Activists Seek “Liberation” of Trans Resistance Site from Private Prison Contract

by TJ Johnston

On a bright Sunday afternoon on May 18, a group of transgender activists gathered at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. The group, Compton’s x Coalition, invited local media, including Street Sheet, to the rally outside the 111 Taylor St. Apartments, which stands on the site of a historic riot over a half-century before.

The rally culminated in two members of a direct action group called Traction SF climbing a fire escape to the roof and dropping two vertical banners that displayed a single message: “Liberate Compton’s.”

The building at 111 Taylor St.

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Unhoused Families’ Impending Exit to Streets Averted

by TJ Johnston

Time was running out for a pair of families who were faced with being kicked out of the St. Joseph’s Family Shelter in San Francisco when their request for an extended stay was denied. 

Those unhoused families—one, a Honduran couple with two children, and the other, a Peruvian single mother with one—were informed last week by the Mission District shelter that they must leave by 5 p.m. on March 10, or the shelter will call the police on them.

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Covering the Streets: The Legend of Street Sheet

by TJ Johnston

35 years ago in 1989: San Francisco was in its first decade of mass homelessness since the Depression era.

The City opened emergency congregate shelters a few years earlier, but it would later turn away already homeless people to accommodate housed people displaced by the Loma Prieta earthquake.

That same year, Street Sheet printed its first issue. The newsletter—originally an internal memo for members of the advocacy organization Coalition on Homelessness—was printed on 8½” x 11” paper,

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Cash Ruled Everything Around Us This Election Season

by TJ Johnston

The 2024 election is likely to be recorded in history as the year of the billionaires. Their money has influenced this year’s ballot from presidential contests to state and local races. 

But even people with ten-figure net worth didn’t get everything they wanted. 

Daniel Lurie prevailed in San Francisco’s mayoral race. Lurie is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, and spent over $8 million in his largely self-financed campaign.

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Coalition to SF Mayor-Elect: Act on Homelessness Solutions in First 100 Days

by TJ Johnston

San Francisco elected Daniel Lurie mayor. On January 3, 2025, he will assume office and inherit a homelessness crisis that has long bedeviled previous administrations. 

The City’s approach to homelessness was a key issue of Lurie’s campaign—as well as those of his opponents. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling on Grants Pass v. Johnson, incumbent Mayor London Breed called for a “get tough” approach—or get even tougher,

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Resolution on Seizure of Homeless People’s Property in the Works 

by TJ Johnston

The board that monitors the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) will draft a statement demanding that the City of San Francisco stop illegally seizing unhoused people’s property and dwellings.

On September 5, the Homelessness Oversight Commission agreed to come up with such a resolution by their next meeting in October to present to officials at multiple City agencies. These departments include those that comprise the Healthy Streets Operation Center (HSOC) including the Homelessness,

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Post-Grants Pass, Sweeps Lawsuit Against San Francisco to Continue. Here’s Why.

by TJ Johnston
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

Arresting and ticketing people for sleeping outdoors, even when no shelter is available, is not unconstitutional, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 28.

In doing so, the court’s conservative majority overturned previous decisions maintaining that Martin v. Boise, a case that removed such criminal penalties for acts of homelessness in the absence of shelter and protected unhoused people’s constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment. 

So does that mean the arguments made by the Coalition on Homelessness and seven unhoused plaintiffs in their lawsuit against the City and County of San Francisco are gone,

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Advocates Indict San Francisco’s Sweeps Policies Before U.S. Supreme Court

by TJ Johnston

A coalition of current and former San Francisco officials and civic organizations filed a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in advance of a hearing on whether cities could penalize existing while homeless even when no shelter is available. Members of the coalition and their counsel, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, announced the filing in a press conference on Zoom.

Separately,

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SF Public Employees Union: Newly Passed Prop. F is Unworkable

by TJ Johnston

Proposition F, the measure that requires welfare recipients to be referred to drug screening if suspected of drug use, was approved by 58% of San Francisco voters in the March 5 primary election.

Prop. F passed with less than half of the City’s registered voters casting a ballot, and did so despite opposition from various political and advocacy organizations, medical providers, media outlets and labor unions.

Two days after the election,

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Supreme Court Will Examine Grants Pass Homelessness Case. What Will It Mean for San Francisco’s?

by TJ Johnston
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

The Coalition on Homelessness’s lawsuit may be put on hold after the City of San Francisco filed a motion to pause the ongoing case. The City Attorney’s office announced its request to the federal district court for a stay days after the U.S. Supreme Court said on January 12 it will review an Oregon case, which has close parallels to the homeless advocacy organization’s ongoing lawsuit.

The Supreme Court will decide whether it should be illegal to arrest and cite unhoused people for unauthorized lodging without offering immediate available shelter.

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