A couple of months ago I happened to be walking through San Francisco’s skid row and noticed a beautiful old church. I decided to look inside. At first my eyes were drawn towards the altar, but then I noticed someone sleeping in one of the pews. As my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I realized that almost the whole church was filled with sleeping bodies.I asked myself “Why are all these people sleeping in a church at 11 o’clock in the morning?” Slowly the answer dawned on me—because the church is locked at night.
This month activists are mounting a campaign in San Francisco to make the homeless more “visible.” My experience in that church not only made the homeless more visible, but also less abstract. They are people who have nowhere to lie down at night and nowhere to hang out during the day.
Here is an article that shows how San Francisco could actually solve the problem. http://projects.sfchronicle.com/sf-homeless/supportive-housing/