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.

… READ MORE

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,

… READ MORE

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,

… READ MORE

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.

… READ MORE

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,

… READ MORE

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.

… READ MORE

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”,

… READ MORE