City Budget Woes: No Mother Should Roam—We All Deserve A Home! 

by Contributing Author

Aftereffects of a global pandemic are causing fallout for San Francisco’s budget. A deficit of over $780 million—a combination of falling business tax revenue caused by remote work, and tourism that hasn’t reached pre-pandemic levels—could fall on the backs of the poorest San Franciscans. Meanwhile, San Francisco is trapped in a “doom loop” media cycle furthered by tech doomer billionaires like Garry Tan and aligned elected officials. Their push for an austerity budget will place the rising cost of housing,

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So I’m Homeless in Sacramento. Now What?

by Contributing Author

by Isidore Mika Székely Manes-Dragan

Here’s an all-too common scenario: You just lost your job, your landlord has evicted you from your own bedroom apartment, and now you’re on the streets. Whatever your story may be, you ask yourself this question: What’s my next step?

You want to be housed again, but before that, you need to find stability. That means food and water, shelter, and hopefully facilities with running water.

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When Self Reliance Leads to Solitude

by Contributing Author

by Jack Bragen

My support system includes a mental health agency and my family, yet mostly I am in charge of meeting my essential needs. I’m proud of this independence—but at the same time, I find it frightening and lonely. .

My level of independence is unusual for mental health consumers with a serious condition, as people who have disabilities like mine are not known for doing what I do.

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Tenants Show Their Power at State Capitol

by Contributing Author

by Cathleen Williams, Homeward Street Journal

“Without mass investment by the government to fund affordable housing at scale, more Californians living one paycheck away from homelessness will end up on the streets with no affordable housing options available.” – Housing Now!

On a bright and breezy spring day in Sacramento, hundreds of outraged families traveled from across the state in the midst of California’s housing crisis to meet with the lawmakers 

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The SF Civics Lesson You Never Knew You Needed

by Contributing Author

by Jordan Davis

I recently hate-watched “Why San Francisco Is Broken And How To Fix It,” the cringe Jeopardy-style game show. It was produced by Together SF Action, a right-wing group that wants to give the mayor even more power than she has right now, and wants the city to work only for the well-heeled and privileged. It was extremely difficult to sit through all the misinformation about our governmental structure,

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State Senate Sit-lie Ban Fails in Committee

by Contributing Author
Demonstration in Sacramento on April 22, 2024. Large sign reads "No more homeless deaths."

by Lukas Illa

With the room packed and members of the public spilling out to the hallway, the California Senate Committee on Public Safety rejected Senate Bill 1011, a bill that sought to criminalize homeless encampments within 500 feet of a public or private K-12 school, major transit stops and “open spaces.”

The committee voted 3-1 against SB 1011, with another one abstaining. The vote prevented the bill from moving to the full Senate.

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Grants Pass v. Johnson Homelessness Case to Go Before U.S. Supreme Court

by Contributing Author

story and photos by Jeremiah Hayden, Street Roots

Homeless residents in Grants Pass shelter in tents in parks, including Morrison Park, despite the threat of civil and criminal penalties.

Laura Gutowski resides just down the street from the Grants Pass home that she lived in for 25 years. Her son used to play baseball in Morrison Centennial Park, where she now lives in a tent not far from the diamond.

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Will the U.S. Supreme Court Make it Easier for Cities to Banish Us?  Maybe, But We Will Not Disappear! 

by Contributing Author

by the Western Regional Advocacy Project

On April 22, 2024 the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Gloria Johnson. The case determines if the U.S. Constitution allows for local governments to fine, arrest, and jail people for living outside, when they have nowhere else to go. Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) members are planning a day of action on April 22, 2024 to speak out for the rights of unhoused people to exist,

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‘This is Why We Fight’: Los Angeles Community Action Network Targets Sit-Lie Law

by Contributing Author

by Cathleen Williams, Sacramento Homeward Street Journal

“My hometown is located on a flat coastal plain once covered in brush, and intersected by rivers and creeks where pure water has bubbled up from creeks since the dawn of the Pleistocene. As a settled, human place, it has belonged to the Tongva and to three different empires. Once it was a rural outpost of the Spanish crown, and then a Mexican pueblo before it was taken by the United States and became what it is today: the newest and last megalopolis built in the western march of Western civilization across the Western Hemisphere.” –

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