Since 2017, homelessness has increased by 30 percent and a significant part of the increase in that population is due to an increase in the vehicularly housed population. Since 2015, the population of people living in their vehicles increased 22%. In response, what does the Department of Homelessness want to do? 

Increase parking restrictions. 

“The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing has requested overnight parking restrictions to support their work to resolve vehicular encampments and discourage re-encampment on these streets.

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by Tee Hoatson

Compton’s Cafeteria Riot has come a long way from hiding in a newspaper clipping in the Gay and Lesbian Historical Archives, waiting to be discovered by trans historian Susan Stryker. Now that this monumental piece of trans history is out of the closet, it’s no surprise that TLGBQ communities have organized around it. By now, you’ve probably heard of Compton’s Transgender District,

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by Roadkill and Tee Hoatson

Every year, thousands of people die from opioid overdoses. Fentanyl, however, seems to have a particularly shocking effect. In 2017, 59% of opioid-related deaths involved fentanyl compared to 14.3% in 2010.  And this phenomenon isn’t just national, it’s happening here. In 2018, San Francisco had 57 officially recorded fentanyl-related deaths. This is a staggering number—in perspective, that is more than one death each week.

Pharmaceutical fentanyl was created in a lab by Janssen Pharmaceutica back in 1959.

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by Michael Brown

I came to the city in 2007 because I have two boys. I was driving trucks countrywide for work. So I came to the city to be around the kids, they needed someone stable around. I took a job at Fort Miley VA hospital, I met a young lady who worked there and we ended up having a child. Once she had a child she went back to college,

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I met M.y.N.d. on a trip to Los Angeles. She was facing housing instability and a difficult situation at the time, and her struggle and resilience was apparent to me. In just a couple of hours we talked about everything from intersectional feminism to her intensely emotional poetry and her past. M.y.N.d. has written poetry since she was 12. When I read her poetry I knew her voice had to be heard. – Anisha Tammana

Poisonous wolf

The day I met u I jumped through hurdles of conclusions

not noticing I was braiding the rope u would use to strangle my emotions

navigate mindless eyes through a raging sea

do u even want what’s mine to give

nodding

choking

on the vapors coming from your pores

intoxicated by poisonous silence

I find comfort in my violence

the violinist in this symphonic masterpiece

the naked wolf….

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by Zach K

Under federal law, people with disabilities are supposed to
have the same access to government-funded services and public transportation as
everyone else. Many disabled people suffered and fought for the passage of the
ADA, or the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, which recognized for the
first time many basic rights of disabled people.  It was the closest thing we’ve had to a civil
rights movement.

However, just because something is law doesn’t mean that
people are following all the rules.

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Hundreds of San Franciscans joined in a unity rally to show support for November 2018’s Proposition C. The measure, which was passed by the majority of San Francisco voters, will generate $300 million annually by taxing a small number of the City’s wealthiest corporations and will provide thousands of homeless people with housing and homelessness services. Three business associations representing large corporations are suing the proposition, including the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, California Business Roundtable,

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No New SF Jail Coalition

July 2019 communiqué

After the 2015 victory in stopping a new jail from being built, the No New SF Jail Coalition worked alongside city players to try to bring down the jail population in order to close the jail at 850 Bryant without constructing or reopening any jails. While there have been several policy changes, programmatic expansions, and some creation of new resources these have not resulted in a decrease in the jail numbers.

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