SF HSH

SF Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • About HSH
    • Careers
    • Commission and Advisory Bodies
    • Contact HSH
    • Get Involved
      • Ways for Individuals to Get Involved
      • Ways for Property Owners and Landlords to Get Involved
      • Donate
    • Home by the Bay Strategic Plan
    • HSH Budget
    • Leadership
    • Press Releases
    • Success Stories
  • Services
    • How to Get Services
      • Relocation Assistance Services
      • Accessing Shelter
      • Housing and Problem Solving Assistance
      • Accessing Prevention
      • Drop-in Centers and Other Resources
    • Public Guidance for Neighborhood Concerns
    • The Homelessness Response System
      • Homelessness Prevention
      • Coordinated Entry
      • Outreach
      • Shelter and Crisis Interventions
      • Housing Problem Solving
      • Housing
        • Emergency Housing Vouchers
        • Housing Ladder
  • Partner Resources
    • Data Sharing and Privacy
    • Nonprofit Provider Conferences
    • ONE System
    • Provider Updates
  • Projects and Public Postings
    • Community Input
    • Notices of Proposed Projects
    • Procurement Opportunities
  • Research and Reports
    • Homelessness Response System Data
    • Homelessness Response System Reports
    • Point-in-Time Counts
    • Additional Reporting and Compliance
  • Calendar
You are here: Home / New Clips / Homeless People are Older & Sicker than Ever Before

Homeless People are Older & Sicker than Ever Before

Mother Jones: Homeless People are Older & Sicker than Ever Before

June 30, 2016 

“Everything,” Tom Wesley answers when I ask what’s ailing him. Diabetes. Multiple heart attacks. Chronic liver failure. “They’ve told me I’m dying.”

Wesley, a towering man in a salmon-colored corduroy shirt buttoned just at the top, is only 54. But for most of his adult life, he lived on the streets. He refused to stay in shelters because he didn’t like the structure; he says he also spent a significant time behind bars for heroin possession. “You could say I was using heroin,” Wesley says with a smirk. “But I don’t know who was using who—it sure used me up.”

He quit a few years ago—after losing two wives to overdoses. Around that time Wesley’s health problems started getting worse. Last year, a terrible pain in his abdomen brought him to San Francisco General Hospital, where he says he was admitted, via the emergency room, seven times in a matter of three months. At that point he was already used to the ER, having relied on it instead of primary care. “I wasn’t one for doctors,” he says.  Click here to read the full article. 

Automatic Translation Disclaimer

440 Turk Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
Contact Us

Search

© 2020- San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. All Rights Reserved.