Saundra Macpherson had been waiting for a medical visit — a follow-up for dental issues she hoped to get checked out.

While she waited, she turned on the hose, rinsing dust off of some bedding and pillows on the sidewalk outside her camper on Branford Street in Pacoima. Inside, her younger sister, a disabled Navy veteran with an honorable discharge, lay resting alongside their five Wheaten Terriers, all trying to escape the worst of the midday heat.

Macpherson, 53, has been homeless in the San Fernando Valley for three years. She has an associate degree in business administration and once worked in in-home care until a client died and the work dried up. She never recovered.

“We’re out of hope here,” she said. “I don’t like living like this, but I’ve gotten so far down, I can’t get up by

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