San Francisco's dark side

San Francisco is one of the cities in the US hit hardest by the economic crisis and its homeless rate is one of the highest in the country.

Described as "the worst neighborhood in the city," the Tenderloin District has become the center of drug dealing in San Francisco - just a few blocks away from wealthy neighborhoods and fancy stores in the heart of the city.

The pain and hardship are visible in this man's eyes. San Francisco's poor district offers little respite and little chance of escaping from the destitution.

The statistics tell a bleak story: The Tenderloin district boasts the highest crime rate in San Francisco - three major crimes per hour.

The great amount of drugs and drug use in the district is one of the reasons for the soaring crime rate in the district.

People with mental illnesses and disabilities are a big problem in the neighborhood. Free health clinics, shelters and social service centers work hard to improve their situation, but resources are far from enough to provide for the great number of desperate people on the streets of Tenderloin.

"I think America has to wake up, it cannot look like this - I feel very sorry for all the poor people here," says a passerby walking through the Tenderloin area.

The police are struggling to rein in the rampant drug use and the accompanying wave of crime in the Tenderloin District.

Community workers such as these who work for the Needle Exchange have their hands full providing support for Tenderloin District's many drug addicts.

The Tenderloin district in central San Francisco is blighted by poverty and crime. You can find homeless people everywhere in the district. While the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's wharf or the famous cable cars are symbolic for San Francisco, the fallout from the economic crisis shows a city far from what the brochures tell you.