I came to the City as a runaway at 15. I landed downtown but that vibe was just too hectic for me. One of my friends said come to Haight Street for Bicycle Day (April 19) and I fell in love … with Haight Street. I stayed for Bicycle Day. And for 4/20. And for my birthday, which was almost a week later, 4/26. I have never had the urge to be anywhere else. As a young mother, I got Section 8 housing downtown, but we would sleep down there, and come up here to hang out. When I became homeless as an adult, I knew that Haight would be the only place I would be safe. After finding housing through the efforts of Mary Howe, and the HYA, I realized that Haight Street was my home and wherever my housing was just wasn’t that important. I come up everyday to hang out and paint and write, or just to sit and watch my neighbors go by.
Excerpt from Daphne’s Story: Tale of a Homeless Dog by Geniver Delvoye:
“When I was born, I was homeless. I was born in a shopping cart in Golden Gate Park, in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. My dog daddy was a purebred husky that had run away from his house and came to the park. My dog mom, Lady Bug, was a boxer/pitbull mix. Most people are afraid of dogs that look like her, and so my human grandpa could not find a place to live. He liked to yell, and talk to himself, and he smelled bad all the time.
When I was little and my eyes were still closed, a lady would come to see me. She was homeless too. She would pick me up out of the shopping cart and hold me and kiss me and say nice soft things to me. She would bring my dog mom good food and sometimes she would bring me milk to drink …”
Originally from the East Coast, Geniver says she knew she was home from the minute she set foot on Haight Street. Currently a student at Berkeley City College, Geniver started drawing and painting at a young age, having her first showing when she donated the painting “Five Births” to UCSF Mt. Zion Women’s Health Center in the early 2000s. Geniver lives with her husband and three husky mix dogs. Her five children are grown, and all live in San Francisco.
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Daphne’s Story is an incredibly moving and poignant book, told from the viewpoint of Daphne, and can be bought directly from Geniver: delvoygeniverm@gmail.com
