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I'm Tenaya a 32 year old, trying to survive in the Bay Area. For those of you wondering, how I ended up being homeless? Well it's a long story.
I was raised by my great grandparents, my great grandpa being born in 1914, and my great grandmother being born in 1926. They did their best, they loved me, taught me how to be polite and respect my elders. they also did a great job at sheltering me I was not allowed to make phone calls, we didnt have cable TV, and I had to be taken out of Sex Ed, I couldn't go to friends houses after school and had no idea how to actually socialize with kids my age or my generation for that matter
At school I was teased, and shunned so much that i didn't want to go and would cry myself to sleep at night wondering what was wrong with me. When I would try to talk about it, or bring up my feelings, I was told "that is ridiculous or your exaggerating", and in my child brain that only confirmed what the kids were saying about me. I was a good student, was on the honor roll up until 7th grade, and enjoyed the schooling part of school.
My mother moved back to the area around 6th grade and started coming around more. And i was happy that I had someone who was empathetic and understood me
My freshmen year rolls around and towards the end of the school year I had a confrontation with two girls, before school, who were telling me i had"tagged" something about them on a slide at one of the nearby parks. ( i really wish i had ) I tried explaining that I had not done what they were accusing me of and one girl throws orange juice on me. I go to the office and call my great grandpa to come back and pick me up so I can go home to shower and change. I get back to school and see them waiting for me outside my second period which was Physical Ed so i went back to to the office explained to them I didn't want to get into a fight with these girls and asked if I could stay there in the office until my third period, they agreed. I knew at lunch they would try to fight me if they saw me so I went o to every teacher i knew see if i could stay in their classroom during lunch but none of them we're staying. Long story short it was 2 against 1, I was punched in the face and head at least 5 times. When my great grandparents and my grandmother were called about the situation and I went home. I was being asked questions like why didnt you tell a teacher? why didnt you go the office? what did you do to these girls to make them angry!? my whole life I was discredited, ridiculed and thought of as the issue. So I did what any teenager would, said "**** you, I'm going to go live with my mom."
What I didn't know, was that my mom was an addict. I was almost 14 moving from San Mateo hills to Redwood City near 2nd Ave and Middlefield. I had all the freedom I could have ever dreamed of! I didn't have to go to school, i could hang out all night, I was getting drunk and smoking pot, I dropped out of highschool to get a job and at 17 I tried meth for the first time.
I ended up getting my GED in 2009 and was working. I have always had a job, it is just hard to save up when you are having to help your mom pay to keep the power out the water on, or come up with rent.
In 2015 I decided to try my luck at college and enrolled for the summer. I flipped my car on Canada Rd, the same day I started school.... just my luck.
Fast forward to 2017, I had been working at a local family owned market for almost 2.5 years and I loved my job. I had been having issues with managemet recently and feeling that people would not complete or do their job because they knew I would. So after trying and not finding a solution I quit. Two days later my mother had a brain hemorrhage, was in a coma for almost a week and ended up loosing the use of her entire left side. After a month in the hospital she came home. And a few months later my stepfather decided I had to go.
I broke down asking my great grandmother if I could move back in an she agreed. I ended up going to JobTrain a vocational training program where I became a certified Google IT support professional in 2019, got completely clean and finally things were starting to look good. I ended up renting out a laundry room in someone's house with my boyfriend for $600 a month, covid happened I lost my job. In October of 2020 I landed my first IT position, and the person we we're renting from decided that they no longer wanted roommates and decided to ask us to leave after Thanksgiving . So Back to grandma's I go. Things were still going good I had a small savings built up since I wasn't paying rent. Then my car broke down. so all my savings went into fixing my vehicle for work.
March of 2021 my great grandmother, 95, started having episodes where she needed to be hospitalized, and on April 1st 2021 she passed away. My grandmother the executor of the estate informed me that I would need to move by June 1st. I was working from home at this time providing managed IT support to different companies. One of the companies was a local non profit LifeMoves, who happens to run almost all the shelters and low-income housing in the area. I told my boss about my situation to see if it would be ok for me to reach out to this non-profit for help. He ok'd and so I asked, I was told that there was nothing they could do for me. I contacted my local public housing authority who directed me to Samaritan House, when I called Samaritan Hose they said there is nothing we can do until you are actually homeless, and told me to call my local PHA. I was given this run around multiple times!
What I still don't understand is why these organizations are allowed to make false claims, such as helping to prevent displacement, or helping to combat homelessness.. I was working full time had just made my first move towards a career and was now going to lose it all because the organizations that were put into place to help people weren't doing anything to help.
I reached out to my district official and explained to him my horrible experience with the San Mateo County Housing Authority, the Samaritan Hose and LifeMoves. He reached out to me asked a few questions said he was going to call someone that he knew at LifeMoves to see what he could do and in October of 2021, I was staying at the LifeMoves Mountain View shelter.
I got a new job where i was outsourced to work at Google and thought i was on cloud 9. Unfortunately this job also required me to work from home a few days a week and I did not have a stable enough or fast enough connection at the shelter to support this. I brought this up to my case manager and she said im sorry there is nothing we can do, I tried renting a hotspot from the library but that to was not enough. So now my dream job is down the toilet! With my case manager and housing specialist doing no real research on any housing for me.
On Jan 5th I revived this email ( Timothy is my fiance),
Hello Timothy,
This is a friendly reminder to please wear a mask when you are on site.
This is your second write up. First one was for not completing your chore and second because you were not wearing a mask and refused to put one on after staff asked you to put it on. If you get another write up, you will be placed on a Success Contract. If guidelines continue to not be followed, after being put on the contract you will be given an Ask to Leave form.
Also, please do not park in the parking lot. Clients are not allowed to park in the parking lot to:
unload
wait for someone
By the time my fiance and I returned home about 5 hours later there was a folder on our bed with a letter saying that we had "completed" the program and needed to have our things removed by the 19th. It said if I was still in need of housing to contact one of the organizations in the resource binder. It also went on to say that how we exited the program would determine our eligibility for any future services.
But what about the third write up? and the success contract that was mentioned in the email 5 hours earlier?
Most of the people at this shelter had been there for almost a year and had still not been housed yet they claim that people only stay between 90-180 days....
I am not perfect, I have had my struggles with addiction. But I am not in this situation by deciding to go get high instead of work. I'm not in this situation by deciding to spend my money on drugs instead of bills! I am very responsible I have just had very bad luck and the book thrown at me over the smallest infraction or because of someone else's actions!
I want to start my career, I want to become self sufficient. But how can I be expected to land that higher paying job so I can afford to live where I was born and raised if I am living in my car, trying to come up with ways to shower or microwave a meal, or wash my clothes?
This is only a glimpse into some of the struggles I have had in life. I have a lot more trauma then what was mentioned, but that is all irrelevant and helped shape me into the strong, resilient woman that I am today.
Anything helps, please share and if anyone can help set me up with an organization that might actually help, I'm all ears.
I am asking for $5000,
a studio apartment is on average $2000/month,
phone bill = $100
car payment = $205
insurance = $119
gas= $160
The city of Sausalito declared a local emergency Thursday due to what city officials said were dangerous conditions in and around a park that the city has allowed homeless people to live in.
In an emergency proclamation, Sausalito City Manager and Director of Emergency Services Chris Zapata said that dangerous and sometimes criminal activity at Marinship Park and the nearby tennis courts, where the city moved the homeless encampment from a previous location, were creating “conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property” in the area.
According to the proclamation, people in the park have set fires and caused explosions, used alcohol and other drugs publicly, been violent or threatened violence, and defaced or damaged both public and private property.
Other major cities — including New York City and Boston — have “right to shelter” laws. While massive shelter systems have been criticized for dismal conditions and mismanagement, they have reduced street homelessness. In Boston, there were 6,203 people experiencing homelessness, with 121 unsheltered in 2019. In San Francisco, more than 5,000 out of 8,000 homeless people were unsheltered in 2019.
Last year, Mandelman said he wanted a variety of shelter options, but the city would have to rely at first on safe sleep sites - sanctioned tent encampments with security, food and bathrooms at the cost of $61,000 a year per tent. A city report said scaling up sites could halve the cost, but Mandelman’s proposal never made it to the full board for a vote.
Other major cities — including New York City and Boston — have “right to shelter” laws. While massive shelter systems have been criticized for dismal conditions and mismanagement, they have reduced street homelessness. In Boston, there were 6,203 people experiencing homelessness, with 121 unsheltered in 2019. In San Francisco, more than 5,000 out of 8,000 homeless people were unsheltered in 2019.
Last year, Mandelman said he wanted a variety of shelter options, but the city would have to rely at first on safe sleep sites - sanctioned tent encampments with security, food and bathrooms at the cost of $61,000 a year per tent. A city report said scaling up sites could halve the cost, but Mandelman’s proposal never made it to the full board for a vote.
Sanctioning tent encampments at any cost is ridiculous, in my opinion. At $61,000/tent it boggles my mind!
Perhaps this proposal for SF to legitimately (as opposed to merely sanctioning tent cities) shelter all homeless people will force the city to get a better return on its investment. I'll remain cautiously optimistic.
Yes youre not telling us something we dont already know.
But let me ask you this, why do 3 of the 4 west coast cities profiled by Fox News make this ranking if they are supposedly terrible places?
US News & World Report evaluated the 125 largest Metro Areas looking at all sorts of factors:
20 Best Metro Areas to Live in
1. Austin, Texas
2. Denver, Colorado
3. Colorado Springs, Colorado
4. Fayetteville, Arkansas
5. Des Moines, Iowa
6. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota 7. San Francisco, California
8. Portland, Oregon
9. Seattle, Washington
10. Raleigh & Durham, North Carolina
11. Huntsville, Alabama
12. Madison, Wisconsin
13. Grand Rapids, Michigan
14. San Jose, California
15. Nashville, Tennessee
16. Asheville, North Carolina
17. Boise, Idaho
18. Sarasota, Florida
19. Washington, D.C.
20. Charlotte, North Carolina
In this ranking, "San Francisco"=Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
Also,
SF scored higher than any other major metro as far as desirability, which the US News ranking determined based on the results of a survey taken by thousands of participants across the country.
Desirability Rating/Metro Area/#Overall Rank
10.0 San Francisco#7
9.6 San Diego#36
9.1 Seattle#9
9.0 New York#90
8.8 Denver#2
8.7 Los Angeles#107
8.2 Phoenix#26
7.1 Washington DC#19
6.9 Dallas#21
6.9 Miami#113
6.8 Atlanta#57
6.8 Chicago#104
6.7 Boston#27
6.6 Tampa#56
6.5 Houston#30
6.5 Minneapolis#6
6.2 Philadelphia#102
6.1 Cleveland#85
6.0 Baltimore#100
5.9 St Louis#81
5.3 Detroit#93
SF also had a higher desirability rating than the city ranked 1st in the overall ranking.
9.0 Austin#1
So why do you think SF is so much more livable and desirable than just about every conservative-dominated area of the country despite such a damning and 'fair and balanced' critique by Fox News?
Maybe Fox News made a mistake and failed to put a 0 after 7. Or it could be that Fox News forgot to talk to the San Fransico business owners who are too afraid to leave their merchandise or any other property outside because they are fearful that it will be stolen. San Fransisco is a pretty city but too liberal to make sense. The only explanation I have is that the Fox News editor who created this list was in a drunken state while making it.
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How the "Home for All" program is not for "ALL"
