We could all take a cue from the city of San Francisco. In the face of recession, it has been able to decrease its homeless population substantially for the first time in thirty years. It started in 2004, when San Francisco created an ambitious plan spanning ten years that aimed at ending homelessness in the city. It did so by heavily expanding its social services and creating three thousand permanent housing units instead of shelters.

Now that it has been six years, San Francisco's mayor Gavin Newsom is alleging that the city is more than halfway toward the goal it was working on. This is the result of almost seventeen hundred housing units being built. He also mentioned that since 2004 more than 19,400 volunteers have chipped in for "Project Homeless Connect," a program that offers health, legal and other services to the city's poor.

The end results are phenomenal. The homeless population in San Francisco has gone down for the first time in three decades.

One volunteer weighed in with his opinion "We're well over the halfway point of getting to the 3,000 units, and that's a big deal. We know it's the solution, and we're proud of what we've done so far."

One case that has proven to be successful was an Abdalla Megahed, age 68. Homeless for six years, he now lives in the home that was built for him. In a local interview, Megahed said that he is finally in a permanent home, all thanks to the program. "It's heaven, it's a dream come true" he said.

In order to make further progress towards annihilating homelessness,. San Francisco and its mayor will have to face up to some substantial odds. But when one considers that the city has made it this far under these economic pressures, there is a chance that this one miracle may happen.