Without Rancor, He Hopes for a Better Future
Staff photo by Ted Reckas Felipe Ruiz is one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Laguna Beach. By 8 a.m. on weekdays, homeless people such as Felipe (Phil) Ruiz find coffee and dayold pastries delivered for their consumption to Laguna Beach's blufftop jewel, Heisler Park.
At 9:30 a.m., a local church congregant swings by with already prepared sack lunches. Inside, Ruiz finds the typical contents includes at least two sandwiches of lunch meat and cheese, a pastry, some fruit, a bottle of water and sometimes a chocolate treat.
After spending four hours earlier this week at South Coast Medical Center's emergency ward for treament of an epileptic seizure, where he was injected with Dilantin, Ruiz returned to his familiar outdoor sleeping place near Heisler Park's bowling green, not far from the coffee and lunch delivery. He returned on his own by bus to familiar scenario. He has no medication or disability insurance.
Ruiz is one of five plaintiffs in the recent lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against the city of Laguna Beach, its police and elected officials, challenging the constitutionality of local ordinances that forbid camping on public grounds. The city's attorney announced the initiation of settlement talks last week.
Occasionally Ruiz, who was born in 1961 and has five brothers and sisters, manages the threehour bus ride to Wilmington to see his four adult children and the woman he refers to as his ex-wife, though they never officially married. They have six grandchildren.
Ruiz' seizures prevent him from being rehired as an auto body repairman, he said, "Because there is a lot of metal and machines there. If I had a seizure it could hurt someone."
Last Monday after Ruiz experienced hiccups, a precursor to a seizure, while sipping morning coffee, his partner Dino Lauretti called for emergency help and stayed with his friend until police, fire and ambulance workers arrived. Besides the service personnel at the park, "There were also tourists taking pictures," said Lauretti. The fullblown seizure occurred in the ambulance ride en route to the hospital.
Lauretti, who is somewhere in his 60s and has no family nearby or children, lived in a house in Laguna Beach since 1972. He says he was the head chef at Saddleback College for six years and lived with Phil under the same roof for the past 17 years. The pair have been homeless for about five months. They lost their last fixed address, in a $1,730 a month motel, because Ruiz lost his job and the income to pay for the room. "At one time we were clearing $1400 a week," Lauretti said.
Their typical day outdoors revolves around rising with the sun, getting coffee and a lunch, one or both sitting quietly at one edge of a picnic table playing cards, reading a book, or listening to ball games on the radio, followed by bed as the sun goes down. There have been no instances for a long time, Ruiz said, of being woken by police with flashlights.
On Saturdays they may visit Main Beach for breakfast, also provided by local churches, and Mondays and Thursdays they get a dinner at Heisler Park. When they are lucky enough to take their turn at the Laguna Relief and Resource Center, where they can shower and wash their clotes, occasionally there's an upscale dinner of donated prime rib that homeless with cooking skills prepare in rotating stints.
One of the two always stays in the area to watch their gear. "Someone's got to babysit the stuff," Lauretti said. "We look like a gold mine to a lot of people here." The pair have been ripped off more than once.
Both prefer their spot to any other in town. Ruiz remarks that Main Beach is where fights take place. "Because we're quiet, the others want to hang out with us. This is Beverly Hills," Ruiz said of Heisler. "The Main Beach is Compton."
Ruiz and Lauretti both have trimmed hair because they cut each other's. Though both smoke roll-your-owns for cost reasons, and they each take pains to keep their area picked up and otherwise clean. Both fastidiously avoid problems with the law.
Both applied for the county's Medical Service for Indigents in order to access a variety of services, including low or no cost medicine. Ruiz has not received word yet on his application.
"Don Black bought my meds two times," said Ruiz, at a cost of about $65 dollars each time. Black is a local homeless advocate who for years has daily made his way between the homeless on the beaches and the canyon Resource Center.
At about 11 a.m. on Tuesday, the city's homeless outreach officer,Jason Farris, went looking for Ruiz to see if he'd gotten his Dilantin and found him near Fisherman's Cove. After calls to contacts, a low cost solution for buying meds at Target was found, but transportation was problematic. Ruiz accepted help from Black who purchased the meds on Wednesday.
Ruiz speaks evenly, not letting rancor escape, when talking of his hopes for the future. "I wish I could get out of here so me and Dino could have our life back again."
Ruiz was picked as a plaintiff from among a cadre of homeless in Heisler Park the day the lawyers arrived and took notarized affidavits, according to Lauretti.
"All five plaintiffs have some disability," Lauretti said. "That's why lawyers came down to Heisler and took down their statements."
