The Coldest Summer I Spent Was in San Francisco

The Coldest Summer I Spent Was in San Francisco

In Broward County, we have a large homeless population. It\'s estimated that
there are more than 6,800 homeless people living in Broward County alone -
and it\'s expected to get worse with welfare cuts.

In August, the Homeless Emergency Management team, sponsored by the Homeless
Voice, went out to California to examine their severe, large homeless
population. The plan was to see why California\'s problem is so out of control
and to use the research to prevent the same situation from occurring here in
Broward County. The teams also did outreach and tried to get help for as many
people as possible in the short amount of time they were there.

Our presence was not welcomed in San Francisco. However, in Los Angeles, we
met with the top administration from the Sheriff\'s department. In fact, the
deputies took us on a tour of the encampments, better known as \"skid row.\"
Every night in Las Angeles, there are an estimated 2,000 available beds at
the shelters. Why?! If there are so many homeless, why aren\'t they going to
shelters?! According to experts on the Sheriff\'s Committee and our team, it
was discovered that the chronic homeless population can\'t make it in programs
with structured environments. The Sheriff has gone way above the call of duty
by starting the process of opening his own homeless safe haven that will be
ran by a unknown social service provider.

The next part of our teams trip was to attend the North American Street
Newspaper Association conference (NASNA). This conference was held in San
Francisco. More than 50 street newspapers in North America and
representatives of the International Street Newspaper Association, which has
over 30 street newspapers worldwide, were there. A combination of both
associations gives our voice to 28 million readers.

The second phase of our trip in San Francisco was to do street outreach and
evaluate the homeless problem. Let me tell you, the word \"problem\" does not
even come close to explain what is wrong in San Francisco. One day, we
followed a 63-year-old woman named Kaji for three hours. We followed her in a
Jeep with tinted windows and video equipment. Why were we so sneaky? I wanted
to know who would pass this woman up, I wanted to see what the police did
when they came into contact with her, and I wanted to see Joe Citizen try to
help this person.

I wanted to see if this old, tired, crippled, and sick lady had any guardian
angels. We also wanted to see if any body attempted to rob or hurt this frail
woman. The surveillance was supposed to last six hours, but we just couldn\'t
stomach it any longer. We counted more than 150 people who passed her every
five minutes, and not one stopped to even ask if she was OK. Not one person
smiled at her, 18 times a police officer on a bicycle rode passed her, 43
times a police car passed her. Nobody helped this woman.

We couldn\'t take it anymore. Two of our team members jumped into traffic
while the video crew stay behind to film our new adventure. We asked her why
she was severely bent over after taking only 10 steps. Every time she took 10
steps, she\'d be bent over at 90 degrees. I thought maybe it would be cardiac
problems and a lack of oxygen, but it was later revealed as osteoporosis.
After talking to her for about 10 minutes, I decided it was time for this
woman to go to the hospital.

I stopped the same cop who rode past her and asked him to call an ambulance.
I asked to borrow some rubber gloves so I could examine this woman. I
explained to her I wasn\'t a doctor but I have a lot of experience working
with the homeless on the streets. She trusted me, and I asked her to take off
her shoes. She had the worst fungus infection (a.k.a. athlete\'s feet) I have
ever seen while working in outreach. She had edema bilaterally in her ankles,
either from circulation problems or a condition called Cellulites , which is
common in homeless people.

I took a quick street triage, I looked at her mouth and tongue to see if she
was dehydrated, which she was. I also observed her wearing several emergency
room identification wrist bracelets. This could only mean one thing: The
hospitals in San Francisco have no idea what they are doing. Then haven\'t
figured out that it\'s cheaper to intake a homeless person and not discharge
them back to the streets. It\'s estimated that when hospitals don\'t have a
good discharge plan for a homeless person, and release the homeless person
back to the streets, the homeless person becomes a frequent flyer and has
many repeated trips to the Emergency Room - costing thousands more than
holding the patient for several days and then getting placement for the
person.

In fact, it\'s much cheaper for the hospital to pay for a deposit and two
months\' worth of rent for the person then to have five ER workups. We plan to
change that in San Francisco. Our plan is to force the hospitals to do the
correct thing in name of humanity. And if they don\'t do that, they\'ll be
spending large amount of money for legal bills.

The next day, I was filled with a tremendous amount of hate towards the
leaders of San Francisco. As the day got older, my hate towards the city grew
worse. I observed a young white female in her early 20s laying on the ground
in a middle of a busy downtown sidewalk. She had scabs all on her body and
was talking to her self in a psychotic way. Any person with a third-grade
education should have known this woman needed mental-health treatment and
medication.

We counted more than 200 people in 16 minutes who passed her without any
person offering anything. It was like she was a stray dog that people ignored
- wait a minute, a stray dog would have gotten more attention then she did. I
stopped a cop and asked him to do a mental-health act on the girl. He stated
plainly that she \"was not in need of help because she was not going to hurt
herself or others.\" I laughed and said, \"What about self neglect?\" He just
rode off and ignored me. No matter what street we worked, the harsh reality
was that the people of San Francisco and its city officials have failed to
correct this social injustice.

Some people may argue that the homeless caused this themselves. Yes, it may
be true for some of the homeless. If a drunk driver ran into a telephone
pole, do we say, \"It\'s their own fault, let them die\"? Or do we call an
ambulance? Does the hospital accept them? Is there follow-up for medical
care? The answers are \"yes.\"

San Francisco\'s city officials should be proud of themselves for starting a
third-class race in America. They should be proud that they have supported
the poor by keeping them poor. They should be proud that they have senior
citizens sleeping in the cold San Francisco streets. There needs to be a
superhero who can walk into a telephone booth and change into Poverty Man to
feed the poor, to house the poor, and to just be kind. However, we know that
we will never see that. Our hero will be the one who runs into a telephone
booth and lift the phone up to call for help when they see a homeless person
in bad shape. There\'s a 11-point plan I would suggest to the city officials
of San Francisco:

1. Set up outreach teams for mental health workers to hit the streets.

2 Set up legal aide teams and post office boxes for the homeless to use to
gain disability benefits.

3. Set up shared apartments living arrangements with four to six homeless
people living in an apartment together with support services.

4. Set up a safe haven, where the chronic homeless can come as they are to
sleep, eat, get minimal services, and to be able to say without giving them
culture shock to be forced to change their lives. (Changes take time. To
change overnight causes more chronic homeless to run back to the streets
because they fill they can\'t change.) This needs to be at least 750 beds.

5. Set up outreach teams for the teens who prostitute themselves for drugs
and shelter. Inviting agencies like the Covenant House to open up shop in San
Fran.

6. Teach police sensitivity training.

7. Pass an ordinance that hospitals and mental-health facilities cannot
discharge a homeless person back to the streets.

8 Start a programs similar to \"adopt a highway\" to adopt a homeless person.
This doesn\'t mean we\'re going to ask everyone to take in a homeless person.
What we\'re asking is that the citizens get to know one homeless person and to
become friends with that person.

9. Set up affordable, permanent housing and single rooms occupancy in the
mass of 1,000 units.

10. Establish job training and vocational rehabilitation.

11. Open a smaller version of structured homeless recovery programs with
mental-health treatment, substance abuse treatment, and HIV and medical
treatment.

The bottom line here is that San Francisco\'s problem is a problem that won\'t
change unless there\'s radical change in the city officials. It\'s the goal of
the Homeless Voice to ask the city officials to make the changes needed so
the homeless will be treated like human beings.

We will ask for teamwork to make this change. If the city officials don\'t
listen, it\'s the goal for The Homeless Voice to gain the support of the 80
sister papers in the world to ask for a boycott of the tourism business in
San Fran. Lets face facts: When we take the homeless off the streets, we
become a compassionate society and we\'re doing the right thing.

This experience let me spend my coldest summer in San Francisco. However, it
wasn\'t the temperature - it was the coldness of the city leaders hearts.
Below is a letter that has been sent certified mail to Mayor Willie Brown:

Dear Mayor:

\"When I came to San Francisco, I thought I was coming to a town with an
upbeat society. Thirty minutes later, after walking the streets among the
homeless, I realized I was in a third-world country. How does a country turn
into a third-world country? The failure of government and the press to
address social service needs. Simply ignore the poverty, the sickness, the
frail, and the mentally ill.

\"I walked through the streets and saw frail senior citizens living among the
garbage. I saw hundreds of people walk pass them as if they were stray dogs.
In fact, a stray dog would have at least gotten a smile. Not one person said
hello to anybody who was homeless. How does this American society allow for
such horrible conditions of the poor? How does most of this country worship
homeless man on Sunday and ignore another one on Monday?

\"Mr. Mayor, there\'s great failure in this city. But with failure comes
opportunities to plainly do the right thing. To the press, we ask that you to
tell the truth about the conditions of this city, which will give you the
chance to make this failure an opportunity for the people to help.\"

\"Remember, Mr. Mayor, we the street newspaper are 28 million voices strong.
And yes, Mr. Mayor, that voice will be heard on the other side of the bridge.
It\'s time that this local government and the press open up their ears and
hear the voices of poor. Our newspaper in the State of Florida will be asking
the other 80 street newspapers in this world to boycott tourism in San
Francisco.

\"Mr. Mayor, when the homeless are off the streets and in recovery programs,
your streets will be cleaner. And when your streets are empty of homeless
people, your hotel rooms will be filled. You must simply do the right thing.
When you do the right thing, the voice of social justice will prevail. And
when this happens, the children of today will remember what you did - and
when we get older, the children of tomorrow will do the right thing. To make
everyone\'s life better.\"

Sincerely,

Sean A. Cononie
The Homeless Voice
Ft. Lauderdale, FL