On April 20, 2017, the City of San Francisco was awarded a $5.9 million, 26-month grant from the state Board of State and Community Corrections. This grant will support the implementation of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD SF) program. Based on a model developed in Seattle, LEAD SF is an innovative pre-booking diversion program that will refer repeat, low-level drug offenders, at their earliest contact with law enforcement, to community-based health and social services as an alternative to jail and prosecution.

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Ishmael Pearson is a 33 year old San Francisco native and a vendor for the Street Sheet. He currently lives in section 8 housing in the Tenderloin, not far from our office. He’s lived there for about five years. Before finding a home in the Tenderloin however, he was homeless. Suffering from schizophrenia for many years, Ishmael found it difficult to sustain permanent housing. At this point, his two main sources of income are his SSI disability and the money he makes selling the Street Sheet.

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According to a recent Yale University study of worldwide homelessness, the “continuation of homelessness, especially among the wealthy countries, reflects denial and the lack of political will to address poverty and many other issues.” This is especially true for the United States, where the problem of homelessness is surrounded by social myths and stigma. Common sense dictates that without a clear understanding of the problem, it is impossible to find a way to resolving it.

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As a homeless person living on the streets, I have encountered my fair share of shelters here in San Francisco. I’ve also been to two of the Navigation Centers as well. I was at the Navigation Center on Mission, and currently I’m at the Navigation Center on South Van Ness. I’m about to give you a direct outlook into the South Van Ness Navigation Center, that’s where the Good vs. the Bad come into play.

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After months of undertaking, all of the encampments in San Francisco’s Mission District have been “resolved” — in other words, moved off the sidewalks. Or at least that’s what Street Sheet learned from recently acquired documents by the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing.

Yet it’s clear from simple observation that new encampments temporarily sprout in previously resolved areas, prompting visits from “re-encampment prevention teams.” These teams are composed of SF Homeless Outreach Team and Department of Public Works staff,

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The Coalition on Homelessness is opposed to proposed amended legislation by District 8 Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, entitled “Bicycle Chop Shops.” Proposed in February, the ordinance was passed out of the Land Use and Transportation Committee and is scheduled for a full vote on October 3rd. This is an ordinance that would amend the Public Works code to prohibit the taking apart or rebuilding of bikes, possessing bike parts, or selling bike parts in public sidewalks,

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In the struggle, there are often hard working dedicated folks working behind the scenes that are essential to moving issues forward, and they are often women. Longtime Coalition on Homelessness family member Ruth Pleaner was one of those. She passed away this past month and left our community with a gaping hole.

The Coalition on Homelessness is a very grassroots, rough and tumble organization. It was started by a group of homeless folks and frontline service providers 30 years ago,

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From the genuinity of my smile, you would never assume I was homeless. At work I’m constantly laughing, talking, and goofing off as if nothing was wrong. But at the end of the day, once the sun sets and everyone disperses to their warm, comfy, homes, I had nowhere to go.

I have never truly belonged anywhere my entire life. Whether it was schools or houses, I found myself jumping from place to place,

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“I’ve … We’ve lost a lot a bunch of good people out here, and a lot has gotten way close to passing away,” says Terrence Dallas Stayton, after clearing his tears in his makeshift corner just a few yards from the main entrance to San Francisco City Hall. Dallas, as he prefers to be called,  is well known to Glide’s harm reduction community outreach volunteers who gave him the usual: a bag full of clean syringes,

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