JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Airports are usually places people pass through, but as homelessness increases in cities around the country, there are more and more people staying at airports, and some are increasing outreach efforts. Erin Bump has the story at San Francisco International Airport.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUITCASE WHEELS ROLLING)
ERIN BUMP, BYLINE: It's 5 a.m. At SFO's International Terminal. Janitors push carts full of cleaning supplies, Airport employees straggle in with their lunch boxes. Some travelers sleep on top of their bags, and a couple of people sleep without luggage because they're not actually traveling anywhere.
LIZBETH SANCHEZ: Someone is sleeping over there, look.
BUMP: Lizbeth Sanchez works at SFO. Her job is to help passengers by giving directions and pushing wheelchairs. Sanchez points to a person lying on the floor in a far corner of a seating area.
SANCHEZ: I see feets, and I don't see luggages, so you know this one is a homeless.
BUMP: Sanchez sees what many travelers don't - homeless people are staying at SFO. She helps them as much as she can.
SANCHEZ: If I buy it - a sandwich right here in the airport, it's $17. With $17, I can buy a pound of ham in my house, and then I can prepare sandwiches so I can share.
BUMP: People experiencing homelessness have had a presence at the airport since at least 2018, according to SFO. The San Francisco Police Department says it encounters about 25 to 45 homeless people at the airport every day, though some may get counted twice. There's also been a homeless outreach team there since 2018, run by a nonprofit called LifeMoves.
JAMES PAXTON: I need to reestablish their ID. I need to get their social security, their birth certificate. A lot of them don't have any of those items, and it makes it hard to get services.
BUMP: James Paxton led their SFO outreach trips for a year. In addition to helping people track down documents, he'd connect them with food, medical care, Lyft rides or shelter beds. Paxton says there are lots of reasons people choose to stay at the airport.
PAXTON: It's open 24 hours. There's food. There's shelters.
BUMP: And it's also easier for them to blend in as they lug around their bags or sleep. SFO isn't the only airport facing this issue. Experts say that as homelessness increases nationwide, it's increasing at airports, too, though official data isn't kept. Some airports have stood up outreach teams, like in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. And in San Mateo County, where SFO is located, the Board of Supervisors is in the process of increasing outreach at the airport from four hours a month to 40 hours a week.
PAXTON: If we can be here more consistently, I think we'll have a greater impact.
BUMP: Kim Snodgrass is one of the people that LifeMoves connected with services. After he retired as the director of labor relations at a union, he says he struggled to afford the Bay Area. He moved to Mexico in search of a cheaper lifestyle but said it was still too expensive. So he flew back to SFO. After his flight landed, he just stayed at the airport.
KIM SNODGRASS: I had no idea where else to go, and I saw other people there that were staying there.
BUMP: Snodgrass lived at the airport for more than six months. He says most travelers didn't seem to notice the homeless community around them.
SNODGRASS: They're going somewhere nice or coming back from someplace nice and just oblivious to you, really. It's like you don't even exist.
BUMP: Some days, he would stand by the security line, and when travelers went to throw out their water or food, he would ask if he could have it.
SNODGRASS: And I would hand it out to some other homeless people that were, like, in really bad shape.
BUMP: Eventually, Snodgrass couldn't get enough to eat himself.
SNODGRASS: I considered suicide. You know, you get so hungry. It's very painful.
BUMP: Snodgrass contacted James Paxton, who found him an open shelter bed. But LifeMoves isn't always able to connect people with shelter. They only offer beds in San Mateo County near the airport, but homeless people arrive at SFO from all over the region and often want to stay close to their communities.
PAXTON: We do need more housing in order to help this problem.
BUMP: Paxton says that until the housing crisis in the U.S. is solved, people will continue to sleep on the street and at the airport. For NPR News, I'm Erin Bump in San Francisco.
SUMMERS: If you or someone you know is considering suicide or in crisis, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
(SOUNDBITE OF SUMMER WALKER SONG, "SPEND IT (RENT IS DUE)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.