Dr. Robert Okin served as chief of Psychiatry at San Francisco General hospital for 17 years. During that time, he cared for many of the people you see on the city’s streets when they end up in the hospital. Okin says many homeless people suffer from mental illness and as we walk by them on the street, we too often fail to remember that they are just like you and me. So, Dr. Okin spent two years photographing and talking to San Francisco’s homeless population, collecting their profiles in a photo essay book called Silent Voices: People with Mental Disorders on the Street.
"It was so clear how brutal life on the streets is," says Okin. "I wondered how she survived, how she dried her clothes, what she did when she was hungry."
To hear the entire interview click the audio player above.
