Brilliant photography donated by Aron Thompson

Brilliant photography donated by Aron Thompson

The reverberations of the economic crisis are being felt here in San Diego where there are more than 7,500 people on the downtown streets any given night.  This winter, we have been shocked by the growing number of tents, families in cars, young couples, and pregnant women on the streets.  The new wave of homeless are every-day working families who have lost jobs, lost homes or rental units to foreclosure, and are struggling to get off the streets. 
 
We are working with the homeless community to document what is going on.  Thanks to you, we have been recording the stories of the homeless through video and photography.  We are also meeting with homeless vets in the VVSD seasonal shelter to create a survey and compile a list of needs in San Diego.   Are you a statistician, a photographer, videographer, editor, or just someone who would like to help out on documenting what is happening on the streets of San Diego?  Please email Rachel at girlsthinktank@gmail.com.   

GTT’s first trip out on the streets this winter was in December at the downtown shelter run by Alpha Project.  We thought we knew what to expect based on our prior experiences of the past two winters, but what we encountered was more troubling than what we have seen before. We had come to know the kindly wrinkled vets in their worn fatigues that smell of stale cigarettes. We had come to know the ageless leather-skinned women who could talk your ear off for hours. We had come to know the alcoholics, the parolees, the sick, the runaways, and the hobos. There are always those who have just hit a rough patch or are down on their luck. But, it was a whole new wave of homeless that shocked us last week.

This new wave of homeless includes families and youth and single men who have been laid off from their jobs, had their hours cut back, and/or lost their homes due to foreclosure. Near the downtown winter shelter, families have set up tents and other temporary structures, people are living out of their cars, and reportedly some 200 or more people now live under bridges. All the shelters are filled to capacity and according to “waterman” David Ross, 50 or more people can’t get into the downtown winter shelter any given night and the number of homeless downtown has quadrupled. This is consistent with a report from a Bay Area shelter network who told us their numbers have increased by three times this winter. Here are the highlights from just a few of the stories we heard:

We spoke with Melvin who is in his late 40s and was laid off from his job as a trucker in October. Melvin told us this is the first time ever that he has been homeless. The company fired him and about 20 others out of a workforce of 200. He lost his apartment and his car within a month of his firing. Melvin has seen several of his former coworkers living in tents or sleeping on the streets. After his lay off, he began looking for work feverishly. He offered to show us his email account which contains numerous emails to temp agencies and contract employers across San Diego. At some point, he managed to land a temporary job unloading trucks at a hotel downtown, but the job lasted less than a week. The hotel started firing all its new hires after losing several large conference contracts due to a boycott. Melvin finally found permanent work last week. On Monday, he started work at a food processing plant for $8.75 an hour. It will be some time before he can rent a place. He heard a story about a man who went through a foreclosure, then got laid off, and drove to a rural area outside of San Diego and shot himself in the head. Melvin thinks more and more of this will be happening. People are suffering and people are desperate out here. He hasn’t ever seen it this bad.

We talked with Dave, an attractive guy in his 30s who has lived around the world, speaks three languages, and found himself on the streets for the first time. He was embarrassed to take a GTT winter survival backpack, insisting he was fine even as he shivered in the cold night. He has held a steady job at a local shoe store, but his employer cut back on his hours because business is down. After his hours were cut, he couldn’t make rent or find an apartment that he could afford. Being new to San Diego and without family here, he decided to brave the streets long enough to save up for a plane ticket out of here to Canada where he knows people and hopes to find work.

At the vet shelter later in December, we met 150 vets with Grace’s delicious homemade cookies thanking each for his service to our country.  We met Jason who worked for a prominent law firm in town for 12 years before being laid off; he asked if any of our firms would hire him for clerical work, explaining “it’s been a long time since I have felt useful.”  We also met John, a 42-year old veteran who is clean and sober and has a degree from SDSU. He vented about how difficult it is to get a job without a phone number, mailing address, transportation, storage, and clean clothes.  GTT member Jonathan came up with some ideas that could help, such as a “bank” of prepaid cell phones and mailing addresses for folks to receive mail.
 
At our downtown shelter distribution last week, 50 or more people lined up outside but could not get in because the shelter was full.  We met Terry, a former counselor at Salvation Army, who had a fall on the job and sustained injuries that prevented her from doing her job.  She went on SSI, then succumbed to substance abuse and ended up on the streets.  Today, she is sober and aspiring to go to City College to finish a counseling program so she can assist others who are in her situation.  As we were talking, she offered her assistance to a young military couple who were pregnant and struggling to get basic documents for collecting his military benefits.  We also met Rita, or “Mama Rita”, who though she sleeps in a tent downtown, is known as Mama because she is always taking care of others, offering what little she has, be it water, toilet paper, or advice. 
 
After the distribution, we drove around to survey the number of people on the streets.  Down by an overpass, a few of us met Richard, 32-years old, who had lost his start-up marketing company, and everything he had, due to a bad business decision.  He was well-read and quoted Voltaire as we discussed life’s ups and downs.  He stayed in San Diego to resurrect his business here – he has done it once, he wants to do it again.  Richard, like others we meet, is full of hope and determination that he can get back on his feet and have stable shelter again. 
 
Come out and join us as we continue to meet and brainstorm with folks who are struggling to get folks off the streets and back into sustainable living conditions, and endeavor to document what is happening on the streets of San Diego.

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