Evaluating New Drug Policy Legislation

Substance use can be a coping mechanism, a way to self-medicate to soothe mental health symptoms, a means to dull pain, or to drown out recurring traumatic events. According to the 2022 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count, a small minority—about 12%—of unhoused people reported that substance use disorder led to their homelessness. For many more, substance use disorders developed when they became homeless, bringing health and socio-economic consequences. 

There has been a strange debate brewing of late,

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In June, Teresa Sandoval woke up in her spot underneath the highway near 13th and Mission streets to the sounds of a San Francisco Public Works crew conducting another encampment sweep.

Sandoval had already gone through this drill: Public Works, often accompanied by San Francisco Police Department officers, arrived unannounced and ordered her to pack up her belongings and leave. As she moved in her wheelchair gathering her stuff, Public Works staff removed her tent,

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Dan Paul, an urban survivalist and magical street performer, has departed for his next grand adventure. He passed away on August 12, 2022. Dan was born November 11, 1970 in Seattle, Wash. into a loving family. He spent his early years at his home in Enumclaw, finishing out his youth in Huntsville, Ala. While a young adult, Dan felt crowded and claustrophobic trying to adjust to the demands of a conforming life and decided to take to the streets,

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My team and I cook approximately 1,500 meals a day to help homeless people in the Tenderloin. I’ve done this long enough to put all the sights to words. The food containers we serve can be found for blocks, and even miles away from the kitchen, with just the veggies left untouched. The work is mostly thankless, and unfortunately doesn’t seem to improve the actual living conditions here. What the meal does offer is calories needed to simply make it to the next.

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Homelessness, as the federal government defines it, is a situation in which an individual or family lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. It describes those living in cars, emergency shelters, transitional housing, or places not meant for habitation. There is no single cause of homelessness. Many people become homeless after losing a job or income, or because of increased expenses, divorce, mental health crises, domestic violence, eviction, or addiction. It is estimated that in 2021,

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San Francisco is a city of storytellers. It has been for a long time and it still is today. Storytelling keeps the city alive and helps to save it from its narcissistic self, and from the tears in the social fabric that officials—from Mayor London Breed to the new district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, successor to Chesa Boudin—promise to fix but have not yet done. Author Peter Walker and others insist that cycling can save the world.

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Name: Brandy Ericksen Age: 39

Place: Dore Street

Without a home: Off and on, 20 years

“Ever since the internet and social media there’s a  false sense of community when all you’re doing is so cial media. I had a really hard time finding a way to fit  in community outside of being on the streets. I don’t  want to mix my job with my personal life.

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19 May 2022: Anthony Covarrubias – Utah and Alameda.

Name and age: Anthony Covarrubias, 37

Date: May 19, 2022

Place: Alameda and Utah streets

Without a home: “A good 12, 13 years now.”

What does home mean?  

Home is changed for me now.  Initially it was a house with my parents and brothers and sisters,

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On a lazy Sunday on Solano Avenue in Berkeley as I am strolling into my favorite coffee shop, I meet a woman who goes by the nickname Star. Star is a woman in her fifties of Latin-American descent who tells me she moved to the Bay Area from New York City over 20 years ago. In the beginning she is reluctant to talk to me and tells me I can write an article about her,

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The Tenderloin sadly and unexpectedly lost an important member of the community on April 21, 2022. Lamar Seymore had been a full-service partnership therapist and intensive case manager at the Tenderloin Outpatient Clinic for over 14 years, during which time he provided outreach and case management, as well as individual and group therapy to some of the most vulnerable members of our community. Through his life’s work and dedication, Lamar assisted clients on an everyday basis and made life-changing contributions to residents of the Tenderloin.

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