Death on the Streets: An American Tragedy

by Israel Bayer

Thousands of people die homeless every year in the U.S. In this piece, Israel Bayer, who leads INSP’s North American project, and has worked with street papers and people experiencing homelessness for more than two decades, recounts instances where his work brought him face to face with this terrible reality. 

The winter of 2017 Portland, Oregon was hit with an unusually long ice storm.

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Disability Apartheid

by Anonymous

Few people believe disability rights is a racial justice issue. On face value, it isn’t. But did you know, although less than 3% of the total population,  Black San Franciscans are twice as likely to be disabled than white San Franciscans?

How is this possible? How can somebody’s race make them more likely to be disabled or not?

While I don’t have all the answers to that question,

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Essential Food and Medicine at Work on Wood Street

by Areli Hernandez

Until recently more than 4,000 homeless people had been living at a large encampment on Wood Street in West Oakland. That number has been reduced to around 50 by repeated sweeps led by CalTrans, which have displaced many former community members. A neighborhood nonprofit called Essential Food and Medicine, or EFAM, helps encampment residents by distributing healthy foods and medicines. The group’s main aim is to reduce homelessness in the Bay Area. 

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The Modern Eugenics

by Revolt

“If this pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that it’s not safe to talk about it.”

I found myself writing these words to a burgeoning “COVID-conscious” friend group this week, feeling the gut-wrenching pain of yet another loss of community.  In a time when the country has decided to somehow “move on” from a rampant virus that still kills and hospitalizes Americans in droves, it’s hard to feel like reality has any basis in the rational. 

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CARE Courts Signed into Law

Governor Gavin Newsom’s CARE Courts are now law after he signed the legislation on September 14. 

Senate Bill 1338, a Newsom proposal, will create a specialized mental health court where judges can compel people with mental health disabilities and substance use conditions into treatment. The bill allows a broad list of “specified individuals” to refer somebody for conservatorship, and sets a similarly broad set of conditions qualifying them for CARE Court.

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Unreal: Homelessness and Mental Illness

It’s a rare chilly morning in August, and I’m not fully awake when I hear the sound of an incoming message on my phone. I force myself to sit up and grab the phone from the nightstand. I see that it’s a message from Jeannie, an acquaintance from high school. There’s a video attached to the message. Jeannie likes sending me funny videos that she finds on YouTube—this one is called “Fake Mental Disorder Cringe.” Right away,

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No CARE in the Courts

In the foreground we see a figure holding a sign that reads "Housekeys not Handcuffs", and a crowd is gathered. In the background San Francisco City Hall seems to loom.

Invest in housing and mental health services, not criminalization

The CARE Court Governor Newsom is backing is dangerous! Senate Bill 1338 would establish “C.A.R.E. Courts’’ in California. C.A.R.E Court has a $65 million starting cost and claims to combat houselessness and support people with mental health disabilities, but provides no funding for permanent supportive housing or mental health services.

CARE Court can require participants to take medication against their will. If they refuse medication for any reason,

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PIT Count 2022: Just What Did the 2020 Response to Homelessness During the Pandemic Solve?

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

San Francisco just released its first point in time (PIT) count of homeless and unsheltered people in the City since before the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of city workers and volunteers scoured the city on February 23, 2022, tallying those most vulnerable members of our community who live without adequate shelter in this prosperous City by the Bay. The findings of the PIT count make for sobering reading.

We are all aware that in 2020 there was an immediate and concerted effort to get unhoused people inside—or at least into ‘safe sleeping’ programs that connected them with services and provided them with a stable place to pitch their tents.

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City Continues to Close Shelter-in-Place Hotels

A ‘Return to Normal’ in Abnormal Times

Wastewater testing is showing that San Francisco is currently experiencing perhaps the biggest COVID-19 surge yet, at the same time as the monkeypox virus is sweeping the country. With mask mandates gone and eviction protections being rolled back, the City seems set on a return to normal in the most abnormal of times. 

Against this backdrop, the City is shutting down shelter-in-place (SIP) hotels,

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