Our City, Our Home: That Championship Season

We have seen what’s possible, and we can never go back to what was.

 

One could say that Proposition C – Our City, Our Home, began as a kind of quixotic imagining of possibilities, and, hopefully, if things worked out, much-needed increased funds for tackling the City’s homelessness crisis. A crucial ruling by the CA Supreme Court presented a window of opportunity that might not come again. A loose-knit gathering of activists, providers, rebels – and homeless people themselves – came together to talk, plan, strategize, and plan some more.  Along the way, something magical happened.

 

Like many campaigns, there were some early stumbles. Calls missed. Facts challenged. Re-writes. More rewrites. Pressure mounting as the enormity of the undertaking became apparent. Commitments made, then broken. And then, barely two weeks before the signature deadline – panic. An eleventh-hour, frantic all-out sprint-to-the-finish line by hundreds of inspired, refuse-to-lose campaign volunteers to qualify the Our City, Our Home initiative for the ballot, gathered thousands of signatures in a matter of days (submitting more than 28,000 signatures in total). Overnight, the struggling campaign, searching for an identity, had been forever transformed.  A movement had been born. Of such are legends made.

 

We have seen what’s possible, and we can never go back to what was.

 

Jennifer Friedenbach of the Coalition on Homelessness was and is the inspirational emotional leader and motivational force of nature behind this transformative movement for change, skillfully leading a campaign that captivated the imagination of an entire City. From the beginning, she believed in this “magical moment.” So we did. Translating the divergent input and perspectives from a network of stakeholders into a coherent narrative and economically-defensible initiative with a creatively-tiered tax structure subjected to independent legal and fiscal analysis was no small feat.  But, Jenny made us believe.

 

Without question, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff (with a huge assist from Christin Evans) deserves tremendous acknowledgement for his foresight, his leadership, and his much-needed generosity. Equally unquestioned, is that ultimately, the People of San Francisco – including homeless people – made this movement.

 

The Mayor’s failure to support Prop. C remains a huge disappointment. In the aftermath of an overwhelming voter mandate, Mayor Breed can still extend an olive branch to the heroes and heroines of the Our City, Our Home movement – starting with the Coalition on Homelessness. The Mayor must commit to redoubled efforts to bold, solution-oriented investments to combat homelessness – despite the legal challenge. Furthermore, we call on champions of local industry to follow Marc Benioff’s inspirational example – join the movement. What once seemed virtually intractable, we know is imminently solvable. We know what victory looks like.

 

We have seen what’s possible, and we can never go back to what was.

 

More than thirty years ago, our friend and mentor Paul Boden had the simple notion that homeless people had their own voice, and needed their own organization – and the Coalition on Homelessness was born. Jenny Friedenbach has helped forever change how San Francisco defines progress and envisions success on the issue of homelessness.

 

We have seen what’s possible, and we can never go back to what was.