Care vs. Criminalization Panel: The Takeaways

photos by David Elliot Lewis and Zoey Laird

left to right: Hannah Beazely, Lukas Illa, Couper Orona, Carolyn Goosen, Dean Preston, and Maurice Byrd at the Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore on October 6, 2026. They spoke at a panel on San Francisco’s response to street homelessness.

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These 3 Ballot Measures Will Help San Francisco Add Affordable Housing

by Christin Evans

The November election is nearly here and you should have received your ballot by now if you are registered to vote.

There are three ballot measures to support when you fill out your ballot: Vote YES on Propositions B, C and I. Each of these props will help us expand our City’s affordable housing stock. With rents soaring, we need to spend more of our City money on expanding the number of permanently affordable homes for San Franciscans making less than $90,000 per year.

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California Prop. 43 Would Make it Harder to Pass Taxes that Fund Social Services

by Lupe Velez

Proposition 43 on the November ballot for California voters would raise the required threshold for special taxes to pass from a simple majority of 50%+1 to a supermajority of two-thirds, or 66.67%. The Coalition on Homelessness and a number of groups and organizations including Evolve California, League of Women Voters of California, SEIU, Union of Educators and Classified Professionals, American Federation of Labor, the ACLU Southern California,

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The City Wants ‘Accountability’ from Homelessness Providers. But Where’s the City’s Under Its New Plan?

By Kidest Yigezu

At the October 1 meeting of the Homelessness Oversight Commission, several community members weighed in on a plan to recontract more than $500 million in annual grants and contracts that will affect the homelessness response system, or “reprocurement” as the City calls it. It was the first hearing on the plan since the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) held three “listening sessions” in September.

Among the critiques were the short-notice announcements of the sessions and the expectations placed on service providers..

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Returning Citizens

story and photos by Andrew Anderson

The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any independent democracy in the world, with a rate of 580 per 100,000 residents, according to a 2026 report by the criminal justice reform nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative. Every year, hundreds of people are released from prison with little or no resources. Many face an uphill battle reintegrating into society. Many of those people released from prison face homelessness and other obstacles such as family reunification,

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