Living Homeless, and Cold, in San Francisco

We always qualify our complaints about the cold in the Bay Area: Oh, it’s cold — but this is nothing compared to (name of hometown here). It’s true that the closer you live to the water here, the less insulation your home will have and the weaker the heating will be, and it’s occasionally uncomfortable on those few nights every year the temperature dips into the 30s. That just comes with the territory.

But for one group of Bay Area residents, the cold weather is brutal and occasionally deadly. Those who live without reliable shelter face a night-to-night struggle to find some way, any way, to stay warm. For many, that means a pile of blankets, lots of layers of clothing and a piece of cardboard between them and the concrete they lie on. Two of our staffers, reporter Alex Emslie and photographer Sara Bloomberg, visited with unsheltered San Franciscans earlier this week to hear how they were contending with the elements. Here are the pictures and voices they brought back:

Qat Astrophic: We met Qat Astrophic, 37, on 17th Street. She says she’s been in San Francisco for five years and homeless off and on for 20 years. She says her tent helps in the cold: “If you light a couple candles, it’s like a heater. Like I can light a candle and it’ll warm up the whole tent. Not to mention if you got a couple sleeping bags, one inside the other, I was homeless in the snow in Portland, and put one sleeping bag inside of the other one, and managed to stay warm sleeping outside in the snow.”

Michael Smith: Michael Smith is 56, has been in San Francisco for 20 years and living on the streets around the Civic Center for four months. He wound up at San Francisco General Hospital during the cold snap: “I had been laying on a blanket for about maybe four or five hours. It was about 3:45 in the morning when I finally just got up and I walked down to Carl’s Jr. Luckily I was able to go inside. It was unbelievable. It was really, it was painful.”

Fred Kelly Law: We caught up with Fred Kelly Law in the Civic Center area. He’s 61 and has been in San Francisco “for years.” His tactic for staying warm on recent cold nights: “Curl up and try to get as warm as I can.”

Chelan Cassidy: Chelan Cassidy told us she’s not homeless, but was in a soup line near the Civic Center to get a meal for her and her two-year-old daughter, Nyla. “I feel it’s like one hot meal a day for you know, it helps people sleep at night, and just to give you something warm in your stomach.”

Denise Lewis: Denise Lewis is 57 and stays at the Bayanihan House SRO on 6th Street, just south of Market. She’s lived in San Francisco her whole life. She was homeless for 10 years, went into the hospital and care homes about five years ago. She’s been at Bayanihan about a year and says it’s cold there, too. “I’ve been getting my heater fixed. It comes on it goes off it comes on and goes off, so I turn the stove on. … I have another coat I put on, but it’s still cold.”

Mauricio Solies – Maurico Solies is 56, and we met him near St. Anthony’s, in the Tenderloin. He’s been in San Francisco since 1975 and has been living on the streets for about a year. He lost his place in a shelter. “I have to get it back … because the rain is coming. It’s going to pour. I’m going to ask for the shelter again. I was there for four months. It beautiful. You have to do the same thing, respect, respect, don’t fight, and that’s it. Don’t fight with nobody.”

Charles Thomas: Works with Project Gubbio at St. Boniface Church, near the Civic Center. He’s been in San Francisco since 1992 and spent years on the street before going to work for agencies helping the homeless and poor. Here’s what he says about Project Gubbio: “Well it’s a sanctuary for somebody who’s been up all night or just tired throughout the day, a safe place to come rest your head.”