Senior Disability Action employee Tony Robles speaks to the crowd during the Save Midtown rally outside of the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development in San Francisco on June 1, 2016. Midtown Park Apartment residents filed the largest rent control petition in San Francisco history in 2014 of 70 units and continue to fight against displacement today.  "The affordability gap has been that much more pronounced and developers will do anything to get ahold of land here," says Robles. 

A mentor of mine once told me that you can learn a lot from failure — sometimes even more than if everything always went the way you'd want it to. And sometimes you learn what not to do.

Last week I attended the Hearst Photojournalism National Championship in San Francisco. We were given an assignment prompt 10 days before the beginning of the shoot-out, and 36 hours to shoot a picture story on the topic. Our prompt was:

"The demographic of San Francisco has been changing the last couple of years and its impact is being felt by many long-term residents as real estate prices continues to sky-rocket and high tech businesses establish themselves in the city and the rest of the Bay Area. Activists are raising their voices and political agendas are forming.

Who are the people, what are their stories and how is this new demographic challenging the way people live in this historic city of San Francisco?"

I decided to focus on my story on the affordable housing crisis because I've explored stories about development in the Appalachian region and wanted to take those interests of mine to the west coast. However, I soon learned how immensely difficult it was to not only document an issue I was completely foreign to in a completely foreign city, but also how complex and nuanced that issue was. Drop a pin in any neighborhood in San Francisco, no matter the demographic, and you'll find people struggling to make rent, struggling with eviction and homelessness. I felt incredibly lost during the week in San Francisco and my pictures felt disjointed. I attempted to tell this story with such a limited timeframe and limited access as an outsider to such a vibrant community. 

Housing crisis activist and writer Marti Sousanis tears up while telling her eviction story in her home on June 1, 2016. Sousanis was a victim of the Ellis Act Evictions in 2006 when she was evicted from her home at age 62. The Ellis Act is a California state law that says landlords have the unconditional right to evict tenants to “go out of business". Before being evicted, Sousanis collaborated with policy makers to enact a city law that put a moratorium on converting rental housing into condominiums. However, because her home was a single-family occupancy, she was still a victim of eviction.  "I never ever dreamed that I would lose my home. I was at the height of my career." Sousanis was given a year to find a new residence and was diagnosed with breast cancer a month before she moved out of her home of 21 years. 

I spent the day of the shoot-out talking with and photographing inspiring individuals who opened me into their homes to tell their story within the housing crisis. But every moment I was constantly asking myself, who is benefitting from this? Are my photographs actually doing anything for these individuals? Hearst only publishes the winning work, and my images were not strong enough for me to pitch to any editors after the program. It would be naive to think that I could make any work that could do their story justice in a day. Instead, I felt like I was the only one benefitting out of the experience — gaining valuable journalism experience, networking, a free trip to San Francisco, and a scholarship.

I'm immensely grateful for my experience with the Hearst Journalism Awards Program. The organization provides invaluable opportunities for student journalists and I would not be where I am today without their support throughout my college career. But I also have to constantly ask myself, where could our money be better spent? How could we involve the communities that open themselves up us to practice our skills in journalism? Could we use a portion of the money that goes towards our week-long experience in San Francisco and instead put it towards community engagement with the work we create — like a temporary gallery or a printed publication to distribute?

I'm spit-balling here, but there has to be a way to do this better. So yes, I learned a ton from my week in San Francisco, but it was not about how to take a good picture or how to seek out a story. I learned that as journalists, we serve our communities. And if everyday we pick up a camera it is not for the benefit of those we are documenting, then we have to rethink and reinvent how we do our work.

Maybe this is me slowly realizing I am not meant to work in journalism. Maybe it means I still have a lot to learn about this industry and the Hearst program was just another stepping stone in me reaching my potential. I don't know. It's been exactly a month since I've moved away and more since I graduated from college. Some days I question my career path and others I am so excited to get out into the field and starting making work. I'm hopeful that I find my place in visuals soon enough, and the ride to getting there will be an ever-growing process. 

Chris Carlsson poses for a portrait outside of his home at the Pigeon Palace, co-op housing in the Mission District that was funded by the Mayor's Office of Housing and the San Francisco Community Land Trust. In 2015, the city offered a $2 million loan to be purchased by the land trust and prevented it from being bought out on the market.  While the going rate for Carlsson's apartment is $5,500 per month, each unit pays $1,200 per month because of the land trust model through which it operates. "My point of view is that everybody should have a home. That should be the goal," says Carlsson.