Woman Near End of 1,000-Mile Trek to Highlight Plight of Homeless, Mentally Ill

It started with a chilling vision of Billy, her 32-year-old mentally ill son. Jeannette Goodman was afraid that someday he might be forced to live on the streets, eating out of garbage cans, after she was no longer able to watch out for him.

Goodman did not know what else to do to prevent it, so she began a 1,000-mile walk from Texas to Southern California, hoping to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless and mentally ill.

Packing a three-wheeled “baby jogger” with food, clothes and other essentials, the 50-year-old former property management worker in Houston left El Paso on May 1 for her trek across the Southwest. Her destination was the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, which she hopes to reach with a crowd of supporters at her side.

Averaging 10 miles a day, walking through the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona, the mother of two has nearly reached her goal. She expects to arrive in Simi Valley this weekend.

She arrived in Pasadena on Sunday and pitched her tent over a park bench across the street from City Hall. Goodman, who is often mistaken for a bag lady or homeless person, is equipped more like a camper. Her baby jogger is loaded with an inflatable mattress, foam pad, sheets and a sleeping bag. In a large, dry bag she stores her medicine, sewing kit, an aluminum pan and a burner, which she uses as a makeshift stove. Her ice chest doubles as a washer.

On Monday morning, after a sponge bath in her tent, she dressed in a pastel shirt, white shorts and tennis shoes. She held a hand mirror and put on makeup, conceding that it didn’t make up for the wear and tear of the journey.

“I started out looking like Kim Basinger, and ended up looking like Phyllis Diller before surgery,” Goodman said as she applied melted red lipstick.

The idea to walk to Simi Valley struck Goodman during the Reagan Library opening, which aired on national television.

She said she wants former presidents Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, who all attended the opening, to form what she calls the “Former Presidents’ Council to Aid the Mentally Ill and Homeless.” The council would solicit private funding and lobby legislators for increased funds to assist the mentally ill and homeless, she said.

“Somebody asked me why am I doing this,” she said, “and I said, ‘Do you want me to write my congressman? What good would that do?’ ”

Goodman said she has medical problems of her own and is unable to support her son. She’s concerned about his future and is upset about cutbacks in financial support and housing for the mentally ill and homeless.

Her son, whose illness was diagnosed as schizophrenia at age 15, receives $400 a month in disability benefits and lives in a dilapidated house in a crime-ridden area of Houston, she said.

Goodman said she refuses donations for herself and suggests people give to mental health associations or the Salvation Army, which she described as a champion of human services.

Along her mapped route, Goodman stopped to call Salvation Army branches, seeking their help for publicity and urging people to join her in walking the last three miles to the Reagan Library.

At this point, she doesn’t have any firm commitments, but still hopes that people will join her at the last minute.

Goodman said she quit her real estate management position April 1 and sold most of her possessions to finance her journey.

The 5-foot-2, 105-pound woman is not defenseless. She sleeps with a .25-caliber pistol in her pocket and packs a slingshot, which she uses to chase away dogs. As a safety precaution, she doesn’t carry cash, instead using automated teller machines. Her only scrape so far was in Arizona, when she was attacked by a pack of dogs near an Indian reservation.

“I was told to watch out for snakes and bears,” she said. “But the only thing I was bit by was man’s best friend.”