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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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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The clock is ticking for unhoused people staying in San Francisco’s shelter-in-place (SIP) hotels. 

The 25 SIP hotels that have sheltered over 2,000 homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic are scheduled to close operations, a few at a time, according to a plan published in June by the City’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). 

Hotel Diva on Post Street, which the City bought and will convert into permanent supportive housing as part of the state’s Project Homekey program,

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA — On Tuesday, July 27, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 10 to 1 to approve a $13 billion budget negotiated with Mayor London Breed. District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston cast the only dissenting vote, citing the budget’s increased funding for law enforcement and the failure to allocate Proposition I funds for social housing. The approved budget will give over $1 billion to policing and incarceration in San Francisco this year alone. 

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Jesus Perez on Disability, Sweeps and Vaccinations

Jesus Perez is a longtime homeless advocate, and is currently on the Board of Directors at the Coalition on Homelessness. 

What do you think is the most pressing issue in San Francisco right now?

All the stuff going on in San Francisco, with the police and homelessness. The last time I was in San Francisco I went out to check on all the homeless folks living in the alley,

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SAN FRANCISCO – On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi closed Congress without getting the votes needed to extend the eviction moratorium which expired on Saturday night, leaving millions of Americans to face losing their homes during the second-largest surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next morning, a group of her constituents, many of whom are facing eviction, was on her doorstep, demanding a vote on legislation to extend the moratorium. They posted a mock eviction notice on Pelosi’s door and set up a tent outside her mansion on Millionaires’ Row in Pacific Heights.

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My name is Yessica Hernandez. I’m 18 years old, a peer organizer at the Coalition on Homelessness and also a member of a homeless family living in an SRO. For me, homelessness is a problem that has multiple solutions, but most of the time people want to solve it by blaming the people who are homeless. 

Every day the chance of becoming homeless increases. When people talk about homelessness they mostly feel shame and pity for “those people,”

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In the final two days of the City’s budget process, I spent too much time at City Hall to not do some type of wrap-up of my thoughts and what came out of this year’s budget campaigns. While the budget process is a bit over my head, here are some of the pros and cons for me looking back on it. 

PROS 

1. So many good things from the asks made by Our City Our Home and Service Providers!

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