Last year, after her husband of 23 years died of COVID-19, Carmen Marquez fled a violent village in Venezuela with her teenage daughter and made it to the sanctuary city of San Francisco.
On Monday, she was released from the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, after surviving homelessness and bacterial meningitis, which led to the amputation of her leg and 9 fingers, with no permanent housing in which to recover and rebuild her life. If San Francisco had a more robust placement program for people seeking asylum, perhaps Marquez’s story would have played out differently according to a church-based advocacy group.
Faith in Action Bay Area, is a network of religious congregations that do charitable work and community organizing to preserve “human dignity for all.” In a press conference at the hospital Monday, they said the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing is sending Marquez and her 15-year-old daughter back to the same type of congregate shelter where she was living when she contracted the disease.
Matt Alexander, the group’s spokesperson, said that Marquez’s case was an extreme consequence of a common problem. It is the type of catch 22 situation that many asylum seekers fall into and that cities everywhere struggle to resolve.
“People are here legally seeking asylum, but it can take up to 9 months to receive a work permit,” he said.
Without a way to earn a living, Marquez worked the odd cash job. She was living in a congregate shelter near the Buena Vista Horace Mann School in the Mission when she contracted the disease.
“They need a transitional space in order to get themselves established,” Alexander said. He described the kind of housing where people can get support services and help finding work, rather than a basic shelter.
“Instead, they end up on these long waiting lists because the city doesn’t have enough shelter space,” he said.
“We are very aware of this case, and this is a tragic situation,” the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said in an email.
“We have not had any reports of an outbreak at any of our city funded shelters and we cannot substantiate the claim that her infection developed because of conditions at a shelter. Additionally, HSH works closely with the social workers who manage discharge from hospitals and skilled nursing facilities to identify the best possible placement for homeless patients upon discharge. The family, social workers and HSH placement team will review all possible shelter and/or housing placements and work with the family to determine which placement will best meet their needs.”
‘A little bit of human sensitivity’
Alexander said Marquez was part of a group of recently arrived migrant families that had been working with Faith in Action to do some community organizing. On March 7th they had a big community meeting in the Mission, and she got sick the following week.
Marquez’s social worker said she appealed to the Department of Homelessness for permanent housing, but the appeal was rejected. In congregate housing they have shared bathrooms and little privacy for her recovery.
The hospital did not allow Marquez to leave the building for Monday’s press event, so Marquez created a video:
“All I ask is that you have a little bit of human sensitivity, that you feel empathy for me and that you help me and my daughter to get a safe, stable and permanent place,” Marquez said from her hospital bed. “I want this to reach governmental entities such as the mayor and others who participate in the city so that they support me on this long road that I have to travel, in my recovery from this disease that I have been given.”
Alexander admitted that Marquez is only getting this attention because she’s part of a community organization.
“We’re concerned about people that may not have those connections,” he said.
“Our office was horrified to hear what happened to Carmen,” said Melissa Hernandez, spokesperson for San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston. “We just found out about this situation recently. I am working to get more information about why her request was rejected but waiting for more at this point.”
Alexander said San Francisco has some of the best services of any county in the Bay Area to support homeless families.
“Our voters spend over $600 million a year in the city,” he said. “People don’t want to see children sleeping in the streets. We are a compassionate city. I think this is not so much a question of there not being resources, but how the resources are being used effectively to do what they’re intended.”
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