A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
On Monday, August 31, the California Senate rejected Assembly Bill 718, which would have made established the legality of sleeping in one’s own vehicle. Ultimately, AB 718 received a majority of participating votes, but failed to reach the two thirds threshold required to pass such a law.
Within the Bay Area, the bill was opposed by Senators Steven Glazer (District 7, Contra Costa and Alameda Counties), Mike McGuire (District 2, Marin County), and Lois Wolk (District 3,
Over the past eight weeks, the San Francisco Chronicle has run a series of columns very hostile to homeless people. Many of these have associated homeless people primarily with urine and feces. The resulting discourse has been anything but productive: Much hullabaloo and hang-wringing, but almost no discussion of causes or solutions in either mainstream media or the corridors of City Hall.
In late August, a strange article suggested that San Franciscans should call City officials whenever they see homeless people.
by the Western Regional Advocacy Project and Jesse Clarke
The broken windows theory of policing conceptualizes poor people as things to be removed and not people who are struggling to survive.
On July 31, members of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) organized a march to the Union Square Business Improvement District in San Francisco to protest the way businesses and local officials use a combination of private security forces and City police to harass and banish homeless people.
by Jason Albertson, LCSW
“The first order of clinical business is to find the other, no matter how distant, absent or confused in the hope that one day they will tell us what they really do want.”
—Leston Havon’s, “Making Contact: Use of Language in Therapy.”
The man lives on a bench, at a BART station. The bench is protected by a plastic cone, to warn people. Nobody should sit on the bench.
The wheels of justice move slow, and often in the wrong direction, but homeless plaintiffs from Boise, Idaho, have just seen the first major victory in their long struggle with the City government: The United States Department of Justice has filed a brief in district court agreeing with the plaintiffs that enforcement of anti-homeless laws when there are not adequate shelter beds, or when restrictions on those beds makes access impossible, is a violation of the Eight Amendment to the US Constitution: It is cruel and unusual punishment.
by Nicholas Kimura
A giant Buddhist statue of dark obsidian-like stone dominated the altar, itself an impressive creation of dark, intricate woodwork spanning the entirety of the wall. Symbolic and ritualistic pieces of art lie, precisely placed and balanced, in their proper places throughout the sacred space. Rows of chairs perfectly aligned faced the altar in the bright, white room. To their left, a large set of windows looked out on the cold summer fog roll past Sutro Tower and down the hills of Twin Peaks.
by Chris Herring
Since 2009 San Francisco has counted those in jail who identify as homeless as part of the annual point in time count. In the most recent count, released last month, the City counted 242 homeless adults in County jails—about 20% of the total jail population. This is more than double the number counted in 2013 (126), although less than the number counted in 2011 (317) and 2009 (394).
A point-in-time count on a single night of the year is no way to assess the overall homeless population,
Since 2005, the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has required every city, county, state, or region that gets Federal money directly for homeless services conduct a count of its homeless people. While there’s a little methodological wiggle room, the basic requirement is this: That for a limited period of time on one night in the last week of January, the funding recipient send enumerators out into the streets and parks of the area and tally up every homeless person they can find.
By Chris Herring
This is the third article in a series covering the criminalization of homelessness in San Francisco, drawing from findings of the Coalition’s recently released report Punishing the Poorest, which can be downloaded here.
San Francisco has more anti-homeless laws than any other city in California—23 ordinances banning sitting, sleeping, standing, and begging in public places. Political disputes over these laws are well known.
By Mike Lee
There is no significant difference between being in jail and being in a homeless shelter. While you can walk away from a shelter, the consequences can be considered far worse than being locked up. Just the fact that there are over twenty laws specifically targeting homeless people means at some point I will be punished for being an urban camper.
