San Francisco Homeless Program Goes Daily
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – San Francisco's successful every-other-month program, Project Homeless Connect, is now stepping up to provide services around the clock.
In its eight years in existence, Project Homeless Connect has offered veterinary, dental, medical and banking services to 64,000 homeless people. Now, the program is being expanded on a smaller scale to Every Day Connect.
KCBS' Holly Quan Reports:
Five staffers will work out of a Van Ness Avenue office to meet the needs of people who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless.
"Using technology to get every day reservations for these services to be happening and to get the homeless population into a day-to-day ability to connect up with us and not have to wait in between, wondering if we're going to have a Homeless Connect event or not," said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. "That communication on a daily basis, a 24-7 basis and a weekend basis will allow us to talk to them and continue that dialogue around transforming their lives."
Shedred was one of the homeless waiting for dental work on Wednesday and said every day access could be what it takes to get him off the street.
"It's small things like this that can actually give us the strength, the courage and the positive affirmations about ourselves to say, we do have support from our city and they're not trying to make us feel any less of a human being," he said.
Every Day Connect will begin on Monday. The Department of Public Health will continue its current schedule of providing a bi-monthly Project Homeless Connect at various locations throughout the city.
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