Perlandus Brown sits at a bus stop in Bayview-Hunters Point, San Francisco. Since he got out of jail, Brown receives $699 in public assistance, which he supplements by running errands for his uncle and mom. "Out of less than a $1,000 a month I’m supposed to pay my rent, utility bills, phone bill and buy if I needed a pair of shoes, underwear or anything…. The bus costs $2 every time you’re getting on it. If I was to fork out that money, it would be an additional $90-100 a month. A lot of times that leaves a person like me who grew up on the streets looking at other alternatives to put money in my pocket." Brown entered into a lottery and won an apartment from @mercyhousing, an organization that offers affordable low-income housing to poor working families. "Here I am 50 years old.... It has been made somewhat affordable for me to have a house, and it’s just not that critical for me to have all the finer things I thought I needed when I was younger. Right now probably I have $10 in my pocket. I would not have been able to sit here 20 years ago and be ok with that." Photo by @balazsgardi #sanfrancisco #BayviewHuntersPoint
