On October 1, the Coalition on Homelessness and the Street Sheet lost a vital member of our community, Marc Garcia. Marc was unfailingly kind, and consistently righteous. Marc was a behind-the-scenes, never-in-the-limelight but vital part of our organizing and community.
Marc started with us more then a decade ago, volunteering with the Right to a Roof workgroup—a group comprised mostly of homeless people who were working on improving conditions in San Francisco’s then-brutal shelters, and easing access to the system. His background as a paralegal was especially useful in our civil rights work.
Marc was excited by and engaged in the work, but he was always willing to do the invisible and the commonplace. He would thrown down to make sandwiches for an action, clean the bathroom, or staff our front desk.
In the past few years, Marc spent more time taking care of his mother, Bette, in Foster City. But being out of the office and even out of town, much of the time, didn’t stop Marc from volunteering. If you’ve received this paper by the mail at any time in the past three years, you’ve touched Marc’s handiwork: Every issue, he folded, labeled, and delivered to the post office the several hundred copies that we mail out each month.
Marc is survived by his mother, Bette, and his siblings and in-laws: Craig, Celeste, Brian, and Cezanne Garcia, and Sue Schechter and David Grossman. They have our condolences. We lost Marc far too early, but he spent the time he had with us well.
Rest in power, Marc.
