Janis Gross

Janis Gross sits quietly in a waiting room inside Dorothy’s Place in Salinas’ Chinatown with her attention pinned to a series of commercials on TV. She says watching TV is a distraction from her life as a 66-year-old homeless woman – a lifestyle she says is consuming her emotionally.

Gross can’t recall how long it’s been since she’s been without a place to call her own, but says it hasn’t been more than a couple of years. She survives on a $900 monthly social security stipend and her home at the moment is Dorothy’s, a nonprofit that offers homeless people shelter and other services like food, showers and clothing. Dorothy’s is located in the Chinatown neighborhood, which used to have Monterey County’s highest concentration of homeless people, before Salinas enforced a controversial ordinance that cleared shelters and belongings of the homeless, displacing about 200 homeless residents over the past two months. Gross has never experienced encampment living, but knows the struggle of being a woman while homeless all too well.

Gross, whose long, feathery-white hair resembles her soft and delicate demeanor, shares that she’s been a victim of domestic violence. This led to severe back and shoulder injuries and years of treatment. Years later, she’s forced to use a walker to get around. Sitting in the waiting room with about a dozen other homeless people at Dorothy’s, she talked with the Weekly about her fears and what she hopes the rest of her life will look like.

Weekly: How is it that you became homeless?

Gross: Things just went downhill after I separated from my husband. I don’t do drugs, I put myself through college, I studied psychology and bought my own house. I bought it with the money I made working for a phone company. Then I got married, but it didn’t work out and that’s when it went downhill. So when I got married I sold my house and he sold his house, and we both bought one house. When the marriage ended I lost everything. Then I broke my back and, like I said, it all went downhill.

Where do you live now?

I stay at Dorothy’s right now. It’s been maybe a week or two since I’ve been here. But I’ve had to be out here in Salinas Chinatown on the pavement before. It gets wet and cold when you don’t have a blanket. I’m nothing but grateful at Dorothy’s Place, but I’m exhausted and I’m in a lot of pain right now and I need help finding a place. I don’t know where to go. I’ve done the research, but honestly, it’s so frustrating and it’s been going nowhere.

Can you describe how it feels to be homeless?

I’m scared all the time. I carry a kitchen knife in my bag just in case. I’ve never used it, but it makes me feel safe. I’m scared and I don’t understand this lifestyle and I don’t want to learn it. I feel that if I learn it, it will be the hard way. It’s hard to explain how scary it is as a woman, and look at me, I’m old and white.

What are your possessions?

I own these two sweaters, which I got from Dorothy’s. Even my underwear is from there. It is cute, but it’s men’s underwear (laughs). I also have my documents, my backpack and my notebook where I have all the information from places that help you find housing.

What do you enjoy doing?

When I lived in Prunedale and I had my house with my ex-husband, I had dogs, rabbits, horses, two ducks. I adopted a lot of animals. I love animals. I would say that my life was always outdoors and animals were my favorite thing.

Is there something you miss having from when you were housed?

I miss having friends. The street is a hard place to meet someone that you can be friends with, especially at my age. I’m an old woman. I don’t do drugs. It’s hard to find people, in this area at least, that I can be friends with. A lot of people do drugs and are not stable… mentally. I thought about going to church to meet people there, but I don’t have money for a bus and it hurts to walk there and back.