The life and death of Sean Messer tell a larger story of familial chaos and a safety net strained to its breaking point
The screams, the stream of profanities, the incoherent cries for help from Leidesdorff Street below his window had become a regular noon event as Al Saracevic sat writing his columns for the San Francisco Examiner. Thousands of homeless people saturated The City, and hundreds suffered from mental and drug-induced psychosis. We’d become inured to what Al called “the outbursts spilling from troubled minds.
He was never able to find out. Big Al collapsed and died in San Francisco on Aug. 28, 2022, 18 days after Messer perished on city streets. Meanwhile, 647 people died of accidental overdoses in The City last year, with 160 having no fixed address, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Through July of this year, there have been 473 overdose deaths — an increase of about a 36% from the first eight months of last year, when 348 people died from drug overdoses in The City.
Messer later told his aunt in a recorded conversation that he had been molested while living with his grandparents, though he didn’t think they knew about it. “I first met Sean on the day the exchange took place at my house,” said Messer’s aunt, a middle-school teacher in Chicago. “He was the loveliest little boy ever, barely taking his eyes off his pretty mom. And very pretty she was with her curly blonde hair, tastefully done makeup and happy green eyes. I’ll never forget Sean sitting on the piano bench with a family friend who accompanied him in singing ‘Jesus Loves Me.
The CDC found that people who experienced four or more of these ACEs in childhood had a four- to twelvefold increase in risk of alcoholism and drug abuse — as they tried to self-medicate — as well as depression and suicide attempts. After the death of his mother, Messer returned to Florida to find his father, but his aunt said they fought. He soon turned to theft and drug dealing and spent two years in a Florida prison on a variety of offenses.After his release from prison, Messer returned to Chicago, where he remained homeless. He also became increasingly paranoid.
But it can be difficult to cope with so-called dual-diagnosis patients — those with both mental health and substance use disorders — particularly when they become out of control. In such cases, a mental health professional can place a person on a 72-hour involuntary hold. It’s known as a 5150, referring to the section of California code that permits the temporary, involuntary psychiatric commitment of individuals who present a danger to themselves or others due to signs of mental illness.
What guides Street Sheet? ‘People are experts on their own lives’ Media coverage of homelessness in San Francisco is easy enough to find, but it’s rarer to read it from someone who has been unhoused On the morning of August 10, a merchant on Commercial Street found Messer’s body in a parklet, a pipe in his hand.“You don’t have to die,” he said. “Someone like him doesn’t have to die from psychosis or severe trauma. There are protective factors that can make the difference instead of illness or death.”
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