Yesterday while at work in the Ferry Building, a woman came up to me at my stand and put her hand down her pants and immediately started feeling herself and groaning. I realized she was clearly homeless and not mentally stable, so I grabbed our work phone and called the building security to have them escort her out. She kept following me around the stand and I got worried that she wouldn’t leave me alone. She finally walked away right as my friend was coming up to say hi to me. At that moment, she ran up to him and starting humping him and violently grabbed his arm. Luckily, he was able to get her off of him but not before she scratched his arm pretty badly. Security finally came over and was able to remove her from the building.

I was never worried for my safety as I was completely surrounded by people, but I know that some people walking around San Francisco definitely feel uncomfortable at times. The problem is not just that there are too many homeless people here, but that they are not getting the kind of attention and care they need in order to stay healthy. The mental health of people is the #1 problem in this city, and it only continues to grow.

I’m worried about this problem as I hope other people are, and always encourage people if they have the time to help organizations such as Glide, which offer mental health services to those in need: http://www.glide.org/page.aspx?pid=371.