A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
The paper is published by the Coalition on Homelessness, a policy and advocacy organization that fights for housing justice and human rights of San Franciscans.
The Street Sheet is an independent street newspaper dedicated to covering issues of homelessness and poverty in San Francisco from the voices of homeless people themselves.
Street Sheet vendors sell the paper and receive 100% of everything they sell, providing them with employment and a source of income.
The Street Sheet hosts creative writing, poetry, and journalism workshops, fostering community, creativity and expression.
by the Western Regional Advocacy Project
When the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP) says “we,” we literally mean every single group and person that built and sustained our community organization for the past 20 years!
In 2005, representatives from seven organizations along the West Coast began strategizing around how to address the root causes of homelessness, starting with the actual day-to-day realities people experience in the streets.
By Nicole Rowland and Lukas Illa
Banner hung at Lake Merritt in Oakland on April 22, 2025. Courtesy of Western Regional Advocacy Project.
The following speech was delivered at a teach-in sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project and other organizations at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California on April 22, 2025. The teach-in was part of a nationwide effort to educate people about the impact of sweeps had on unsheltered people since last year’s Supreme Court ruling on Grants Pass v.
by Lupe Velez
The Board of Supervisors Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee sent Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s proposed “Recovery First” ordinance to the full board at its April 24 meeting. But not before the measure went through redefining the term “recovery” from substance use disorder and dozens of members from the Treatment on Demand (TOD) coalition sounded off during public comment.
For several months, several public health organizations and advocacy groups comprising Treatment on Demand fought the policy over its definition of recovery—an abstinence-only model—and its potentially dangerous impacts on drug users.
By Cathleen Williams, Sacramento Homeward Street Journal
Supporters of Senate Bill 634, which if passed would pre-empt ordinances in cities throughout California that criminalize survival activities related to homelessness. Courtesy of Cathleen Williams.
A state bill that would effectively prohibit punishment of homelessness, overriding California municipalities’ ordinances outlawing camping and other survival activities, was introduced in the state Senate on April 23. But most of the provisions protecting the rights of unhoused Californians did not survive its first committee hearing.
by Jordan Wasilewski
Ever since Donald Trump was re-elected, I have been thinking about what led to this morass. As somebody who grew up in a working class Democratic household with one parent as a member of a union, I recently changed my voter registration to “no party preference” because the Democrats have been defecating the bed on economic justice issues. After the federal government drastically reduced social safety-net programs in the 1980s,
