Woman: Homeless
Everyday women are beaten, raped, and killed in this country. For every one reported battered women, there are a unknown number that are unreported. That also goes for rapes and murders, and we’re just talking about homeless women. In San Francisco, just over 1,000 of the 8,000 homeless people the Mayor’s Office of Homelessness managed to “officially” count this year were women. Of that thousand, over 300 call the streets home. Unlike homeless men, women have a harder time on the streets because of the risk of being robbed, rape or both by a stranger, or by another homeless person.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Oct. 19 that San Francisco Police Department arrested a man for raping two homeless women in 1999 and 2001. The paper reported that the man is a suspect in six other attacks on homeless women dating back to 1999. In 2000, the man pleaded guilty for beating and choking a homeless women and was put on probation. In 1995 and 2000 the man was arrested for rape, but charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in 2001 three teens beat to death a homeless woman for the fun of it.
Brenda knows too well how it is being a homeless woman living on the streets. For three years she has been using doors ways as shelter. Brenda, 54, said since she’s been on the street she had her money and belongings stolen dozens of times, but wouldn’t say if she has been sexually assaulted.
Brenda thinks that San Francisco shelters are uncomfortable and unsanitary and won’t go back to then, “You won’t believe that grown women don’t know how to use the rest room,” she explained.
But living on the streets has cost her. Brenda’s health has been affected since she been on the street, she explained that she has been to the hospital many times over the years. Brenda said this is the first time that she has ever been homeless and feels she’s living in a bad nightmare. The hardest part for her is using the bathroom in public, “I don’t like peeing in public… being inconsiderate, but sometimes I have no choice,” she said.
Out on the edge of Haight Street in Golden Gate Park, Misty, a bright blonde haired, blue eyed, 24-year old mother-to-be is eating a sandwich. She explains that she landed on the street some 16 months ago, when her then-boyfriend sold the motor home they were living in without her knowledge. For her, the hardest thing about homeless for her is not being able to stay clean.
“It’s tough not being able eat what you want, when you want too,” she said. “Theirs always food available here, but you can’t say ‘I’m hungry for a sandwich,’ and go make it. Taking a shower and doing laundry, man. It the roughest part — trying to keep yourself clean and healthy,” she added.
Misty said that being a homeless pregnant woman has been fine because there are so many agencies willing to help, “But the fallback is you can’t lay in a hot tub, or fall in the bed, and you know that isn’t going to happen, ever,” she explained.
What Misty can’t believe is that she can’t get emergency shelter until her seventh month, “I’m pregnant, but not pregnant enough,” says five month-pregnant Misty with a giggle.
Adrian