A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Jordan Wasilewski
From June 15 through June 18, I participated in Tenant Empowerment Week, which was one of the few opportunities for permanent supportive housing tenants to make their voices heard in City Hall. At first, I was a little nervous about it being organized by the Supportive Housing Providers Network, an organization that includes PSH landlords, as real tenant organizing should be independent of landlords.
by Jordan Wasilewski
Lately, as a permanent supportive housing tenant activist who has been in the trenches on and off for ten years, and who has so much institutional knowledge that hasn’t yet been fully shared and, who could write enough evergreen/backlog/retrospective pieces to get this august publication through the Trump administration, I’ve found that we PSH tenants have been in the news a lot, for better or for worse, or for “it’s complicated.”
by Jordan Wasilewski
If you told me when I was a little and in the closet that I would eventually get a first-of-its-kind law passed that would help transgender and disabled people, I would have laughed in your face. However, that is what happened.
In 2015, I was placed into a permanent supportive housing SRO. I spent three months in a unit without a bathroom.
by Jordan Wasilewski
When I served on the SRO Task Force as a tenant representative for two years, I was charged with the duty of meeting SRO tenants where they are at and making their lives better. However, I have come to realize over the last few years that the City needs to move on from housing formerly homeless people in ramshackle SROs, and many would agree with me. However, in mid-April,
by Jordan Wasilewski
A long time ago, when I was on the SRO Task Force, one older commissioner told me after a meeting one day “please don’t push your own agenda.”
The only agenda I ever pushed was the tenant agenda. However, “pushing one’s own agenda” seems to be common in City Hall. One example of this is District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who is pushing legislation to end all funding for new site-based permanent supportive housing unless it is drug-free.
by Jordan Wasilewski
In 2020, one of my earlier Street Sheet pieces focused on two material issues relating to permanent supportive housing (PSH) and SROs that were especially relevant at the moment: The lack of air conditioning or cooling systems for tenants during a heat wave and no WiFi during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic is over for a vast majority of people. Senior & Disability Action are still pushing for WiFi in SROs and permanent supportive housing,
by Jordan Wasilewski
In San Francisco, the lion’s share of permanent supportive housing (PSH) stock is single room occupancy hotels (SRO). I was placed in one in 2015, and upon moving in realized the room did not include a refrigerator, cooking appliances or adequate food storage. When I inquired about it, a case manager informed me that tenants aged 60 and over were eligible to receive a fridge, and if I wanted one,
by Jordan Wasilewski
On Saturday, December 20, as I was preparing to go to punk and black metal shows in the East Bay, my power went out, along with about 130,000 of my fellow San Franciscans’. PG&E’s substation at Eighth and Mission streets had a huge fire thanks to the utility company’s deferred maintenance. While we technically have public power, PG&E still owns the infrastructure, and public power advocates have long demanded that the City take it over.
by Jordan Wasilewski
As of mid-October this year, I have been stably housed in San Francisco for 10 years. For the first time in my adult life, I became a tenant with my name on the lease and am living alone, instead of subletting with others.
That was also my 10th anniversary in permanent supportive housing, my 10th anniversary in a single-resident occupancy hotel, and also my 10th anniversary of permanent supportive housing and SRO activism.
by Jordan Wasilewski
I am a millenial, and one of the defining moments of my generation was 9/11. There are many takes on this issue, but one thing I gleaned from the aftermath is that, despite the supposed “unity” that crises bring, there are people out there who will weaponize collective pain to push policies that are wrongheaded and cruel. I find the same holds true for San Francisco’s overdose crisis.
