I had seen Pedro around the Castro for years, though I didn’t know him personally. He volunteered at Under One Roof, a store that raises money for AIDS organizations, and at the Country Club, the only clean and sober space in a neighborhood full of perpetually packed bars. Sometimes as I was hurrying somewhere I’d catch a glimpse of his handsome face. We always said hello to each other.

On Thursday, December 8, Pedro died alone out on Castro Street under a blanket he covered himself with for warmth against the chilly San Francisco winter. Pedro had apparently become homeless. I don’t know exactly what happened. He died in broad daylight as the tourists and the people who live in the Castro went about their daily business.

These days, people often lose awareness of the those huddled in doorways or against walls, as they rush about, faces buried in cellphones and other gadgets.

Someone did notice Pedro. Eddie Lundeen, who co-owns Mudpuppy’s Tub and Scrub (a dog grooming service) which is next door to where Pedro shivered under his blanket, told the Bay Area Reporter that he used to buy Pedro coffee and food. 

On the evening of December 8, Lundeen put a sign in his store window to express his wish “that I would have taken a moment to get to know him better.” He also placed candles and xmas decorations in the small doorway where Pedro died only hours before.

Today, after an Occupy the Castro speak-out during which we stopped to have a brief moment of silence for Pedro (see my friend Michael Petrelis’ report), some of us went to visit Lundeen, to thank him for his compassion. If you’re homeless, compassion is not something you find in abundance in the Castro or anywhere else in the city for that matter.  

Lundeen told us that members of Pedro’s family had come by earlier to see him. He said that they put flowers on the spot where Pedro died. Lundeen had taken down his memorial, but plans to put it back up on December 21. That’s the day Religious Witness with the Homeless holds its annual memorial for those who have died on the streets of San Francisco.

Lundeen plans to be at the memorial. 

The ironic thing is that even as Pedro was sleeping under his meager blanket every night, the supervisor of the Castro area was working to rob the city of about $2 million of affordable housing money that should be going to provide housing for people on our streets.

People such as Pedro.

Supervisor Scott Wiener is proposing to give away a vacant property in the Castro that, under an ordinance passed in 2002, should be sold by the city. The money from its sale would go specifically for affordable housing for the homeless. 

Under Wiener’s legislation, the land would be transferred to the Department of Public Works to build a park for the neighborhood. No money will end up in the city’s affordable housing coffers. Wiener’s reasoning? The neighbors want more green space. 

How many more people have to die on our streets before we put affordable housing above all else?

Rest in peace, Pedro.

Occupy Castro folks at the site where Pedro died