“Spare change for powers?,” Felenie,18, begs as she sits in front of Earth Song. “Spare change for superpowers?”
Felenie has been homeless on and off since she was five years old. She was adopted at a young age by people she says where good, but decided to run away to find herself. Now she is on streets of California looking for a place to call home. Felenie could be back in Denver, Colorado, working at her old job. Instead she is going up and down the California coast, smoking cigarettes, wearing a black eye mask, holding a cardboard sign asking for change for superpowers. She is looking for to find herself. A place to call home.
Homelessness in San Francisco has been a problem for many years. Every year homeless and traveling young adults venture to the Haight-Ashbury district to experience the stories that they have been told by their parents or other adults in their lives. They spend afternoons in the Golden Gate Park hanging out with other homeless people, or sitting in-front of a shop begging for money. People pass them without even giving them a glance. Others drop a few coins in their hats or on the floor next to their cross-legged bodies.
Many of the young homeless population in the Haight Ashbury do not originate from San Francisco or the bay area. According to Chris “Lucky” Abraham’s experiences, he’s a former homeless man, and a test proctor at San Francisco State University, only about 33 percent of the homeless youth in San Francisco are from the area, while the other 66 percent are travelers.
According to a study by the nation coalition for the homeless, there are more than 1.6 million homeless young adults in the country. The number of homeless young adults in the Haight is not answered though. As many of the young adults travel the country and many who live in the city move around from neighborhood to neighborhood, it is hard for homeless outreach, shelter, and city officials to give an exact or estimated number.
There is not one single reason for young adults to runaway and be homeless. A popular belief made by many people is that the young adults are all from middle class families, who pretend to be homeless. Suzanne Zago, a counselor at the Cole Street Youth Clinic, says that many homeless young adults do leave their homes, not for fun, but to escape divorced parents, abuse, poverty, and broken families. Some young adults even get kicked out of their own homes for getting pregnant. “They aren’t all just these upper middle class kids who got bored in their lives,” Zago says.
While in the Haight, many find themselves doing meth, marijuana, and other drugs and alcohol. Living on Haight Street has made it easy for youth to get their hands on drugs and alcohol, says officer Art Howard, of the Park police station. Many end up abusing the use of substances and get mentally ill. Very few don’t make it at all.
Les Moniet, a 29 year old homeless man, moved to the Haight six years ago. He explains that getting drugs in the Haight is easy for young adults and an issue in the homeless community.
“I started using crystral meth,” Moniet says. “I only sleep about three nights a week, other four days I’m up on crystal.”
Though the Haight is a popular destination for many tourists from all over the world, it is also a popular destination for homeless young adults who travel from across the country. Young adults hop trains, catch buses, and hitch rides on their way to San Francisco and the Haight for a number of reasons, including the weather, the vast opportunity to panhandle, and in hopes to experience the love that the city is supposed to bring. Many show up in the Haight in hopes to relive the culture their parents experienced from the days of beatniks and hippies.
“Haight is an international destination due to the 60’s-70’s for all ages,” says Tes Welborn, a resident in the neighborhood. “Kids still hope for free sex and drugs, and many are escaping mistreatment at home. You can also see suburban’s here ‘homeless’ for the weekend.”
Another reason for coming to the Haight is comfort. In the Haight, homeless young adults say they feel more welcomed and taken care of by other homeless and transients than in any other district in the city.
“People on the streets out here, they actually look out for one another,” Moniet says. “If the police is messing with one of us, we have support with other homeless youth out here.”
Unity amongst each other is an important factor for the young adults. They stick up for each other when other people seem to bother them.
Several residents, shop owners, and shop clerks do not seem to have a large problem with the youth, while others complain to the police daily. Shop owners and employees report the homeless youth are very cooperative and they don’t disrupt business. The youth are responsive to shop owner demands to stay away from store fronts, and often leave the premises if asked, says Stannous Flouride, employee at Robert’s Hardware Store. Other residents find the young adults annoying and feel unsympathetic for them.
Rachel Hull, a resident of the Haight and a clerk at the Haight Street Tabacco Center, says she recently changed her views about the homeless young adults in the neighborhood.
“I used to feel bad for them,” Hull says. “I gave them food sometimes, until I realized they usually just take the food and throw it at each other.”
Several times a week, the police station will get calls from residents and shops that the homeless community is causing problems. Generally, the homeless young adults try to stay away from the police, to avoid being arrested, or beaten up. Others stay where they are and don’t mind the police. Most of the young adults say cops generally leave them alone.
Contrary to what some young adults say, the police at the Park Station are very helpful and do their best to help the homeless, Katie Reisinger, program director at the Huckleberry House, says. Each morning, two officers patrol the east side of Golden Gate Park and Haight Street, looking for homeless and getting them off the streets, Howard says. The police work with the City of San Francisco to help young adults get off the streets and find them a place to live or stay for a few nights, Howard says.
Howard, who worked the homeless beat for three years, says the city has a program called Homeward Bound, and the department often encourages young adults to take advantage of it. Homeward Bound is a program that gives homeless and runaway people, the chance to get on a bus and go back to their families. Bill Buelhman, an SF homeless outreach worker, says the program contacts family members willing to receive the runaway or homeless person, and the city pays for a one way bus ticket back home.
The hard cold floors and grasses of Golden Gate Park and Buena Vista provide the young adults a place to sleep when no one else will or can take them in. They set up camps hidden in the bushes where no one can see them. Others choose to sleep elsewhere, including churches, buses, shelters. The street sidewalks they beg on sometimes double as beds, even if they are out in plain sight.
“If you sleep in the park they’ll write you a ticket if they find you,” Daniel, a 19-year-old homeless man, says. “So I just pass out on the sidewalk because it’s public property.”
The City of San Francisco offers many programs and shelters for homeless youth to go into. In the Haight Ashbury district, the Larkin Street Youth Services referral center on Haight Street, refer homeless youth to shelters and other services in the city. The Huckleberry House, on Page Street, serves as a temporary community home for runaway teens, and offers them counseling, therapy, shelter, food, and community activities. Though the house mostly caters to runaway youth from the bay area, Reisinger says, they house about 25 traveling youth each year.
The Homeless Youth Alliance, (HYA), on the corner of Haight and Cole, takes in young adults for free meals, showers, bathroom use, counseling, and other basic needs they may want. On any given day, they could have 80 young adults using their services, Buelhman, who works closely with the center, says. HYA also provides needle exchanges every Wednesday, and a neighborhood clean-up on the last Friday of each month, when staff, young adults, and members of the community members clean the streets of Haight, and parts of Golden Gate Park.
On Friday nights, the youth can go to the Page Street Center, on Lower Haight, and enjoy a free meal, hangout, and watch a movie, Eric Bergquist, Page Street Center director, says. Bergquist started working at the center 10 years ago. With the help of former and current homeless young adults, he runs a safe environment for them to hang relax for a few hours and make friends.
“We consistently give them a movie,” Bergquist says. “ We want to give them a place where they feel welcome and where they feel valued.”
Most services offer an open door policy, which allows any young adult in who seeks help, to show up and receive the proper care they require. Services, though, are limited and many places are understaffed and affected by the budget cuts.
“It’s not always enough,” Buehlman says. “But we want to show them (young homeless) that people can change. That it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Not all young adults, however, take the services offered to them by the shelters, and youth organizations. Instead, many choose the stay on the streets, and help themselves to what the people can offer. They choose to rebel against authority and ingenuity, Lucky says.
Though life on the streets is may seem tough, many young adults enjoy being out and panhandling.
“It’s fun and exciting,” Lady, 19, from Missouri, says. Lady has been traveling the country for the last two years and is currently with her friend Blame, 23, from New Jersey. Blame has been on the streets for 8 years.
Being out on the streets allows the young adults to be creative and free. Some people feel their creativity, spirituality, and lifestyle is being stifled from where they come from, Lucky says. On the streets, the young adults can express themselves and learn in, what they feel is, care free environment.
“I like to learn from life experiences,” Lady says.
The new generations of homeless young adults are like the new generation of hobos, Zago says.
“That tradition is being carried on,” Zago says. “These kids are it. They have dreams.”
The young adults often stick together as a community and travel with each other. They make new friends and hang out with old friends. They don’t care what other people think and just want to live life without responsibilities. When help is available, many will take it, and others will not. And when have done everything they thought of doing, they find new ways to reinvent themselves.
“We live in a community that will never fail,” Felenie says. “When you have nothing other than yourself, you can figure out you. There’s no mask. There’s no anything else.”
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