Dennis Hinze
Client Profile: Dennis Hinze
Dennis Hinze has been on the run since he left his foster home as a 19 year old in 1963. Since that day, he has not had a plan of action, but instead a feeling that, after the premature deaths of his father and mother, things couldn’t get worse.
While interviewing Dennis, 64, American Indian, on his own since the age of 11 (1955), he told me the story of his first road-trip from his home in Northern California to New York City.
As a 19 year old, Dennis was not well versed in the ways of the world and thus experienced many firsts on his trip. For instance, when confronted with Jim Crow laws for the first time at a hot dog stand in Mobile, Alabama, he stood in front of the white and colored signs for a few minutes confused by which line to enter since to his mind he was neither white nor colored. After a few minutes of confusion, he made his decision and without warning bought a hot dog from the white line and a bun from the colored line.
Dennis experienced another significant first: his first night sleeping on the streets. It’s surprising how quickly Dennis developed a tolerance for homelessness, but it’s not too surprising, by his own account, Dennis is and was, above all, adaptive. In his mind, he hadn’t had a home since the final years of childhood, so why would he have one now? That’s not to say that he didn’t at points live in single room occupancies (SROs) in between his stays on the streets and in church missions—Dennis worked his entire adult life as a piano player and hotel kitchen hand—, but none of the SROs he lived in were permanent housing options.
Thankfully, since encountering North Beach Citizens (NBC) and the staff’s commitment to him, Dennis’s tolerance for the streets has diminished and his desire for a home has increased. As a homeless, senior encountering frequent health issues and cold, occasionally violent nights of limited, broken sleep, the process of obtaining benefits and housing has been difficult. But Dennis has persisted thanks to his strong will, the action plan developed and executed by North Beach Citizens, and the assistance of Reverend Megan Rohrer at the Welcome Ministry at Old First Presbyterian Church, Saint Anthony’s, Glide Memorial Church, David Burbank and Sts. Peter and Paul, Marc Bruno of St. Vincent DePaul Society, and local merchant Dorian among others.
At the end of September, Dennis Hinze signed his first housing lease and moved into Civic Center Senior Housing Residence. “I look back at my life and wonder how I lived without North Beach Citizens.”