A preemptive apology for any typos or oddities. I’m writing this from my phone and am being a bit cavalier about editing.
Right now, i’m sitting in a hotel in San Francisco, looking out over the tenderloin district. i’m 33 floors up and even from here i can see blocks and blocks of tents and encampments.
in a city praised for being one of the most liberal places in the US (the world?) why is the population of people facing houselessness as large as it is? Wouldn’t a place like this want to do as much as possible for the people who live here?
This is not the part two to my most recent post, but rather, an interlude. The vast majority of the population of the US is closer to facing houselessness than we are to being billionaires, even millionaires. If I were to become houseless today, this is what it would look like.
*note: this is not all encompassing. there are likely many factors that i will neglect to mention such as charities and organizations that may provide aid, independent resources that vary by city/state, etc*
I rent a one bedroom apartment in central Florida. I live with my partner and our rent and fees come in at just under 2k. This does not account for other expenses like car insurance, student loan payments, or other debt. Last week, there was a fire in our building. If the building burnt down, we would’ve lost everything. Let’s say the building did burn down but I managed to save our important documents like birth certificates, passports. social security cards, etc. We’d be in a better spot than some people already because we have those things. I’m fortunate that I own my car. It cannot be repossessed for not paying a monthly car payment. My partner has a company car for his job.
I work from home. If the building burnt down, all my work equipment would be lost. I would have to wait to get new equipment sent from IT. Hopefully during this period of waiting, I’m able to use PTO and be paid for the time I missed.
Time to look for a place to live. Maybe I get lucky and find a cheaper place that can get me an apartment in two weeks. For two weeks, we’d be paying for a hotel. If i’m unlucky, i can’t find another place to live and we stay in a hotel indefinitely, looking for a place to stay or maybe moving. My job allows me to work from anywhere so that’s not a problem, but if my partner could not transfer to a new location of his job, he would have to quit and return his car. Then we are down to one income until he finds something new and are limited in what we could afford.
Staying in a hotel would kill our savings. We decide to take the loss and move. Where do we move to? There would be most living options and more work opportunities in a major city, but the cost of living would be higher; higher rent, maybe higher car insurance, more expensive groceries. Maybe we have to pay a monthly fee for street parking. A plus to living in a city is that there usually are decent public transit options. If I move to a major city I could sell my car. Living somewhere more rural would offer a lower cost of living but we would be reliant on a vehicle, more limited in job opportunities likely leading to driving further away for work, and generally would have less access to things.
Let’s explore both options.
Scenario A: move to a big city. Public transit is reliable so I decide to sell my car. This saves me having to pay for car insurance every month, car maintenance, gas, and parking fees. For a little while, this is great. Unfortunately, I don’t have the best wifi signal and it’s impacting my job. There are not other options for internet so I have to look into a going to a coworking space. This works for a little while but as my job involves a lot of phone calls, this isn’t a sustainable option. Eventually, my performance at work has suffered too much and i’m let go. I find another job but it doesn’t pay as much so i’m not able to afford my rent anymore. I move further away from the city to a more affordable place, but now i’m not able to reasonably rely on transit so i have to get a car. My savings have still not recuperated enough to outright buy a reliable used car. I could lease or purchase a new car but i’m back to a monthly car payment, car insurance, parking fees, gas, etc. I have a medical emergency. My insurance covers some but not all of what I owe and I now have medical debt. Eventually I fall behind on bills. The car gets repossessed, I get evicted.
Scenario B: move somewhere more rural. My car is paid for so I don’t have a monthly payment but do have the insurance payment as well as maintenance. Rent is cheaper. Things are going well. Since I work from home, my partner uses my car to go to interviews and eventually to go to work everyday. He gets into a car accident one day that totals the car and leaves him with injuries.
Choose your own adventure.
A: He recovers
B: He recovers but now has a disability
C: He succumbs to his injuries
A: He recovers and is able to get back to work. We get a new car. However, due to lingering pain he turns to various substances to get through each day leading to addiction. He also is facing driving anxiety since the accident, making it difficult to hold down a job due to attendance. Medical debt, money to buy drugs/alcohol/whatever, a car payment, maybe going to rehab, leaves us deep in debt.
B: He recovers, but now lives with a disability. Our apartment is not handicap accessible so we need to move somewhere that is. We also need a modified vehicle and mobility aids. He is not able to return to his job and we are down to one income. Debt and bills pile up.
C: He does not survive the accident. I am left to take care of funeral arrangements, medical debts, am down to a single income, can no longer afford rent solo on my income.
Alternately.
A break up. Happens every day, nothing unusual there. Can’t afford to live on my own so I live in my car. I’m saving money not paying rent but am spending more on food since i don’t have a kitchen. Also paying to do laundry, gas, maybe paying to park somewhere overnight (like a campground). Or maybe I stick to Walmart and Cracker Barrel parking lots. Those are typically available for overnight parking (thanks for the knowledge, van-life insta). Sitting in a Starbucks parking lot leaching their wifi so I can work. Until that doesn’t work anymore and I get let go. Have to find a new job so I spend a few bucks at the library to print a few copies of my resume. I pay for the cheapest membership at a planet fitness so i have somewhere to shower. The job search takes forever. My savings are almost down to 0.
How long does it take in this situation for me to begin feeling the effects? My car isn’t built out like a vanlifers so i’m not getting quality sleep. I could do that but it would take space and money i don’t necessarily have. Maybe I get robbed. Someone breaks into my car and steals whatever’s there. Now i’m paying to replace a window (or multiple) and to replace what was taken. How long before the mental toll of always being on alert, always thinking about what i need to pay for each day. If my IDs get lost, stolen, damaged, or expired, how do i go about getting them replaced without proof of address or other IDs?
I sell my car. The money helps for a little while but I no longer have shelter. I use what money I have to buy a tent. At least that will offer me some protection. Maybe I did get a job. If my midwest grandpa is to be believed, I should be able to live on McDonalds salary. After all, “they’re getting paid 17 dollars to flip burgers”. I lose that after being late one too many times because I walk to work, but also because i had to pack up all my belongings to keep them from being taken from someone else who needs them or swept because facing houselessness and being on the street is an eyesore and at any moment, The City could come and throw everything away. They said they would hold belonging for a period of time so I could get my stuff back but that didn’t happen. They threw everything in a dumpster and said good luck.
Someone gets arrested for stealing baby formula.
Someone gets arrested for robbing 16$ from a convenience store.
Someone was adopted as a kid and never knew alcoholism ran in their genetic family.
Anything can happen and it’s so hard to get out when it does.
Back to San Francisco
I often have more questions than answers when thinking about this, mostly because I don’t know the ins and outs of laws and ordinances when it comes to zoning. In any city, there are people experiencing houselessness. In any city there are also many buildings sitting unused. We see it more and more frequently; warehouses or other buildings being converted to apartments, restaurants, shopping centers. How easy would it be to make it a place for the people most in need.
Imagine it with me.
A huge building renovated to provide housing, resources, and community to those in need. Maybe it’s hotel style rooms or studio apartments. Just place for someone to feel safe and where they can sleep in peace behind a locked door and take a shower.
There is a cafeteria where everyone can go to eat. Think college style where you have a dining card or something.
On-site laundry and fitness center. On-site clinics, maybe a separate wing or dedicated floor for a rehab center. Counseling services of all kinds: mental health and job services especially. Veterans services since so many houseless folk are former military.
Inevitably, the first question someone asks is who is going to pay for all of this. And honestly? We already pay enough in taxes that this could be a reality if budgets were not so grossly inflated on a local and federal level. Did you know the pentagon has failed audits pretty much every year? They must’ve figured out teleportation for all the money that seemingly goes missing in that place. (the linked article is from 2021 but as of November 2023 they still haven’t passed.) Then there’s ballooning police budgets. NYPD had a budget of 5.83 BILLION. Guess what? The more people’s basic needs are met, the less people turn to criminalized activities. This article from 2021 explores a policy rolled out in Barcelona and the outcome of community based initiatives leading to lower crime levels. And of course, fucking billionaires. A widely held adage is “there are no ethical billionaires” because the methods used to accumulate that amount of money are exploitative to someone. A family member has said to me “Why should they be expected to give away the money they earned?” to which i say, did they really earn it?
Multiple hotels i’ve walked by this weekend had active strikes happening outside. From Sunday morning through Monday night, hotel workers were on strike for better wages. Their signs and chants were saying “one income should be enough”. What is so hard about making sure the people who work for you are taken care of? If your housekeepers are working multiple jobs, you’re likely going to experience an increase of complaints from guests about the quality of the rooms. Housekeeping is a physically demanding job that requires you to work quickly but also be detail oriented. If you’re working full time as a housekeeper during the day, let’s say 8-430, then you have a part time evening job 6-12, you’re going to be physically worn down and be more likely to make mistakes when cleaning. Add on top of that, all the other responsibilities people have outside of work like taking care of kids or other family members, trying to stay active, literally just enjoying life.
I don’t know how to get people to understand that caring for each other should be the priority. It shouldn’t be revolutionary to want people to not be forced to live on the streets. I would love to know that in the instance where I am the person facing houselessness, that there was somewhere for me to go where I could be helped.
So I guess my answer to “why should we” is why wouldn’t you want to?
That's ignoring the difficult-to-track number of unhoused children that experience lack of shelter who aren't living with their parents.
I would argue all of the numbers are too conservative because there's no way to account for the many who stay in inhumane living situations to avoid losing shelter, at great personal detriment.