Thanks to everyone who came out to the Haight earlier this month for an engaging and educational discussion around homelessness in our community. The discussion was organized in anticipation of the SF Homeless Project media blitz this week, during which local media outlets have saturated the news with stories about homelessness in San Francisco in order to increase awareness and inspire citywide action toward workable solutions. The event took place at The Booksmith, and the panel included Raphael House executive director Ralph Payton, Sam Dodge from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of HOPE, Mary Howe from Homeless Youth Alliance, Captain John Sanford from the Park Station Police Department, and representatives from Taking it to the Streets. Among the biggest takeaways were that homelessness is a broad label comprising diverse populations of people facing various barriers to stability, that treating people as the human beings that they are has a profound effect on their ability to move beyond homelessness, and that it’s important that each of us does his or her own research when proposals for effective solutions are presented that will impact our own neighborhoods as approval and disapproval are very often based on myths instead of facts about homelessness. Thank you to Main Street Mama’s and The Booksmith for hosting and for keeping this important conversation going and Raphael House Director of Development Marc Slater for recording this important discussion.