A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
Modern homelessness has unfolded in two chapters in the United States. The first chapter was of course the Great Depression, a period of displacement and poverty that was corrected for by a mass investment in housing and the passage of the Housing Act of 1949that guaranteed decent housing for impoverished people. The second chapter opened in 1983, when Ronald Reagan eliminated 76% of the federal housing budget and abandoned the commitment made by that same Housing Act.
interview by Christian Jiminez
Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV) are federal rental assistance vouchers authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to help individuals and families who are homeless, at-risk of homelessness, or fleeing domestic violence. Administered by the department of Housing and urban Development (HUD)through local housing authorities, these vouchers provide long-term, tenant-based rental subsidies for private market housing. The program was intended to run through 2030.
by Jordan Wasilewski
When I served on the SRO Task Force as a tenant representative for two years, I was charged with the duty of meeting SRO tenants where they are at and making their lives better. However, I have come to realize over the last few years that the City needs to move on from housing formerly homeless people in ramshackle SROs, and many would agree with me. However, in mid-April,
by Marisa Kendall/CalMatters
California scored a legal victory on April 20 that, for now, undermines the Trump administration’s efforts to drastically cut funding for homeless housing.
Changes that would have diverted huge chunks of federal funds away from permanent housing and funneled them instead into temporary shelters and sober living programs will remain suspended after the Trump administration dropped its appeal of an earlier court loss.
by Jordan Wasilewski
A long time ago, when I was on the SRO Task Force, one older commissioner told me after a meeting one day “please don’t push your own agenda.”
The only agenda I ever pushed was the tenant agenda. However, “pushing one’s own agenda” seems to be common in City Hall. One example of this is District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who is pushing legislation to end all funding for new site-based permanent supportive housing unless it is drug-free.
by the Western Regional Advocacy Project
Everyone is familiar with a sweep, be it by definition, bearing witness to somebody being displaced or even coming across a familiar place and noticing people who used to live there are suddenly gone. Sweeps happen every day in our communities. Yet despite new policies, rhetoric and media portrayals of sweeps and city government’s asinine excuses for doing them (i.e. health or drug issues),
by River
For years, the rhythm of my life was measured in losses. Two to four times a month, I would lose everything. My bedrolls, my clothes, my toiletries—stolen by others on the street or swept away by the Department of Public Health. Each loss pushed me deeper into the cycle of addiction, a blur of panhandling, washing windshields, and calling cabs outside the theater for tips just to find the next drink or the next hit.
by Benjamin F. Henwood
Can giving homeless people US$750 a month to use any way they choose help them move into long-term housing?
I am the director of the University of Southern California Homelessness Policy Research Institute. My research team, in partnership with Miracle Messages, a San Francisco social services nonprofit, set out to answer that question in a study that will be published in an upcoming peer-reviewed issue of Social Work Research.
by Zach Bollinger
UPDATE , as of May 5: Good news! We were excited to learn, and to inform our readers, that the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) has added not one, not two, but FOUR RV permit renewal sessions through the first two weeks of May in areas most in need.
According to an email from the Department of Emergency Management, the added renewal sessions are scheduled for: April 30 at Bancroft Avenue and Ingalls Street,
Street Speak is a podcast of Street Sheet. The following excerpt is from Episode 22, a conversation between Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, the San Francisco-based homeless advocacy organization that produces the podcast, and Anya Worley-Ziegmann, coalition coordinator of the People’s Budget Coalition. To listen to the entire interview, go to streetsheet.org/street-speak-podcast or the platform where you listen to podcasts.
This interview is edited for brevity and clarity.
