As I tried to drive I could hardly breath my heart was pounding so hard, loud, fast. I thought I was going to have to pull over. Was I having a heart attack?

Lois Sunrich

Keys4Homes, Founding Member, Emeritus
Affordable Resident

My boys, Curt and Brad, were raised in Leucadia when it was, believe it or not, possible to ride their skateboards down the middle of Leucadia Blvd, even in a heavy rain. While crisscrossing all the way from the top near the freeway until they crossed the railroad tracks at the bottom, they then would fly across 101 into our rain-flooded little park like it was a community swimming pool. Yes, the traffic was that light! It was just the early 70s.

And, it was in Leucadia that I began the seeds for a nonprofit, while working out of my duplex on Hygeia. I was dedicated to collecting life’s stories, and had started with a 10-year project collecting the story of women in the last decade of the millennium. As the years passed the adventure continued and over time I was also collecting elders stories, which teens helped celebrate in year-long, city-wide story art programs, as well as published 33 family publications and eventually produced a men’s story art project, all while teaching and facilitating life story workshops and circles.

Yep, my life was all about stories and art. So as you might imagine, when I turned 70 a few years ago and it was time for me to retire, my funds were very limited. My only asset was my little 400 square foot studio I now owned. Mmmm? Now what?

In an attempt to figure out a way to fund my retirement, I drove up to Oregon and spent about five weeks searching for a place that I might buy with the proceeds of my studio and still have enough left to fund my later years. I knew Oregon’s housing was far less expensive than Encinitas; maybe I could fund my life there.

Sure enough I found a way to make it work. It took the entire time, but I finally found one place that was perfect. It was a sweet, fern-filled 1/4 acre, on a lake, in the deep redwoods, with a community room, wifi and snow plowing as part of the low monthly fee. Ah ha, I could build a tiny house there. Bingo! A long forgotten childhood dream to live in the redwoods was going to become a reality.

Or so I thought. Instead, as soon as I began driving to see the realtor, I suddenly, with no warning, had a major panic attack. She was in the little local town about 40 minutes away along a beautiful evergreen-lined, twisting country road. As I tried to drive I could hardly breath my heart was pounding so hard, loud, fast. I thought I was going to have to pull over. Was I having a heart attack?

Yes, as soon as the possibility of moving away from Encinitas became real, I went into full-blown panic. I didn’t know it until later and I had figured it out, but my entire body knew then. How could I leave my hometown? How could I leave the people who had supported my calling for over 30 years? How could I leave my dearest friends who have my back and who I share my life story with. My boys had moved away when they became adults, but I realized, instantly, I could not. I could not leave Encinitas.

Oh no, now what?

As I drove ‘home’ the next three days, down Highway 5, I had a dark cloud over me. How was I going to be able to stay in Encinitas?

Once I returned, on the suggestion of a friend, I looked into ‘affordable housing’. I had never even considered such a thing. Low income housing to me meant living in ‘the projects’. I soon learned how wrong I was.

I also learned I was in good company. I was not the only one struggling to figure out how to live in Encinitas. As a matter of fact, there was a housing crisis. Lots of people were struggling, all up and down the coast of California, with high rents and skyrocketing housing prices. No wonder homelessness was an epidemic.

This is when I was told; “Maybe you could help those who have a hard time telling their difficult housing stories, maybe you could help give them a voice.”

It was also when I met Bob Kent and together we saw the importance of creating some kind of grassroots organization to help tell those stories as we supported affordable housing being built here in Encinitas. So Keys4Homes was born.

And ... yet, how was I going to solve my own housing question? It was at this point that some of my friends and past clients came together and created the “Sunrich Retirement Fund”. Yes! I did not need a lot to make ends meet, to stay in my little studio. I was only short a little every month. So they decided to each donate a small amount every month that together goes into an account that covers the amount I was short. And, they told me, “It will be there for you for the rest of your life.” It was an extraordinary story that I knew needed to be told; the story of how a retiring elder was supported by her friends to live out her life in her own hometown.

And also. . . now I am committed to help tell the stories of others who, like myself, have found or are struggling to find housing solutions to live here in Encinitas.