A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
story and photos by Madi Koesler
With D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) now under federal control and the National Guard coming to D.C., the fate of people living in encampments remains up in the air.
During a press conference on 11 August, President Donald Trump said that law enforcement had already begun to clear encampments, but Street Sense has been unable to confirm this,
By Sister ’Nita House
I have buried 17 friends in two years. Fentanyl stole their breath. If punishment or shame could end addiction, they would still be here. But San Francisco’s new “drug-free sidewalks” plan does only that: punishes the poor, shames people in crisis, and hides suffering instead of healing it.
Mayor Daniel Lurie’s “Recovery First” law makes abstinence the City’s guiding star. Nonprofits that once handed out clean syringes or pipes are now forced to attach treatment counseling or else lose funding.
by Jordan Wasilewski
In 1956, then-Senator and future President John F. Kennedy released a book called “Profiles In Courage” about elected leaders who took on difficult decisions because they believed they were right, rather than popular.
Almost 70 years later, it still seems as if courage is too short in supply in all levels of government. But, during the July 29 Board of Supervisors meeting,
by Tatiana Lyulkin
I became “vulnerable” very late in life, after my parents died in 2014 and in 2016, and I lost what was basically “their” apartment in Daly City in 2017. I’m not spoiled or lazy, just disabled. So with my parents gone, my Social Supplemental Income check is my only source of income. But last month I got a letter from the SSI telling me I was overpaid and I owe them $10,000 because my studio has a kitchen.
By Marisa Kendall/CalMatters
President Donald Trump’s new law-and-order approach to homelessness bears several striking resemblances to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s.
Trump wants cities to enforce laws that make it illegal for homeless people to sleep outside. So does Newsom.
Trump threatened to withhold funding from places that don’t. So did Newsom.
And the president wants to make it easier to force homeless people living with serious mental illness or addiction into treatment.
by the Western Regional Advocacy Project
From the time WRAP created Without Housing, we have used art as a fundamental organizing tool. Our goal in “Without Housing” was to show data with more appeal than a bar chart. We gave artists the charts and asked them to come up with imagery that showed the real effects of that data on people’s lives. An image can quickly capture and communicate a vital statistic and help reinforce the meaning of those numbers.
by Janita-Marja Juvonen
I see them in my mind’s eye, but also in real life. I can’t simply block them out or overlook them: the many people who have similar experiences today and have to fight for survival, just like I did in the past. These memories make me feel helpless – as helpless as I was back then. This helplessness sometimes makes me sad and often angry. Because on many issues,
by Jack Bragen
The U.S. is at war. Our government has been lying to us.
This war exists despite the absence of a specific external enemy. This is a war being waged from the inside out, on multiple fronts, with no physical line that could be drawn on a map. Our nation is fighting a war on truth.
The weapons of this war are words. And this doesn’t mean the weapons are soft or lack impact.
by Kenyota
The need for stable housing is of utmost importance to the unhoused because with it they have a basic human need met: the need for safety. San Francisco’s city leaders and its citizens have demonstrated a great empathy to a large number of its homeless population by providing affordable housing in the form of single room occupancies (SROs). Nonprofit property management agencies, under city contracts, oversee housing placement and management of these SROs located in the Tenderloin.
On Friday July 24, Trump signed an Executive Order to make it easier to remove people from the streets. This executive order follows a trend of draconian measures enacted by the Trump administration that targets the country’s most vulnerable communities. This Executive Order doesn’t solve homelessness, it criminalizes it. It scapegoats people in crisis, ignores decades of data, and wastes taxpayer dollars on failed, punitive approaches.
Through this plan the Trump administration seeks to criminalize homelessness through increased encampment sweeps,
