Ayala: San Antonio hunger striker to end fast with strike on city manager - San Antonio Express-News

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Molly Wright will end her hunger strike Sunday, her 24th day of fasting to bring attention to San Antonio’s homeless problem.

For as much as she agitated for change — calling out specific city leaders for the lack of policies and funding to end homelessness — it comes much too slowly for any hunger strike to sustain.

Over the last few days, as she has struggled physically, Wright has vacillated over whether her demands to Mayor Ron Nirenberg, City Manager Erik Walsh and City Council have made a difference.

She wonders whether the city will come through on an idea to buy a hotel to house homeless people more permanently, as other cities have done.

She wonders whether the city will help the homeless who live in their cars while holding down jobs and for whom she has ardently advocated. She has slept in her own car when she has been homeless.

She has repeated calls for safe, overnight lots where such homeless people can park. She also wonders whether future tent encampments will be demolished by city crews.

On her 22nd day of fasting on all but water, vitamins and juices she calls “green sludge,” Wright wasn’t sure of any of it.

She’s exhausted. She’s not well. She has begun walking with the help of a cane. She has lost more than 35 pounds, at least since she last saw a doctor, and her critical thinking skills have suffered.

On Thursday, she became violently ill after her second COVID-19 vaccine. It scared her.

She has managed to continue to work but crashes afterward, and it has become harder to wake up.

“That’s what scares me the most,” she said.

Her work for a local nonprofit agency reminds her of her goal. She assists clients fighting evictions, which haven’t stopped despite the pandemic.

Wright, who still lives precariously close to homelessness, has seen one bright spot.

Earlier this month, housing activists celebrated a major reversal by the San Antonio Housing Authority on the fate of Alazán Courts, a 500-unit public housing complex on the city’s West Side.

Instead of razing and replacing it with mixed-income apartments, SAHA plans to rebuild it so no one is displaced.

The No. 1 solution to homelessness, Wright says, is more public housing and more affordable housing that reflects the wages San Antonio companies pay.

On Sunday, to end her fast, Wright will lead another protest — a car caravan that will begin and end at City Manager Erik Walsh’s alma maters.

The stretch from Central Catholic High School, with a stop at the San Antonio Water System building, to Trinity University is only a few miles.

The event, titled “Where is your heart City Manager Erik Walsh and Mayor Ron Nirenberg?” begins at noon.

She has a flair for dissing city officials.

In an email to supporters, she asked whether Central Catholic, which is run by Marianists, knows that Walsh committed “terrorist acts on the vulnerable in our society” by allowing city crews to dismantle peaceful homeless camps.

Earlier this month, a homeless encampment under Interstate 37 near downtown was destroyed, the belongings of those living there swept away.

The camp contained 85 to 100 people spread over several blocks and was the largest inside Loop 410. An infant living there was removed from its mother’s custody by authorities.

Wright asks Catholic leaders to intervene and remind Walsh of the values he was taught.

The caravan will stop at SAWS headquarters to lambaste rate hikes that will contribute to renters’ inability to stay in their homes and thus create homelessness.

While homeless people often can’t be their own advocates, Wright has articulated the vicious cycle that can keep a person homeless. She has spoken about the impact an eviction can have on future housing.

Marisol Cortez, who co-edits the grassroots site Deceleration News, was part of a group that interviewed people displaced when a mobile home community was shuttered. The group offered ideas to the city on how to prevent such displacement and felt the way Wright feels now: dismissed.

But Cortez said Wright’s style of protest, more often used in global struggles for justice, was brave “and possibly what was necessary to shake up the system.”

On Sunday, Wright will end her hunger strike her way, with digs at the mayor and city manager.

It’s unlikely to be the last they hear from her.

eayala@express-news.net

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