SF homelessness advisor has first-hand experience with life on the street
SAN FRANCISCO - As city and state leaders race to find solutions to San Francisco's housing crisis, one man is taking his personal experience on the street to use as one of the first members of the city's homeless oversight commission.
For years, Sharky Laguana called the Civic Center hotel home.
"Funny enough, it still looks from the outside basically the same," Laguana told CBS News Bay Area as we stood outside the hotel. "This sign has been here since the 20s. I think the red brick facade you know, I was just, of course, I'm having a little bit of a walk down memory lane. I don't come here very often."
He arrived in San Francisco in the early 90s hoping to make it as a musician.
"I quickly found that there is absolutely no market at all for people playing guitar on the streets," Laguana recalled. "A good day I'd make like $1 so I was actually starving. Trying to live off of little pints of white rice for 50 cents and felt like things were just sort of getting worse."
Laguana knows first hand what it's like to be unhoused in San Francisco. Today, he's taking his experience and using it to push for housing solutions as one of the first members of the city's homeless oversight commission established by voters in the 2022 election.
"I think one of the things I am really attuned to is when you are literally at the bottom.
The biggest step is the first step. Going from step zero to step one is the hardest step," said Laguana.
"Once you're on step 50 the pattern is now clear. It's pretty clear how to get to step 51. It's pretty clear how to get to step 52. I think people who have professional lives who went to college, who had good family support, they sort of take for granted that these steps are obvious, and they're really not. So one of the things that I think I have is a sensitivity to how confusing that can be when you're on step zero and it's not as obvious."
His goal on the commission is simple: "I hope to make things a little bit better...make it a little less worse. I mean, if it's just gonna get worse, can we make it a little less worse? So let's start there."
But he knows it's going to be an uphill battle. Since 2020, San Francisco's homeless population has seen a 15% decrease but remains a top issue for city leaders and residents alike.
Mayor London Breed opposed the commission's creation throughout the election, arguing it will add more red tape to an already bureaucratic system.
"Once somebody becomes homeless, the chances that they are going to have further damage and trauma to their mental health or slip into some kind of addiction that shoots way up. And of course people's health declines precipitously once they become homeless," Laguana explained. "So it's actually really cost effective. If we can help keep people in their homes and not let them become homeless in the first place."
It's these solutions Laguana and the commission are seeking to find. During his days at the Civic Center hotel, he developed an understanding for what housing options can actually work.
"When you're living on the street and you have all your stuff with you, that can feel more certain than being in a shelter where you have you don't know if you're going to be allowed to stay there past 30 days, or 60 days or 90 days," said Laguana.
While the commission may not have significant sway over policy changes, he's motivated to find answers - little by little - to the city's housing crisis.
"San Francisco needs a win. And you plan to deliver that. I'm gonna do my damnedest."