A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by A. A. Vincent
All the brothers are ghosts
One escaped into a prodigal son
The next lost his body, buried within him
& he? he misplaced his memories in a cage
That one? he can’t see the sun around him
& another slipped into the bloody pavement
& ‘bout him? he sleeps under the construction of dreams that aren’t his
I spoke to a 7th & his temporal lobe had a wheel lock on it
All the brothers are hollow names in the air
I’ve been offering peace to their sorrow-slips
& … READ MORE
by Rory Talley
WHAT ABOUT WHAT
WHAT ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS, YES ARE BETTER SAID
WHAT HOPS IN?
“A MIND, A BRAIN;
LOOKING NOT TO BE
SUSTAINED, TO BE STAINED
UNTIL STRANGED BY THE STRANGLER
THE TRANGLING STRANGER.
“PURSUE REGAINING CONTROL
OVER THOSE THINGS THAT
ARE AVAILABLE TO HAVE
SUCH A RELATIONSHIP AS THAT
WITH IT’
ASSUAGEMENT SEEKING VALIDATION, AMELIORATED KIND
SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
AND YOU WILL SAVE THE CHILDREN
LET EVERYTHING AROUND COLLAPSE
AROUND
AND YOU FIND BENEATH THE RUBBLE
RIGHT ALONGSIDE OF YOU
THE SOMEONE YOU DIDN’T EXPECT
TO SEE
HOLDING A CHILD THAT YOU LOVE, … READ MORE
By Brian Edwards
On December 4, at about 6:30 a.m., homeless advocates and allies from the Coalition on Homelessness, Faithful Fools, Tenderloin People’s Congress, the First Unitarian-Universalist Church and other community groups and service providers convened at the corner of Willow and Polk streets. They were there to witness and document the City’s planned encampment sweep of Willow Street between Franklin and Larkin streets, and they invited two attorneys and some reporters from the Chronicle and Examiner to join them.
Explicating Youth Spirit Artworks’ Tiny Home Initiative
by Didi Miller
With homes scattered at over two-dozen congregations around the Bay, taking up a cumulative 1,040 square feet of prime Bay Area real estate, Youth Spirit Artworks’ affordable housing initiative has already yielded 16 tiny home units, with 10 more underway. YSA’s “100 homes for 100 homeless youth” community campaign, launched in 2017, is working towards getting a bed under,
By Olivia Glowacki
In the final weeks of November, nearing the end of a three-month pilot program for 24-hour public bathroom pit stops, District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney alongside dozens of city advocates and activists joined together on the corner of Jones and Eddy streets at Bodekker Park to show support for the continuation of the pit stop program.
One of Haney’s budget items this year included funding for more pit stops around the city,
It’s winter in San Francisco again. It gets colder and wetter than usual. This is the time of year in which many more people grow very concerned about our unhoused neighbors being out in the weather.
I understand the concern. Pneumonia, trench foot or other illnesses caused by exposure to the weather are serious. The increased risk to health warrants a more serious policy response.
But on another level, I wonder about how arbitrary it can be for us to draw a line between suffering homelessness in temperate weather and suffering it in cold and wet weather — as if the crisis of having thousands of people living on the streets and sidewalks in a city seven miles-wide was not serious enough to merit all the response we can afford year-round.
Redding, California — On November 19, 2019, Mayor Julie Winter of Redding, CA sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom asking him to sign a State of Emergency classification that would allow the city to create a megashelter for homeless people that would essentially operate as a concentration camp. In an interview with Jefferson Public Radio that same week, Winter said, “it’s not a facility you could just leave because you wanted to.” Although all other City Council members signed the letter,
by Jazmine Davis
On November 24, I joined about 30 other people in occupying Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland to demand adequate housing for homeless people and the end of encampment evictions.
The occupation started out very successful; people were interested in what we were doing, wanted to learn how they could contribute, and were overall supportive of the action. We were out there with tents, food and literature for most of the day until the sun started to go down.
On the tails of his administration’s trip to California, Trump blasted the state for the homelessness crisis, calling for the creation of involuntary camps where unhoused people could be locked out of site. His threats may become reality under the leadership of Robert Marbut, the private consultant Trump has picked to head the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, pending confirmation by the same council.
Robert Marbut is known for the use of the term “velvet hammer”,
Western Regional Advocacy Project
On November 19, Mayor Breed announced the “Love Our City Holiday Eco Blitz.” The Eco Blitz is a 24 hour a day, two month initiative to clean up the city for the holiday weekend between Black Friday and the end of the holiday shopping season. However, an unfortunate side effect of these efforts we have seen repeatedly has been the sweeping of poor and unhoused people out of downtown San Francisco in the name of street cleanliness or “going green.” Breed announced her holiday theme alongside the cities’ most notorious conductors of sweeps: the Department of Public Works and the police department.
