ELDERLY WOMAN LEAVES HER HOME TO THE HOMELESS

By Joe Rosato Jr.

Lelia Boroughs, 84, wasn’t known to many. At least not outside her apartment building in San Francisco’s lower Pacific Heights.

Her neighbors knew her well as an eclectic, kind soul who would offer to pick up their groceries and feed the homeless who squatted on the ledges outside her apartment. 

"She understands how hard it is by herself,” said neighbor Irinia Khokhlova. “It’s not easy to handle in the city… so she was that kind of person.”

Before Boroughs died last September, she crafted her will to leave her 525 square foot condo to the city to turn into a homeless shelter.

“The city doesn’t know a whole lot about her,” said Trent Rhorer, director of San Francisco’s Department of Human Services. “She wanted to give her estate to help one of the biggest causes which I guess for her was homeless folks.”