[HPN] "Survival School' for oldsters can't do much about housing

[Coalition on Homelessness, SF]

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Senior shelter scarce, and it's vexing
By Elizabeth Brennan
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
Wednesday, February 9, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Examiner

URL:
http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/examiner/hotnews/st 
ories/09/seniors.dtl

"Survival School' for oldsters can't do much about housing

Shanker Rao has had enough.

Sixty-four and homeless, he hasn't been able to find a place to live.
The Housing Authority has told him he needs a phone, an address and at
least two years on the waiting list before he can even be considered for
public housing.

" "Go there, go there, go there,' " Rao said. Homeless people "have no
phone numbers, no addresses. Like hell, they'll contact you -- you're
homeless. (They) have no answers."

Along with about 20 other seniors, Rao attended Senior Survival School
at St. Anthony's Church in the Tenderloin on Tuesday. The class, the
first of four in the series, was sponsored in part by Planning for
Elders in the Central City, a nonprofit group that assists seniors in
San Francisco. It was the 25th session aimed at helping The City's
seniors -- the first specifically for the homeless -- learn about
housing, health care and government aid.

Seniors found out how to ride Muni for 35 cents or a taxi for a tenth of
what the meter reads, but mostly they came to discuss housing.

And when they did, things got heated.

Rao left the class after Housing Authority social worker George So
offered few options for homeless seniors. Rao was discouraged when he
learned there's a five-year waiting list for public housing, that the
list for Section 8 rent subsidy isn't even open, and that George Smith
of the Mayor's Office of Housing for Homeless didn't show up for the
session.

Smith, who canceled two hours after the session started, said he was
sorry people were upset that he didn't attend, but he had a meeting with
the U.N. Plaza committee. Smith said he would "be more than happy" to
attend one of the three future classes.

Berkeley housing activist Viola Beeson, 83, told the panel of four city
housing officials that they should demand more government support in
response to Smith's absence.

"If I were you guys I would refuse to do my job," Beeson said. "There
has to be some support from the top."

Attendees offered their solutions to the tight housing market and also
learned how to get into a shelter, which agencies help seniors and how
to get subsidized rent.

Sixty-three-year-old Walker Hampton and his friend, George Kid, 57, said
the shelter where they've been living for the last month told them about
Senior Survival School. Hampton said he learned how "to get a lot of
help."

"What can you do?" said Hampton, who is living in a shelter for the
first time. "This is the only choice we have. It's the same everywhere."

Housing advocates admit it's tough to find places to live, but offered
what help they could.

"We try to help people who have been through a whole lot," said James
Shaw, of A Man's Place, a shelter on Fremont Street. "They've lived on
the streets, under bridges, in their cars. We set up a goal, put them in
touch with a therapist and help them establish a rental history."

Debbie Raucher of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic said her organization
tries to move people permanently into single occupancy hotel rooms,
usually with a shared bathroom and kitchen. But, she said, there's a
waiting list of at least two weeks.

At the Marian Residence, a 30-bed shelter for women, there's also little
room for women in need of transitional housing. Judith Pomeroy, a
representative from the nonprofit, said people are encouraged to stay
"until they get things in order."

©2000 San Francisco Examiner  


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