Rise Above Covid-19 Mental Health Issues

There are various statistics bouncing around regarding the impact of Covid-19 on mental health decline. The National Council for Behavioral Health published a report summarizing the following: 

• 52% of organizations have seen an increase in the demand for health services
• Of organizations offering substance abuse disorder, more than 50% have reported an increased demand
• Behavioral health organizations are also struggling financially with 26% laid off, 24% furloughed and 43% decreased staffing hours
• 54% of organizations have closed programs and 65% have had to cancel, reschedule or turn away patients
  

Summary: The number of mental health issues have rocketed yet the number of specialists able to help, have been axed from being able to do their job. This is tragic. 

Back in May, the Washington Post exposed the dramatic impact of Covid-19 whereby as early as April, a federal emergency hotline registered more than a 1000% increase from calls by people in emotional distress versus the same month in 2019. In May, around 20,000 people texted that same hotline. Talkspace, an online therapy company announced they'd received a 65% jump in clients since February. 

During the last week of June, the CDC reported that nearly four out of every 10 people have struggled with substance abuse and mental health, with 31% of adults showing symptoms of depression or related anxiety. 

We can delve deeper into this with further statistics, but why add more salt to the wound? What we're getting at is that the pandemic has isolated people from society and it's causing a tremendous spiral downwards in mental health.

Only an expert can truly care for someone with mental health but there are always ways you can help yourself. SF CARES has been a three plus decade year old advocate for the poverty, and we don't want to see any more homeless on our streets due to depression or related illnesses. Here are two very simple solutions so please try and share these:

1. Dogs! Dogs are proven to be one of the world's greatest natural therapists. If you're a huge fan of the four legged friend, sign up to NextDoor.com or Craigslist.com and offer your services for free. Busy parents may not have the time to walk their dog since they need to help their kids with school work, or an elderly person may be worried about health implications from leaving their home. Lift everyone's spirits, your own included, by pounding the streets with Flopsy. There's nothing like taking your mind off your own problems by trying to grab a stick out a dog's mouth, especially since the Bay Area only has two mild seasons so there's no reason to cancel out evening strolls. Wonderful!
   
2. Food Banks! There are now multiple pop-up pantries around the city so set the alarm early, get outside in the morning sunshine and for two hours, pack up bags of food that people really need that same day. The feeling of helping to make 500 bags of meals, knowing that what you hold in your hand is what will feed a family for 24 hours...well it's like no other.
   

When we help others, we always help ourselves - it's a natural cycle of life. We feel better about being useful, the time spins by quickly instead of sitting at home procrastinating and it gives us the booster to volunteer again. Within a few hours, our endorphins are bouncing back in the right direction and we small talk with others so there's no social pressure involved. It's basically a good distraction from wallowing in our own self pity. Once you've walked that gorgeous dog or packed food for 120 minutes, life will start to feel balanced again.

Our own personal well-being must take a front seat. It doesn't take much to reduce the cycle of depression, substance abuse and negative thoughts. Please, please, please share this and encourage others to get out the house, be productive, support the less fortunate and it'll do you the world of good.

Affordable Housing Silver Lining From Covid-19

Please click this link from Saint Paulus Lutheran church (3 minute read) about a new initiative they'll be launching, when they return to their newly renovated church next year. The program is very simple: Saint Paulus will encourage the homeless to bring in their resume (or the church will help write one up). While the street dweller is enjoying a shower at the church (yes, there will be showers on site), Saint Paulus will match their credentials to an available job, posted by a local nonprofit, and employment will start immediately. The individual will live in a hotel or SRO (single room occupancy) during their standard employment probation period (30 or 60 days). During this time, Saint Paulus will source permanent, affordable housing for the individual. 

The church's 'Showering the Homeless with Jobs' program is outstandingly logical and received thumbs up from industry experts. From one church, with one shower, with one resume, with one job, with one home that reduces the poverty in San Francisco by 30% in the first two years of the program operating, this will make for international headline news. Nonprofits around the globe will then follow suit, using Saint Paulus's blueprint to reduce poverty in their own city - using their on site showers or partnering with nearby school gym showers.

Earlier this year after conceptualizing this idea, Saint Paulus sourced an employment partner that would feature nonprofit jobs, they accumulated the resources for volunteers to manage the program and clothing & home furnishings for applicants future apartments. The only spanner in the works that Saint Paulus experienced when they crafted this initiative, pre Covid-19, was sourcing affordable housing or SROs. They were so scarce due to landlords only wanting to develop expensive condos for the tech community. As a result, affordable housing was pushed to the end of the line and the few available apartments were at rock bottom numbers, causing a caveat for the program's life cycle to rotate effectively. 

A few months ago, the church spoke to city officials who promised to keep their eyes and ears open for housing opportunities. This week, that promise came true. A kind hearted and pursuit-for-good official talked with an organization that had property owner clients chomping to develop SROs yet didn't have an audience, since 20% of San Francisco residents had permanently pandemic-fled the city for cheaper homes outside the Bay Area. 

This blessing in disguise opportunity has resulted in Saint Paulus discussing their program with the organization, that now has an abundance of affordable homes to rent. So when Saint Paulus returns to 999 Eddy Street early next year, and the 'Showering the Homeless with Jobs' program kicks off, all their ducks are in a row to jump start the program: jobs, homes and the adulation of seeing the needy getting a second chance in life.

Covid-19 has thrown the planet into a different curve ball yet there are silver linings all around us. For over 30 years, SF CARES has advocated for the homeless and with our partners, such as Saint Paulus Lutheran church, we are finally seeing a light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel. Empty tech buildings that are perfectly painted, decorated and have state of the art kitchens will be home to nonprofit programs - programs that went abandoned due to big tech grabbing all available, price hemorrhaged square ft in our beloved city. Empty SROs and affordable apartments will now be home to thousands of diverse individuals that were hanging on by a thread for years, unable to pay sky high rents.

The silver linings are all around us and this is the time we're now turning lemons into lemonade by seeing these gem slithers of opportunities, and helping the needy get back on their own two feet. If you want to support Saint Paulus by way of a donation (monetary, clothing or home furnishings) to their Showering/Homeless program, have connection that may help their initiative or are looking to volunteer your time, please email our partner church: admin@saintpaulus.org

And most importantly: Have faith that good things do happen to good people.

 

 

 

Laid Off? Fancy a Job at the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing?

The irony is not lost on us - the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (DHSH) need staff, fast. During this pandemic and with people being laid off left, right and center, you'd assume that any job would be needle-in-the-haystack scarce. But according to the San Francisco Chronicle (link above), a new city report states that the DHSH is absolutely understaffed and completely unprepared to handle the expanse of homeless numbers rising in San Francisco.

One thing to point out though is that the city and state have extended the 'tenants won't be evicted' deadline to early 2021, if the tenants are unable to pay rent due to being laid off. So why the DHSH are having kittens over so many potential homeless, when residents aren't going to be the cause of poverty rising due to this city/state support, is slightly lost on us. 

Maybe they're pre-empting that come January and when the city/state tenant support stops, the poverty numbers will increase. But if we're still in the Covid-19 midst, then the city/state will yet again extend their support to residents unable to pay rent. 

In the meantime, there are a few factors to take into account. The PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) and Stimulus check (remember the $1200 you received months ago?) may be back on the cards. That'll help the struggling residents for only a short while but at least it's a minor start. But if you'd like inspiration of either the impression of a growing economy or maybe a bonafide economy boosting, just head down to Cow Hollow or the Marina district. Alfresco seating booths are in abundance, taking up entire blocks, and night after night the tables are full of diners. 

Yet if you're not one of those servers, not one of those restaurant owners or not one of the diners, because you're absolutely strapped for cash, then contact the DHSH for open job positions. The Budget & Legislative Analyst's Office has confirmed a near 26% staff vacancy rate. They also have a high turnover rate, so that dream job you want, might be available sooner than you think. They DHSH also has $26.5m left unspent of which could have been injected into helping the homeless with food, supplies, temporary SRO housing etc.

Either way, there are sometimes blessings in disguises that come along our life paths. This might just be one of those. A job, stability, income, a roof over your head and the ability to climb through the career Jungle Jim towards greater prosperity...while paying forward and helping those who currently sleep in tents on the street.

Please share this because if you're not on the job prowl, then someone you know may be and they might desperately be in need of a break in life. Let us all give it to them.

 

 

Why Are Tent Dwellers So Hated?

We just came across a great article about the ATE movement - anti tent energy. Imagine that you're coming home and there's a tent dweller outside your apartment. They're not loud, are keeping their perimeter clean and always say hello to you. But you're mad. Because you pay rent for an apartment and they're living feet away from you, for free. Life's not fair, right?

Fair to who? 

The homeless? A down on their luck person that maybe once had a good job, fell on hard times, was evicted in the past decade (50% of evictions during that time period were illegal) and are ecstatic to have some sort of stability - by way of a temporary address, a roof over their head and somewhere to store their belongings instead of dragging them around in a shopping cart.

You? Working from the comforts of your own home for six plus months, snuggled up in pajamas, taking those occasional breaks for Zoom exercise boot camp classes and sneaking in a few shopping sprees...because you're worth it. Finances aren't a worry, the salary is rolling in and your trusty overpriced app food delivery service is usually on time so you can vegan and gluten free your way through a night of Netflix.

But when you look out your living room window, you're mad. The ATE in you towards your tent residing 'neighbor' has now blocked your perfect world. The tent village across the street irritates you to no end. And you want these people gone, away from your idyllic life while you sign up for the next 'equality for all' and 'diversity is healthy' protests, taking place this weekend.

If you live in the suburbs, there are expected hierarchy tiers that come with a picket fence, 2.2 kids, an SUV and a newly delivered Labradoodle puppy. For us urbanites, life is more integrated, scrappier and wealth is designed to meet poverty on every single corner. Dreaming of the day when tent residents are sent packing back to the central freeway underpass, Tenderloin or Mission Bay is not how urban environments operate. If you live in a city, you must understand how the socioeconomic dynamics work. 

So sniffing your nose in disgust because you just returned from from a cocktail happy hour soiree at a luxury outdoor parklet ($20 per drink, naturally) has turned a lovely evening into a complete nosedive, because the homeless man or woman is eating food with their fingers at their tent, outside your home and they've utterly ruined your evening...this is exactly what you signed up for when you moved to San Francisco. 

You now have three options:

1. Continue to belittle the ones less fortunate than yourself. Good luck in how that'll turn out.
2. Be kinder to the homeless and when you're heading out or returning home, give them a soda, a sandwich or a few snacks.
3. Step up the plate and donate your time at a food bank, the Salvation Army, Food Runners, Project OpenHand, Glide, Shanti.org or one of the multiple nonprofits that continue to advocate for the needy. 

Remember, just like Bob or Amanda that are tent living outside your home: One month they were gainfully employed yet over the next two months, they lost their job, were illegally evicted and now live outside the apartment they once enjoyed...the home you rented from that same landlord. Embrace San Francisco for all its diversity, or move to suburban pastures and put a downpayment on one of these little angelic beauties: