Homelessness is a problem that plagues the Bay Area.
The areas outside of San Francisco have one of the largest concentrations of homeless people.
I was homeless for two years after I moved out west. I lost my job and I didn’t want to move back home. I knew my mom and dad would think I failed and I didn’t want to prove them right. I lived in a tent outside of San Francisco for 20 months. The weather is pretty nice throughout the entire year. It could have been worse. I found a job and a permanent place to set up my tent. I found an old bike and I rode the bicycle to work every morning and every afternoon. It took a long time, but I had a lot of help from friends. During the time I was homeless, I made a lot of friends on the road. I constantly had people coming by to give me marijuana. That was easily something that was hard to get and I always appreciated when someone brought marijuana supplies. One young guy in particular came to see me every time he made a trip to the cannabis dispensary in San Francisco. He always brought me a pre-roll on the way back to his apartment. It was never something that was expensive, but I always appreciated the gesture. It was nice to have people want to help out. The journey would have been much more difficult if I wouldn’t have had any stability at all. A full time job and a couple friends that I could trust made a huge difference.