Monday, May 3, 2021 | Sacramento, CA
Homeless residents Lana Howard and Mary Roy embrace in Sacramento’s River District on Friday, April 30, 2021.
Chris Nichols / CapRadio
Lana Howard has been homeless for two decades. Still, the 75-year-old Texas native says she’d rather live on the streets of Sacramento than in a traditional, dorm-style homeless shelter, where she describes the conditions as like “hell.”
“When you’re in a shelter, you have no privacy,” said Howard, stopping for a moment in the city’s River District. “There’s nothing there that’s yours. Even your stuff isn’t yours. I’d rather be out here than be in there.”