Chicken Or The Egg

Recently, C.W. Nevius posed the age-old ‘chicken or the egg’ question in his twice weekly column.  As so many people do, he wonders,  why is it that there is such a concentration of homeless services in the Tenderloin?

“The question is,” Nevius asks, “Do the homeless and low-income people flock to the Tenderloin because there are so many services, or have the charitable groups been drawn to the neighborhood because so many residents need help?”

As with any questions regarding social services, the answer depends on the person’s beliefs of who “deserves” services.   At St. Anthony Foundation, we firmly believe in each person’s right to eat, to have affordable health care, warm clothing, to have shelter and to have the opportunities to build employment skills, and find community to overcome addiction.

As service providers city-wide brace for impact of the budget crisis, it is becoming clearer that privately funded non-profits will fiscally weather the storm, but more and more of the clients who sought help from city services will be turning to us for help.

What tragically some people see as the “easy work” of feeding the hungry, mentioned in Nevius’ article, what they are missing is that the children and young adults who partake in service-learning will have a deeper understanding of the issues of homelessness and poverty.  That direct experiential learning will more greatly impact youth than any fifth period lecture on the economy, and they will carry those stories to the family members, and friends, continuing the dialogue.

It is through volunteering, through service-learning and education and that greater issues of homelessness and poverty are understood and approached with insight.  Not through columns written outside looking in, questioning whether or not we might scare the tourists.