the homeless
today, i walked to walgreen's on market and 9th. on 11th street, which greg and i call "pee street" i passed by 3 homeless men. one guy was pushing his overflowing shopping cart somewhere and two other guys were sitting on the curb sharing a smoke and talking. then on market street, i passed by a lady in a santa hat with a sleeping bag wrapped around her and a cardboard sign which said "anything helps" (on my way back home, i gave her a cigarette.) across the street, 4 or 5 people were lounging in the sun in front of fox plaza. and of course, in front of walgreen's there was the guy that's always in front of walgreens, "spare change?" he asks everyone coming and going. usually, i never have change and tell him, "sorry buddy, no change, hang in there." but today, i gave him 21 cents and he gave me a big smile. i felt like shit though. how can my change do anything for him?
a couple of weeks ago, the san francisco chronicle (online: sfgate) had a five day series on the homeless called "Shame of the City," i meant to post the links but got distracted. i'm lazy and easily distracted, remember.
anyway, the first article, The Island begins with:
They live - and die - on a traffic island in the middle of a busy downtown street, surviving by panhandling drivers or turning tricks. Everyone in their colony is hooked on drugs or alcohol. They are the harsh face of the homeless in San Francisco.
this island is about three blocks from my house. greg and i have walked by the island many times since our move to the city. one of the first things i noticed about san fran was the homeless. there are just so many of them! seeing people sleeping on the sidewalks and in doorways shocked me, in minneapolis, i'd only seen people sleeping outside once, they were encamped under a bridge. here, it's a nightly sight. some sleep right out in the open, others sleep in tents, some use their shopping carts, cardboard and blankets to make tents.
The inhabitants live hand-to-mouth, sleep on the cement and abuse booze and drugs, mostly heroin. There are at least 3,000 others like them in San Francisco, social workers say. They are known as the "hard core," the people most visible on the streets, the most difficult to help.
all five of the articles in the series are worth the read (just ignore some of the formatting errors and typos) and don't forget to look at the pictures. after reading these, my emotions were all over the place. revulsion, sadness, pity, dispair, anger. but in the end, this is just a part of living in san francisco. eventually, the city will find someway to bandage this problem but i doubt it will go away completely. some people want to live this way and they should be allowed to. others want to get off the street and should be able to realize their dreams with help from the city and government agencies.
go to: Shame of the City to read all the articles and to view the pictures. do it, do it now! the pictures are especially moving and some are very graphic. The second article about the homeless family is very heartbreaking. i really feel for those kids. just please read...
12:43:57 PM 
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