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.