PHOENIX, Ariz.—Never in all of Pam Bejarano’s 70 years could she imagine herself old and homeless in a place like “The Zone.”
As Bejarano tried to catch her breath in the stifling heat of downtown Phoenix, her fiance, James, 65, sat barefoot and shirtless in long white hair and beard, wearing summer shorts inside the couple’s frayed pup tent on 12th Avenue.
Their “bed” was little more than a thin pad and no pillows.
Twelve years ago before landing in The Zone, Bejarano suffered a heart attack. She has other medical problems as well—a bad knee and back. James had a stroke after the two met and is battling high blood pressure….