From the outside, a friendship between Todd and Armstrong may have seemed unlikely. They occupy two worlds that are emblematic of San Francisco but rarely collide. Todd, 64, is a slightly built African American man who had been living on the streets, shelters, and in and out of prison for years. Armstrong, 62, is a white partner at one of the city’s best-known venture capital firms and invests in some of the hottest technology companies.
But over the past three years the pair have forged a remarkable bond that, they say, has changed them both for the better.
Wonderfully written look into the program. The buddy pairing system along with the guaranteed payments was brilliant. Often there is a desire by the public and politicians to just throw money at the problem, but the root of addiction and the cycle of suffering in many cases (though obv not all) is often tied deeply to lack of human connection and support.
The one thing that stood out and absolutely disgusted me was the bit about IRS garnishing Todd’s meager $500 payments for back taxes. Are you telling me that we have the resources to garnish the payments of a homeless 64 year old man but not chase down billionaire fraud and tax dodging? What a fucking disgrace
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It was the summer of 2020, and the San Francisco venture capitalist had responded to a newspaper ad placed by Miracle Messages, a Bay Area non-profit seeking volunteers to alleviate the social isolation of people experiencing homelessness.
Through his connection with Armstrong, Todd has found emotional support as well as practical guidance to save money, find work and ultimately transition to his own home.
Miracle Messages’ founder and chief executive officer, Kevin Adler, says the program connected phone buddies from across the world with 14 unhoused people across the Bay Area in that summer of 2020.
A few months earlier, he received a room at La Luna Inn, near San Francisco’s Presidio, as part of a city program to shelter unhoused people during the pandemic.
One day, Todd called: he had found the perfect spot – a city-subsidized studio apartment in a condo on the slope that rose gently from the city’s Union Square.
Most days, Todd wakes up before dawn and works at the vast plaza outside city hall where he once sold drugs, only now he’s unloading trucks of fruit through the night for the farmers’ market.
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