Black dogwalker’s family ‘disgusted’ by response after racist attacks

More than two months after a fire destroyed the home of longtime Fillmore residents Terry Williams and his parents, and more than three months after they first received a racist package on their doorstep, there are still no answers for either incident.

Support given to the Williams family after the fire — to house and feed them — have been petering out. Investigations have no leads, and the promises made by city officials have resulted in little, the family said.

“We’re sick of this,” said Luddie Williams, Terry Williams’ 81-year-old father. The family’s 76-year-old matriarch, Carolyn Williams, suffered smoke inhalation and health complications as a result of the fire and still requires frequent care. 

Williams and his parents are living at a hotel in South San Francisco, and don’t know where they’ll land next.

“I’m disgusted,” Luddie said. “I’m done with this city.”

As of Friday, the San Francisco Fire Department said it could not yet confirm the cause of the May 21 blaze that destroyed the Williams family’s Grove Street duplex. Williams lived in a unit below his father and mother. 

“Mom is still learning how to walk again,” said Letisha Henderson, Williams’ sister, who grew up in the house. “She’s not mobile. She has to master walking again. Her kidneys were filled with smoke, and they had to flush them out with medication. She’s diabetic too — so that ain’t good.”

In the weeks before the fire, Williams began receiving racist hate mail in two separate incidents on April 26 and May 5. But San Francisco police still have no suspects in that investigation either, the department confirmed today. 

At an intimate prayer gathering a few days after the fire, Mayor London Breed and several community leaders made promises of security and housing and pledged their support to the Williams family. But according to the family, the response since then has been minimal.

Immediately after the fire, the American Red Cross placed Williams, Luddie, Carolyn, and Williams’ three dogs in a hotel in South San Francisco — but the initial voucher could only cover one month of their stay. 

After the first month, District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston’s office successfully advocated for the Williamses to get a second month at the hotel covered, according to Preston’s aide Melissa Hernandez. And for a third month — until the end of August — a representative of the mayor’s office said it will be covered by Booker T. Washington, a Black-centered nonprofit. It’s unclear how the family’s stay will be financed after August. 

The Human Services Agency provides rental subsidies or one-time help with move-in costs to a new rental for eligible residents who earn below the area median income and have liquid assets below $60,000, according to a spokesperson. The agency can also assist with applications for emergency food. It is unclear how the agency supports homeowners, however; it declined to provide specific information about the Williams case, citing “client privacy issues.”

Since he is currently housed outside city limits, Williams said he lost access to the city’s health care plan, which requires residency within the city. 

“They said no services can help me … I don’t live out here, my home is in San Francisco,” Williams said. His parents, at least, have their own health insurance.

Williams’ work has also been impacted: A long time dog walker in the neighborhood, his client roster fell from walking some 15 dogs daily to just two walks a week, which bring in a fraction of his prior income. Without a home, he can no longer board pets, formerly his main source of income.

“You’ve been doing this stuff [for] 14 years, it’s hard to do anything else,” Williams said, adding a similar sentiment to his mother’s: “I don’t even wanna come back to SF now. The way they did me and my family, I’m like: Fuck San Francisco.” 

For the last several months, said the sister Henderson, “There’s been no clear next step.”

The family has home insurance that will pay for the rebuild. But, in the meantime, Henderson asked, “What about what the city could do?”

Where city services have been slow, neighbors in the Fillmore have stepped up by loaning cars, donating clothes and food, hosting barbecues and starting two GoFundMes that have collected over $150,000. The family is saving those funds for a rainy day, anticipating more expenses to their home than insurance will cover. 

SFPD’s response

Williams said he has been frustrated with the police response from the get-go. He first began receiving the black dolls with nooses and threatening messages to his doorstep on April 26 and again on May 5. Although SFPD classified the packages he received as a hate crime, he said they did not follow up. Williams and his neighbors had to collect private surveillance video footage themselves from nearby residents before it was automatically deleted. They also demanded police surveillance for the home after a break-in attempt the night of the fire. 

Weeks before the blaze, after the two incidents of racist hate mail, the city should have stepped up its security, said Henderson. 

“You can have officers around the park making sure no one’s car gets broken into,” Henderson said. “But us? We weren’t important enough. If we were, we would have been protected.”

Howard Smith, a worker from the Fillmore Collaborative, an organization that works closely with Breed, told the family that the mayor would “put a team together to watch the neighborhood.” But no such team has materialized, the family said. 

Police reported having a suspect on May 30 and released an image of a person of interest on June 7. Since then, there have been no additional updates from the police department. It is unclear whether the suspect or person-of-interest is still being investigated.

A phone call between Williams and Mayor Breed’s point person for the family, James Caldwell, heard by Mission Local, showed dissatisfaction on all sides.

“I get your frustration. Be frustrated, bro,” Caldwell told Williams during the call. Caldwell said he was continuing to face “roadblocks” and “hoops,” and that he was “trying to hold people’s feet to the fire.” 

“I said, ‘He’s been put up in a hotel since the fire … Where’s the next step?’”

Williams also said he felt that local advocacy groups used his name to “build their brand up” but fell short in practice. The NAACP, for example, had promised him legal support that he still has not seen. 

Rev. Amos Brown, who leads the local NAACP chapter and Third Baptist Church located near the Williams’ home, said that the organizations are still advocating on Williams’ behalf. While legal representation had been discussed, Brown said, the priority was getting answers from the police and fire departments about the racist packages and the cause of the fire. 

“Why is it that our public safety agencies, our legal agencies, have not at all after three-plus months come up with any finding?” Brown said. “The basic point is, the moral obligation of this city, this police department, and the fire department. That’s the overriding issue.”