Yo Yo Yobst !

Peeing in the Streets of SF

In San Francisco we have a huge problem with homelessness. The homeless are everywhere. And they all pee in the street.

Throughout my life I have had various relationships and feelings towards the homeless. In college I worked at a shelter in Maryland for one year. I cooked and befriended the homeless folks living there. The rules of the shelter were that guests could stay as long as they wanted but they had to stay clean and be gone from the house from 9 to 5 looking for jobs. The shelter’s purpose was to rehabilitate homeless folks down on their luck and help them get back on their feet. It was really interesting and fun. I learned that many American’s live paycheck to paycheck - a few paychecks away from homelessness. I have certainly been down on my luck before and the love and generosity of friends and family kept me off the street. Many homeless do not have friends and family to turn to.

And then there is other category of homeless. They seem to be the majority of folks I step over on the way to BART in the morning. More than down on their luck, they are mentally ill, addicted to drugs, or making a conscious decision to live on the streets. They are able-bodied kids who ran away from good homes to ‘experience SF’ and the long gone hippie days. Those kids have pretty dogs, intricate tattoos and a lot of nerve asking me for money. After a long trip aboard I was homeless and jobless – living off the generosity of dear friends who let me sleep on their coach. I was quick to tell the kids that I too was jobless and homeless but they didn’t see me begging for money. I was and remain angry when perfectly healthy and angry people choose to live on the street and then ask me to fund their choice.

Now back to the chronically homeless. I commend Gavin Newsom for acknowledging and dressing the problem of homelessness in San Francisco. Our beloved city of bleeding heart liberals perpetuates the problem with cash awards to the homeless. Care not Cash is a decent theoretical concept but it is driven by the entitlement of homeless to get X dollars or services because they are homeless. I do not see any responsibility or reciprocation for the awards. Most chronically homeless are not in good positions to determine what to do with their money – they drink it away and certainly do not improve their life or homelessness state with it. What happened to teaching a man how to fish? We need to treat and teach the homeless how to live off of the streets.

This brings me to my real complaint – peeing in the streets. I am SO SICK AND TIRED of stepping in and over puddles of human waste. I see at least one person a day (usually on my walk to BART) whip out his goods and pee in front of me. When did the community of San Francisco decide peeing in the streets was ok? There is zero repercussion and no one takes a second glance. Its as if peeing is as acceptable as stopping to tie your shoe.

I remember learning about the broken window theory in school. New York insisted on fixing little things – broken windows and graffiti because statistics show that serious crime increases drastically when petty crime and vandalism rise. That is exactly what is happening in SF – acceptable petty crime like peeing on the streets, vandalism, and pan handling snowballs into other crime, tension, and resentment between the have and have nots.

I went Gavin’s SF Connect launch party to see what he proposed doing. I am tired of bitching about it and wanted to be part of the solution. As I spoke with the Hands on Bay Are project coordinator, I realized I didn’t’ really want to help the homeless. My compassion for their predicament has slowly dissipated over my 10 years in SF. I’ve become hardened and uninterested in stories behind the people. I am interested in no peeing in the streets and community policing. I want the community to look around and say “this is not OK. You can’t pee here. If you want to pee, go to shelter or a public restroom”. I understand that law enforcement may have better things to do but this paradigm shift nees to start with them.

I feel that the homeless and others will respect themselves and their environment much more if there is something to respect. I love this city but am often embarrassed when friends or family visit and pleas with wide eyes when accosted by the homeless.

A permanent solution? I think we should learn from New York City. It’s time for San Francisco to take care of itself and reclaim our streets.