A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
Blessed be the hands
that weave the threads
pick the plants
overworked bodies of a forgotten war
wounded of Vietnam
Left open sores
That comprise my clothes
Cover my toes
Whose children breathe in sharp dust
little ones of Africa
held hostage working in open graves
Mines of must
tiny hands in cramped spaces
Death insurance,
NATIONAL PRISON STRIKE
On august 25th, the Bay Area witnessed an outpouring of more than 300 people mobilizing for a call to action at an entrance point of the San Quentin State Prison. The Mobilization and Call To Action was organized by the Bay Area National Prisoner Strike Solidarity Committee, a regional network of organizations that includes POOR Magazine/Poor People’s Revolutionary Radio, the Anti-Police Terror Project, Worker’s World Party, California Prison Focus, the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (Oakland),
This is a growing movement and the Nationwide Prison Strike of 2018 is an unparalleled success for prisoner organizing in the modern era. However, it is important that in recognizing that success that we not lose sight of the demands that prisoners have laid out. Each of them is crucial. As the continued prisoner-on-prisoner violence within prisons over the past week suggests, the people who run the US prison system have not yet made the necessary changes to stop the violence they produce behind the walls.
I couldn’t take it anymore
Walking by sad, homeless people,
barely looking at them
as I passed them by.
I wanted to be better than that
so I decided on a simple outreach plan:
I would give them granola bars.
Using my instincts,
I chose the people to approach.
I thought my gift to them was the granola bar,
The oldest homeless person I’ve known was in her early to mid 80s. Netta lost her house to foreclosure and had no family. She had nowhere to go so she continued living in her foreclosed home until the sheriff sent an ambulance to take her away. She was frail but not particularly sick or disabled. The hospital admitted her but she didn’t need hospital care and, without a disabling illness, the hospital couldn’t send her to a skilled nursing home.
When I first arrived in Sonoma County as a new student at Sonoma State University I was greeted with a few lovely towns with nice people who are overly friendly. Coming from San Francisco this was a shock. But I noticed something strange… The homeless community is constantly pushed around and hidden from the greater population to preserve this fantasy world of a lovely nice perfect place to live.
In October 2017 a multitude of fires hit Sonoma County hard.
San Francisco has a long illustrious list of quirky residents who have called this city home throughout the years. Reigning at the top of this list of peculiarity would be none other than the late and great Emperor Norton, whose bicentennial birthday was recently celebrated this year. Norton was an eccentric fellow who may be credited with giving this city its characteristic embrace of the unconventional, always looking towards the horizon for progress and providing a place to call home for those that would be shunned elsewhere.
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are areas of cities where property owners have voted to take over the roles of security, marketing, and management usually performed by local governments. Once created the city itself is responsible for collecting property assessments from the business in the district, and then turning that money back over to a BID board composed of property/business owners voted in by other property owners in the district.
Lindsay McCollum and Tennessee (Eddie Tate) were murdered Dec 18, 2016, at 8:45 p.m. on 16th and Shotwell streets in the Mission District. Do you remember them? Tennessee was a kind man and could fix anything (I’m told) and actually had a generator in his tent. Tennessee has a family who loves him.
Do you remember my daughter Lindsay? Lindsay has a family who loves her and always prayed for her recovery from drug addiction.
Hi Hollie,
When someone on the street asks me for change, I often give them $5-$20.
There are rumors on the internet of how giving cash to folks on the street can be anywhere from unhelpful to dangerous, but it’s hard for me to not see the person I’m talking to as a responsible adult who genuinely needs money for essential services. Is that just fear- mongering, or is it really not helpful for me to give people cash?
