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'Mother O'

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 2, 2007

At 91, Olivia Pitts Jackson was the boarding home's oldest resident. She arrived Feb. 27. That day, the Tampa Housing Authority evicted her and her husband from public housing. John Jackson, 47 - "God told us to marry," she says - hadn't responded to the agency's annual review to see whether they still qualified for public housing. So they had to go.

The property manager called the state's Department of Children & Families, which placed the couple at the boarding home so they could be together. It didn't last.

Olivia, known as "Mother O" from a ministry she once ran from an Ybor City apartment, was allowed to stay. Her husband was not. He said he couldn't afford the $200 that Daphne Jones wanted for rent.

His new home: the Salvation Army.

Olivia's daughter Verlae Thomas, who lives out of state, had trouble getting through to her mother. Her voice mails went unanswered. She turned to Vallery Jafar, who befriended Olivia during her ministry. Jafar tried to make appointments to see her, but couldn't. So she went to the home, persuading a caretaker to let her in. She found it cramped but clean.

"From what I could see there was nothing negative except, whenever I would call, Jones always would seem like she was hesitant to be an open business to me," Jafar said. "I felt something was going on, but I really didn't know what. She never really gave me a direct appointment."

WHAT TO DO:

If a family member or friend can't get through to call, write or visit a loved one, call the Department of Children & Families' adult abuse hot line. Or call law enforcement, says Diane Carpenter, district manger for the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program of Florida's Department of Elder Affairs.

"The idea of living in a boarding home or an adult family care home where you have to make an appointment to see a loved one, that goes against all grain. That just should not happen."

More stories and possible solutions on Page 4

Here is the story of one ex-resident of the Daphne Jones Boarding Home, and a guide to organizations that could have helped.

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