Elderly Woman leaves home to homeless

San Francisco’s homeless have a new shelter available to them thanks to the generosity and compassion of an 84 year old woman. Lelia Boroughs of the city’s Pacific Heights neighborhood, died last September and in her will left her 525 square foot home to the city for use by the homeless.

The gesture comes as no surprise to Boroughs’s friends and neighbors in the apartment building where she lived. Beyond those walls, not many knew the woman. She is described as a kind soul who would pick up the groceries for her neighbors or feed the homeless often found perched on the ledge outside her building.

Boroughs told her attorney that she had no family, no one to leave her estate to. It was at this time she and her attorney drafted her will in which she left the condo to the city. She stipulated that condo either be used as a homeless shelter or sold with the proceeds going to help the homeless.


Trent Rhorer, director of San Francisco’s Department of Human Services says the city had previously been unaware of Boroughs or her intention to leave the home to the city. San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors will vote this week on whether or not to sell the condo. Rhorer indicated the condo would bring $400,000 to $500,000, a healthy sum that could help 150 families get into housing or avoid losing their current homes. Boroughs’ generosity came as a surprise to longtime homeless advocates but a pleasant one.
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