we had never met before, and she apologized as she answered my ‘how’s it going,” tears bubbling up to her face….
as if the question unlocked the pain of day.
“i got a ticket for drinking a beer…and the next day I got one for pissing in the street, but I had no where to go.” She pulled me and my outreach partner into a hug and she cried out loud, asking to please to help her get some housing. She ran inside to get a pen and paper to write down her information. I really did not want to mislead her. But she continued to write as, I apologetically explained that we would do what we could to help her get set up with services at the clinic.
i really wish i had more to offer than some food and harm reduction supplies. what i had to give felt superficial compared to what she needed. Pretty much its is if her arm was cut off, and all I could giver her was a band-aid.
In the past couple of years, SFPD has drastically increased the number of foot patrol, and with each year, its entire budget has increased by several million (while many other social service agencies who provide services to the homeless and marginally housed have experienced major cuts).
Rather than get people housed, they are given tickets when they have no where else to go…and once they are in the system, the next time they are stopped they are in trouble for the tickets they have not paid, and there is more of an excuse to arrest them and throw them in jail.
