A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
A
Did you know that the average literacy level is 8th grade in the U.S.A? As a 44-year-old, it was time to Break Silence to literacy at the SF Public Library at Project Read. I have struggled all my life reading and writing with ADHD and Dyslexia. So, what is the average literacy level in a low- income community? Living in SF more than 10 years, I have been uncomfortable reading and signing legal documents.
When I was just barely 14, I was raped while out on a date by my camp counselor at a sleepaway camp. It’s a tragically common story – a young girl wooed by a handsome authority figure she inherently trusted. I thought I was mature and worldly when I explained I was a virgin and was not ready for sex. Turns out it wouldn’t have mattered what I said because I was part of some crude game,
I’ve been homeless off and on since 2004 here in San Francisco. And through it all I continued to go through my struggle and tribulations, but in 2010 I came back out here with this guy, and to my dismay he truly turned me out in a way I never knew. See, he taught me a lot out here in the streets, and all the while he was hurting and destroying me in the process.
Officer Samayoa’s body camera was only recording because he turned it on, in shock, after what happened. When initiated, the camera (dormant prior) provides the thirty seconds of footage before it “went live”. No sound, just video. Video of a one-shot kill through a police car window. One shot, one kill. Great stats for a videogame. The viewer is familiar with similar videos of similarly unjustifiable police killings of black people in America. Thus,
Early on January 11 tenants and homeless activists from all over California converged on the Capitol building in Sacramento with high hopes and coffee cups in hand. After a year waiting to be heard, a repeal of Costa Hawkins would finally be publicly debated in the Housing Committee, offering a glimmer of hope that rent control might become a possibility in California cities. But that hope was smothered when the legislation failed to move out of committee,
Last December, the San Francisco Department of Public Works placed boulders at the site of a tent settlement near Cesar Chavez Street and Potrero Avenue to prevent homeless people from putting up tents.
This latest development in the City’s attempts of removing encampments drew media attention and criticism from homeless advocates, including comparison to a London apartment building with 17-inch long spikes embedded in the pavement by the building’s alcove.
In 2016,
Rev. Dr. Kathryn Alice Jorgensen, 86, Unitarian Universalist minister, professional street and theater performance artist, and co-founder of the Faithful Fools Street Ministry in San Francisco, died peacefully after midnight on Monday, January 15th, in Berkeley, CA, surrounded by her children.
Kay, as she was known, was born in 1932 in St. Paul, MN, the elder of two daughters of Dr. Detlof Emanuel Johnson and Alice Otilia Palmquist Johnson. Throughout their lives, Kay and her sister Carolyn faced many adverse situations together.
As the government lurched back from a shutdown on January 22, the status of the federal budget remained in flux. President Trump signed another short-term continuing resolution, meaning the government is no closer to settling on final funding numbers despite being months into FY2018. One of the most at-risk agencies is the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its proposed $6.8 billion in cuts for affordable housing programs, which would dramatically alter how the United States serves its low-income and homeless populations.
On the morning of January 3, passers-by reported that a group of people were being sprayed with a hose while sleeping in their tents on 16th and Bryant streets. Members of the Coalition on Homelessness went down there to determine who exactly was spraying folks trying to sleep. During an attempt to interview the people found there, no one spoke on record and there was much confusion as to who they were being sprayed by.
In my Cellblock
Ducking suckers
And cops,
Drama never stops,
No need to be specific;
It’s prison, that’s to
Be expected-headphones on,
In my own zone
Listening to music,
Making my life terrific;
God feels your pain,
God feels your pain,
God feels your pain,
Suited and booted
In the wee hours,
