As I was reading a recent SF Weekly, one article really caught my attention. The title read: Homeless SF State Students struggle to stay in school and stay loaded. Being a college student in San Francisco myself, I was shocked to learn that in this very city there were homeless drug addicts also working toward their college degrees. The article followed the trials and tribulations of two journalism students, Rex and Steve, and their lives at San Francisco State University. Getting through college is hard enough on its own, then add sleeping outside an abandoned building and keeping up with a drug addiction and I can assume it’s near impossible.

As an intern at St. Anthony’s I have become very aware of how much poverty, hunger, and addiction affects the wonderfully dysfunctional city of San Francisco. Everyday the foundation’s Dining Room serves thousands of hot meals to the hungry. Fr. Alfred Residential Treatment Center has participants as young as 18 trying to kick life threatening drug habits. And the recently upgraded Employment Program / Tech Lab offers a way for people without computers to check e-mail, search for jobs on the web, and etc.

In the midst of this “economic crisis” everything seems to crumbling around the American people. Is my next paycheck coming? Will I have a job in a month? Can I pay my mortgage? Can I feed my family, or even just myself? You get the idea… These are the questions people are asking themselves daily. The SFSU students from the article seem to be doing the best they can considering the cirmcumstances. Once you become comfortable with a situation, whatever it may be, it’s hard to change. Thankfully there are places like St. Anthony’s who are working to help. Here people can get involved in any number of programs that can help them, whether they need rehab services, medical services, or just a hot meal.

Last Wednesday David Sheff, author of “Beautiful Boy” came down to St. Anthony Foundation’s new home at 150 Golden Gate Avenue to talk to staff and residents of The Father Alfred Treatment Center. David shared his experience, strength and hope with the St. Anthony community in his son’s trials and triumphs in dealing with the disease of alcoholism and addiction.

He brought up a many valid points that got me to thinking: We’ve known addiction is a clinical disease since 1935. For 65 years, prior to the passage of Proposition 36 in 2000, California imprisoned people for having a chronic and debilitating disease that has no known cure without an alternate option for treatment. California currently spends approximately $80 per person per day on incarcerating inmates. St. Anthony Foundation’s Rehabilitation Programs are $25 a day. Untold billions of dollars have been spent giving sick individuals extended “time outs” that have done nothing to address their illness.

The disease of addiction can, however, be arrested and go into remission. We’ve been helping people along their path in recovery since 1951, allowing participants up to a year to learn, grow, and heal in a safe and supportive environment.