San Francisco's Homeless Families Demand A Meeting With The Mayor

Homelessness has long been a problem in San Francisco, but in recent years, it has ballooned into something much bigger.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday that nearly 2,200 public school students in the city live without permanent housing -- "enough to fill five or six elementary schools or an entire high school." That figure has swelled by 400 in just one year.

"We could actually populate a small town with the number of homeless families in San Francisco," Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, told the Chronicle.

And homeless families struggling more than ever to find a place to sleep. According to the Chronicle, as of last week, 267 families (triple the amount in previous years) remain on the waiting list for one of San Francisco's 59 shelter rooms that permit months-long residences.

“It’s really disheartening seeing the list get so long," Susanna Anderson, the program director for Compass Connecting Point, a local nonprofit that serves homeless families, told the San Francisco Examiner. "People associate homelessness with the single adults on the street, panhandling, mental illness. Families are more under the radar.”

In response to the recent uptick, roughly 50 homeless individuals and activists convened on City Hall's steps Tuesday afternoon seeking a meeting with Mayor Ed Lee in hopes he'd consider allowing families to seek shelter in San Francisco's numerous vacant public housing units. "Those units are sitting empty while families are suffering," Friedenbach told the Chronicle.

The mayor was not in his office at the time of the rally, but Joaquin Torres, director of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Services, offered to meet with the protesters in his place, Bay City News reported.

But the advocates stood their ground, demanding to meet with the mayor himself. After the group disassembled, Friedenbach told Bay City News that they would return. "We're going to keep coming back and coming back until we get a response," she said.

Comments

[NamithaSF]

10:18 PM on 11/30/2011

Ed Lee's home is in Glenn Park area of SF; this is public record. I don't know exact address but I am sure Jean Friedenbach knows.

[mikey09]

06:17 PM on 11/30/2011

Well, isn't that what public housing is for, people who have no other options. Why are they sitting vacant?

[corwin]

05:41 PM on 11/30/2011

Personally, I think if some HP writers would make some comments on Nut Meg ,all the problems would be solved.
And,Atlas is merely twitching now. Think what will happen when He Shrugs.

[NamithaSF]

05:05 PM on 11/30/2011

Jennifer Friedenbach is one of San Franciso's major Poverty Pimps. She runs a non-profit and gets millions from San Francisco. Very little of that money trickles down efficiently to the people in need. She gets a very big salary as does her executive staff.

And guess what else: she does not live in San Francisco!!!! Oh, yeah......this city is too dirty and unsafe for Madame. Ditto the other major poverty pimp, Randy Shaw, who lives large in the Berkeley Hills.

These pimps are poverty profiteers, just like there are war profiteers.

[SFdwlr]

05:16 PM on 12/01/2011

I'm just curious as to why it is there is an obligation to house people that can't afford to live in the city. I work my tail off to earn enough to feed and house my family. Isn't that my responsibility? Isn't it everyone that choses to raise a family responsible for providing for that family? Who is paying for these 'public' housings? I understand times are rough and unfortunate circumstances befall some families, but the homeless population has been around in good times when jobs were plenty to go around. Unfortunately, SF has become a sanctuary for mostly blood sucking ingrates that consider panhandling a legitimate occupation. SF is my home and I've work very hard to keep it that way.

[NamithaSF]

05:30 PM on 12/02/2011

Yours is the elephant in the room question that is always ignored by the SF Board of Stupidvisors except for a couple of them. And even the so-called "centrist" Mayor is beholden to the likes of Friedenbach and Shaw, because their non-profits serve as money laundering operations for the Democrats who are dug in like ticks.

[SFdwlr]

05:20 PM on 12/01/2011

Please excuse the grammar errors. I was multitasking and did not proof read before posting. I think everyone understands what I'm getting at.

[grammasher]

07:14 PM on 12/01/2011

Why should anyone be forgiving of your shortcomings when you are so obviously unforgiving of people less fortunate than you?