Tough life - but not hopeless - for homeless in Carson City

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2000 | 9:08 a.m.

Perhaps 200 people are homeless here on any given night - a small number compared with a big city such as San Francisco, where the count of homeless people runs as high as 12,500.

But the problems that Carson's homeless face in cold weather might be more severe, whether they've been forced into a day-to-day existence or have chosen a vagabond way of life.

No matter how they wound up on the streets, many of Carson's homeless who want help get it from organizations and agencies that lend a hand daily - so "homeless" doesn't equate to "hopeless."

Dale Bossert, 39, has been homeless in Carson City for a year. He has a hard time finding work, partly because he's homeless, partly because he's disabled.

He uses his left arm because a birth defect twisted his right arm to his side. Other injuries cause him to limp, and his body shakes slightly, something he says makes some people think he's an alcoholic.

Bossert insists he isn't, that the shaking started after someone once slipped a drug into a dessert he was eating.

Most of his experience has been as a ranch hand or as a custodian, jobs he wouldn't mind having again.

Bossert was born and raised in South Dakota and was living in Oklahoma before he drove his 1979 Ford pickup to Nevada about a year ago. The truck broke down in nearby Dayton.

Now Bossert depends on about $530 a month in Social Security and disability payments. He says he can afford either utility payments or rent, but, "I can't do both."

When the check comes in, he buys cigarettes, pays for meals and for as many nights at a motel as he can. When the money runs out, he's back to wandering the streets, hoping for day labor, maybe reading for a few hours at the library.

"The hardest thing about being homeless is the treatment you get," Bossert says. "Like when you go in and apply for work, or go to a restaurant and they'll sometimes give you the cold shoulder. They look at you like, 'What are you doing here?' That's the hardest."

"Employers want an address and I don't have one to give them," he said. "I wouldn't mind a custodial position. I would maybe like to drive a taxi in town here."

Bossert also said he wouldn't mind going back to South Dakota to see his family.

"They asked if I was living in a cardboard box like they do in the cities," he said. "I told them no, I was sleeping in a sleeping bag in a vacant lot."

Things are looking up for Bossert. Dee Dee Foremaster of the Carson City Center for Independent Living, which helps people with disabilities, signed him up for food stamps, medical assistance, and a waiting list for rural housing. That should mean an apartment in a few weeks.

For Foremaster it's a common routine - find the disabled on the streets, interview them, find out if they have any income, try to find a reasonably priced apartment, get the person signed up for social services and subsidized utilities.

"All the people I work with, they just want help," she said. "I tell them, just like I told Dale, 'I'm out here working for you and you need to make sure you're working hard for yourself."'

Ilona Standridge works sporadically, juggles the schedules of her three children, monitors the neighborhood kids wandering in and out of her apartment and tries to find time for herself.

Sounds like an ordinary life - but just more than a year ago she lived with her boyfriend and her children in the back of a Blazer along the Carson River.

"It's just a whole turnaround from where we were a year ago," Ilona said. "Love has had a lot to do with it, and faith and devotion and working together."

Ilona dropped out of school at 16 to marry her high-school sweetheart. Within four years, they had three kids and then split up. When she met Curtis Vadnais in 1995, she was living in a motel room. They got an apartment but lost it. So they moved to a spot on the river, where many of Carson City's homeless choose to stay.

"We did what we had to do to survive," Ilona said.

The children went to the local Boys & Girls Club after school and the family showered and ate every day through the services offered by Friends in Service Helping.

Ilona said she tried to think of life along the river as a long camping trip. The couple managed to save money, and finally moved into a trailer and then the apartment where they now live.

"I thank God right now for everything we have," Ilona said. "If it wasn't for our hard work and determination, we wouldn't have what we have."

Curtis works as a mason, laying brick. Ilona was laid off a job two weeks ago and now works for a temporary employment agency.

That makes it hard to pay the bills - but the couple has learned more than once that life will go on.

"We really don't look too far into the future. We go day by day," Ilona said. "We want our kids to have a good education. We want what's best for them."

And Curtis thinks they can do it.

"You ain't holding us back."

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