Bennett Austin

In March of 2011 San Francisco police began enforcing the Sit & Lie law which prohibits anyone from sitting or lying in public for more than three minutes at a time. This law is known for pushing the homeless away without offering any solutions. On September 26th 2011, I paid for a parking space on Haight St and placed a bed in it. By placing my bed in a paid parking space I was able to legally circumvent the Sit and Lie law which gained the attention of national news channels including abc, nbc, cbs and many other online news outlets. The objective was to create the only public resting space in San Francisco and to draw awareness to the Homeless Youth Alliance: a small, local homeless youth shelter that lost 1/3 of its funding that year. In one week, with only $108 in quarters and a bed, I was able to raise $43,000 for the Homeless Youth Alliance to help build beds in their shelter.