In the Shadows: The Homeless Crisis of the West Coast

“Before you ignore another homeless person on the street, just remember that that could be someone’s father or someone’s mother and they have a story.”

— Syesha Mercado

Image courtesy of Unsplash

My first trip to San Francisco was over three years in the making. David and I had planned a week-long trip to the Bay area over Spring Break. April 2020. 

Yeah. How could anything possibly go wrong with that plan?

Three years later, after a pandemic and several life-altering events, destiny finally opened up a path for us to go West. And this time, the trip was going to be even better. Ten days instead of seven; side trips to Napa, Monterey, and Yosemite; and the addition of my best friend and her husband. 

We booked the Beacon Grand in Union Square, San Francisco, as the starting point of our trip. Breakfast every morning was at Sears Fine Food, established in 1938, and located just across the street from our hotel. The servers knew our order every morning and served us soon after we walked in.  

On the third morning, we walked across the street and saw a homeless man huddled up, sleeping, in the alcove of the business right next to Sears. He was wrapped up in a sleeping bag with all of his belongings beside him, including what looked to be a relatively new pair of Timberland boots. Unfortunately for the snoozing man, another man who carried all of his earthly personal possessions on his back, swiped those boots as he walked by, bragging to his friend all the while. 

David and I witnessed it all, and my husband’s extreme sense of justice took over. He was outraged. 

I knew trouble was on the horizon. 

David confronted the thief and asked why he had stolen the other man’s shoes. Belligerently, he retorted that those were actually his boots to begin with and he was just reclaiming what was rightfully his. 

“Fine. Let’s go ask him if those are actually your boots.”

“Okay! Let’s go!”

At this point, they were yelling at each other. A crowd had begun to form. Hands were about to be thrown. I was just waiting for David to ask me to hold his glasses. 

They walked to the sleeping man and began asking him about the Timberlands. The man was virtually unresponsive. He was perhaps completely exhausted, strung out on drugs, or mentally ill -- maybe all three. 

The pilferer left; crisis averted, but our outrage remained. 

This was not my first experience with the rampant homelessness in the Pacific Northwest. 

Image courtesy of Unsplash

Before my trip last year to Oregon, one of my best friends had warned me to be on the alert for crime and the number of homeless people while I was in Portland. And I did see several tent cities and many “unhoused” on the streets, but no more than what you might find in certain areas of downtown Atlanta. 

But San Francisco -- that was another matter altogether. Tent cities abounded, surrounded by scattered trash that had been picked through for anything of value. Nearly all of the “unhoused” people we saw exhibited signs of mental illness. And they didn’t stay in one place for very long. 

According to The San Francisco Standard, in 2022, “on any given night about 3,400 people are sleeping in San Francisco's homeless shelters, while about 4,400 sleep on the city's streets.” On August 13, 2023, The Wall Street Journal rejected the idea that “a welcoming environment for camping and drugs” would attract the unhoused, and, also, asserted that even subsidized housing will not solve the problem of the homeless. 

Just last week, San Francisco ordered its federal workers to work from home “for the foreseeable future” because conditions in the city are so unsafe. Unfortunately, crime seems to be a natural outgrowth of a large number of people who barely have enough to survive. 

The reasons why people become homeless are varied: poverty, addiction, mental illness, a nationwide housing crisis, post-COVID financial problems, old age, untreated PTSD, a medical crisis that resulted in bankruptcy. 

I have heard people say that solving the homeless crisis in San Francisco is as simple as reopening Alcatraz and allowing the unhoused to stay there. 

I can’t quite figure out if these people are serious or not. 

It’s a dangerous crisis with no fast or easy solutions.

It requires no effort to dwell on the negative effects of homelessness. It’s easy to slide into viewing the people living on the streets as numbers and statistics. From that point, it’s a quick trip to viewing them as “less than.” The way we talk about homeless populations has begun to change. According to the website www.unhoused.org, the preferred term for “homeless” is now “unhoused.” The word “unhoused” carries a more positive connotation and implies that people should have access to housing and are, perhaps, without lodging at the moment due to extenuating circumstances. There’s also an underlying assumption that the person’s humanity is still intact and not tied to a physical address. 

Our travel companions said that San Francisco is their favorite American city - the most beautiful in the country with its natural beauty and architectural wonders. I wondered if we were tone deaf, vacationing in a place where so many people were struggling, like the Hawaiian tourists who stayed in Maui after the horrible fires ravaged everything. 

I wish someone had an answer. The encounter we had in San Francisco lingers in my mind. I often wonder about the benefits of a small action. Will money help the man with the sign? Will he actually use it for something helpful, or will it go toward feeding an addiction? Is a homeless care kit appreciated?

Better to try, I think, than ignore those asking for help. A small smile, a kind word, five dollars -- an acknowledgement of humanity may cost us little but “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” 

This article was originally published August 19, 2023, in the Southern Spice section of Times-Georgian.