Compass family speak to KALW radio

KALW | Number of homeless families in San Francisco hits record high

From the radio show...

Until 2002, Adrian Allen was working a good paying job in construction.

“I went to school for construction,” she says. “Graduated at the top of my class. I was the only female on an all-men’s crew.”

But then she developed thoracic outlet syndrome, a rare condition that creates terrible pain in the neck and shoulder, and she was left unable to work. After cycling through four or five less physically-demanding positions, she was eventually forced to go on disability.

“Times got hard to where I couldn’t afford the utilities anymore,” Allen says. “It had gotten so bad that I couldn’t live like that any longer." Allen had lived without power for several months and hot water for almost two years.