A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
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.
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,
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.
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.
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,
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,
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.
What is the true meaning of justice? Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity. It is also the act of being just and/or fair. This is a concept that is currently not being observed in regards to gender, age, and sexuality—especially toward members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community worldwide. At some point we have all seen, heard, or read stories about mistreatment,
Perhaps many people dream of being born in California, but for me, it wasn’t such a stroke of luck. Born first in a family of five, I had to take up responsibilities pretty early. My parents did not have the best jobs, and we lived a hand-to-mouth life. As if that was not enough bad luck, we lost our dad when I was 19 years old. This was the lowest point of our lives, and my mum was devastated.
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has been trying hard to get houseless people off the streets. But judging by his new bill, his definition of getting people off the streets does not mean getting them into housing.
For the second time in two years he is proposing legislation to the Board of Supervisors, where it will be heard first at the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on May 12. If it passes, it would put people into temporary shelter: a tent in a sanctioned camp,
