by Nicholas Kimura

Federal Agencies Opposing Homeless Criminalization in 2015

August 6, Department of Justice: The DOJ submitted a statement of interest in a district-level suit in Boise, expressing its opinion that criminalization of homelessness constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, and is thus a violation of homeless people’s Eighth Amendment rights.

August 11, US Interagency Council on Homelessness: USICH, which has opposed criminalization for a few years, now, released a report on helping folks who live in camps into housing,

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by Vlad Kay

What is the market value of the human life? In the lawless anarchy of post-Soviet Russia in the early nineties, I knew the exact monetary equivalent of a human soul: It was two thousand dollars. For that money, unprofessional hitmen from the street would effect a simple murder not requiring any special skills.

But what about the present: Twenty-first century America? How much money would be sufficient to destroy a human being?

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WRAP Rally against the Union Square BID. Photo by Janny Castillo

by Jess Clarke

A version of this story ran in the September issue of Street Spirit.

Imagine a government where voting power is in direct proportion to the value of the property one owns, where majority ownership gives one the right to appoint the leaders, and where small businesses and homeowners don’t have a voice.

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by Chris Herring and Tony Sparks

This is the sixth article in a series covering the criminalization of homelessness in San Francisco drawing from findings of the Coalition’s recently released report Punishing the Poorest, which can be downloaded online at www.cohsf.org. The report is based on a survey of 351 homeless individuals.

In San Francisco, more than one in three respondents (37%) reported having a severe mental health condition,

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September 15, 2015

Walgreens, which currently operates over 60 stores in San Francisco, now provides recycling of California Redemption Value (CRV) beverage containers at 30 of those locations. The recycling hours at each store are the same as their regular business hours—including three locations open 24 hours per day. In addition, CVS/Pharmacy also permits CRV recycling in at least five of its 13 San Francisco stores.

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by Jason Albertson, LCSW

A recent article in the Times Review, by Dr. Peter Kramer, psychiatrist and author of Listening to Prozac, highlights the value of the narratives our patients tell us, both for clinical purposes and to provide recovery value to others who may encounter the narrative or vignette. It is in that vein that I present this narrative of outreach to one of the Tenderloin Top 10, a group of homeless individuals whom the Tenderloin Police identified as their most problematic in terms of street dwelling,

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by TJ Johnston

The term “broken windows” is used as a metaphor to describe a gateway to urban decay.

Homeless advocates and policy experts will challenge the thinking behind the criminological theory in a panel discussion on October 1 at the St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco.

The Western Regional Advocacy Project is hosting the panel. The event will coincide with a conference of the International Downtown Association, an alliance of business improvement districts (BIDs),

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by Dilara Yarbrough

This is the fifth article in a series covering the criminalization of homelessness in San Francisco drawing from findings of the Coalition on Homelessness’ recently released report Punishing the Poorest, based on the COH’s survey of 351 homeless San Franciscans, and in-depth interviews with an additional 43 participants. You can download the report watch a video based on the interviews online at the Coalition on Homelessness’ Website.

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by Raúl Fernández-Berriozábal

With 2,352 homeless children in San Francisco, you can imagine that a significant portion of SFUSD students are returning to school short on some of the resources that they need. In collaboration with the SRO Families United Collaborative, My New Red Shoes is helping to make sure that schoolkids in shelters and residential hotels get the chance to start the school year off on the right foot.

My New Red Shoes is a program founded in 2006 to help homeless and low-income children look and feel confident as they start the school year by providing them with new clothing and shoes and by rallying youth and adults around this effort through volunteer and educational opportunities for individuals,

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On Monday, August 31, the California Senate rejected Assembly Bill 718, which would have made established the legality of sleeping in one’s own vehicle. Ultimately, AB 718 received a majority of participating votes, but failed to reach the two thirds threshold required to pass such a law.

Within the Bay Area, the bill was opposed by Senators Steven Glazer (District 7, Contra Costa and Alameda Counties), Mike McGuire (District 2, Marin County), and Lois Wolk (District 3,

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