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 Josephine McDoal, 65, was born with severe glaucoma and lost what little sight she had by the age of 23. One of five children born to parents who moved from Puerto Rico to Brooklyn in 1928, McDoal was a dedicated student at the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. After graduation, she was trained at the Lighthouse for the Blind in Manhattan, learning to transcribe from a dictaphone and run a switchboard.
Josephine worked for several years before being laid off during a transit strike, and then cared for her parents until their death. She moved to California with her 6-year-old son James in 1976.
Josephine lived with her sister for a while, but things took an upturn in 1977 when she found a subsidized rental apartment in Los Robles of Union City. “It’s been a godsend to me,” she says of her affordable housing. “It’s my home - it is such a cozy little place, it has given me security, and given me the opportunity to be independent.”
“I feel bad for those who do not have a home,” says Josephine. She still lives in the same apartment, remodeled when EAH took over management of Los Robles in 1996. Josephine serves on the resident organization as public relations officer, and has co-edited its newsletter, The Los Robles Phoenix, since 1998.
She has studied at the computer learning center which EAH established there, and applies her computer training as a volunteer at the Lyon’s Center for the Blind in Oakland. She also belongs to toastmasters, in involved with Neighborhood Watch and is the secretary for the Bay Area chapter of the California Council for the Blind. “I know that funds are scarce,” says McDoal “it’s up to us as tenants to take care of what we have been given, and to take pride in our homes. I take pride in my home.”
To know more about Los Robles, please click on this link: http://www.eahhousing.org/manage/profile.asp?id=33
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