Around 3AM the other night, i was walking home from “exercise” when a man asked me for a quarter. All i had in my pocket was a $20, some smokes, an ID and my keys. I shrugged and said, sorry, i didn’t have any money. And then i spent the rest of my walk tormenting myself about my reaction, about having lied.<\/p>\n
The homeless situation in San Francisco haunts me. Nothing horrifies me more than the privileged folks i know who look at the folks on the street with disgust as though they deserve to be there for something they’ve done. Of the groups that i’ve talked to, there seem to be three distinct homeless populations: The last group is typically not visible. They are the working homeless, the folks who are trying desperately to put together first & last, the folks who actively use the shelters and the resources this city has for homeless folks. These individuals are in the horrible position of living in an obnoxiously expensive city and not having the resources to get beyond bare minimum. They are chronically on the edge.<\/p>\n Fact of the matter is that the folks i see on a daily basis tend to fall into the first two categories: youth and mentally ill. Yes, many use my money to buy drugs and alcohol. They are in positions where escapism is the only perceived route. The youth tend not to trust authorities enough to work within the system to find a solution and the mentally ill often don’t have the capacity to do so. Both are blamed for their situation rather than there being any recognition that the infrastructure is fubared.<\/p>\n Yet, while i can intellectualize this, every time someone asks me for money or every time i am faced with someone sleeping on my doorstep, i’m faced with this horrible guilt, shame and frustration. I’m completely torn up about the right step. I want to help but i can’t afford to help infinitely. I can always afford the quarter but it adds up. Who do i help? How? At what level? I don’t think that me giving money to folks asking on the streets is the answer but infrastructure needs to change and how do i make that happen? I have more agency to help individuals but where does that lead?<\/p>\n
\n– youth who come from abusive environments and escape to SF because the streets are safer than home
\n– mentally ill folks who would be better off in a care facility but since we don’t have that infrastructure, they’re on the streets
\n– folks who don’t have the network structure, skills or opportunities to get out of the perpetual state of poverty (think: Ehrenreich<\/a>)<\/p>\n