Season to Share: Belle Glade man lost his health, savings, phone. Is home next?
In 2014, Jose Ortega clocked into work at 4 a.m. at a local bodega, where he unloaded trucks and replenished shelves, as he’d done six days a week for 31 years.
Then a pile of concrete fell on his back. The workplace injury left him with four herniated disks.
“Ever since then, I was no good,” the 62-year-old said in Spanish. Tears pooled in his eyes as he tightened the grip on his wooden cane. "My life has changed a lot.”
Today, Jose can’t work; he can’t stand or sit for long periods without triggering pain that causes him to faint.
His claim for Social Security disability payments has been denied four times.
He can’t afford to call his family in Mexico. His cellphone plan ran out months ago and the government-issued phone doesn't work anymore. It's been two months since he last spoke to his wife and six children.
On top of it all, he can’t even say he has a place to live. The mobile-home where he’s taken shelter for the past two years is on the verge of demolition. The landlord shut off water and electricity two months ago when Jose couldn’t pay his rent.
“All I do is think,” said Jose sobbing. “What am I going to eat tomorrow?"
► 2022 Season to Share nominees: Help your neighbors in need
Jose said he tried to keep working after injuring his back. For a year, he wore a wired brace around his torso that ripped through his shirts, but his back remained curved and the pain never went away.
He managed to get hired folding boxes in warehouses, but his last employer let him go three years ago. Surviving the following months depleted his savings and has kept him from providing for family members in Guanajuato, Mexico, about 170 miles northwest of Mexico City.
If he could have anything back, he says, it would be the ability to work.
“I was good working. I had everything,” he said. “Right now, I am in need of everything.”
Jose first sought Social Security disability benefits three years ago. The agency replied with a single word — “Denied” — that he says left him feeling sad and betrayed.
His claim was denied because he went back to work after the injury, said Marilu Baltazar, his caseworker with The Glades Initiative, a nonprofit based in Belle Glade. He has appealed the ruling with the nonprofit’s help, but a decision could be months or even years away.
“No employer gives him the option of sitting down for short hours,” Baltazar said.
Jose’s needs begin with a place where he can live, Baltazar said. She described the mobile home’s conditions as “deplorable" and unsanitary.
Jose says all he's eaten in the last month is canned food. He can't even afford plain tortillas; the ones he has are plagued with black and green mold. He receives SNAP benefits that haven’t kept up with rising food costs.
His needs don’t end there.
Baltazar said Jose struggles daily with back pain, vomiting and drowsiness and has lost about 70 pounds since he stopped working. He has multiple medical appointments but not a “reliable” means of transportation to attend them, relying on friends to drive him there. Those rides aren’t always available.
Jose also suffers from stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Dextrocardia: His heart is on the right side of his chest. He takes Ibuprofen, the only medication they give him for free at the hospital.
“The insurance would leave my medication as low as $5 to $4,” he said. “But most of the time I don’t even have that, and I leave the pills there.”
Besides a place to live, what Jose wants the most is to talk to his family. He misses them. He is afraid the holidays will come and he won't be able to tell them 'Merry Christmas'.
Now that his savings have run out, Jose spends most days sitting under a tree outside the run-down, yellow mobile home, his sweat covering his face and dampening his clothes. He gazes for hours into the piles of garbage that cover the entrance of the abandoned lot.
Resting outside, Jose says, is better than sitting inside the dark, humid trailer, where rats are common.
"Living like this is not living."
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Jose Ortega's Wish
Beset by medical problems after 31 years working in Belle Glade bodegas and warehouses and on the verge of homelessness, Jose Ortega needs a place to live most of all, said The Glades Initiative, the nonprofit that is helping to provide for him. The mobile home he's been in for two years is in terrible shape and because he's not been able to afford rent, the mobile home on the edge of the city is without electricity and water. He also needs to secure transportation that can reliably take him to his medical appointments as he deals with back injuries that leave him unable to sit or stand for long periods.His living conditions would improve greatly by “securing an affordable and decent housing where he could live with dignity and respect,” The Glades Initiative said on his behalf. It is seeking between $7,200 and $9,000, enough money to cover six months of rent. He also needs to secure transportation that can reliably take him to his medical appointments as he deals with back injuries that leave him unable to sit or stand for long periods.
Nominated by: The Glades Initiative
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Charity: Belle Glade man needs home, transportation
