Unhoused Oakland
 

A FEW PEOPLE IN THIS GALLERY ARE HOMELESS BY CHOICE – the kids, for instance, who ride the rails. Others are homeless because of temporary circumstances: an illness, a fight with their family, a job that went away.  But most are homeless because they can't hold a job due to mental illness, alcohol, or drugs. They have the terrible job of holding themselves together when every form of external support has been taken away. Even if they qualify for the highest amount of welfare, SSI, ( approx $980 a month), it's not enough to survive in the cheapest room in the Bay Area. And a mother with four children in California gets less than $900 a month for a maximum of four years during her entire lifetime!  A single mother of one child gets around $340 a month and after four years she and her child are on their own. Felons coming out of jail or prison are also abandoned. They are banned from staying with their family if they live in most kinds of low-income housing, so the risk of going back to prison often makes more sense than living alone on the street.