Homeless pair cause stir in Aspen

Curtis Wackerle, Special To The Rocky

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Jane Patterson and Michael O'Gara have been homeless in Aspen for 10 years, living in their 1970s brown van, nicknamed Bambi.

In the land of $87 lift tickets and trophy homes, their home on wheels, with tape covering a broken window, was a well- known fixture, parked nearly every day outside the town's grocery store.

But since Patterson crashed Bambi into a ditch this summer, and is now facing a DUI charge, Aspen's most visible homeless couple has attracted even more attention.

Patterson, 62, and O'Gara, 61, now have two social service agencies working on their behalf, each with different approaches to their housing needs.

The couple's situation has brought renewed attention to a problem not often associated with Aspen - homelessness. And news stories about efforts to help them have stirred a range of reactions.

"There's a real mixture of emotions in the community about these two people," said David Crutchfield, a social worker with the county.

Crutchfield describes the pair as colorful characters. Others see them much differently.

"We don't need undesirables in this valley," wrote Robin Goldfarb of Aspen in a letter to the editors of the Aspen Daily News and Aspen Times last week.

Patterson said she's hurt by such remarks.

"It's a hell of a way to become famous," she said.

"You mean infamous," O'Gara, her partner of 21 years, chimed in.

"No, I mean famous," she said.

Lost home in '90s

Sitting in Glory Hole Park, beneath the slopes of Aspen Mountain and surrounded by condos, O'Gara said he first came to Aspen in 1968 to play rock 'n' roll.

His ambition took him to California, but he returned in the early '80s. He worked as an auto detailer, polishing the cars of Aspen's elite.

After time, however, rising rents and health problems combined to put the couple on the streets. O'Gara and Patterson lost their housing in the mid-1990s, O'Gara said.

Patterson has said she's been everything from a model to an English teacher in her past. She stays in Aspen "to get healed."

On July 14, the couple were driving in the middle of the day toward Apsen Highlands when the van went into a ditch. The details of the accident are in dispute.

Police believe Patterson, the driver, had been drinking. She said O'Gara was clutching his chest in pain, distracting her and causing the van to go off the road.

After the accident, the Roaring Fork Valley Information and Assistance, a human service agency, decided to help the couple by buying them a used van. Patterson and O'Gara have been sleeping outside. With the temperatures dropping, a replacement for Bambi seemed like the best short-term approach.

"We come up with the best solutions we can," said Vince Savage, a caseworker. "Naturally, we want to see a better solution for them than living in a van."

"What we're doing is creating a rapport with people who are otherwise very difficult to serve," Savage said.

Once there is rapport and trust, a struggling person might be more willing to participate in counseling and psychological services, Savage said.

Another view

But Pitkin County Health and Human Services doesn't feel another van is the right way to go, said Crutchfield. He's working to get O'Gara and Patterson into permanent housing with the help of federal HUD housing vouchers.

"I'm starting to feel a political aspect to this," Savage said. "Who can come up with the most proper solution?"

Savage supports finding "brick and mortar housing" for the couple, but said he is not aware of the county's efforts. He will forge ahead with his plans for the new van unless something better materializes.

The Valley Information and Assistance organization helps between 50 and 100 people at any given time, Savage said, although not all of them are homeless.

Two years ago, when VIA started, most assumed there were no more than a dozen homeless people in Aspen, Savage said.

"We found out when we really started looking at it that there are quite a few more," he said.

Most Aspen homeless have a long-term connection to the area.

In his view, there are certain "attitudinal" barriers to working with impoverished and troubled people in a place like Aspen.

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Curtis Wackerle writes for the Aspen Daily News.