The 2008 report from the Commonwealth Fund has again indicated that the United States has an alarmingly underinsured citizenship. The report indicated that a staggering 42% of all working-age adults were either underinsured or uninsured as of 2007, up from 35% in 2003.

According to the report, the U.S. could save up to 100,000 lives and $100 billion annually by improving its performance in key areas. “We now have 75 million Americans who are uninsured or underinsured,” said lead researcher and Commonwealth Fund senior vice president Cathy Schoen. “Poor access pulls down quality and drives up costs of care. The United States leads the world on healthcare spending — we should expect a far better return on our investment.”

This news is not a suprise, every day at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic we serve our neighborhood’s poor and uninsured guests with basic, specialty and ancillary medical services. In 2007 alone the Clinic served 3,385 uninsured patients, totaling more than 11,714 visits.  All visits, laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy services are provided to clients free of charge.

Keeping with my customary econospeak (my previous posts), it was my intent to blog today about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, I received some disturbing news yesterday which had been weighing on my mind through the night until this morning’s update realized my fears.

Mike – a gentleman in all respects – had been working with my family in Nigeria for almost two decades; a constant presence in our lives, he had been visibly happier since his marriage three years ago to a lovely young lady. Early yesterday morning, he was headed to work in a local moluwe (common mini buses which serve as taxis in Lagos), when the vehicle happened upon an oil tanker which had somehow crashed a few minutes earlier and was now in raging flames. Ignoring the calls of a policeman who was attempting to cordon off the area, the driver perhaps thinking the aforementioned was attempting to solicit a bribe – a usual course of action – launched into the path of the burning heap and rammed the bus into the way of the flames.

Mike’s wife who was with him passed away despite his heroic attempts to shield her from the fire. His efforts sustained him with horrible burns and through the kindness of some bystanders, he was rushed in another vehicle to the hospital. What family he had in his wife, he lost – what family he had left in us, were unable to do much save for stand by his side.

He passed away half an hour ago. My emotions are divided – part of me wishes he had survived and part of me takes solace in the fact that he passed without having to bear a forthcoming life of much pain and loneliness.

The graph above is related to the Malthusian theory which proposes that higher mortality rates should lead to a higher per capita in the pre/post-industrial world. We know that the shift from such early economists through the times of the Keynesian and then the neo-classical economists, eventually culminating into the world of Freidonomics, all rightly refute this theory. According to the endogenous growth theory which stems somewhat from the latter (post the Solow’s exogenous growth theory), it is largely technology, not a decimating population which is endogenous to growth. Is someone up there in the sky then playing a crude joke by taking away Mike? Will his passing or the daily death toll of thousands of the lumpen masses in the developing world through such senseless accidents contribute to economic growth? No!

Not wishing to fully immerse myself in grief, I looked towards my world of economics seeking a paraclete, yet, I found none. My only comfort is in perhaps viewing the events from a traditional Hindu perspective. A husband and wife who pass from this world together, will return once more in the next life (within a year of the Gregorian standard) to be connected as in the past life. I guess then his happiness will continue as they shall be together in the outside of our present realms.

Through this blog entry, I wish to recognize Mike beyond the scope of his little family in Nigeria. I wish to recognize him as an amazingly patient, hardworking, dedicated and wonderful man. To my readers here thousands of miles away, he was unknown. But as you read this, I invite you to meet him posthumously. He always felt it an honor to hold a key to my family’s house, yet, little did he know he had a much more important key, a key to our hearts. We will miss you Mike, we will really miss you.

May you rest in peace.

It is hard to believe that many of those who honorably served our country return to find themselves with no place to enter the civilian world, and eventually, with no place to go but the streets.

In San Francisco, it is estimated that 20% of the homeless population are veterans, according to the San Francisco’s 2007 Homeless Count. At St. Anthony’s, the ratio is higher; about one in every four guests who come to the Dining Room is a veteran.

The statistics alone are a loud cry for more services needed to assist our veterans. Recently, there has been a glimpse of hope coming from federal funding. Just yesterday, Gavin Newsom announced that the San Francisco Housing Authority will be funded with $1.5 million to provide homeless veterans with support services and the opportunity to obtain permanent housing. This amount comes from the $75 million national funding for the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Program. It is expected to lift more than 100 veterans off the streets and into permanent housing.

“Every veteran deserves a home that he or she can afford. This funding will serve a vital need by making sure veterans have an affordable place to live, with the support services they need to live independently,” said Mayor Newsom.

While 100 recipients represent only a small portion of the veterans that need more resources, many see this initial funding as a starting point to get more federal funding in the future. Furthermore, while services targeted towards veterans have increased in the last 20 years, more financial resources are still in need. Advocates hope that more action will be taken to prevent homelessness by providing affordable housing to the newer wave of young veterans from Iraq.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Mayor Newsom said. “The mission is not accomplished, in this case.”

I can hardly contain my excitement for tomorrow’s meal in the Dining Room, which is a personal favorite: red beans and coconut rice. As a pseudo vegetarian (read: I’m a sucker for bacon), I’m always happy to see meals like this on the menu.

As highlighted in a recent SF Chronicle article, however, the prevalence of vegetarian meals in the Dining Room is a bittersweet reminder of the rising cost of meat and other staples. With food prices going through the roof, meals like these are actually a creative and cost cutting effort to meet ever-increasing demand in the Dining Room.

In 2003, our Dining Room served an average of 2,000 meals per day; in 2004, that average rose to 2,300. Today, the Dining Room serves an average of 2,600 meals per day. At the same time, food prices are skyrocketing. A Dining Room meal that cost 33 cents last year today costs 40 cents, a more than 20% increase in one year.

We’re not alone, according to the article:

“The San Francisco Food Bank served 118,000 people in 2007 and now serves 124,000 – the biggest jump in years.”

“San Francisco’s Human Services Agency is handling 660 more food stamp caseloads than last year, bringing it to a total of 15,363.”

“Nationally, Meals on Wheels, which delivers food to homebound seniors, has lost volunteers who can’t afford the gasoline. The San Francisco chapter doesn’t rely on volunteers but uses vans to deliver 805,000 meals to 1,450 seniors. The agency is struggling to cover rising fuel costs while also meeting a 10 percent increase in demand, said Ashley McCumber, executive director.”

“Glide, the only San Francisco organization that serves three meals a day, has seen demand rise 13 percent this year. Bruce McKinney, the free meals program manager, said he can rarely serve salad and sometimes cuts vegetables and rice. “It’s getting scary right now,” he said. “The back half of the year is going to get real ugly.”"

“Project Open Hand, which delivers meals to chronically ill people and runs a grocery center where people can pick up bags of food, has cut bananas and margarine because of costs. Director Tom Nolan has eliminated five positions and all staff raises this year.”

San Francisco Police have released the identities of two men suspected of murdering a homeless man in The Tenderloin.

Robert Hannah, 57, and Michael Cooper, 44, were arrested in connection with the killing of Richard Weiland, 53, early Wednesday morning. The attack took place around 2 a.m.on Turk St. at Taylor St. Weilend was jumped by the two suspects, who beat him and stole his wallet, according to San Francisco Police.

Hannah and Cooper were booked under suspicion of murder. Cooper was also arrested on robbery charges.

Replate is a new public service announcement encouraging San Franciscans to place their unwanted leftovers and doggie bags on top of public trash cans. The food is often picked up by a hungry and almost always homeless San Franciscan to eat. Most San Franciscans I know have been doing this for years. It’s done without hesitation and gives us a cheap sense of philanthropy. But this campaign takes a different angle to this post dining tradition: Replating leftovers cuts down on waste. Your unwanted food fills the bellies of San Francisco’s neediest, not our already stuffed landfills.

Like everyone else who serves food, St. Anthony Foundation is facing the triple effects of the food crisis: higher food costs, greater need, and fewer donations.

And like our friends and colleagues, St. Anthony’s is taking steps.

» We purchase food cooperatively with other groups, for better prices.
» We commit to larger purchases upfront, in exchange for an agreed-upon lower price.
» We are now purchasing cheaper, therefore fatter, meat and boiling it down to lean.
» We are using substitutions creatively to lower our costs, but maintain protein content.

For example, we buy fresh potatoes to substitute for rice, or we add more beans to spread a dish without reducing protein content.

Of course, a lot of people are trying to cut down on meat. Less meat is healthier for people with stable living situations and secure food sources. But for St. Anthony guests, meat is important. They need the concentrated protein.

People with food insecurities also need to feel full in their main meal of the day. A meal, with meat, that’s 20% “good” fat can prevent the cravings that lead to filling up later in a fast food place or a corner store snack section on foods that can harm health and cause obesity and related diseases.

We’re taking the measures we can take until things get better. St. Anthony’s Dining Room is blessed with clever, resourceful, and well-trained staff, who have always rung as much out of a dollar as they possibly can. For a while, we’ll be squeezing a little harder.

Homeless folks pushing shopping carts full of recyclables down the street is not an uncommon sight in San Francisco. It’s been happening for decades. But with the rising value of aluminum, green conciousness, and an unstable economy it’s become big business, and not just the “down and out” are turning what was once considered refuse into profit.

“They’re like an army out there,” San Francisco resident Bruce Johnson told the Associate Press yesterday. He is frustrated by the mass of strangers that appear outside his home every Wednesday morning to dig through his bins. “They’re in trucks. They’re on cell phones. It’s a business.”

State and local officials have started paying attention. The revenue lost by bin picking opportunist threatens the sustainability of San Francisco’s recycling program. Stealing recyclables from the curb is already illegal in many California cities, but more strigent laws are in the works to deter poachers.

How might this effect the homeless? Many advocates worry that a crackdown might hurt the poor, who rely on the five to ten cents earned with every container to sustain themselves. Other homeless advocacy groups like the Los Angeles Coalitiion To End Hunger back a possible Senate bill, but only because it is directed towards large recycling poachers and not individual poor and homeless people.

I’m writing this blog entry a tad early, as I won’t be in on Fourth of July. The administrative office here at St. Anthony Foundation will be closed in observation of our country’s Independence Day. The Dining Room, along with many other direct service St. Anthony Programs, will be open as always. Unlike many other organizations in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, St. Anthony Foundation keeps many of it’s doors open 365 days a year. We know from over 58 years of service that hunger knows no season and takes no holiday.