(upbeat music)
- Hi everybody.
We are at one of San Francisco's navigation centers.
(upbeat music)
With Invisible People,
I always feel it's important to have balance.
To not just show the crisis, but to also show
organizations and people that are working
to end homelessness.
(upbeat music)
- We provide service for the guests
that's been on the streets for 15 years or more.
And where we're standing at currently,
is where the guests do the intake.
So one of our big things here,
is that we wanna make a connection with the guests
who's living on the streets 15 years or more,
to make connection with the mental.
And to provide for them love and care
in a holistic atmosphere.
So we provide, our terms are very important,
so these are care managers.
That's one of the care managers,
and what the guest does,
when the guest arrives here through intake,
the guest must come see a care manager
to go through the assessment.
- I love that, because personally,
as a person who has worked as a case manager
and a person that was homeless, and I was homeless,
I hate the term case manager.
For one, it's like you caught a case.
- Right. - You know what I mean?
- Right.
- You caught a case, if you're not familiar,
that's getting locked up right?
You know, you caught a case.
So, we're talking about people here,
not a case.
So care manager, navigators are so much,
better mentally on a person than saying case manager.
We're walking by Aparna who is a care manager here.
Just told us that she just housed one of her clients.
- Yes, well with the help of the HOT Team,
through the Dial application,
she got a beautiful one bedroom apartment
at the Folsom Dore apartments on Dore and Folsom Street,
and I just went there with the HOT Team to help her move in.
And it was really nice and she was so happy.
It was beautiful.
All brand new with a nice balcony and everything.
- Now, how long was she out on the streets?
- I'm not really sure,
because she was staying with a friend who passed away
and then she ended up homeless.
So, I think a few months like three months.
- Okay.
- She used to have an apartment up north before.
- Got it, got it, got it.
- Yeah, but a lot of our clients have been homeless
like 20 years.
Or 10 years long time.
- And just so you know,
there is benefit obviously to the homeless person,
but there's benefit to you, the general public,
because housing people not only saves lives,
it saves taxpayer money.
So when you hear of a homeless person receiving
a beautiful apartment,
you're also receiving a beautiful tax savings.
(upbeat music)
- This is the dining hall where the guests come
and been provided with meals to eat.
We receive a lot of donations from goodwill churches,
that provide food for the guests
and we also provide guests for Meals on Wheels
that we provide in a refrigerator.
These are our two ambassadors that work in the kitchen
when the guests come in and out.
- I like that term, amba...
You guys are on it with ambassadors!
- Absolutely, absolutely!
- You know so...
- We give them unlimited meals
they're able to get, one per meal.
We give them bread, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
that's unlimited, fruit.
Like he said, we also give food that come in from--
- What do you mean by unlimited?
You mean if I'm hungry I can eat?
- Yeah! If you hungry you let me know your bed,
and I'll write you down.
I'll pop you a dinner in or a breakfast,
whatever you like, whatever we have.
We're just hear to serve them.
(upbeat music)
- So the garden part of our activity program
it's broken into three parts.
Part of it is a garden and so we have guests
that join part of the garden club
and they help raise the food that we eat.
And this is their home,
so it gives them a sense of ownership,
something to look forward to.
Seeing things grow.
They're contributing.
Not everybody just wants to get handouts
so it's a buy-in for them to be part of the community.
And something like watching plants grow
and then harvesting them gives them a sense of self.
And something to look forward to.
(upbeat music)
This is the community room that's provided for the guests,
we provide access to the computers,
we provide access to a phone.
We have a lot of activities.
We have a quiet room, which we call the television room.
But that's where the guests can get away
and find some time for themselves.
(upbeat music)
Our activities, on any given day we have multiple activities
going on from bingo, to garden club,
to walking the dogs, to our expressive art therapy.
Which behind you can see on the wall
is art produced by the community.
- We understand that women kinda go through
a lot of difficulties in the streets.
Men does too.
But the women they go through probably a little bit more.
So, what we like to provide is that
when the women arrive here at our facility
the women kinda like to be only around women.
So, what we did,
we provided a section specifically for women.
And no men are allowed to walk through here,
only, but men staff.
And they only go through periodically
just to check to make sure that everyone is safe.
And we always wanna make sure
that the women feel safe overall, here at our facility.
(upbeat music)
- I walked into this place and it actually hit me.
This is storage for all the homeless people's belongings.
And I worked at a shelter for many years
and homeless people were not allowed,
you know, they could take two small bags.
And the rest of the stuff they had to leave outside
at the risk of being stolen.
I go in the shelter, I lose everything else.
And again, another roadblock
preventing them from coming in.
Getting the help they need.
(upbeat music)
- Dog food, cat food, rabbit food, bird food.
- You got rabbits?
- We had three rabbits.
But they're gone now.
Two or three rabbits.
Cats, birds, we got all that you need.
- Really cool!
Really cool!
And that, that is so important.
Nobody wants to part with their pet.
- People can come and go as they need to
24 hours a day.
That it's really focused on
helping people get back into housing.
And, you know, that meals are on demand,
that couples can move in together.
We mix genders in dorms.
You know, at different places they've done different things,
but let people push their beds together
and snuggle at night.
Try to bring back some of these things,
that we all--
- Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!
Like, couples can be couples?
- Couples can be couples.
And it's such an important part of like, re-finding yourself
and to find some calm
and get out of the stressful state
that is being on the street.
- Yeah.
(upbeat music)
- These are human beings that need someone
to support them and help them get back on their feet.
A lot of them have PhDs and Masters and of all that,
but they're just down on their luck.
Or something psychological, very traumatic,
that sent them off course and they're here.
And that's our job to provide a lot of holistic,
a lot of love, and a lot of attention,
and a lot of support so the guest can transfer
back out into society with housing.
- [Mark] If you're in the United States,
you can go to InvisiblePeople.tv.
Click on get involved.
where you can email, Facebook, Tweet, or call
your legislators and demand that they make
ending homelessness a priority.