San Francisco to recognize park ranger for outreach work with homeless community
A San Francisco park ranger is being recognized by the city for her work helping homeless residents who live in Golden Gate Park.
Some trails in Golden Gate Park aren't on any official park map. They wind through brush, past the trees and into parts of Golden Gate Park most people don't even realize exist.
But Amanda Barrows knows the way.
She is a park ranger in San Francisco, but that job title doesn't quite cover it. On any given day, Barrows is part therapist, part case worker and part lifeline.
"I'm not coming in and wagging my finger and some condescending sort of way. I'm coming from a place of, 'How can I help. How can I support you.'" Barrows said.
Golden Gate Park is 1,000 acres of postcard beauty and an open-air shelter for those with nowhere to go. For years, the city tried to clear people out, issuing citations only to watch them move back.
Then, in 2015, it created a new ranger unit — one focused less on removing people and more on reaching them.
Barrows isn't the first to take the job. But some said she's the first to truly break through.
Alburn Wilson, 55, has been homeless since he was 12. These days, he lives in the park with his girlfriend, his neighbor Will and a little dog named Benji.
He said Barrows connects in a way that feels more authentic somehow.
"It's sort of nice to know somebody who sort of knows what you're going through," Wilson said.
And maybe that's not an accident. Turns out, Barrows knows a thing or two about being counted out. She grew up in Boston's public housing. At 19, she moved to San Francisco with a couple of bags and $200 and spent the next five years without a permanent address.
"I had people reach out and try to help me, right. So, now I try to pay that forward," she said.
In her four years on the job, she's helped at least 50 people find housing. The wins don't come fast — or always stick — but they do come.
"Criminalizing doesn't work. What works is care and support and compassionate approaches," she said.
Whether that model can be replicated is still a question.
"She's someone who seems to have an almost endless capacity for patience," said President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Rafael Mandelman.
Mandelman, who is honoring Barrows for her work, called her irreplaceable.
"I'm not sure we can expect every homeless outreach worker every police officer every social worker to be an Amanda," he said.
Barrows disagrees.
"These are skills that are available to everybody, you're honest you're transparent, you do what you say you're going to do," she said.
