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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As coordinated entry systems try to match growing numbers of unhoused people with limited amounts of housing, it’s more like The Hunger Games than Match.com.

This article was originally published in Shelterforce

Mary Kate Bacalao is the director of external affairs and policy at Compass Family Services and the co-chair of the Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA) of San Francisco.

Mario Navarro, Compass Family Services’ office manager, … READ MORE

With Jeff Kositsky at the helm, the “Healthy Streets Operation Center” continues to traumatize homeless San Franciscans

Bureaucrats lying is nothing new, but this is a really gross one. The former head of the SF Homeless Department was caught telling SFPD to give unhoused folks a 647e misdemeanor for a tent during a pandemic when resources are so lacking that they shut down the shelter waitlist.

What I’m seeing on the streets is shocking.

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Before the war in Syria, life was great and safe. My family was happy. Since I was born completely blind, I never went to school. However, when I was 6 years old my father found a teacher who could teach me how to sing and play instruments. By 7 years old, I had started playing at some small concerts and weddings. At 9 years old, I was going from one city to another to perform.

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Remember when COVID hit and a lot of people lost their jobs? I am one of them, but my loss led to an amazing experience as a self-identifying disabled sex worker. 

WHAT!? DISABLED SEX WORKERS EXIST!? 

Yes, however the United States doesn’t like disabled people or sex workers, so this was a risk that I was willing to take due to my living situation. If you aren’t disabled, then you are probably unaware of the working limitations of the disabled population of America.

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