Fort Lauderdale commissioner helps woman struggling with homelessness receive needed medical attention
FORT LAUDERDALE — Across South Florida, there are people experiencing homelessness despite being in the workforce.
"I have no safe home to go to," said Deborah Lipski. "That's all I want."
The 68-year-old told CBS News Miami she cries herself to sleep at night. Sharing her story while sipping her morning coffee at a local shop in Fort Lauderdale, where she spends most of her mornings now that she no longer has a place to live.
She has a relentless spirit during the day, trying to find a place to call home.
"I don't get callbacks about someone willing to help me," shared Lipski.
Her life and housing situation changed forever last December.
While revealing her prosthetic leg, she shows that she had her right foot amputated. Lipski said it was after she fell down a stairwell leading to a room she had rented for over a decade.
"I walked into the emergency room, and I didn't walk out until April of this year," Lipski said. "And it was without my foot."
She also left the hospital without a room to rent, only a car to live in while being treated for a non-cancerous mass discovered in her gut during recovery.
"I try to save, but the rents in Broward County are so outrageous," Lipski said tearfully.
She collects Social Security, which pays out less than $1,000 monthly -- barely enough to keep the car she uses to work part-time and sleep.
She's lived in her car for the last five months, sleeping in the back seat and parking at different places in the city and renting a cheap motel once a week so she can shower.
"I'm full of anxiety at night," Lipski said. "You see a tree move or something, move or something. It scares the living daylights out of you. Supposed to be my easy years, not living here in anxiety trying to survive."
Without a permanent residence, Lipski said she could not have life-changing surgery through Broward Health to repair her gut.
"I have no, not a safe place to go to after to avoid infection," she added. "I've seen him three times, and Doctor Sturman told me that you know and that I have to get a place to stay."
After experiencing homelessness for the first time in her life, fate stepped in after Fort Lauderdale City Commissioner Dr. Warren Sturman heard about her situation.
"People are not having access to the health care that they're entitled to because of logistic reasons that we could, that we could help them overcome," Sturman said.
His office helped put into motion an arrangement for post-surgical care with Broward Health and private organizations.
CBS News Miami mentioned to Sturman in their conversation that, "It took just one fall, and not only did she fall and lose her leg, she lost essentially everything she knew in her life. Ended up in a car."
"Joe, I want you to think about this," he said. "A lot of us are one medical disaster away from being in her situation. People are living paycheck to paycheck."
Lipski hopes to have the surgery soon, and after, Sturman said his office is working on finding her a permanent home she can afford.
He hopes the city, county, and health system can help many more people like Lipski who need housing and medical treatment.
"We plugged her into our homeless center, which made her eligible for some of the services we could provide," Sturman said. "We have to have a safety net to make sure that people can bounce back on their feet, get back at home, and get back into society, where we all belong together."
"We need new shelter beds. That's going to take a while midterm," he added. "In the long term, we're looking at pallet homes and container homes."
He said the city also continues to explore other solutions, such as safe parking sites with security guards and bathrooms for people like Lipski who are living in cars.
For now, she eagerly awaits her surgery in the coming weeks and a second chance to have her life back.
"I couldn't be more grateful 'cause I thought there was nobody that cares about you when you get old," Lipski shared.
CBS News Miami said to her: "All you're really wanting is a hand up, not a handout."
"I still have a lot to give," said Lipski. "I just need a home to go to.
Lipski told us she was offered to live in a nursing facility but did not want to give up her independence or her entire social security check.
The city is also working on other programs to help the thousands experiencing homelessness to have a safe place to sleep.
