A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Andrea Bulnes Huane, Maritza Salinas, Helen Merlo, Maria Zavala and Veronica Aguilar
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Our hearts felt sad and very sorry to hear so many cases of homeless families with various problems of depression, anxiety and even mental imbalance. This situation is terrible, so many children with worry in their souls and hearts so fragile and innocent that instead of thinking about playing or socializing at school,
Time was running out for a pair of families who were faced with being kicked out of the St. Joseph’s Family Shelter in San Francisco when their request for an extended stay was denied.
Those unhoused families—one, a Honduran couple with two children, and the other, a Peruvian single mother with one—were informed last week by the Mission District shelter that they must leave by 5 p.m. on March 10, or the shelter will call the police on them.
by Lauren Hepler, CalMatters
The records catalog the chaos inside California homeless shelters.
In Salinas, internal emails say the staff at one brand-new shelter grabbed the best donations for themselves and helped friends and family jump the line for housing. In Los Angeles, court records show a leading nonprofit hired a man who was convicted of attempted murder to work security at a shelter, where he committed three sex crimes in one day.
By Byrhonda Lyons, CalMatters
In California, there isn’t a central, statewide agency that oversees homeless shelters. Shelters that receive public funding are monitored by local officials, who often handle complaints from residents. In some cases, state officials can also step in if residents report problems.
A new CalMatters investigation has documented chaos and scandal inside California’s homeless shelters and found that fewer than 1 in 4 people cycle through shelters find permanent housing.
Shelter Monitoring Committee – The committee tracks the conditions of City-funded shelters. Staff take and investigate complaints.
Drop-in times at 440 Turk St.: Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Committee meetings typically take place on the third Wednesdays of each month at SF City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl., Room 408.
To report concerns about a shelter:
Phone: (628) 652-8080.
by Stop the Sweeps
We know one main thing: shelter is not being offered to most people being swept from street encampments in the US. There are hardly ever enough shelter spaces available.
According to a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in the case Martin v. Boise — a decision currently at risk of being struck down in the case Grants Pass v. Johnson — cities cannot legally sweep people if they are not able to offer every individual shelter.
By Lauren Hepler/CalMatters
Wendy Powitzky thought she’d finally found a way off the street in Orange County.
The former hairdresser had spent years sleeping in her car and parks around Anaheim, near the suburban salons where she used to work. One day a social worker told Powitzky about an old piano shop recently converted into a shelter.
She just had to clear security to reach her new twin bed.
by CJ Ross
“Where am I taking you? Where are you gonna stay tonight?” It was 2016. I Googled “shelters in San Francisco” on my friend’s phone from the passenger seat with about two hours left until we reached the city.
I never thought I’d return to the city where I was born and raised. As I searched, I expected to find lists of places to sleep in a pinch,
On a rainy day in 2021, I witnessed San Francisco workers throw away a woman’s leukemia medication during an encampment sweep. They also forced her to move without offering her a shelter bed, in violation of City policies and an ordinance requiring the City to offer shelter before it can clear encampments.
When the Coalition on Homelessness filed a lawsuit against the City in 2022 over this practice, we provided documentation that San Francisco had cited and arrested more than 3,000 unhoused people without first offering shelter and illegally trashed their belongings,
San Francisco’s response to unsheltered homelessness has long been on the radar of local and national media, and it’s pinging more frequently, partly because of a lawsuit that the Coalition on Homelessness has filed against the City.
Last year, a federal judge ruled that the City can not arrest or issue citations to people in homeless encampments without a real and specific offer of shelter while the case is in litigation.
