Homeless Tenderloin Residents May Face Massive Police Enforcement in Hastings Settlement

by Quiver Watts

City May Abandon Housing for Thousands of Unhoused Residents While Removing Tents

San Francisco, CA — As thousands protest to end police violence during a pandemic, disproportionately black homeless residents may face massive police enforcement in a settlement reached between the City of San Francisco and UC Hastings College of Law. The settlement compels the City to “employ enforcement measures” for those who do not accept shelter placements or safe sleeping sites — yet provides less than 10% of homeless residents with such offers. 

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Oppose Nancy Tung & Geoffrey Gordon-Creed

by Jennifer Friedenbach

George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Erik Salgado was killed and his girlfriend shot in Oakland this past weekend, while last week, San Francisco resident Sean Monterrosa was killed in Vallejo.  This month has been a powerful reminder of what happens without police accountability. 

Nancy Tung and Geoffrey Gordon-Creed were nominated by Mayor London Breed to fill two seats on the Police Commission.  These seats must be approved by the Board of Supervisors;

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No State Execution by COVID-19

by Press release

Press release: SAN QUENTIN PRISON PROTEST West Gate, Saturday May 9 @ 11AM

A car caravan demonstration to demand protection from the deadly COVID-19 virus for prisoners is set for Saturday, May 9th. Cars will assemble at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal parking lot at 10AM. The caravan will begin at 11AM driving up Sir Francis Drake Blvd. to the West Gate of San Quentin State Prison. They will be protesting prison authorities who are leaving the most vulnerable people—prison inmates in overcrowded conditions—in danger without basic protections and unable to enact physical distancing.

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CALTRANS SETTLEMENT TO HOMELESS PEOPLE: $2 MILLION – REPLACING LOST MEMENTOS: PRICELESS

by TJ Johnston

Unhoused people in the East Bay will be compensated by Caltrans for property that the state agency damaged or destroyed in encampment sweeps, thanks to a newly reached legal settlement.

A class-action lawsuit that began in 2016 is nearing its conclusion after the California Department of Transportation agreed to pay $2 million to reimburse homeless people for lost possessions and employ someone to recover their items and connect them to services.

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POLICE COMMISSION ADVISES SF NOT TO TURN TO COPS ON HOMELESSNESS

by Quiver Watts

by TJ Johnston

 
Police should not be the first response to homelessness in San Francisco, the Police Commission decided when it unanimously passed a resolution on January 15. 

The seven-member commission approved a measure calling for the City to organize a working group on developing alternatives to a police-centered response to homelessness. The Homelessness, Public Health and other related departments, as well as people with direct experience with homelessness,

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NEWSFLASH:

by Quiver Watts

DPW Director Mohammed Nuru Removed from Post

by TJ Johnston

On January 26th the U.S. Department of Justice arrested Mohammed Nuru, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Works, on charges of honest services wire fraud in an alleged bribery scheme involving a member of the City’s Airport Commission. He had also arrested five days earlier for disclosing the investigation and then lying about it to the FBI.

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Solutions Not Sweeps

by Quiver Watts

by Brian Edwards

On any given night in San Francisco, there are over 9,000 unhoused San Francisco residents, and as of Wednesday, January 29, there were 937 people on the single adult shelter waitlist. Without an indoor option, thousands of San Franciscans are forced to live outside in public spaces. The City increasingly criminalizes their presence in these places, and forcibly removes them with daily (and nightly) sweeps without offering adequate alternative shelter or services. 

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Safe Parking Site opens: Community Raises Questions About Implementation

by Quiver Watts

By Ben Baczkowski

On December 11, 2019, San Francisco city officials officially announced the opening of the Vehicle Triage Center (VTC) located on San Jose Avenue near Balboa Park BART station. The yearlong pilot program will provide a secure parking location and targeted services for folks living in their vehicles, and is the first safe parking facility of its kind in San Francisco’s history. The site includes up to 30 parking spaces with mobile blackwater pumping services,

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One Day Hunger Strike at Notorious Santa Rita Jail

by Quiver Watts

by Ella Rose-Kessler

On October 30, over 400 individuals locked up in Santa Rita Jail staged a one-day hunger and work stopage strike to fight back against the inhumane conditions they’re subjected to. The group had a list of 26 demands relating to their inhumane treatment, such the jail providing more cleaning supplies to maintain sanitary conditions, access to lawyers, better and more nutritious food, daily exercise and recreation time, and an end to price gouging for commissary items and phone calls.

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Stolen Belonging: “My Dad’s Ashes …”

by Quiver Watts

Thief: The City of SF – DPW, SFPD and Caltrans

Interview with Crystal by the Stolen Belonging team, January 31, 2019, Bayview District, San Francisco.

Crystal: My name is Crystal and I’ve been here since 2002, but I grew up in the North Bay. I’ve been in every district and neighborhood in the city at one point or another.

The sweeps really suck. It’s happened a few times in the last month or two.

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