Homeless In San Francisco Part One of Three Parts

Context of the Homelessness situation in San Francisco in the 2015-2016 time period when this episode was first broadcast: • In 2004 then-Mayor Gavin Newsom launched the Ten Year Plan to Abolish Chronic Homelessness in San Francisco. Ten years and over 1.5 Billion Dollars later 19,500 homeless people (about the size of the Castro neighborhood) have been moved off the street • But, in the 2014 survey of Homeless citizens, the number has remained almost the same over the past 2 years at around 6,686 people to a high estimate of 8,000 or almost 1% of the population of the City of San Francisco • Homeless Citizens have gone up 27% in some neighborhoods because of the pressure from gentrification. The population has become more visible in encampments, and open drug markets in neighborhood containment zones such as Civic Center and South of Market neighborhoods • The homeless population has become sicker older and includes more families • Students - children that are homeless in Calif doubled since 2010 and there are over 20 Thousand homeless students in the SF Bay Area • According to Ben Kauffman with the Office of Pupil Services at SF Unified School District around 4% of students are homeless which is estimated at over 2,000 students in the City of San Francisco In this episode, we feature the voices of: Chris Shaeffer, Program Director of HARTS City College of San Francisco’s Homeless At-Risk Transitional Students Program http://bit.ly/2JN3mV2 Angel Via – A City College of San Francisco student who is using the services of HARTS Sammie Rayner – Co-Founder of Handup http://bit.ly/2GoVFT0 Please rate us on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts and share this story with your friends. Follow me @georgekoster and please email [email protected] with questions, comments and show ideas 🎧Explore Our Award-Winning Special SeriesIf you enjoyed this episode, dive deeper into our 4-part legacy of impact:Where Art Meets Impact: How creativity drives systemic change. Season 1 and Season 2From Bankruptcy to Reinvention: The story of Stockton’s resilience. COVID-19’s Impact Series: Navigating the pandemic's effect on our community.Making the Invisible Visible: Discover the untold stories of finding home.