A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
By Darnell Boyd
Feb. 15, 2019
I will never forget that day. It was July 17, the day I first arrived in San Francisco. It was a cold, wet and rainy day when the Greyhound bus pulled into the station. I couldn’t help but think to myself, “What happened to the summer?” because two days before, I was in Phoenix and it was 115 degrees. I knew right then that I needed to find a shelter,
by Nick Fish
In January 2018, far reaching assembly bill 1506 progressed as the latest attempt by assembly member Richard Bloom of Santa Monica. Along with his peers, Bloom has vehemently committed himself to repealing the Costa-Hawkins Act of 1995, which he believes has strangled California’s housing stock for over two decades.
In a less than dramatic outcome, it lacked support to push through the first hearing. Republican Caucus members Steven Choi and Marc Steinorth opposed the measure,
by Coalition on Homelessness
In yet another magical moment in a string of magical moments since we began our journey to pass Our City Our Home (OCOH), the revenue measure that doubles the city’s homeless efforts, the city received $415 million in unanticipated revenue. This was two years’ worth of Educational Revenue Augmentation fund or ERAF, which is basically excess property tax that goes to the state and back to us.
The Our City Our Home Coalition is recommending that $171.4 million of that go to properly begin implementing November 2018’s Prop C “Our City Our Home,” which passed with over 60% approval,
by Alex V Barnard
When it was passed in 1967, California’s Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act—which sets the legal requirements for involuntary commitments to psychiatric hospitals—was hailed as the “Magna Carta of the mentally ill.” The new rights and legal protections it created helped make California a leader in the de-institutionalization of people living with mental illnesses. Now, the state is considering swinging the pendulum back towards custodial care. It should not turn back the clock lightly.
Many of us have experienced that sinking feeling- the library book you checked out several weeks ago might be overdue, racking up late fines every day. But for those who can’t afford to pay the fines, the sinking feeling becomes worse: they can become blocked from accessing the library.
On January 17th, the San Francisco Public Library Commission voted to eliminate fines on overdue materials. The vote followed testimony from San Francisco residents and librarians in response to a report released by The Financial Justice Project and the Library titled “Long Overdue: Eliminating Fines on Overdue Materials to Improve Access to San Francisco Public Library.”
Through interviews with librarians across the country,
by Georgia
Ducts of pain that laid so far beneath the surface of my skin as I’d make up my face and embrace what dwelled within..
I fear no more, I am healed,
without no pain, no gain,
Yes I acted up. Turn Down for What?
But I’m no longer ashamed, No more self infliction…
Unanswered questions
I found peace,
By Matt Levin, CALmatters
No wonder Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped those hints earlier this week about an upcoming “Marshall Plan” for affordable housing.
Sure, he’d made ambitious campaign promises to combat California’s housing crisis: leading the effort to build 3.5 million units over the next seven years (an unprecedented rate), jacking up state subsidies for housing reserved for lower-income Californians, and easing regulations so it would be easier to build all types of new housing.
System: Activism
Her poetry
Gave medicine
To the broken
In heart & mind,
Revolutionaries
Found within
Their ranks sometimes.
Her plays
Gave us
Reason to laugh
At the misery
Associated with poverty
In our lives brought to heel
In one act or two.
A different play
For each
PeopleSkool
Kept things interesting
For the privileged
And underprivileged students.
by Dee Allen
One afternoon, around
My high school days,
Grandma Lillie
Took time away from
Sewing clothes and talk show
On daytime TV to tell
My little brother and me
An important tale
About a guest
Who often came
Uninvited. Hard to predict his moves—
Being a teen-aged girl
And young mother in
The Great Depression of the 1930s,
