I’ve been meaning to write about the following for like, a month now, but the incessant writing demands of my work have suffocated any motivation for extracurricular writing projects. Alas, however, I've found a quiet Sunday and a quaint Dunn Bros. to finally give Kerry the recognition he deserves – way to go Kerry!
More than a month ago now, our good friend Kerry Rauschendorfer took it upon himself to lead a small trip to San Francisco. Sounds fun and dandy, until you hear the mission of the trip: to be homeless for five days, and survive on a mere $20. It was a very hardcore and un-filmed version of Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie’s the “Simple Life.” Ok not really.
For five days, Kerry and his crew wandered the streets of San Fran – searching for shelter and food, and chatting it up with the homeless among them. I talked with Kerry a few weeks ago on his experiences. Here’s a little bit of what he had to say:
Q: So Kerry, how did you spend your days on this trip?
A: Well, actually, one thing I didn’t realize is how much free time you have when you are homeless. We spent our days looking for food and shelter and pretty much sat around the rest of the time, talking to people.
Q: How did you find a place to stay?
A: They have a lot of resources on the Internet, and we talked to some police officers too. When we first got there, we went to Golden Gate Park to spend the night. We threw a tarp down on the top of the hill and sleeping bags. None of us got any sleep that night – it was cold and none of us had warm enough sleeping bags or clothes. So at 5:00 a.m. we got up and started to walk the streets – a better option than just laying there. Then we went to McDonalds and got a sausage McMuffin.
So the next night we tried to find a shelter – but to stay in a shelter you have to register as homeless. They take your picture and write down the zip of the last place you stayed. You can reserve a shelter for seven straight days, but we made it difficult on ourselves and forwent that option. One of the people that registered us recommended a shelter, and we stayed there for a night.
Q: What was the shelter like?
A: In the shelter there were four rows of 25 beds each, spaced a foot a part. There were light blue rubber mattresses that were dirty and smelled, well, like a homeless person. I have no idea how often they cleaned them. But I didn’t feel like the mattress was clean enough to put my sleeping bag on! But they gave us each a fresh blanket – so we slept on half the blanket and covered p with the other half. The whole night people are coughing and farting – and you wake up smelling bad and stay smelling like that all day. It’s definitely not a luxury hotel.
The next night, one of the men with us refused to go back and sleep in the shelter, so we went back to Golden Gate Park. We had previously spoken with an officer near there – and he told us we would be fine staying there. However, at like six in the morning we were woken up by an officer and given a ticket for sleeping in the park. The officer was kind of a jerk and I felt betrayed because we were told it was okay. The tickets were $271 each – and we are still working on fighting them.
OK. This is getting a little too long for one blog post – so I will post part two of Kerry was Homeless soon. Sooner than a month, I promise.
3 comments:
That is insane! I never understood how/why there are so many homeless people in San Fran. Its freezing there. The first thing I would have done is spent $2.00 on a local bus to Palo Alto. The homeless there seem happier and the climate is much warmer.
Perhaps part 2 will clear up the mystery.
It's so been over a month now. I'm waiting for part 2!
See you soon. :)
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