After being missing for about three months, Joseph Lee Zamora, a 43-year-old mentally ill homeless man from San Fernando, was reunited with his family in Sylmar on Tuesday, Nov. 28.
Finding him has been a tremendous relief for them. His mother, Gina Perez said his return is like a “gift” for her. “My birthday is on Sunday.” She turns 60, she said.
Zamora, who suffers from schizophrenia, vanished in late August when he prematurely checked out of Phoenix House, a drug rehabilitation center in Venice. He was sent there by court order after police arrested him in the valley for trespassing last May.
While he has been prescribed medication, Zamora often neglects his pills and instead self-medicates. His erratic and sometimes violent behavior has led to many encounters with law enforcement officers, who are unprepared to deal with and overwhelmed by the growing mental illness crisis afflicting the unhoused in Los Angeles and Southern California.
Through two decades of homelessness, Zamora has been in and out of jail and drug treatment, always going back to living on the streets. Like many people afflicted with schizophrenia, he has little choice but to live on the street rather than at home. Perez’s neighbors have complained about him and even filed restraining orders against him, making it impossible for him to live in the family home. For many struggling with schizophrenia, they can prefer living on the street as they can suffer from hearing more voices at home, even coming from the television.
Upon leaving the Venice treatment center, Zamora’s whereabouts were unknown for months. This week, he returned to a familiar Valley neighborhood. He was spotted Tuesday afternoon by Sylmar resident Suzy Orozco. She saw him near Pizza Hut, located at the intersection of Sayre Street and Glenoaks Boulevard. “Suzy has known [my daughter] Mandy and Joseph when they were both part of the Northridge Knights Pop Warner League,” said Perez, adding that Orozco also had a flyer with Joseph’s photo given to her by Mandy. “Suzy immediately called my daughter,” Perez said. “She didn’t have my phone number. She tried to reach me via Instagram.”
Before Perez could open Orozco’s Instagram message, she received a call from her daughter around 5 p.m., relaying the good news.
Unable to drive her car due to a recently broken ankle, Perez waited for a friend’s ride to go looking for her son in the reported area around 6 p.m. “I wasn’t able to locate him,” she said. The mother returned home, sad but hopeful. By then, her daughter Mandy had also made her way out to the Valley from her East Los Angeles home and found her brother around 6:45 p.m. at the shopping center on Glenoaks Boulevard and Hubbard Street.
“Joseph looked super skinny, very tired and hungry,” said Perez. “He said he hadn’t eaten a real meal but maybe three times while on the streets. He would pick food from the trash.”
Perez said their reunion was moving. “While he is not one for emotions, he gave me a long, strong hug.”
Zamora’s return capped months of uncertainty, worry and prayers from the devout Catholic mother who keeps a photo of her homeless son next to the pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the living room of her San Fernando home.
Perez repeatedly pleaded for help from public agencies and the general public to locate her son since he checked out of the drug rehabilitation center in Venice.
The effort to find Zamora led his mother to persistently request help from law enforcement in San Fernando, Los Angeles and the courts.
She also made several trips to Venice, Santa Monica and nearby communities, where she posted and handed out flyers with her son’s photo. Visits to the morgue were frequent, too, hoping her son’s dead body would not be there.
“It was truly awful to know so many people are lost to their families,” Perez recalled of the experience. “I don’t ever want that for my son.”
In October, she succeeded in listing her son on a state missing persons database online, the Missing and Unidentified Person Section on the California Department of Justice’s website.
Her prayers have been answered, along with her Herculean efforts to never give up on her son. For years, Perez has regularly tended to her son by going to him at the places on the street in the San Fernando, Sylmar areas that he frequented – bringing him food, blankets and washed clothing. He has never been discarded or forgotten by his mother. So when he disappeared, it was extremely stressful and upsetting knowing he had no money or any resources and far away from familiar areas.
But, what she has been able to piece together so far, Zamora’s way back to the Valley took him through many Los Angeles communities. He left the Venice area a few days after ditching rehab, “walked a lot” and eventually made it to the LA Central Library in downtown, Perez said. “He has some books in his backpack which he said he found,” she said. “Joseph said he was also in Koreatown.” It is unclear how much of that 17-mile journey he trekked or if he used any public transportation along the way. Many homeless people board buses without paying any fare with most bus drivers avoiding interacting with them.
Eventually, Zamora boarded the Metro bus line 92 in Chinatown to reach Sylmar, according to his mother. It is unclear when that trip took place or for how long he has been in the latter Valley community since his arrival.
What is clear is that he is re-acclimating to his neighborhood, back to the shopping center where he has camped out in recent years.
While there is a long way ahead to sort out legal issues, like Zamora’s arrest, court case and quitting drug treatment, Perez is glad to know her son is alive and where. She hopes to eventually get her son back on his medications.
On Tuesday night, she shared with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol a photo of Zamora along with herself and her family being reunited in Sylmar. Zamora sports a full beard and disheveled hair, wearing what seems to be a camouflage jacket. He is even smiling.
Perez said she feels blessed and can now rest knowing her son is alive and back in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
“It’s a miracle how he can survive on these streets, to know that I have a son who struggles with his dual diagnosis [mental illnesses] and that he can persevere. … [It] reminds me that I should never feel hopeless.”
Absolutely beautiful article!!!