On the day in October when Los Angeles was on the way to setting a record as the hottest place in the nation, I went to the Downey Post Office to check up on Julie, the homeless woman I first reported on almost a year ago.

I hadn’t seen Julie in the last few weeks. With Marie Callender’s restaurant on Florence Avenue closed, the other place where Julie would stand and wait for charity, where was she now?

Jennifer, the homeless woman who alternates with Julie standing at the Post Office and also depends on the kindness of strangers for her daily bread, had said she was worried because she had heard that Julie was in a convalescent home.

That’s how rumors start, I thought. Or maybe reality has stepped in.

This month of October Julie was to turn 65, and she had told me she hoped that her social worker would secure monthly social security benefits for her. Julie was not clear how that would happen.

Today I was relieved: Julie was there, standing against the gray cinderblock wall of the parking lot. But she was warm to the touch when I hugged her, even through several layers of clothing, and her cheeks were flushed bright red, not the usual wind-roughened pink.

“I’m so glad to see you,” I said. “But where’s your parasol?”

“I haven’t got one,” Julie said. She didn’t have a water bottle either. “I’ve been in the hospital – but at least I had a place to stay. It’s been hard on me.”

Julie said they gave her “that IV,” probably meaning a saline solution to bring her system back to par. “I think I’m going to have to go back in there,” she said.

It was 95 degrees in the shade at two in the afternoon, and the air was so hot and arid that Post Office patrons went briskly right past us. Today I did not see anyone stop to offer Julie any money.

In the year since these reports began, Downey has not been able to take steps to build any kind of shelter to offer its homeless. But the County of Los Angeles has now mandated that it is each city’s responsibility to provide an alternate to the sidewalk. And a Superior Court in Santa Ana ruled that all cities must find places to house their homeless.

In late September, Downey’s neighbor Bellflower became the first city to do so.

Backed by a special meeting of its City Council, Bellflower Mayor Sonny Santa Ines said they hoped to get state and federal funding for building a temporary shelter for 50 that would not cost Bellflower taxpayers a dime. Location? “TBA.”

Funding may not be the real problem in moving forward. “Location TBA,” mean “To Be Announced.” From the same alphabet soup mix comes NIMBY, Not In My Back Yard.

NIMBY-ism may block Bellflower’s attempts, the way Norwalk was foiled by neighbors when the location for its proposed shelter was disclosed. Demonstrators in Newport Beach this month protested when the city floated the idea of building a 40-bed shelter in the city’s public yard, because it is across the street from a new condominium complex.

Some homeless do have mental health and addiction issues. They now make up a minority. Others have lost their ability to afford their apartments. Julie lost her home when her older sister and then her mother died two and a half years ago and she could not afford the apartment rent. She had been their caretaker, but now she is nearly blind.

“Please tell all my friends I love them,” Julie said, “and they are in my prayers.”

“I’m 65 now,” said Julie. “I had my birthday, and it’s October. I’m waiting.”

Homeless at the post office -- a follow-up