8 photos that capture why the homeless need dogs
Life on the street can get lonely.
People lie, cheat and steal. And they come and go, hardly staying around long enough to earn loyalty.
It’s rough living on the street, but dogs make the hard time a little easier. For some, the best street companion is a dog.
But why have another mouth to feed, especially when one is struggling to feed themselves? Dogs, like humans, need love. Dogs, like humans, sometimes need to be rescued.
Dogs willingly eat food scraps that will otherwise be thrown away, something that’s the same in a dining room with to-die-for views and in doorways that provide a shield from elements that sometimes cause death.
On the street, dogs are protection.
Dogs are loyal.
And man’s best friend doesn’t care if their owner doesn’t have a permanent address, if they don’t have a home.
Here are portraits of homeless people in the Bay Area who don’t go to sleep feeling lonely.
“I had a cabin in Butte County where I was farming. When it burned down, we ended up on the street.”
“We lost our place six months ago. We have to move around at least every week or so. It’s hard, but they adapt to it well.”
“I called her Hope because she had to have a surgery to remove a sock she tried to eat. When they went to do the surgery, they found a tumor. She’s only eight weeks old. I was supposed to get her for $300, but with the surgery it was more than $700.”
“She’s my therapy, really. Getting her on the road saved my life because before I was just doing a lot more drugs.”
[Photos and interviews by Elicia Epstein; intro text by Otis Taylor.]
Thanks for reading. Below is a link to another story we produced as part of the SF Homeless Project.
