A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by TJ Johnston
Police should not be the first response to homelessness in San Francisco, the Police Commission decided when it unanimously passed a resolution on January 15.
The seven-member commission approved a measure calling for the City to organize a working group on developing alternatives to a police-centered response to homelessness. The Homelessness, Public Health and other related departments, as well as people with direct experience with homelessness,
DPW Director Mohammed Nuru Removed from Post
by TJ Johnston
On January 26th the U.S. Department of Justice arrested Mohammed Nuru, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Works, on charges of honest services wire fraud in an alleged bribery scheme involving a member of the City’s Airport Commission. He had also arrested five days earlier for disclosing the investigation and then lying about it to the FBI.
An armored vehicle was parked outside the house on Magnolia Street in Oakland when a SWAT team dressed in what looked like military fatigues broke down the door. Deputies from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department swarmed in to carry away their targets. So what threat was the police force sent in to pacify? What danger warranted all the police, the guns, the fatigues, the vehicle meant to respond to terrorism threats?
Mothers.
by Brian Edwards
On any given night in San Francisco, there are over 9,000 unhoused San Francisco residents, and as of Wednesday, January 29, there were 937 people on the single adult shelter waitlist. Without an indoor option, thousands of San Franciscans are forced to live outside in public spaces. The City increasingly criminalizes their presence in these places, and forcibly removes them with daily (and nightly) sweeps without offering adequate alternative shelter or services.
By Ben Baczkowski
On December 11, 2019, San Francisco city officials officially announced the opening of the Vehicle Triage Center (VTC) located on San Jose Avenue near Balboa Park BART station. The yearlong pilot program will provide a secure parking location and targeted services for folks living in their vehicles, and is the first safe parking facility of its kind in San Francisco’s history. The site includes up to 30 parking spaces with mobile blackwater pumping services,
By David Spero
Reprinted from The Inn by the Healing Path
Everyone knows about environmental illnesses, caused by pollution or unhealthy working conditions. But mental health problems can be environmental too, unavoidable reactions to difficult life situations. Changing the environment can change a person’s thoughts and emotions, as it has for my friend Jessie.
I’ve known Jessie since her 30s, when we played in a band together,
The flaws and failures of Sen. Scott Wiener’s Senate Bill 50
by Didi Miller
The U.S. Senate wasn’t the only legislature suffering from an inability to compromise — California had also felt the brunt of unyielding adversaries in the heat of its housing crisis. California State Senator Scott Wiener, San Francisco’s district representative, brought his wildly disputed transit rezoning Senate Bill 50 (SB 50) to the floor on January 6,
by Gianni Jones
The fact that impoverishment could define one’s humanity
Explains the state of mind our world is in,
Homelessness is not some preconceived notion
It’s in fact a cold reality to a governmental system
We make progress yet to only regress
The politics of this notion is that we all deserve the best
The best education, housing, and to live out our dreams
Impoverishment can’t be the only thing that defines me or we
It will take the homeless population, … READ MORE
by Kevin Madrigal
I park in the Mission
always looking out for “no parking” and “no stopping” signs
on my way to work.
Today I walk past the Centro Latino de San Francisco
and notice one sign, adorned.
In bright red letters on a white background it says “No Stopping”
and hanging just a couple feet down from its text
La Bandera Mexicana
El tri color
Mexicanos y latinos unidos
En la Misión
They put up signs that say we can’t stop here
we’re supposed to continue on our way. … READ MORE
1.
no dignity in labor in twenty-nineteen
exhausted bodies drag themselves through traffic
for a pittance piecing together meagre sustenance
from 2 or 3 jobs with no benefits
the kids helpin out squweegeeing car windows
for crissake
and police dont allow such obstruction
who use tear gas and tasers on small bodies
resistance gets you 20 to life
in this cruel land of plenty for the few
2.
what is it in a picture that can turn the tide? … READ MORE
