Recently I moved, and unfortunately moved away from BART, which means I’m joining the masses of disgruntled early morning commuters toe-tapping and scowling at the nextbus ticker delivering the less than desirable schedule.  Each morning I try and remind myself that people commute to work for hours, people sit in gridlocked traffic, and my half hour (when I’m lucky) commute is not that bad.

When on the bus a peppy man on the intercom delivers a canned message that I can find out about proposed MUNI fee hikes and service cuts at SFMTA.com.  It is again delivered in Spanish and Chinese.  The voice-over sounds almost excited about relaying this news.  As I have learned from St. Anthony Foundation’s advocacy coordinator these fee hikes, while certainly an inconvenience for me, for some are a matter of being able to use the transit system at all.

Currently a senior living on Social Security Income in San Francisco has a set income of $900 a month maximum. No picking up shifts, no swinging extra hours at the office.  That is their income, and that is it. We all know that with rent in our city, groceries, let alone medical bills and pharmacy costs that seniors often must shoulder, by the end of the expenses list, there is little if any room for fee hikes for basic services.

For seniors and people with disabilities these fee hikes are not a mere inconvenience, they are a matter of not making it to critical doctors appointments, or to food programs that sustain them.  That fee hike does not mean being late to an appointment; it means not being able to get to the appointment at all.

Collectively, we cannot sit as passive passengers while public transit becomes a luxury item.

Balancing the budget on our backs makes news. When the news was broken yesterday that an additional 10% tax will be placed on Californians’ income you could hear the panic in the headlines, in small talk of distraught folks on their morning commute, and in disgruntled cocktail hour conversations.

When it’s on the backs of seniors and people with disabilities it makes rumbles, but rarely conversation and not headlines. People in California who depend on Social Security Income have lived in the same wage since 1996. Imagine that. Living on the same income that you made 13 years ago, with the cost of food, medicine, transportation going up and up each year. To add insult to injury not only has there been no inflation adjustment, but this year alone benefit levels have been cut three times.

Our 10% tax hike, after the money is done plugging this mess of a budget gap, will be returned. And no, it is not ideal, it is not something most of us want to deal with especially around the holiday season. But, perhaps it can be an eye opener, a little jolt to wake us up to the reality that so many people who are dependent on the safety-net face every budget season. They are the first in line to bear the burden of our state’s economic instability.

So when we do face these cuts and are forced to make difficult decisions now we will all have a better understanding, empathy, and perhaps even a stronger drive to speak out for those who feel the pain of these cuts the deepest.

This is San Francisco. You’ve probably seen non-discrimination statements covering a rich variety of factors: race, religion, ancestry, national origin, marital status, gender, age, and sexual orientation.

Here’s one you probably haven’t seen. To all of the above, it adds: physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, veteran status or reliance on public assistance.

All of these factors are related to poverty. People are often poor because they have a physical disability, a mental illness, a chronic disease, or wounds or illness picked up in the line of duty. In the U.S., the poor are not thought of as targets of discrimination. Economic security – food, clothing, housing – are not thought of as rights.

The statement belongs, of course, to St. Anthony Foundation. Furthermore, St. Anthony’s does not discriminate against people with poor literacy, if it does not interfere with the performance of their jobs. St. Anthony’s will assist employees who reveal problems with literacy to enter an adult literacy program.

We call ourselves an inclusive community. Every day, in every way, we try to mean it.

Many people think of poverty programs as schools or hospitals. Poor people come to the program, they use the tools they are given, they graduate from poverty. They find the cause of their poverty, they are cured.  The next group comes in.

At St. Anthony’s we have thousands of guests who do graduate. They learn new skills or they learn to speak English. They get clean and sober or they get health insurance. They find a job that will allow them to live independently.

But many of our guests face multiple barriers to participating in society. They live with both physical disabilities and mental health problems. They struggle with an addiction and they struggle with illiteracy. They are elderly, which is not a disease and has no cure.

These are the guests we hope to keep connected to our programs, not to graduate. If they keep coming back to St. Anthony Social Work Center, they can access benefits and keep the stable housing we’ve helped them find and get help managing their limited incomes. If they keep coming to the Free Medical Clinic, they can get help managing a chronic illness and get medication on the spot, so they don’t forget to take it. If they remain in the Madonna Senior Residence, they can built strong relationships with other residents and blossom anew by aging in place.

These are the guests we hope will stay in community with St. Anthony Foundation. Their lives will become more stable; they may even become more self-sufficient. But their strength lies in staying together, not in “graduating.” And by remaining in community here, they make our community strong.