Ebrahim Safapay might be 93, but if a guest admires his shrine of family photos, he’s liable to gingerly stand up and offer his comfortable seat. It has the best view of the images of his three children and late wife.
He doesn’t get many visitors to his modest, tidy apartment on the border of Sausalito and Marin City — mainly his daughter, Mariam, whom he proudly points out in the photo gallery as she hovers nearby.
“I’m his world,” Mariam said. “I’m his provider.”
This year, she’s also been his protector. “If it wasn’t for me, he’d be homeless.”
“I never, ever let him be worried about anything,” she said. “He always thanks me. I want him to be comfortable. He took care of me when I was a kid”
Ebrahim, in addition to being hard of hearing, speaks little English, so when the Social Security office called in spring, asking how he paid his $1,305 rent on $900 of Social Security income, he wasn’t able to be his own best advocate. The office got an honest answer: Mariam made up the difference herself from her work as a tax accountant.
For the Social Security Administration, that meant Ebrahim had a source of income he hadn’t disclosed. In two weeks, the office said it had been overpaying him and that he owed them $9,000. It also revoked his Supplemental Security Income, which totaled about $300 each month.
Mariam, who’s approaching 70, couldn’t afford hundreds of dollars more, and other options looked unpromising. “I was just so upset,” she said. The amount didn’t seem like that much to her. “But it’s still something for somebody who doesn’t have anything,” she said.
Mariam appealed Social Security’s decision, but she needed a way to pay his rent in the meantime.
That’s where the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund came to the rescue, covering two months of Ebrahim’s rent during the appeal. The fund works throughout the year to prevent homelessness and hunger in the Bay Area’s nine counties. All donations directly help people in need, with administrative costs covered by The Chronicle and the Walter and Evelyn Haas Jr. Fund.
Applying for a public housing voucher can take many months, and affordable housing nearby is scarce. Chris Miranda, Ebrahim’s caseworker at the nonprofit Community Action Marin, pointed out that what’s at stake isn’t just the dignity and well-being of an older adult but also whether it’s possible for different socioeconomic classes to make Marin County home.
“I never, ever let him be worried about anything,” she said. “He always thanks me. I want him to be comfortable. He took care of me when I was a kid”
“Marin, it has affordable housing, but not very much because there’s opposition as to where they can build,” he said. He frequently encounters the perspective that those who can’t afford the county’s high cost of living — the low end of rent for a one-bedroom is about $2,000, he said — should just move elsewhere. “That’s not something that we want to see. We want to try to keep folks in the county, just to try to keep the diversity.”
“The system is just so coldhearted toward elderly people. If you don’t have money, they don’t care about you,” Mariam said. At one point, Ebrahim, who ran a liquor store with his son for 30 years, had some savings, but his wife’s medical expenses leading up to her death in 2015 ate those up.
While Ebrahim’s situation is in limbo, he’s kept his spirits up despite no longer being able to exercise at a local gym because of the pandemic. He relishes watching Mariam’s puppy, Kona, a Bichet and goldendoodle mix, nip at her socks. At the Target across the street, “he’s a celebrity,” Mariam said, everyone greeting her smiley father by name.
But that smile comes in part from Mariam’s efforts to shield her father from just how uncertain his situation is. “I never, ever let him be worried about anything,” she said. “He always thanks me. I want him to be comfortable. He took care of me when I was a kid.”
Reach Lily Janiak: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com; X: @LilyJaniak
At Season of Sharing Fund, we believe that an unexpected financial crisis should never mean losing your home. Preventing homelessness isn’t just kind—it’s also the most effective way to keep our communities thriving. 100% of your donation keeps Bay Area residents housed, cared for and nourished.
