San Francisco Is Failing Its Residents

My homeless neighbors are dying on the streets

Handmade signs bear the names of some of the over 240 San Franciscans who died on the streets in 2018. All photos by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Winter Solstice, 2018. I am attending a gathering in a housing center in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, where four years ago I performed in a Pride concert with the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco. I’m here today to sing again, with vocal activist Melanie DeMore, who was the special guest artist at our concert last month. But the occasion for these tunes will be very different.

Two days before, I’d read Melanie’s Facebook post inviting folks to join her and the Skywatchers for a processional in memory of those who had died on the streets this year. Volunteers had painstakingly and lovingly created handmade “In Memory Of” signs, each bearing the name of one of 240 people. Each of these individuals — and doubtlessly, more that we don’t know about — died on the streets of San Francisco, the city I’ve lived in for over 15 years.

I’ve been happy to make San Francisco my home for many reasons: It’s queer-friendly, trans-friendly, immigrant-friendly, vegan-friendly, and has a mild year-round climate. But in this city of great tolerance and tremendous wealth, hundreds of my neighbors are living and dying out on the streets. I am ashamed.

Many people have attempted to address the issue of homelessness in San Francisco…