A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Jordan Wasilewski
In springtime of 2025, the conversation around sober and recovery housing continues from San Francisco to Sacramento. Matt Haney’s Assembly Bill 255 allows cities and counties to set aside up to 25% of state homelessness funds for sober living quarters. The set-aside is not required: It’s merely an ask for permission to allocate funding for up to 25% of permanent supportive housing units of funds for sober living,
by Tatiana Lyulkin
It’s not a good time
To bring up the things
We’ve lost-
A cup of black coffee
And a hug
Are all I need.
When the night
Grows silent and cold
And no one
Remembers our names
Or what we used to be
Knowing that you’re real
And you truly care
Gives me the strength
To survive another day.
by Jack Bragen
Editor’s note: This op-ed includes a time-sensitive call to action. If you or someone you know needs this service, the toll-free number is included in this column.
As I listened to the news on my transistor radio the other day, I discovered with alarm that the state might cut funding to the California Warm Line as of July 1, 2025.
by the Western Regional Advocacy Project
When the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) says “we,” we literally mean every single group and person that built and sustained our community organization for the past 20 years!
In 2005, representatives from seven organizations along the West Coast began strategizing around how to address the root causes of homelessness, starting with the actual day-to-day realities people experience in the streets.
By Nicole Rowland and Lukas Illa
Banner hung at Lake Merritt in Oakland on April 22, 2025. Courtesy of Western Regional Advocacy Project.
The following speech was delivered at a teach-in sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project and other organizations at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California on April 22, 2025. The teach-in was part of a nationwide effort to educate people about the impact of sweeps had on unsheltered people since last year’s Supreme Court ruling on Grants Pass v.
by Lupe Velez
The Board of Supervisors Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee sent Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s proposed “Recovery First” ordinance to the full board at its April 24 meeting. But not before the measure went through redefining the term “recovery” from substance use disorder and dozens of members from the Treatment on Demand (TOD) coalition sounded off during public comment.
For several months, several public health organizations and advocacy groups comprising Treatment on Demand fought the policy over its definition of recovery—an abstinence-only model—and its potentially dangerous impacts on drug users.
By Cathleen Williams, Sacramento Homeward Street Journal
Supporters of Senate Bill 634, which if passed would pre-empt ordinances in cities throughout California that criminalize survival activities related to homelessness. Courtesy of Cathleen Williams.
A state bill that would effectively prohibit punishment of homelessness, overriding California municipalities’ ordinances outlawing camping and other survival activities, was introduced in the state Senate on April 23. But most of the provisions protecting the rights of unhoused Californians did not survive its first committee hearing.
by Jordan Wasilewski
Ever since Donald Trump was re-elected, I have been thinking about what led to this morass. As somebody who grew up in a working class Democratic household with one parent as a member of a union, I recently changed my voter registration to “no party preference” because the Democrats have been defecating the bed on economic justice issues. After the federal government drastically reduced social safety-net programs in the 1980s,
A group of San Francisco based public health practitioners and community members began organizing in January in response to the City’s attack on drug users and harm reduction services in San Francisco. The Underbelly Project, which symbolizes the under-represented communities of San Francisco, began collecting interviews from unhoused people who use drugs and access harm reduction services. On March 15, the group projected powerful quotes gathered from the transcripts of those interviews on walls at the 24th Street/Mission BART Station—as a way to engage and educate the public.
“Their tactics, what they’re trying to do, they’re just using force. I think they can turn it down a notch, not be so forceful.
They come up and tell us we’re detained right off the bat.
Then they dig into our pockets and put everything on the ground. Then if they find drugs or anything, they take us to jail. We’ll get out in a couple days.
