It is astonishing to see how prevalent homelessness is in the United States. San Francisco is one of the top places where homelessness is the most rampant. In San Francisco, the number of homeless population reached 7000.
Luckily, there are some brilliant minds at work to help solve this crisis. The homeless people live near the shopping plazas and tech startup hubs. Famous tech company SalesForce is looking to help homeless people by providing its own tech employees to help out by donating their time and money.
This means people will be able to be a productive member of society and earn a living at the same time. This can be a really effective way to cut down homelessness and can also help corporations give back to the community.
There is no exact cause of why homelessness has skyrocketed in the glamorous city of San Francisco. Many people think it is due to the tech companies who have inevitably caused the cost of living to go through the roof.
According to the Council for Community and Economic Research, San Francisco’s cost-of-living is 62.6 percent higher than the average city in the US. This is clear when we look at how high the rent is. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the city is $4,650.
Since tech employees seem to be at the root of this problem they can also mitigate the issue. This is what the charity Rebuilding Together San Francisco believes. The organization’s number one priority is to not just to fight homelessness; it also ensures individuals never fall into such a position ever again.
Executive Director of Rebuilding Together San Francisco said,
“What Rebuilding Together addresses is people who’ve lived in their homes for a long time — families, seniors, you know — and [tries to] keep those people in their homes. People who’ve lived in their homes for 40, 50 years, raised their kids in their homes, they’ve paid their mortgage, the house is affordable to them, but sometimes the maintenance becomes overwhelming.”
He told The Next Web that basic domestic maintenance issues could go out of control in the blink of an eye. Small maintenance issues can snowball to bigger physical issues in the house’s structure. This can make the property inhabitable.
Small problems that can be easily fixed are given high priority to make sure they don’t develop into bigger ones over the years. The NGO doesn’t just solve physical damage; it also helps install for example chair-lift for a person who could no longer walk the stairs.
Rebuilding Together also assists senior citizen to clean up their living space so that they can move about more comfortably.
Salesforce will help with the installation issues by donating money on specific projects and then send their employees to help out, which is quite a noble gesture on their part. There are also other professionals that will help tackle the electrical wiring issues, plumbing, and carpentry.
Rebuilding Together San Francisco plans to work with other tech companies as well. Earlier this November, Airbnb’s CEO, Brian Chesky, announced that Airbnb would donate $5 million over the next three years to help curb San Francisco’s homelessness situation.
Airbnb is committing $5 million over the next three years to help address homelessness in San Francsico.
— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) November 13, 2018
Tech companies also need to address the root cause of this crisis. Money and time won’t be enough, sadly. Poor economy, domestic violence, mental health issues, and drug addiction can be just a few causes of homelessness.
In a city like San Francisco, poor home maintenance can also be one of the reasons. If you want to help support Rebuilding Together San Francisco, either with your time or money, you can find out more information on their website.
Fazeel Ashraf
Areen Zahra
