474 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94103
USA
Information, discussion & community! Monday Night Forum!!
Occupy Forum is an opportunity for open and respectful dialogue
on all sides of these critically important issues!
Father River Sims and Philip O’Donnell:
Working with the Homeless
The way River Sims tells his horror stories, calmly, barely raising his voice, poised like the Anglican priest he is, makes them seem all the more ugly by contrast. “He’s third-generation homeless,” says Sims, speaking in tones members of Old San Francisco might use to speak of their lineage. “His mother shot him up with heroin for the first time when he was 8 years old.”
Father Christian River Sims has been working with San Francisco’s homeless, junkies and sex workers, primarily in the Polk, Haight and Civic Center areas, for the past 22 years. His ministry, which he calls Temenos Catholic Worker (temenos is Greek for that which is abandoned, cut off or separated), is really just Sims, working out of a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment crammed with the things that he needs for his work. Sims exchanges 2,000 needles a week, which he gets from the Prevention Point needle exchange program. He also distributes condoms, clothing socks aree a big draw with the rainy weather and as much advice as people ask him for, about drug rehab or shelters or where the free showers are or anything else a street survivor might want to know.
Everyone knows Sims. He knows all their stories. He never gives them money, so they don’t ask. “I must have spent $8,000 on pizza the first year I was out here, trying to gain their trust,” Sims laughs. He survives on donations, gets food from the Food Bank, lives on less than $800 per month himself. It’s his life, usually five or six nights a week, from 8 p.m. until 4 a.m.
Presenting with Father Sims is a young man he works with, Phillip O’Donnell, who is writing a book “Rise from the Mud� Breathe.” “My name is Phillip O’Donnell. I’m 22 years old and homeless here in San Francisco. Homeless with purpose. I have been trying to get an SRO, but the waiting lists are long and space is scarce. In the meantime, I sleep on the streets, Golden Gate Park, and when luck comes my way, a hostel or a generous person’s apartment. Although I am surviving, the lack of consistency makes it extremely difficult to move forward especially when the tendrils of my depression strike at my soul… Upon receiving housing, I plan to work for one of the organizations providing the services that are critical to my survival. I want to contribute to the effort to end homelessness as well as meet more people facing homelessness and learn their story in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the root causes of homelessness. Homelessness is, in part, a consequence of the flaws in the design of our civilization. If we can illuminate these flaws and how our civilizational design creates homelessness, we can make more effective efforts to help people get on their feet and keep others from facing this hardship. Also, I will continue working on publishing my first novel, Rise from the Mud, Breathe, and finish my college education.
As San Francisco contends with its growing population of people pushed out of housing and onto the streets, its mentally ill and people in need, Father River Sims can help orient and guide us as to how we can be most useful and take responsibility for our sisters and brothers on the streets.
Time will be allotted for announcements.
Donations to Occupy Forum to cover costs are encouraged; no one turned away!