SF State college students share their experiences with homelessness
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0:01 - 0:06[ Music ]
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0:07 - 0:09>> I never thought I'd be homeless.
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0:09 - 0:11I felt like it was us against the world.
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0:11 - 0:14Coming to San Francisco we
had all these high hopes. -
0:14 - 0:16We were like campus is a great place.
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0:16 - 0:17It's beautiful.
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0:17 - 0:18We're so excited, you know.
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0:18 - 0:23We had all these hopes and then we came out
here and it's just like damn, it's really hard. -
0:23 - 0:26Housing has been pretty difficult to come by.
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0:26 - 0:31I first moved out here and I found a
place with a friend who lived off campus. -
0:31 - 0:38But then she got evicted so we both had to leave
or pay like $1000 just to stay another night. -
0:38 - 0:43So we're just kind of like walking
the street, one of our friends offered -
0:43 - 0:48to let us keep our stuff at her house while we
like moved around, back and forward to school -
0:48 - 0:52and we were able to spend some
nights with her but not all the time. -
0:52 - 0:57Sometimes we wouldn't have anywhere to go so
we would just kind of wander around school, -
0:57 - 0:59wait until our friend would be
like hey, you can come over. -
0:59 - 1:02It was really difficult.
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1:02 - 1:08>> Ever since I graduated high school at
the age of 18 I was actually homeless. -
1:08 - 1:14What's kind of led to me to this point was
stress, I think, the amount of stress of working -
1:14 - 1:18and going to school at the same
time was taking its toll on me. -
1:18 - 1:23So by this year I started
living in the homeless shelter. -
1:23 - 1:27The weight I was carrying
was just too much for me. -
1:27 - 1:30Even the semester before
I was having some trouble. -
1:30 - 1:31I take medication.
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1:31 - 1:34And I was living in a living
room, which was stressful. -
1:34 - 1:39I worked the logistics out for me and
coming home late and from work and trying -
1:39 - 1:43to manage my health on top of my
school and academics and music. -
1:45 - 1:53>> In 2001 I experienced homelessness for
the first time as a pregnant young woman. -
1:53 - 1:58I also struggled with drug addiction
and all the other issues that come along -
1:58 - 2:01with it, incarceration and all of that.
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2:01 - 2:05It put me in a spot where I had
to access the shelter system. -
2:05 - 2:11And off and on I was in transitional living
and then I would go from here to there living -
2:11 - 2:20on the streets, staying in like a flea
bag hotel to like being out all night. -
2:20 - 2:28It happened from like 2000 to, I
want to say 2007 like off and on. -
2:29 - 2:31>> Yeah I used to go to this
gas station and eat. -
2:31 - 2:38There's a lot of like just fast food and
just things that I used to come to eat -
2:38 - 2:41and just hang out outside, at night mainly.
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2:42 - 2:48And then down the street on Shotwell
[phonetic] I used to go and take the back alleys -
2:48 - 2:57and my friend had a tent behind and I
used to go and stay there sometimes, yeah. -
2:57 - 3:00>> We mostly just like slept in the library.
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3:00 - 3:03I saw a lot of people like sleeping in the
library so I didn't think it was like a weird -
3:03 - 3:05thing and it was just kind
of like, ok, I'm tired. -
3:05 - 3:08I'm just going to go take a nap in the
library, also the break room at work. -
3:08 - 3:11My roommate and I were both homeless
but we didn't have like the same -
3:11 - 3:14schedules so it was kind of
like, hey, where are you? -
3:14 - 3:16And then after work we'd kind of be
like hey, like where we going to go? -
3:16 - 3:18So it was a lot of like empty time.
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3:18 - 3:22And we weren't like freaking out about
school and like getting our work done. -
3:23 - 3:28[ Music ]
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3:28 - 3:33I think upstairs like by the new third
floor they have just like rows and rows -
3:33 - 3:34and so we would just kind
of like sit there and sleep. -
3:34 - 3:39After midnight this is closed
so we kind of just like stick -
3:40 - 3:42to here, like research, backpack down.
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3:43 - 3:50>> I remember sitting on this
spot, just kind of people watching. -
3:50 - 3:55So yeah I was just walking around
campus, anything to keep us busy, yeah. -
3:59 - 4:05>> Using public bathrooms sometimes,
going to the library a lot of the times. -
4:05 - 4:09Back then they didn't have the
[inaudible] so I didn't have that resource. -
4:10 - 4:13There's only very limited places in the city
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4:13 - 4:16where you can take a shower
and the lines are very long. -
4:17 - 4:23And so just being able to like go to
the thrift store, go to St. Anthony's -
4:23 - 4:26to get clothes, things like that.
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4:27 - 4:30>> Right now I live in a place called
Larkin [phonetic] Youth Services. -
4:30 - 4:39It's a homeless shelter for kids ages 18 to 24
and it's located in the Tenderloin neighborhood -
4:39 - 4:43of San Francisco right on the
border of Van Ness and Ellis. -
4:43 - 4:49My family and I all live together in a
house in Palo Alto so I was always granted -
4:49 - 4:53with the privilege of having, you know,
a room to come home to after school. -
4:54 - 4:59I was inexperienced with a ton of like
stress from at a young age like that -
4:59 - 5:02where you don't have a place
to go to, like a home base, -
5:02 - 5:08but it's more recent towards the start of
college when we all decided in my family to move -
5:08 - 5:11out of the house, was when I started
experiencing that experience. -
5:13 - 5:16>> It was not only scary, really heavy.
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5:17 - 5:17We had to much clothes.
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5:17 - 5:21We were unprepared so we packed
too much of the wrong stuff -
5:21 - 5:24so yeah it was definitely stressful having to
lug all our stuff around from place to place -
5:24 - 5:27and all our valuables we
had to always keep on us -
5:27 - 5:30so it's a little stressful, my
laptops and stuff like that. -
5:31 - 5:33I think actually the whole time we felt unsafe.
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5:33 - 5:36We didn't not have a moment where we
were just like awe, like you know? -
5:36 - 5:39We're just kind of always alert.
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5:39 - 5:41We both work downtown pretty
late so then we'd just -
5:41 - 5:45kind of be like shuffling around with nowhere
to go, kind of just endlessly wandering. -
5:47 - 5:51>> I think not only finding
but keeping a job is hard. -
5:51 - 5:55I work here and I see people that
do have jobs and they'll come -
5:55 - 5:58in the morning early, 4:00, 5:00,
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5:58 - 6:02to sign up for a bed and then they'll come
back at 7:00 to pick up their reservation. -
6:03 - 6:05And I wasn't working when I was homeless.
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6:05 - 6:11I can't even imagine working full time
and not being able to like lay your head -
6:11 - 6:12down or rest and put up your feet.
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6:12 - 6:14It must be hard.
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6:16 - 6:22>> It's draining, it's like taxing
on yourself and your mind, your body, -
6:23 - 6:26you have to be very limited
in what you carry around. -
6:26 - 6:31If you have a chance to have a
locker here that will help too -
6:31 - 6:35but there's only certain hours
that you can have access to it. -
6:35 - 6:39But I see people day after day have jobs.
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6:41 - 6:46>> It's definitely got me to think about
that extra time to spend with friends, -
6:46 - 6:47you know, take care of my health.
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6:47 - 6:51I don't have to spend money on being
in hospitals the rest of my life. -
6:51 - 6:56I can spend money on practicing guitar and
maybe promoting myself, maybe devote that money -
6:56 - 6:58into like investing in my profession.
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6:59 - 7:01>> We went to the psychiatrist.
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7:01 - 7:05It was a time when we were just like really
stressed out with school and everything. -
7:05 - 7:10And my friend, she gets depressed so we both
went to the psychiatrist person and we talked -
7:10 - 7:13to them and they had told us about
like homeless shelters but we didn't -
7:13 - 7:16really feel that we belonged
in a homeless shelter. -
7:16 - 7:18It wouldn't have been a good fit for us.
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7:18 - 7:20So we didn't use those resources.
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7:21 - 7:25My freshman year was kind of just like
going through all that and I was just kind -
7:25 - 7:26of like, is this what college is like?
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7:26 - 7:28But towards the end of that
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7:30 - 7:32I found some friends and
that's what really helped. -
7:34 - 7:37>> I was hospitalized towards
the end of the year. -
7:37 - 7:44And then the doctors through Keiser were able
to find housing for me through the insurance. -
7:44 - 7:48They were helpful in locating me to Larkin.
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7:48 - 7:52It's really tough to get in, like
you've got to call every morning. -
7:52 - 7:57You don't pay rent there but you've got to
like do the foot work to get a bed there -
7:57 - 8:02and then maintain that same amount
of work to continue to live there. -
8:04 - 8:08So it was through my medical provider,
thankfully, that I have the place. -
8:08 - 8:12Otherwise I would have been me like digging
through phone books or like the internet, -
8:12 - 8:16going to the library every day trying
to find like somewhere to live. -
8:16 - 8:19>> There was a vicious cycle
that I just couldn't get out of. -
8:19 - 8:21I wanted to get out but I just didn't know how.
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8:21 - 8:22I didn't know how to start.
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8:23 - 8:24I didn't know who to go to.
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8:24 - 8:27I didn't know like what first step to take.
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8:28 - 8:29And that was super hard for me.
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8:30 - 8:33I knew that I wanted something
better for me and my family. -
8:34 - 8:38So I was able to work with a really
good case manager and I applied -
8:38 - 8:41for all the housing options,
which are very limited. -
8:41 - 8:47But they had this community housing partnership
that was available to 44 of the families -
8:47 - 8:52that were in the shelter and I was able to
get in one of those and I'm still there now. -
8:53 - 8:57And because of that I'm able to pursue
my education because I'm not worried -
8:57 - 9:02about all the rent that I am paying you know
especially now in San Francisco it's crazy, -
9:02 - 9:04ridiculous amounts of rent.
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9:04 - 9:07Being in a supportive environment
where I'm only paying 30 percent -
9:07 - 9:09of my income just makes it so much easier.
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9:10 - 9:15I am able to go to school and then work
towards my goal of being self-sufficient. -
9:17 - 9:21>> People think of a college today they
think of them in a dorm or somewhere -
9:21 - 9:24at a party getting drunk or something like that.
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9:24 - 9:27They don't think about the
other side in finding a place, -
9:28 - 9:33they just expect us to have a place and we
don't, especially if we live off campus, -
9:33 - 9:37there's not a lot of help out there for
us and the housing is really competitive. -
9:38 - 10:00[ Music ]
- Title:
- SF State college students share their experiences with homelessness
- Description:
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A California State University survey released in February reported that roughly 8 percent of students experienced homelessness in 2015. Of the 23 schools surveyed, SF State’s support offerings for housing and food insecure students fell below average.
In the video: Golden Gate Xpress speaks with three people who faced housing insecurity during their time as college students.
For more information: To read more about how SF State is helping students who face housing insecurity, visit bit.ly/29g3DNZ
Produced by: Avery Peterson
Music by: Blue Dot Sessions
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 10:01
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jordisons edited English subtitles for SF State college students share their experiences with homelessness |