At an annual vigil held last Dec. 21 on the cold and windy first night of winter, the names of people who died homeless in the District in 2008 were read aloud. The name Orin Andrus was among them, although it was spelled on the list as Orin Andres.
The news came as a sad shock to his colleagues at Street Sense, where Andrus had been a vendor before resigning late in the summer. A tall lanky fellow, Andrus was fondly remembered as a “gentle giant” who loved gardening.
Street Sense was recently surprised again – this time in a good way – to learn that Andrus is alive and well, despite having been listed as deceased last year.
And the effort to untangle how this happened revealed some important things about the impact of anonymity and rootlessness in the lives – and deaths – of homeless people.
In preparing the story about the Dec. 21 vigil, Street Sense found that details about Andrus’ reported death were sketchy. According to an advocate who helped collect names for the memorial list, Andrus was reportedly found dead at 11th and G streets, NW. That had been the very corner where he had sold his papers.
Calls to city agencies for further details, including the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, went unreturned as the Christmas Eve issue of Street Sense went to press.
And on March 4, Andrus walked into the Street Sense office, hearty and tan.
“I’m not dead,” he announced. He was carrying a shopping bag containing Cuddles, his cherished toy stuffed cat, along with his birth certificate and other documents.
“This is all my stuff to prove I’m alive,” explained Andrus, 46.
A Cause for Celebration
He said that after he left Street Sense he had found well-paying landscaping work out in Arlington, Va., earning enough to rent himself a small room.
When a friend told him about the Dec. 24 Street Sense article reporting him dead, Andrus laughed. But he decided he needed to come back and set the record straight.
“I think it was a mistake,” said Andrus. “I feel pretty good for a dead man.”
Andrus’ surprise return was a cause for celebration at the newspaper office. But it was also a haunting reminder of the difficulties of keeping track of homeless people, both in life and in death.
Living in Plain View, Anonymously
For homeless people and the people who work with them, it’s a complicated matter. Some homeless people don’t want to be named or found. Some are estranged from families or ashamed to be homeless, or in flight from justice or from abuse. Many have no identification, because it is so easily lost or stolen.
Street Sense has no formal system of keeping track of vendors and former vendors, who are not employees but independent contractors.
And their lives, like the lives of many other poor and homeless people, are often transient. Many are not reliably reachable by telephone or mail. They do not always contact the newspaper when they move on to a new job, enter a hospital or rehabilitation program, or serve time in jail.
During his March 4 visit, Andrus said he would have liked to let Street Sense know how he was doing but it was difficult while working in Virginia. “I worked ten hours a day, six days a week. I had a cell phone and it got stolen,” he said.
Remembering the Deceased
National Homeless Persons’ Memorial events such as the local vigil have been held nationwide every year since 1990, to remember the homeless people whose lives and deaths might otherwise go without any public recognition. The observances are cosponsored by a number of homeless advocacy organizations including the National Coalition for the Homeless.
Vigils are typically observed the evening of December 21, the first night of winter and the longest night of the year. The 2008 D.C. vigil memorialized 52 people believed to have died in the District and Alexandria, Va. during the year, including Andrus. The event was one of nearly 100 held throughout the country.
The names that are read aloud at the D.C. homeless vigil are garnered from a number of nonprofit groups who serve the homeless, and compiled by the National Coalition for the Homeless, which is a sponsor of the event.
Mary Ann Luby of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, who helps gather names for the memorial event, said she got Andrus’ name from an investigator at the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Luby said she checked with the investigator again this month and her source insisted that an Orin Andres, spelled with an E, not a U, did indeed die.
The investigator did not return calls from Street Sense for this story, but in an interview, another official at the medical examiner’s office, who asked not to be named, said she could find no record of Andrus’ name, spelled either Andres or Andrus, in the office system.
The official said it would be impossible to confirm the other names on the memorial list due to privacy restrictions.
“There is absolutely no way,” the official said.
In high-profile or public cases, the office is allowed to inform the press of the cause and manner of death. In many other cases however, the official said “telling about the death would be an invasion of privacy.”
Anonymous – Even in Death
The efforts that go into collecting names for the annual memorial vigils are no substitute for a more formal system of gathering the names of people who have died while homeless, said National Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Michael Stoops.
“We need a better system of keeping track of people who died homeless,” said Stoops. But the task is just one more of the challenges of helping people who live and sometimes die in the shadows.
“When you are a homeless person, your life can be anonymous. Your death can also be anonymous. No one will know if you pass away.”
Over the years, Stoops has often been called upon to identify the bodies. It’s a difficult task, he said “especially when it’s someone you know.”
The List Goes On
Names for the 2009 memorial vigil are already being collected. Three days after the 2008 vigil, the body of local homeless man Yoshio Nakada was found in Foggy Bottom, apparently bludgeoned to death as he slept outdoors.
The official from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said autopsies are still being completed on Byron Alexander, who was reportedly found dead Feb. 1 at North Capitol Street and Florida Ave., and Ellen Gong, whose body was found Feb. 5 at 14th Street and New York Ave. in Northwest.
A third homeless person, a 50-yearold white male, was found dead on March 9 at 13th and Perry Streets in Northeast, according to Luby. And a fourth, named Robert Pryor, about 52, was found alive on Sixth Street, NW on March 1, she said. But on March 10, he also died.
Alive and Well and Working Hard
On his recent visit to Street Sense, Andrus enjoyed a doughnut with his friends and then decided he had better get back to Virginia. He is anxiously awaiting spring, and more gardening and landscaping work.
“I’ll probably be planting trees and flowers,” he said with a smile. He promised to stay in touch.
