Mary: Yeah I mean I think the amount of trauma that people experience when they’re living on the street has increased so dramatically because of the treatment they receive directly and indirectly. If you look at the narrative of media, it’s always “the homeless problem” and not in the way of these people want help, it’s we want this for them and they don’t want to do it so they’re not worthy of being here. And it’s just so hateful, I mean, yeah.
Maurice: And it comes down to, and we don’t like to talk about this a lot in harm reduction, but it’s a moral issue. Even if you think about it from a financial point of view, I just heard that it’s something like $80,000 to keep someone on the street and $40,000 to house them. It makes zero sense that you just don’t house people instead of paying more, double the amount, for them to be on the streets. Whoever wants housing.
Mary: Right, that’s irony right, that the solution to homelessness is simple. It’s called housing. It’s not that hard to figure out. [Laughs] And there’s things that go in with that to keep someone housed but it is really that simple. If someone doesn’t have a home, you give them a home.
Maurice: You give them a home. Right.
Mary: It’s just like I’m hungry, I eat.
Maurice: Give me some food.
Mary: I have to go to the bathroom, I hopefully get to use one inside. If not I’m going to do it outside because I have to go to the bathroom. They’re just these basic human needs that we love to spend years debating: Um do we need housing?
Maurice: Well and then you were saying when folks move in from different places they want this idealized place and these are the folks that are saying get out of my backyard, and I know I just got here but you don’t deserve a toilet stool [Laughs], or you don’t deserve a house.
Mary: Or a drop-in.
Maurice: Or a drop-in. So it’s outright aggression. It’s gotten more ugly that way, I think.
Mary: And we’ve seen increased laws go on the books that clearly only target poor people, if you look at the sit/lie law, which is-
Maurice: Good old Newsom.
Mary: Disproportionately enforced in the Haight.
Maurice: Yeah, because they don’t stop us when we sit on the ground?
Mary: Well, we know they stop me because-
Maurice: They stopped you.
Mary: Association, but it’s like if you think about, really, how ridiculous that is of like—we made it illegal to sit—
Maurice: To sit down.
Mary: Down. Because I’m actually less threatened by someone who’s having a restful moment than someone who’s been made to move by the cops 10 times that day and is agitated. And people wonder why that law didn’t clean up the streets. I think they thought people would magically get housed. I’m not really sure, but didn’t work.
Maurice: Well the message is we’re going to be as hostile as we possibly can to you until you leave, or hide somewhere. That’s why there’s been an increase, in the Haight at least, in police there, and police contact there, because the neighbors are calling a lot, all the time.
Mary: Yeah, they’re very organized. But in a city that’s seven by seven there’s not that many places to hide because everything’s been so developed at this point. There used to be these pockets where people could kind of be and exist, and cohabitate, and have community. And I think what you see is gentrification moves up and development moves up, is there aren’t these spaces for people to exist. And so there’s not the same sense of community amongst people because people are really isolated.
You can only sleep in really small groups, if groups at all. And that puts people at risk for violence and trauma, and having really traumatic experiences alone, as opposed to having a community to have your back.
Maurice: And we see folks walking around every day and they’re in the midst of chronic and repeated trauma. And we walk by them every single day. Sort of alone in the crowd.