Thomas, 55, grew up in San Diego. He went to several different high schools because it was the era of busing kids around the county to better integrate students of different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
After graduation he worked at several jobs and ended up as a marketing manager for a technical college.Then he developed lung cancer. He credits his supervisors with great compassion, trying to limit his work load and allowing for long absences. But the chemotherapy just beat the energy out of him, he said. “I couldn’t keep up. They were real good to me, but I didn’t have the energy. After chemo, I couldn’t get out of bed. It felt like I was sicker than before.”

Now he’s on permanent disability, but he lost his job, his home and his car to medical bills.
“Just trying to survive is a 24/7 job,” Thomas said. “There’s no showers, no public bathrooms.”

More than anything he misses the ability to have a good hot meal, specifically steak, or eggs and potatoes for breakfast. There’s no way to cook food on the street, though they’ve tried to make small fires. Butane or propane stoves require being able to replace exhausted canisters and find safe ways to dispose of used ones. So they rely on the hand-out meals at churches, and the “drive-by” meals offered by others who pull up to the curb once in a while offering food.

Each Monday he dutifully moves his camp away from the freeway bridge he occupies so it can be swept clean by city crews. Ironically, he only moved his mountain-high cart of belongings three blocks away to a spot in front of the building where he lived for 11 years. “The property manager lets me do that because he’s a nice guy. That’s about all he can do for me, but I appreciate that much, for sure,” Thomas said.