What's One Thing Homeless Have In Common?

Yesterday, we hit the streets of San Francisco with a big bag full of necessities for the homeless. The bag included bowls of spatzle, pastries, cakes and snow boots. Within 20 minutes, the spatzles were handed out to extremely grateful street dwellers, who's hungry dogs were already nose deep in the pasta. A few blocks later, we came across a teenager. She was barefoot, wearing one thin sweater and obviously needed help. We handed her the snow boots, she tried them on and they fitted perfectly. We continued our walk and within the next hour, gave away all the pastries and cakes. 

What's one thing that all these homeless people have in common? Yes, they live on the street. Yes, they have no cash. Yes, they have fallen on their luck. Yes, they have no warmth in winter. Yes, they worry they'll be robbed, beaten or verbally attacked. But what else do they have in common? Every single one of them said thank you, in gratitude, as they looked us in the eye.

When we placed the last cake at the side of a man, sleeping in the park, we accidentally woke him up. He started to yell, assuming his possessions were about to be stolen. When he realized we were offering him food, he instantly apologized. And then thanked us a dozen times.

The homeless are the most polite people and relentlessly thank anyone that provides food, shelter, clothing or bedding. They have a fantastic, kooky sense of humor and always ready to offer a quip, are forever chomping for a banter and are amazing misfits that deserve so much more in life.

En-route home with an empty bag, we passed by a block full of al fresco diners. When the food was served, customers barely glanced at the waiter/waitress. Thank you's were sparse. The contrast between the dismissive diners versus the grateful homeless were worlds apart.

This Thanksgiving week, please find three items at home that you don't want and offer them to the homeless. Whether it's old sweaters, sneakers, mittens, hats, food items, take a few of these out on the street and pay forward to someone sitting on the corner. Give thanks for all you have this Thanksgiving and in return, you'll be looked right in the eye as someone says thank you, with pure gratitude. Please share this post and spread the kindness.

Save The Date: The Homeless Marathon

Copied and pasted from The Homeless Marathon with our comments in italic: The 22nd Homelessness Marathon will air on Wednesday, December 9th, from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Please click the link, above, for new update.

The Homelessness Marathon is a unique radio program that gives homeless people and their allies a chance to speak with the nation about their experiences. Broadcasting from a different city each year, the Marathon features live reports, interviews with advocates and experts, and calls from listeners all over the country. Each hour of the program focuses on a different aspect of the problem, from youth to veterans, and from evictions to shelters.

The Homelessness Marathon goes underground
to talk with some of the forgotten people of Washington, DC.

Above all, the program centers the voices of homeless people talking about their real circumstances, obstacles, and potential solutions.

The goal is to create a dialogue on poverty, its causes and effects, and ideas for solving the homelessness crisis. The program goes beyond just talking about homelessness. instead, it focuses on hearing and learning from the lived experiences of homeless people around the nation... ideas and voices that are completely missing from current political discourse.

Please save the date and spread the word about their marathon on the 9th December. We walk past homeless people every day but how many times have we stopped to hear their stories? Maybe we chat for a moment when we're offering food but we really don't get to know our street living neighbors. This is the time that we can learn about how the other half live, and we can start to eliminate judgment that 'they live on the streets because they messed up.' Many homeless were born into poverty, came from addicted parents, were physically abused, harassed and bullied for being different, suffered mental health problems or the issue arose from a multitude of bad situations that resulted in street life. Some people may have been recently evicted due to Covid-19 causing their income to diminish, and their landlord refused to give an inch in short-term negotiating rent. Others may have been illegally forced out their home after being unable to retain a lawyer to fight their corrupt landlord's eviction notice, they didn't have enough income to rent a new home nor stable work to show as a reference to a potential landlord so the street was their only option. Never presume that the poverty gave up on life and were incompetent at money management - assume that each has their own unique story and that most of us are one month (or a bad landlord) away from also living on the curbside. Please share this post and join the 9th December Homeless Marathon. 

Homeless Getting A Second Home-Chance?

Yesterday, San Francisco's Mayor announced that the city would be relocating the homeless (currently in hotels) into stable housing, once the 'hotels for homeless' program hits expiration next month. We blogged about this last week and are very happy to hear our city is providing more permanent housing for the ones that cannot afford a home of their own. This is the opener of the city's statement:

 

"Working with community partners, Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing initiates first phase of plan to eventually move 2,300 people out of hotels and into stable housing solutions, ensuring that people exit into stability and not the street."

 

Without affordable housing, thousands of our street living residents would perish this winter. Even though San Francisco doesn't offer brutal harsh weather that comes with subzero freeze or snow, with our milder two season climate, our quite consistent warmer weather is what we're used to. So when the temperature rapidly drops, as it has the past week, everyone feels the cold. Now imagine having the comfort of decent room temperature from a hotel environment for a few months, to then be evicted onto the street again. The body can't adapt that fast, especially when people are spending day after day and night after night outside, sleeping on concrete and having no resources available for a hot drink.

 

San Francisco’s homeless crisis has hit national headline news the past few years and while the city did place many displaced into hotels, others were offered tent village options. From walking around our great city, many of these tent villages seem to have worked quite well yet, again, winter is upon us.

 

The more our leaders realize that they have options to support our homeless, the faster we can move even more street dwellers off the street. Two options: #1 As with last week’s blog post, the city can renegotiate lower hotel rates so people can stay indoors at least until spring. #2 With so many hotels potentially facing financial ruin due to lack of tourism, the city could convert these rooms into temporary SROs (single room occupancies).

 

Please keep spreading the word about these two options, on social media, to your district supervisor and our Mayor. The more we support the needy, the greater we invest in our city. 

 

 

 

 

Why Can't SF Negotiate With Hotels?

Please read this excerpt in City Journal:

San Francisco’s hotels and motels are slowly emptying of the homeless people that the city placed there during the Covid-19 pandemic. The city simply can’t afford the $260 per night, per person, price tag of housing approximately 2,000 people—just a portion of the estimated 8,000 people who live on the street. Where will they go? Elected officials have come up with a new plan: turn the whole city into a network of homeless encampments.

Many residents and commercial tenants started to renegotiate their rates with landlords back in September, or they'd most likely join the exodus and move to cheaper cities. Why would a landlord want to kick out a tenant for failure to afford the monthly rate, knowing property prices have dropped and tenants are leaving the city, when they could barter a short term deal? They wouldn't. They opted for accepting temporarily reduced rent in return for longer tenancy security.

This method's been working really well. We (first hand) know people who have come to an agreement with their residential or commercial landlord for up to 75% less rent per month over a short term, and landlords have agreed. 

If this is the case and the concept's proving to be a success, why can't the city also adopt the same rule of thumb for the homeless? Hotels are crumbling and many small hotels may pack up and sell out due to lack of business - most may have already, if they'd not received the city's cash to fill their rooms with the poverty. Not all hotels in the city need to cost a walloping $260 per night - that amount is outrageous. The cost rate to run a hotel can be 20% i.e. the rest is profit. Why can't the city reduce the per night average to even $100? The hotels will then be able to maintain all expenses + a decent cushion profit margin. The alternative is that shortly, the city has announced they'll be kicking out the homeless from these hotels and sending them back onto the street. 

The repercussion of this ill-thought out decision: The hotels don't receive any secure income at a time when Covid-19's hit its second wave and global influx tourism to San Francisco is at an all time low; the homeless will be living on our streets during winter (the worst possible time for them); since the street dwellers will huddle together, the chances of a citywide Covid-19 increased spike is easily possible. The latter will then result in the homeless suffering beyond comprehension, hospital beds flooded and hospitals not appreciating their revenue crash through to the basement.

The city must treat this homeless+hotels programs with a business mind set and renegotiate the rates, so the poverty are taken care of when the temperature drops. Please contact your district supervisor and urge them to tell our City Hall leaders to renegotiate those hotel rates so the homeless can stay safe. And since we have more billionaires per capita, than any other city worldwide, maybe you know of one that can finally step up and cough up hotel cash...