Tenants of 285 Turk Street gathered on the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Tuesday. They were protesting rent increases levied against them by their new landlord, real estate mogul Neveo Mosser. They were joined by housing activists and Supervisor Jane Kim. The tenants—including single moms, seniors on fixed incomes, and undocumented immigrants—are facing immediate rent increases of five to 25 percent, which will go into effect on October 1st.

Mosser originally bought the building in 2016 and promptly informed the tenants that rents would go up by ten percent.

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My name is Zak Franet, and I am incredibly excited to be writing for the Street Sheet’s Youth Edition. As a homeless advocate with lived experience, I could not stress the importance more of providing personal testimonials around the issue of homelessness, and as such, applaud the Coalition on Homelessness’s efforts to bring our stories into the light.

I am 23 years old and heavily involved in advocacy and youth empowerment in the City.

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Frustrated by the constraints of my mind,

the fact that I walk in the room and gotta command space, cuz according to colonization, space

aint rightfully mines

the fact that patriarchy got me messed up, telling girls in saudi arabia that they can’t go to

school, tellin my home grrrls in the barrio that their worth ain’t nothing unless their stomach is

baby full

promoting marriage and child rearing amongst young low income women of color,

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THESE PEOPLE

Asleep in a drop in center in the middle of the night

I heard these words, left suspended in the air.

“What’s wrong with ‘these people’?”

These people, said by someone whose job it is to serve and help.

If you don’t like, “these people,” why are you even here?

Too often those managing the homeless see themselves as baby sitters

And treat the clients as such.

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My name is Anastazia. I use she and they pronouns. Homelessness affects many people. A community it affects strongly and most personally, for me, is the Trans and Gender Nonconforming communities. As someone who identifies as Trans and Gender Nonconforming and someone who was formerly homeless, it was difficult to navigate a system of binary shelters in the city. I would fear to sleep in men’s shelters as I did not feel safe, because I did not identify as male.

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