Women organize to end homelessness

by Dmitry Kiper

"We're here to try to make a grass roots effort to address homelessness in the Richmond and Sunset," said Kristie Fairchild, addressing the attendees of the monthly Sunset District Neighborhood Coalition meeting, held Jan. 12 at the Taraval Police Station on 24th Avenue.

Fairchild, an advocate for the chronically homeless, and Lucy Quacinella, a health and human services lawyer - she calls herself an "anti-poverty lawyer" - are the founding members of a new group called the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset Neighbors to End Homelessness.

"We're hoping to find a place in the community where we can talk," Quacinella said. "We need to hear from you (local residents) about what the problems are."

The women are at an early stage: collecting the names of individuals and organizations that might be interested in joining their cause. After getting feedback from neighbors, the duo will work on developing a specific plan to combat homelessness in the west side.

Their previous experiences fighting homelessness and poverty, with an emphasis on treating homeless people with dignity, should serve as a solid foundation. Fairchild is the executive director of North Beach Citizens, an advocacy group for the chronically homeless founded five years ago by director/producer Francis Ford Coppola. It is a place where homeless people can get access to basic services: a phone, change of clothes, shave or help filling out governmental forms. The ultimate goal, however, is to find permanent housing for them.

"I got 34 chronically homeless people housing in one year," Fairchild said.

She hopes to do the same in the Richmond and Sunset.

"It's a quality of life issue for me," said Quacinella, who has been fighting poverty for 20 years. "I don't want to ignore desperately poor people when I walk in my neighborhood (the Outer Sunset)."

Quacinella and Fairchild want a neighborhood drop-in center - ideally one in the Richmond and one in the Sunset - where volunteers and professionals can work together with homeless men and women. It would be a place where they could get a cup of tea, play checkers or make a phone call, Quacinella said.

"They need to socialize; they need human contact," she added.

Many homeless people qualify for medical and Social Security benefits, but they cannot deal with the bureaucracy. They need help filling out forms, going to the Department of Motor Vehicles to get an I.D. card, etc.

"If you help a person get benefits, they will trust you and be more open," Quacinella said.

She emphasizes treating homeless people with respect and slowly building up a relationship of trust. Trying to force services on them will likely backfire, she said. For this reason, outreach - going out to the streets and making a connection to get them to come into the center - is going to be crucial, she said.

There is another inescapable problem in trying to help the homeless population: Many are mentally ill and in need of professional help. They plan to help mentally ill homeless people connect with psychiatric services, such as those at the Sunset Mental Health Clinic. Since most organizations do not do outreach (they only treat those individuals who come in), it is necessary to get the mentally ill homeless population the treatment it requires, Quacinella said.

There are approximately 180 homeless people living in the Richmond and Sunset and 2,650 in San Francisco, according to a 2005 count by the SF Department of Human Services. However, some believe the number to be much higher - a fact acknowledged by the department - since the people who did the counting were instructed not to go into parks or abandoned buildings for safety reasons. (The count in Golden Gate Park was done by park staff.)

The homeless men and women who live in the Richmond and Sunset are here because it is safer than living on the streets of downtown, said Fairchild. Most of the services, however, are downtown.

"The City's main efforts are through Project Homeless Connect," which is downtown, Quacinella said. "This isn't adequate for addressing the issue where I live. We can't expect that homeless people will go on the bus downtown."

The goal of Fairchild and Quacinella's project, as stated in the organization's name, is to end homelessness in the Richmond and Sunset. They have no illusions about the magnitude of such an undertaking.

"It's hard for people to believe we can tackle these problems," Quacinella said. "We want to have a big vision. We want to get people into permanent housing. The idea is to get people to a place where they can support themselves. We don't want Band Aids."

For more information about upcoming meetings or the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset Neighbors to End Homelessness, contact Quacinella at (415) 348-6336 or Fairchild at (415) 772-0918.