The Underbelly Project

by Contributing Author

A group of San Francisco based public health practitioners and community members began organizing in January in response to the City’s attack on drug users and harm reduction services in San Francisco. The Underbelly Project, which symbolizes the under-represented communities of San Francisco, began collecting interviews from unhoused people who use drugs and access harm reduction services. On March 15, the group projected powerful quotes gathered from the transcripts of those interviews on walls at the 24th Street/Mission BART Station—as a way to engage and educate the public.

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An Alternative Pilot Proposal: Evidence-based, Effective SF Street Response

by Contributing Author

“Their tactics, what they’re trying to do, they’re just using force. I think they can turn it down a notch, not be so forceful. 

They come up and tell us we’re detained right off the bat. 

Then they dig into our pockets and put everything on the ground. Then if they find drugs or anything, they take us to jail. We’ll get out in a couple days. 

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Keeping San Franciscans Housed and Healthy

by Contributing Author

presented by the Homeless Emergency Service providers Association

The Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA) is a coalition of more than 30 community-based organizations serving thousands of homeless and at-risk individuals and families in San Francisco. HESPA members include City-funded service providers, privately funded nonprofits and faith-based providers. HESPA members include leaders on the frontlines of San Francisco’s homelessness response, behavioral health and workforce development systems. 

HESPA’s fiscal year 2025-2026 budget proposal calls on our City partners to prioritize community safety and wellbeing for all residents,

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Love on the Run

by Contributing Author

story and photos by Giles Clasen

Political oppression has pushed Maria, Juan and their daughters from Venezuela to Colombia to the United States, where their future remains uncertain.

Maria and Juan’s life together began in a shrimp processing facility in Venezuela, where they worked long hours to support themselves.

“We peeled and sorted shrimp until the early hours of the morning,” Maria said. “It wasn’t much;

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What the Trump Administration Means for Americans Experiencing Homelessness

by Contributing Author

by Franziska Wild

A move away from housing first solutions to homelessness. Further criminalization of sleeping outdoors. Cuts to housing programs. These are some of the changes advocates and people experiencing homelessness worry could be on the horizon as President Donald Trump moves back into the White House, backed by a Republican-controlled Congress.

During Donald Trump’s first presidential term, he appointed officials who rejected evidence-based housing first approaches to homelessness and cut programs aimed at all low-income Americans.

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Housing First Attacked, Outside and Inside San Francisco

by Contributing Author

by Jordan Davis

Today, Housing First is facing so many threats, but I remember it having broad-based support when I came of age in the 2000s during the administration of George W. Bush. I grew up in a working class Democratic family who hated “Dubya,” and I frequently protested the Iraq war, Bush’s anti-environmental policies, and his overall political platform. I also do not like the recent nostalgia for the Bushes and Cheneys from Democrats in the face of Trump.

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Bullies Seek Pleasure in Causing Pain to Others

by Contributing Author

by Jack Bragen

Once, violence toward me was a normal fact of life. In my youth, I was seen as smaller, thus an easy target. At 60, I don’t stand out any longer as a person toward whom to be violent, but this attitude of total disrespect of a major, fundamental boundary still affects me. Yet, I need to say two things about normalizing violence. My neighborhood in Martinez normalized violence toward others in general,

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“Can’t Get Well in a Cell”: Decarcerate Sacramento Scores a Community Win As Jail Expansion Is Put On Hold

by Contributing Author

by Cathleen Williams, Homeward Street Journal

In May 2024, the police got a call reporting that a man was lying outside an EV charging station with his head on the curb. When the police officers pulled up and got out of their car, they tried to get the man to move. He whispered, “Help me, help me…ambulance.” The man’s voice was so weak it is barely audible on the officer’s body-cam footage,

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“Look, There’s Nowhere Else to Go”: Inside California’s Crackdown on Homeless Camps

by Contributing Author
A tent is in the center of the frame. In front of it is what looks like a white dollhouse, laying flat on the ground. The image is in Black and White

by Marisa Kendall and Katie Anastas, CalMatters

It’s been eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed how cities in California and beyond can respond to homeless encampments, allowing them to clear camps and arrest people  for sleeping outside — even when there’s nowhere  else to sleep. 

The July ruling in the case Grants Pass v. Johnson upended six years of protections for unhoused people.

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The City Sets Drug Raids in Motion, Raises Concerns of Human Rights Violations and Rise in Overdoses

by Contributing Author

by Lupe Velez

Mayor Daniel Lurie is delivering on his promise to address the overdose crisis through well coordinated criminalization efforts, much to the worry of drug policy reformers and harm reduction advocates. Throughout his campaign last year, he was vocal about the fentanyl crisis, framing overdoses as the most pressing issue his administration would confront. He stated during his inaugural speech, “Widespread drug dealing, public drug use and constantly seeing people in crisis has robbed us of our sense of decency and security.” He has since passed the Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance through the Board of Supervisors,

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