 a.m. SOS helped them march to City Hall, where James Keys, a volunteer at Sup. Chris Daly's office, got on the phone to Joyce Crumb, deputy director of housing and homeless programs.

Crumb negotiated an agreement with ECS whereby the Sanctuary would remain open 24 hours a day beginning immediately, rather than in November, when it normally switches to round-the-clock operations for the rainy season.

Now "you can sit on your bed [during the day], but you can't lie down," Maureen Christenberry, one of the women turned out that day, told us.

Christenberry is just the kind of person SOS aims to help. Sixty-two years old, handicapped, and recovering from a collapsed lung that put her in the hospital for two months, she was lucky enough to receive a 90-day placement at the Sanctuary. But she complains about conditions there and feels like she needs someone to advocate for her.

Michelle King, a Sanctuary tenant who's helped care for seniors in the shelter system in recent years, also testified to seeing abusive behavior directed at the elderly.

"They don't treat seniors with any respect," she told us, adding that she'd seen staff "belittle" and "yell at" a 73-year-old woman who was recently relocated to a nearby SRO, and whom she still checks in on to this day.

Smith, another SOS cofounder, spent time in A Woman's Place shelter before it was closed down in the summer to make space for a condo high rise. She reported seniors slept on thin mats on a concrete floor – with "no pillow, no sheets" – and were roused at 6 a.m., then had to lug their belongings with them wherever they went.

"I'm a little more feisty, a little more take-care-of-my-own-self," she said. "Some of the other women get intimidated. If they know someone's stealing from them, they won't turn them in, because they're scared of getting beat up."

ECS executive director Ken Reggio drew a dramatically different picture of the shelters under his care: "We take a lot of pride in the way our staff treats clients," he told us, adding that they participate in extensive trainings and that complaints are investigated by the site manager the very day they're filed. But he understands the SOS mission.

"A shelter is not the best place for seniors to be," Reggio acknowledged. He estimates ECS has placed more than 20 seniors into permanent housing at SRO hotels in the past one-and-a-half months. Indeed, Beetle, Bogan, Smith, and Lasher have all been placed in SROs.

But they, and other seniors like them, pay at least half, and up to two thirds, of their incomes in rent for a small room with no private bathroom or kitchen. That doesn't leave much for food, medicine, a phone, and other necessities. And advocates worry seniors who have trouble with mobility could have a hard time accessing food or medical care without someone checking in on them.

"When they get the elderly into an SRO, they need to set up a support system and make it easier for people to visit," said King, who's had trouble contacting her 73-year-old friend who moved to a nearby SRO.

The city, SAN's Blong told us, has failed to unify services for impoverished seniors under one roof. SOS, on the other hand, wants to charge just $200 a month, involve residents in running the place, and hire professional staff as needed to provide in-home services.

Or as Bogan put it, "We got to return some dignity to our elderly people."

E-mail Camille T. Taiara at camille@sfbg.com.