Veteran dies seeking help at center

A homeless man was found dead at the Laguna Relief and Resource Center at about 8 a.m. Sunday, apparently having bled to death after breaking a window to enter the center in an evident attempt to find help.

Gerald Hoy, 41, a Navy veteran, had been a client at the center on Laguna Canyon Road for about two years, said case manager Lisa Hall.

Hoy had cut his finger and lost a lot of blood despite wrapping the finger, Hall said.

“It’s a dark day;we are still in shock,” Hall said Monday. “We didn’t know if we would open today or not.”

Hoy’s body was found inside the center by a volunteer who was delivering supplies.

Hall said it is against the rules for clients to come to the center when it is closed. The center is open from 9 a.m. to noon on weekdays, offering emergency food, social services assistance, and a place to shower and wash clothes.

“This has never happened before,” Hall said of the break-in. “He came on his own. We’re not a shelter.”

The center is located away from the road, and clients typically go there once a week, and are picked up at the beach and given transportation, she said.

Hoy had been arrested the week before in Laguna Beach on public drunkenness and on suspicion of having a homemade sap, or striking device, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Darin Lenyi said.

Police searched him after finding him in an intoxicated state on the 31000 block of Coast Highway in South Laguna, allegedly finding a crude weapon made from socks and a rock.

Hall said the center now plans to put in an alarm system.

“This is the first time this has happened, and it’s just very unfortunate. We’re all very sorry,” Hall said.

Hall added that Hoy had been coming to the center less over the past few months.

“He was on a downward spiral,” she said.

Court records for Hoy showed a lengthy list of citations and arrests in Orange County for camping or sleeping, drunkenness, drinking alcohol in public, and other charges over the past two years.