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Her 'care center' on the streets

Seriously injured when hit by a car, a homeless woman is trying to heal under difficult conditions.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published January 1, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG - Peggi DuHoux, the homeless woman who was badly injured in a hit-and-run accident and got financial assistance to convalesce in a motel room, is sleeping on the streets again.

As she lay on a blanket spread out on the waterfront near the Mahaffey Theater downtown, she talked matter-of-factly about her situation. From his minivan parked nearby, Sam Infanzon and volunteer John Bittner from the St. Petersburg Dream Center handed out hot coffee, sweet rolls and used blankets to others like her who also make their homes on the streets.

It was the Dream Center that came to her aid after DuHoux was released from Bayfront Medical Center last spring with a cumbersome medical contraption attached to her leg that could not be removed for six months. Bayfront arranged for a motel room with a kitchenette for a few weeks. The Dream Center, a charity with offices in St. Petersburg and Lealman, stepped in to help with transportation and food and helped put her in touch with other agencies. At the time, DuHoux worried about what life would be like on the streets in her condition.

"I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to get myself out of that wheelchair and on to the ground to sleep at night and then to get back in it and then to try to find someone to push me around," she said.

DuHoux, 49, seems to have found someone willing to do just that.

"I still can't walk," she said as she lay on the ground near Beach Drive recently, her wheelchair nearby.

"Dennis pushes me around all day," she said, referring to her friend Dennis Benefield, 54, who stood nearby.

"We have to carry everything with us on the back of a wheelchair," he said. "I'm trying to get a painting job. We're trying to hang in there and make it."

DuHoux was seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver early in 2005 at Second Avenue and Third Street N. Her leg, hip, back, arm and shoulder injuries kept her in Bayfront Medical Center for 81 days, she said.

Born in Nebraska, DuHoux said she has a master's degree in psychology. Her 22-year marriage ended in divorce. Before moving to St. Petersburg with her brother two years ago, she lived in Minnesota and Montana. When her brother died, she could not afford to keep the small house they rented, she said.

She lost her warehouse job when she became ill and lived in her car for about three months until it broke down and was towed away.

Infanzon of the St. Petersburg Dream Center said DuHoux is caught in a vicious cycle.

"She's had rent vouchers and she can't find anyone to take those vouchers," he said. Since the vouchers are only for a certain period, DuHoux would need to work, Infanzon said. To work, he observed, she'd have to heal, which is unlikely with her living on the street.

[Last modified January 1, 2006, 00:28:15]