If you don’t already own a home, I’d like to suggest that becoming a homeowner in 2005 be among your New Year’s resolutions. As long as you have a steady salary, good credit, and few long-term debts, purchasing a home is probably within your reach.

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson

HUD News Release, 12/22/04

Each year the National Low Income Housing Coalition issues the publication Out of Reach, a report documenting the struggle low-income individuals and families face in accessing and maintaining affordable housing. Utilizing a measure called the “housing wage,” this year’s report indicates that that there is not a single jurisdiction in the country where a person working full time earning the prevailing minimum wage can afford a two bedroom rental home. (more…)

On December 7, speaking to a packed house of reporters, service providers, advocates, and even some actual members of the homeless community, Mayor Gavin Newsom delivered what was billed as San Francisco’s first annual (until such time as the crisis is over) “State of Homelessness Address.”

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Contexto Nacional

Este reporte establece que las familias e inmigrantes desamparados son una parte integral de la cada vez mas grande crisis de desamparo en America y pide que se les incluya en cualquier estrategia para reducir la falta de vivienda.

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La proposicion N fue aceptada por los votantes en marzo del 2002, cortando los beneficios a desamparados que reciben asistenci pœblica hasta por un 85% a cambio de servicios ofrecidos por la ciudad. Fue implementada en mayo de 2004. La Coalicion De Desamparados de San Francisco ha estado reuniendo informacion desde que se implemento, a traves de encuestas a personas desamparadas y entrevistas con proveedores de servicios.

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Last March 28, I spent 3 hours of volunteer work at one of San Francisco soup kitchens. Actually, it was my first time to volunteer at a soup kitchen, and at first I really did not know what they do at a soup kitchen. I thought it was an institution for the orphans. I was amazed to learn that it is not an orphanage. I thought we’re going to feed children, for I love children. But as I entered the place, I was greeted by haggard looking people beaming at me. I was not really disappointed, in fact I was so happy to be there and to deal with those homeless people and learn about them.

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I once saw a woman lying on a pile of rags that was her bed, in an abandoned storefront doorway that was her home. She appeared to be somewhere between 40 and 60 years of age, but really, it was impossible to tell. Her face had that puffy red look that comes only from years of cheap wine consumption and neglect. Her eyes were a dull and lifeless shade of blue and seemed to be floating in puddles of pastel yellow paint. There were scabs and open sores oozing pus all over her arms and legs. Rags adhered to her by dried pus clung to her body like wallpaper. Although her hair was matted to her head and her eyebrows, it moved in the wind like it had a life of its own. As I looked closer, I could see that the movement of her hair came from the thousands of bugs that infested her head. Her legs and feet were so swollen that she may have suffered from elephantiasis. The covers on her feet (I wouldn’t call them shoes) were split on the sides to accommodate her puffy feet and turned up
at the toes like fairy shoes. The part of her feet that was visible was encrusted with dried skin and dirt and cracked in a pattern like reptile scales. I thought, “This is America, how could this be?”

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Readers of the STREET SHEET already know about the financial crisis that affected the Coalition in 2004. We made it through a very difficult year thanks to the awesome support we received from the community (that means people like you). We now know that we will remain open and continue to work towards an end to homelessness. We also know that this goal can only be achieved by dealing with the root causes of poverty and homelessness: low wages, expensive housing, lack of health care, etc.

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Right around the time we push aside our piles of newly-acquired Christmas cheer with our cool new remote-controlled bulldozer, our thoughts turn to what we’ll be doing for The Eve of the New Year. Will we be trapped once again before the boob tube, counting Dick Clark’s wrinkles? Will we spend obscene amounts of money to impress a bunch of pompous boors who think nothing of us anyway? Or will we really do it this time? Will we buckle down and put those New Year’s resolutions in writing (not just leave them up in our head, where they get all musty and dusty), post them near the bathroom mirror or on the fridge, and actually make some sort of effort to change our behavior for the better over the next twelve fun-filled months?

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