A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
In previous issues of Street Sheet, I have written extensively about the fact that some of our lowest income tenants in supportive housing are paying much more than 30% of their income toward rent — a problem that we are closer to fixing than before — as well as about the lack of WiFi and cooling systems, and infantilizing policies such as not allowing people to pay their rent by check.
But then I came to realize a certain irony in our homelessness response system.
The last year has proven dire for unhoused people in San Francisco. COVID-19 has ravaged communities, particularly those who face homelessness. While the city claims to protect the most vulnerable, it is evident that the priorities of San Francisco, and of the United States, do not lie with its people. Amidst a global pandemic, neoliberal governance has only exacerbated wealth inequality and hardship for those on the streets. As gentrification in San Francisco expands, and homelessness continues to be criminalized,
What has changed for unhoused San Franciscans in the last year, and what hasn’t
This last year of the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard. There has been a lot to adjust to, because there are not very many positive resources in San Francisco due to our City leaders and how our mayor is running things.
One thing that has changed in a negative way is that the City has been very hands-off when it comes to addressing homelessness.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected sex workers? I know this question is not on the minds of most people here in San Francisco, or anywhere else. We should all already know this, as well as in understanding the pandemic’s the effects on communities of elders, migrants, folks who are disabled, Black, Asian, trans, poor, living and working on the streets, and anyone marginalized and disadvantaged by the cis-hetero-patriarchal-capitalist system. That is to say, we need to be seeing each other and supporting each other,
When San Francisco’s COVID-19 health order was released in March 2020, requiring residents to shelter-in-place, it included one paragraph specifically exempting those experiencing homelessness. Immediately, that paragraph raised a question: How could someone without access to shelter protect themselves from the deadly virus? The Centers for Disease Control issued guidance that tents could provide an important barrier between neighbors to prevent the virus’s spread. Hundreds of tents were donated and distributed by community organizations.
We cannot conflate police and incarceration with justice or public safety
Read more on twitter @samklew
Every day, I see the small bouquets of flowers in front of the apartment. Daisies, pink roses, sunflowers wrapped in beautiful blue fabric. Still there, a week and a half after Vicha Ratanapakdee passed away.
During an early morning stroll in a quiet neighborhood in San Francisco, the 84-year-old grandfather from Thailand was violently pushed to the ground.
After months of moratorium on poverty tows, San Francisco may soon fall back on the inequitable practice.
As the map pictured here makes brutally clear, the towing practices of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) are highly inequitable and disproportionately target San Francisco’s low-income communities of color living in the Bayview and Tenderloin. Welcome to the reality of poverty tows!
There are three types of poverty tows: tows for five or more unpaid parking tickets,
Unhoused San Franciscans in the Tenderloin will now have access to the COVID-19 vaccine, thanks to a successful pilot program at Glide, the neighborhood nonprofit announced.
Glide’s website said that the March 25 pilot will lead to a weekly clinic on Thursdays as part of the Tenderloin Community Resource Hub.
“It will be a pop-up, but the hope is [it will] be a recurring one — like the COVID testing site at Glide now,” Glide communications director Robert Avila said in response to a query from Street Sheet.
Where homeless people fit in the Golden State’s plans to vaccinate residents against COVID-19 has been in flux for the past month. San Francisco officials — as well as houseless San Franciscans — might have to wait longer than expected for things to fall into place.
Last month, the state reorganized the phases of its prioritization plan to immunize Californians. Health care workers — the highest prioritized group in the plan — had already started receiving vaccinations.
(Scroll down for English translation)
Mi nombre es M. O., inmigrante de Guatemala y llegue a los Estados Unidos en 1988.
Salí de mi país que se guatela por la situación económica, lo cual sobrevive día con día, los trabajos son escasos y pagan muy poco. Como sabemos que los EEUU ha quitado muchas riquezas de nuestro País. Como también sabemos que nuestros presidentes de nuestro país que ellos se enriquecen robando al pueblo y ellos haciendo más ricos y el pueblo se vuelve más pobre.
