My time here in San Francisco and at Larkin Street Youth Services has been a very eye-opening experience thus far. When I first came to Larkin Street I felt a strong sense of discomfort as I walked through the building trying to interact with clients. I would enter the Engagement Community Center and timidly walk around looking for anyone that just needed to talk or wanted to play a game of cards together. The discomfort I felt came from a fear of not wanting to say the wrong things to clients, not wanting to cross any boundaries, not wanting to be unapproachable but also not wanting to be too open. This discomfort stuck with me for a while, until I really started to get to know clients, meet more people at Larkin and realized that the people I am working with are just like any other person I would interact with. It helped me to understand that homelessness is not always visible and can affect literally anyone; there is no face of homelessness. Since then, my discomfort has not necessarily gone away, but has rather changed form. Where I used to feel discomfort trying to talk to clients, I now feel discomfort whenever I talk with people who do not understand the complexities of homelessness and they speak about it from a place of ignorance. I remember going to lunch with people interning here in San Francisco at a large company, and hearing them speak about how much they hated the homeless people in the city and how they did not treat them like humans drew up feelings of confliction and confusion. This new sense of discomfort is due mainly to my new-found knowledge of what it means to be homeless and how complex it truly is. This new discomfort, I hope, will be one sticks with me and drives me to continue this type of work even after I leave San Francisco.
