Debra Lynn Hord, a sometimes-homeless woman known to many in Glen Park for her kindness and helpfulness, died of an apparent head injury sustained after she was robbed outside the Glen Park Market at Diamond and Bosworth on March 2, 2023.
It was at about 6:30 am, said Jung Ho Lee, one of the owners of the market. A tall man in a hoodie asked Hord for money – she was known for being generous when she was able to be.
“She took her money out of her pocket and when he saw how much she had, he pushed her down and then took all the money and ran away,” Lee told the Glen Park News.
Lee went out to help Hord, who had fallen hard to the ground and whose nose was bleeding.
“I got a wet paper towel and helped her clean her face. She said she wasn’t feeling too well and said she was going to go back where she’d been staying and rest,” said Lee.
Hord had been staying with and helping an elderly man who lived on Lippard, Lee said.
Then at about 8:00 am police came to the Market to ask questions, saying Hord had sustained what appeared to be a head injury and had been taken to the hospital and was in a coma.
Hord died at San Francisco General Hospital on March 23.
The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office confirmed to the Glen Park News that Hord, aged 57, had died and that her next of kin had been notified. Though several spellings of her name have been used throughout the neighborhood, the Medical Examiner said Hord was her legal name.
Hord mostly lived on and off at the homeless encampment along I-280 and sometimes in doorways on Diamond Street including by the Glen Park Market, known to many as “Mama’s Market.”
“Everybody knew her, she was an alcoholic but really generous and helpful,” said Lee. “When I had to carry heavy things she’d come and help me and she’d sweep the sidewalk.”
Hord had been in the neighborhood for as long as Lee has been at the Market. “We’d been friends for 16 years,” she said.
In a post on Next Door, Glen Park resident Stephen Labovsky posted that a gathering was held at the Glen Park BART Station Plaza on March 30 by Hord’s friends to remember her.
“I listened as Debbie’s friends speak about her struggles with homelessness and alcohol abuse, but too, of her humanity. Debbie was homeless but she was not friendless. Over the years, Debbie would sometimes disappear from the neighborhood for a while, but she always returned to her home in Glen Park.”
