A Chair is Not a Bed!

by Alison VanDeursen

It was a rare day in San Francisco- blue skies, balmy air, and the circus appeared to be in town! In the plaza across from City Hall, colorfully dressed stilt walkers danced and unicyclists juggled fire, tossing spiraling pins back and forth. I saw a man in a sleek suit posing in front of the performers. His associate, laughing, snapped a photo before they scuttled back to the office, lunch break over.

But this carnival was no tourist attraction. It was, in fact, a symbolic representation of the kind of clownish (but hardly amusing) politics that threaten the welfare and lives of the city’s homeless poor. Thursday’s action was organized by the Coalition on Homelessness as a protest and “Speak-Out” against the City’s Shelter Re-Design Program. Signs held aloft by protesters that challenged the new “design” read: “This Does Not SIT Well With Us!” and “A Chair is Not a Bed!”

Here’s an April Fool’s Day joke:

Q: How do you fit more people into an already overcrowded homeless shelter?

A: Replace the sleeping mats with metal folding chairs!

This is no laughing matter. I asked Marvin, 64, and Bobby Dansey, also a senior citizen, why they came out to participate in the action. Both men currently stay at Multi-Service Center South, the shelter that will cram an extra 100 men onto it’s overcrowded second floor, and force many to sleep upright in chairs.

“The more bodies the better,” said Bobby. (He was referring to the number of activists protesting at City Hall, not on the population of the shelters!)

“I’m one of the people who is homeless,” said Marvin. “I’ve heard this rumor for 6 months. Now it’s becoming reality and it’s frightening. Being my age, sitting up in a chair is gonna be horrible.” Marvin explained that he has illnesses, especially swelling of the legs and feet, that would be exacerbated by hours of sitting upright.

I asked how seniors are accommodated in the shelters. Bobby said, “I don’t know what they do about seniors. But you do get first preference. You get a bed first, get to eat first, get blankets first...”

“Get robbed first,” chimed Marvin, and the two friends laughed.

Bobby, still smiling, shook his head. “He got the nail on the head. It’s a joke, but it’s really true.”

I wondered if the City’s attention would be better spent attending to issues of safety and health care within the shelter system, rather than in a Shelter Re-Design Plan that does not address the needs of the homeless.

When I spoke with Paul Boden, Director of the Coalition on Homelessness, he confirmed that most homeless believe that seniors and disabled should get preferential treatment, “But it’s not system wide.” In other words, it is not part of San Francisco policy. “Seniors and disabled folks shouldn’t be in congregate housing” at all, he argues. “It’s not about humanity, it’s about number crunching.”

A game of chance- pick a number, any number!

Boden told me an incredible truth about the shelter system in San Francisco. It seems that the City, when planning the shelters, “picked the number of people who would stay there before they saw the space!” The result is overcrowded shelters and the ridiculous redesigning. “They can only sleep 85 in the drop-in center,” said Boden. “They [Willie Brown & co.] don’t want to look like they’re dropping numbers. And they can fit 100, sitting up!”

So this is what some politicians mean when they brag, “I’ve developed resources so that more of our homeless can sleep inside, out of the cold!” When I was a kid, I’d go to the fair and the barkers would make the game look so easy. “A prize every time!” they’d leer, and when by ball failed to go through the hoop, I’d get my prize- not one of the coveted stuffed animals hanging from the wall, but a puny pencil eraser from a hidden box.

The City is forcing the homeless to go through more and more hoops in order to be granted a basic human need and right: shelter. I learned that the uproar about the Shelter Re-design Plan was about more than chairs when I spoke with Jennifer Friedenbach of Coalition on Homelessness. In response to complaints about homeless people by the Polk Street Merchants Association, the MSC-North shelter, located at Polk and Geary, will be reserved for what Friedenbach calls “the upper crust” of homeless people. These “good homeless,” who are deemed “most likely to succeed,” will be screened through a complicated process and agree to mandatory case management services. These demands will make MSC-North inaccessible “less desirable” homeless people, especially the disabled and women.

Mark Adams, 23, is a self- described professional activist I met at the rally. He lives in a Single Room Occupancy Residency near MSC-North. “I’ve been there,” he said, “and it’s very dirty. The staff treats people like a herd of cattle, another thing to be sold.”

Marvin and Bobby had also spoken to me of the staff. “They don’t do their work,” Marvin said. “The guys working on the staff will sell you a bed. They tell you to sweep- ‘I’ll give you an extra hot dog.’ They take advantage of people.”

Perhaps the staff could use some additional training. Perhaps the staff is overwhelmed by the overcrowded conditions of the shelters. Perhaps additional janitorial staff is necessary to keep the facilities clean. Perhaps homeless clients might appreciate such job opportunities- not as volunteer work or for an extra hot dog, but in exchange for room and board, a suggestion I heard from homeless people who, like Marvin, would like a “work program...something to do instead of the same old things, drinking and smoking.”

A political protest is about more than protesting- it is about solutions. The homeless people and their advocates in San Francisco have articulately voiced such answers. 407 homeless responded to a survey conducted by Coalition on Homelessness and the results outlined what a true “Re-design” could accomplish: More, not less, access. Available, but not mandatory, services. Clean facilities, trained staff, job opportunities. No one, according to the survey, asked to sit up in chairs all night. But despite protest by the Coalition on Homelessness and the community, the City held its meetings behind closed doors, and chose not to consider the input of homeless people when adopting proposals for the MSC Shelters.

As bilingual Master of Ceremonies Renee Saucedo, resplendent in her lion-tamer’s garb, lamented, “I wish Willie Brown was here so I could use this whip!” Why does the City refuse to listen to the voices of the homeless? I wish Willie Brown had been there as we lay on the warm grass that day, listening to the rally’s speakers and watching the sun glint on the golden accents of City Hall’s regal dome. He would have heard the crack in Saucedo’s whip as she shouted, “We are no fools! Homeless people are no fools!”

And he might well remember what Marvin, senior citizen, homeless citizen, told me: “I vote. This is where I register, right here in this park.”