City Defunds Services and Pushes Criminalization in Shut-Down of Tenderloin Linkage Center

by Ian James

The Tenderloin Center was shut down by city officials on December 4. The center was a low barrier service hub serving over 400 people per day on average. They were provided with meals and connections to services including harm reduction, substance use and housing. The center also served as a safe place for people to use drugs in a supervised environment.

Originally dubbed “The Tenderloin Linkage Center,” the location was created as part of Mayor London Breed’s Tenderloin “State of Emergency” declaration.

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We Won Proposition C. Now What? 

by Jennifer Friedenbach

Lots of folks wonder what happened to Proposition C, the initiative entitled Our City Our Home,” that was authored by the Coalition on Homelessness in conjunction with many organizations and unhoused people. The short answer is: a lot.

The long answer is that in 2018 Prop. C, which taxes corporate income at about one-half percent starting from $50 million, was sued by corporations and held up in court until 2020 when the case was won in favor of San Francisco voters.

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Memorial for Scott Nelson

We are so heartbroken to share the news of another lost Coalition family member. Scott Nelson was the backbone of the Street Sheet vendor program for years, serving as the vendor coordinator on a volunteer basis, getting this paper into the hands of hundreds of vendors who make their living selling it. As a volunteer he also fought for recycling programs to remain in operation across the City, helped countless homeless people navigate the system to get their towed vehicles back and redistributed abandoned transportation devices to people who needed them.

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The Oasis is a Safe Haven for my Family

By YHW

My name is Yaas. I, and my 9 year old sister, are residents at the Oasis Hotel, which is now a family shelter. It isn’t a matter of if this property should be permanently purchased, but when. For families like mine, it is the last option and for many, a safe haven making the name “Oasis” very fitting.

My sister and I are former foster youth—members of an oppressed class that makes up the majority of both homeless and imprisoned populations.

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Oasis Inn’s Family Shelter to Close — Unless the City Steps In

Less than two weeks before the planned closure of a shelter for unhoused families, housing and homelessness advocates converged on the steps of San Francisco City Hall to protest the Oasis Inn’s December 15 closing date.  The demonstrators—many of whom live at the Oasis and are facing imminent displacement—demanded that the City move to buy the building in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood, while also calling on the Oasis’s owners to sell the property to the City or a prospective nonprofit contractor at the December 6 action.  

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Why is the Coalition on Homelessness Suing the City of San Francisco?

In the foreground we see a figure holding a sign that reads "Housekeys not Handcuffs", and a crowd is gathered. In the background San Francisco City Hall seems to loom.

This article has been adapted from an episode of Street Speak, our podcast answering your burning questions about poverty and homelessness. To listen to the full episode, find us wherever you get your podcasts or on our website, streetsheet.org/street-speak-podcast

Right now, attorneys from the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights (LCCR)—alongside the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Coalition on Homelessness—are suing the City and County of San Francisco for their main response to homelessness: criminalization.

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Homeless, But I Know I’ll Find My Sunshine

by Joanna Piercers

I remember forcing open my simple blanket. It is light—maybe too light. But you know what they say: Beggars can’t be choosers, and I was not going to be one, not ever. I was taught better and I was not gonna forget that. And anyway, it was a small gift from a stranger, one I was not ashamed to appreciate.

One year and two days. One whole year and for some reason it feels like always,

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A SWEEPY LIL’ TOWN

Part 3 of the Sweepy Town Chronicles

by Andy Howard

This is a serial work of fiction. You can find parts 1&2 at streetsheet.org

It was late after the drama surrounding the encampment subsided, and Will had not really established a new shelter to his liking. It was looking like he’d be sleeping rough, and it was drizzling—another temperate San Francisco evening. A few pieces of cardboard with some plastic were going to have to suffice.

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Blessings in Disguise: The Saga of Living and Surviving Continues

Street Sheet vendor Tariq Johnson stands in the Coalition on Homelessness office wearing his vendor badge on a landyard and grinning.

by Tariq Johnson

The saga of living and surviving homelessness continues. Just when I got comfortable in my stabilization room it seemed like my past hit me again, it was like déjà vu. The bed bugs started to come out the ceiling on the fourth floor where my room was, and when I turned off the lights at night they began to bite. I was shocked cuz I knew this would be the beginning of a long fight.

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‘I am Lucky to be Alive’: Poverty and Homelessness in the Wake of the Pandemic

by Anonymous

When COVID-19 hit San Francisco, it made matters worse for all of us struggling to live on the streets. The cold, rainy nights with flimsy shelters, no balanced diet, no proper clothing and no money to help even in acquiring the cheapest commodities in the convenience stores are harder than one might imagine.

COVID made the streets so unbearable. At first no one knew what it was.

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