A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
As we see there is a total of four Navigation Centers here in San Francisco. There is one in the Mission, another on Market, the third at the Dogpatch, and the last one on Army Street.
So I asked a few people about their opinions about the new Navigation Centers and this is what they say. (Mind you, some of these individuals asked to keep their names anonymous during this interview,
Raise your hands if you’re in favor of housing homeless people and programs that make it possible.
Now, raise your hands if you support laws imposing bans on sleeping outside or panhandling.
Chances are, in this scenario, you’d see the same set of hands raised favoring both approaches to homelessness. According to a pair of political scientists, that’s not unusual.
Scott Clifford of the University of Houston and Spencer Piston of Boston University studied this phenomenon of dueling impulses by commissioning a public opinion poll.
On any sunny Saturday, hundreds of people fill the Mission’s Dolores Park with their friends, pets, music—and their trash. Current anti-littering laws do little to combat this latter phenomenon, as on most days, police officers in Dolores Park can be seen standing at the top of the hill, surveying the park for violent or egregious misconduct but doing nothing about the wrappers, cigarettes, bags, and other refuse being left by the park’s attendees. While the officers watch along the perimeters,
My name is Gerome V. Owens. I was born June 6, 1950. I was raised in San Francisco. I grew up in Lower Pacific Heights, Japan Area and Lower Haight, which is called the Western Addition. I am the oldest child of four children that precede me in death. At the age of seven, my parents separated. The second oldest and I stayed with my mother.
My youngest brother stayed with my dad.
In the Bay Area, accessing housing is a challenge many Americans face. While rents are rapidly rising, wages have stagnated; someone who works one, two, or even three minimum wage jobs in the Bay Area just can’t afford to live here anymore. Now imagine being an undocumented immigrant attempting to access limited, expensive housing and provide for your family. Often times, it can be a debilitating and stressful experience. The current implications of immigration policies in America displace and traumatize immigrants and refugees as well as foster hysteria and xenophobia amongst non-immigrants.
I am 38 years old. I was born and raised here in San Francisco Hayes Valley, Fillmore. I have three kids. I also taught my kids before our life took a left turn about 2 and a half years ago. I have been homeless ever since. I was in a really bad relationship domestically, physically, socially, and emotionally. My kids were illegally taken from me by Child Protective Services. I really don’t know what’s going on;
On February 27, 2017, community members, faith leaders, advocates, and public officials gathered to observe the second anniversary of the slaying of Amilcar Perez-Lopez. An undocumented migrant from Guatemala, Amilcar was shot in the back six times by the San Francisco Police Department on February 26, 2015. He came to America hoping to live out the “American Dream,” earn money and help take care of his family. It’s important that the public be aware of the story of Amilcar Perez-Lopez so that there can be effective measures in bringing justice to him and his family.
If suffering were an Olympic sport, Raven Canon would be a gold medalist. She was born in 1976 with her intestines outside her body, and came into this world facing surgeries, poverty, problems eating, and eventually, addiction and two decades of on and off homelessness.
She took all of that and turned it into her superpower. When I met Raven, she was still homeless, nearly a year sober, and all about helping others.
The housing crisis in San Francisco is layered with various forms of grief—from the truly heartbreaking to the minor irritant. All of us in the Bay Area have been touched by it in all of its iterations: personally losing housing, friends moving away, losing your child’s favorite teacher from a school, lost diversity and vitality of a city, unfilled positions in the service sector causing long waits for food. Of course none of that compares to stress-induced fatal illnesses in elders who face losing their lifetime homes,
Despite the fact that transgender and gender non-conforming people have recently become more visible in the media and popular culture, the realities for street-based, poor, black and brown and disabled trans women remain the same. Trans people continue to face discrimination from traditional housing, employment and healthcare forcing many trans people into alternative street economies like sex work, drug sales and whatever other work people can find. As a result of being pushed out of these traditional systems,
