SHADOWS OF THE CITY / SOMBRAS DE LA CIUDAD

San Francisco Homeless People Still Have Hope That Organizations Can Make Their Lives Shine Again

This article has been translated from Spanish to English. Read the original HERE!

The challenge of how and when
continues to be
the dilemma
of a society
that is desensitized
to the crisis of homelessness

People in a crisis of homelessness have great physical, psychological, spiritual, and emotional stress. Being exposed to life on the streets and the uncertainty that condemns them to confront inclement weather and the scourge of hunger,

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Poetry Spotlight

Valentine Love

By Lawrence Hollins

Love is: Sharing and caring, giving and forgiving

Love is: Loving and being loved, walking hand in hand, talking heart to heart

Love is: Seeing through each others eyes, laughing together, weeping together, praying together, moreso staying together

Love is: your best friend, your king or queen, your dream, your everything…

Love is God: and that’s what you are,

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Radical Guide to Holiday Giving

Street Sheet’s radical guide to supporting houseless people during the cold season (and always)

As yet another atmospheric river heads for San Francisco, unhoused San Franciscans are getting ready for a cold, wet holiday season. Unsheltered people bear the brunt of our changing climate, as tents are not an alternative to safe and permanent housing. Keeping dry is an unending challenge during wet and rainy months. 

While there is increased need in unsheltered communities during the winter months,

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Reflecting on #30RightNow Victory

After two and a half years of organizing and movement building, the #30RightNow campaign has come to an end here in San Francisco.

The movement to implement a 30% of income rent standard for all housing for formerly homeless San Franciscans ended with a victory rally in front of the Department of Public Health (DPH), which, 48 hours before, was slated to be a protest against the same department refusing to implement the standard in the few supportive housing sites they fund.

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One Day in December

 The snow is falling, and the world is quiet. I feel like the only person left in the world. Snow absorbs sound, bringing a quiet that only comes with the snow. I stand on my porch, watching the snowflakes flutter in the streetlights and fall to the ground. I start to get cold after a while, and I go back into the darkness of the house. I hear a Christmas song, and I remember that I’d left the TV on in the bedroom.

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Board Will Vote on Proposed Safe Parking Site at Candlestick Park

On Tuesday, October 19, the Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to approve the proposed Vehicle Triage Center (VTC) at the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area in the southeastern corner of San Francisco. The site, funded by Proposition C dollars released in this year’s budget, would be large enough to accommodate up to 155 vehicles with 177 tenants. According to the Department of Housing and Supportive Housing’s (HSH) proposal for the VTC,

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After SIP hotels get an extension, will unhoused residents get a new lease on life?

A tent is in the center of the frame. In front of it is what looks like a white dollhouse, laying flat on the ground. The image is in Black and White

As public health and homeless advocates urge San Francisco to keep the shelter-in-place (SIP) hotels open, the City announced that its plans to close two of the remaining 25 SIP hotels are put on hold through at least the end of the year, Street Sheet has learned.

The City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) sent a memo to the hotels’ service providers announcing a pause in relocating COVID-vulnerable residents to congregate shelters as of August 19,

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Kids Speak Their Minds

On Returning to School, Navigating Housing Insecurity, and Surviving a Pandemic

August is the time when parents get to have a break from their kids, and kids get to spend time with their friends. These were the normal circumstances before COVID-19 entered our lives. However, the pandemic has dramatically changed people’s lives, some for the better and some for the worse. Now that the vaccine is being distributed, the School Board is planning on reopening schools once more. 

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In Memoriam: Janice Mirikitani

Janice Mirikatani stands holding a microphone and smiling at a glass podium. Behind her is a window of stained glass that suggests she is in a church.

February 4, 1941 –  July 29, 2021

Originally published at Glide.org

Janice Mirikitani, the beloved GLIDE Co-Founder and Japanese American Sansei poet, whose activism helped define the social justice culture of San Francisco, and whose verse illuminated her struggles with ethnic identity and personal adversity, died on Thursday, July 29, 2021. She was 80.  

Mirikitani was a teacher, artist, and activist whose work and commitment to empower and give voice to the most marginalized has transformed tens of thousands of lives in San Francisco and beyond.

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When Tents are Removed, There’s No Way Home

A Look At HSOC and Why It Should Be Dismantled

The Healthy Streets Operations Center (HSOC) grew out of the Mission Police Station in January 2018, with the goal of clearing all the tents from the Mission District. It almost succeeded in that endeavor. But rather than reducing homelessness, the number of folks on the streets actually increased in the district, as did the misery of those who had their flimsy shelter and the bit of dignity that tents provided ripped away. 

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