Int’l Students Fear 'Homeless Residents' In San Francisco

As an immigrant I considered homelessness to be a form of poverty like it is in most developing countries outside the United States. To my surprise, homelessness in San Francisco is way more complex than it looks from outside. Homelessness has proven to be a systemic failure to provide people with affordable housing, mental health care, fair pay, and high quality education.

According to the Department of homelessness and housing crisis 4,400 people sleep on the streets every night in San Francisco. Homelessness has become so critical and vast that people have run out of ideas to deal with it. Chris Callandrillo, Episcopal Community Services's chief program officer stated, "There is a general understanding that California didn't generate enough homes in the past few decades, and that includes San Francisco, so we are in a housing crisis, not just homelessness crisis." He added, "Yes, If people are scared of what they are experiencing on the streets of San Francisco, they should talk about it."

Local authorities and a federal magistrate tussled to remove homeless encampments from the city unless authorities provided a possible solution to provide homeless residents a place to live. According to SF standard in Sept. of 2023, alongside the increase in shelter entries, the number of encampments has climbed to its highest total since Oct 2020. As a result students who board public transport or walk to their colleges encounter these encampments. It shook me to the core when I encountered a homeless person screaming at me after I refused to lend him my cell phone in San Francisco. It took a toll on my confidence to walk alone on the streets.

The city has numerous career opportunities that attract thousands of international students every year. Its beautiful beaches, historic places and an amazing night life is what every student dreams to enjoy during their college time, but it also has an extremely tragic side which comes as a whammy as students land into the city. After speaking to some international students I realized there are many people who are scared of walking alone on the streets or taking public transport in San Francisco. Kanika Verma, an international graduate student from India, was attacked by a homeless person on a bus while she was going to college. Verma said, "I really hope we do something as a community, because I can't afford to drive to college and public transport doesn't feel safe anymore." Hyerin Lee, an exchange student from South Korea said, "It seemed scary to me but also I felt sympathetic towards them. There are homeless people in South Korea but not as many as in San Francisco."

Yash Vashisth, another international student at SF State said, "I encountered a group of homeless residents who started slurring and sledging looking at me. I was pretty scared about that. I didn't know what to do at that point of time." Mikayla Denney, an SF State student from Australia said, "It came as a shock to me! I completely understand why you feel it's important to have an international point of view on this issue." Students are clearly scared of the environment they experience on the streets of San Francisco but not many people are talking about it.

Roberto Gracia, a former homeless person who was unhoused for six years and currently resides at Episcopal Community Services housing unit in San Francisco said, "It's a task being unhoused and trying to get a shelter bed, you have to get up at about three or four in the morning, then go down to one place to put your name on the list and then came back to that same place at four in the afternoon to get a sheltered bed. And if you don't do this, you don't get a bed. So you're kind of stuck in this circle of waiting all the time for something to happen." Gracia's story brings a lot more empathy towards the issue of homelessness in San Francisco. Chris Callandrillo said, "Most people's homelessness looks different than the person next to them. And different people need different interventions based on their experiences. So everyone needs housing, but our society also needs to help people before they become homeless or the homelessness will continue to increase."

Gracia acknowledged that it's understandable for the public to be anxious around homeless people. He said, "People act out. I had an undiagnosed psychiatric disorder during the time I was unhoused, and it wasn't until I attempted suicide that it was discovered. But there are a lot of people with schizophrenia, etc..Yeah, a lot of anger issues. So the public, in a sense, does have to be hesitant when dealing with the unhoused, but not necessarily afraid."

I don't know if learning more about the issue and understanding the government's failure to address the problem makes me feel less anxious about encountering a homeless person on the street but it is like the elephant in the room that nobody talks about. Some San Francisco residents are scared to walk alone on the streets but are not able to talk about it because they don't want to sound insensitive or rude. So why not talk about it and make stakeholders answerable for the current situation.