AUDIO – NOW OR EVERE –
Aug. 7, 2025 – This is Radio Atlantic. I’m Hanna Rosin. Today, we have the second episode of No Easy Fix, our three-part series about why San Francisco, one of the world’s most innovative cities, can’t seem to solve the very visible problems of homelessness and addiction. We meet Evan, who finally made the decision to try and get off the streets.
Evan: I’ve always been able to have a job and a house and everything and still have been able to use, and when it got to the point of losing all of that, I was able to make the choice to not use anymore.
Brooks: But when fentanyl took hold of him, when he lost the job and the apartment, part of him thought it was only a matter of time before the scale of that loss woke him up, forced him back on the right track. But it seemed to have the opposite effect.
Evan: Losing all of that, you would think it would be more of an incentive not to be like this, but it’s like the more I lost, the more I got like this.
Brooks: Like, if you’ve lost the job and family and all that stuff?
Evan: What is there else to lose, kind of.
