I am Anakh Sul Rama. I am formerly homeless and I live with and community-organize with formerly homeless people in single resident occupancy hotels, or SROs.

I don’t think that people know what they are saying when they say that “We are ALL in this together.” We are not all in this together. Similar to how the phrase “ALL lives matter” whitewashes the implications of police violence on black people, “we are all in this together” minimizes the incredible struggle disparity that exists in our day-to-day from a race and class context. 

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San Francisco is being held as an exemplar in its approach to “flattening the curve” during the COVID—19 pandemic. But unhoused people and their advocates are saying the City is actually behind the curve when it comes to halting the spread among the homeless population.

As of April 24, the SF Department of Public Health has reported 134 positive cases among people with no fixed residence, which comprises exactly 10% of 1,340 cases citywide.

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A partial victory, but congregate shelters are still being used to house the majority of homeless people

Less than 24 hours after our story “Mayor Breed Opts for Mass Indoor Camps” broke, the City announced a change of approach for addressing the pandemic in shelters. But don’t be misled by the headlines!

The real change, which is significant, is that the city has abandoned its plan to move shelter residents into the Moscone Center,

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As information regarding the coronavirus and its potential threat of becoming a pandemic permeate every media outlet arising in pandemonium, prolonged homelessness as a social problem continues to fall through the cracks. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness in 2018, a total of 552,830 people experienced homelessness. This is an estimate calculated by using the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count which is collected through Continuum of Care (COC) communities who self-report the homeless population.

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Jeff Kositsky, director of the city Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) stepped down into the much lower position of running the embattled Healthy Streets Operation Center (HSOC), after admitting the operation was a complete failure.  

HSOC started in January 2018 following a surge of encampments in the Bayview, Mission and South of Market.  It started as a mixed bag. Part Encampment resolution, where the homeless department would identify a large encampment,

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