A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
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.
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,
by Jack Bragen
Donald Trump just signed his big bill. It isn’t a “beautiful bill.” It is a crime against the American middle class and poor. And we are in a war of misinformation—but that’s beside the point. This will impact me as a disabled writer, and it won’t be “beautiful” at all.
I am at the bottom, and I can attest from that perspective to all of the power-hungry politicians who want in on the political and monetary pie.
by Jordan Wasilewski
Ever since Donald Trump was re-elected, I have been thinking about what led to this morass. As somebody who grew up in a working class Democratic household with one parent as a member of a union, I recently changed my voter registration to “no party preference” because the Democrats have been defecating the bed on economic justice issues. After the federal government drastically reduced social safety-net programs in the 1980s,
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;
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.
by Cathleen Williams, Homeward Street Journal
Protests have ignited across the nation in the first weeks of Donald Trump’s second presidency, with protests against Trump’s deportation policies taking place in Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia and North Carolina. In Los Angeles, protesters shut down U.S. Highway 101 on February 2 to bring awareness to the threats to migrant and immigrant populations.
Hundreds of Californians of diverse ages and ethnicities rallied at the state capitol in Sacramento on February 5 to bring attention to this and other developments.
by Neil K. R. Sehgal and Ashwini Sehgal
Legislators who are descendants of slaveholders are significantly wealthier than members of Congress without slaveholder ancestry, new research has found.
The legacy of slavery in America remains a divisive issue, with sharp political divides.
Some argue that slavery still contributes to modern economic inequalities. Others believe that its effects have largely faded.
By Jack Walker
Imagine two single parents raising toddlers in DC. One has an annual salary of $65,000, while the other earns $11,000 a year by working part-time. Their financial situations seem quite different; the parent paid more has much more money at their disposal, right?
Financial analysts say not necessarily. These Washingtonians likely have similar amounts to spend each month, and not because one uses their dollars more judiciously.
by Jack Bragen
As a disclaimer, I’d like to emphasize that this piece does not offer proven facts, but merely opinions based on my own experience. And in that respect, it’s not unlike most of my other work.
I collect my information and draw conclusions through seeing the details in Contra Costa County, where I live. It seems that social service systems, administered by counties, are not designed to make poor people into highly successful people.
