A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Lupe Velez
On Tuesday, July 14, the Board of Supervisors voted 7–4 to pass Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s Drug-Free PSH legislation. The passage was expected because five supervisors joined Dorsey as co-sponsors.
First drafted in late 2025, the policy called for the creation of drug-free permanent supportive housing from which tenants with a history of substance use disorder would be evicted if they relapse twice. The controversial policy has concerned substance use experts,
by Jordan Wasilewski
From June 15 through June 18, I participated in Tenant Empowerment Week, which was one of the few opportunities for permanent supportive housing tenants to make their voices heard in City Hall. At first, I was a little nervous about it being organized by the Supportive Housing Providers Network, an organization that includes PSH landlords, as real tenant organizing should be independent of landlords.
by Apple Cronk
The following is a call to action the author gave in a speech in front of San Francisco City Hall on June 9, 2026. It was part of an action against the City’s practices of sweeping people who live on the streets or in vehicles because they have nowhere else to be. This piece had been edited as lightly as possible.
photos by Zach Bollinger
As part of a family-friendly event at San Francisco City Hall on June 17, the Coalition on Homelessness hosted an interactive board game with staff from the Supervisors’ offices. The Monopoly-style game illustrates the realities unhoused households and individuals face when navigating the process to secure shelter or housing. One roll of the dice could signify a single step forward, while the next roll could mean two steps backwards.
Some 250 people gathered inside North Light Court at San Francisco City Hall on May 12 to deliver about 1,500 postcards to Mayor Daniel Lurie, urging him to restore $100 million in proposed cuts to the upcoming City budget, including LGBTQ+, HIV and homeless services, among others.
The cards were strung together and held by members of the People’s Budget Coalition, who chanted and marched in procession up the stairs to the doors of Lurie’s office,
Modern homelessness has unfolded in two chapters in the United States. The first chapter was of course the Great Depression, a period of displacement and poverty that was corrected for by a mass investment in housing and the passage of the Housing Act of 1949that guaranteed decent housing for impoverished people. The second chapter opened in 1983, when Ronald Reagan eliminated 76% of the federal housing budget and abandoned the commitment made by that same Housing Act.
Street Speak is a podcast of Street Sheet. The following excerpt is from Episode 22, a conversation between Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, the San Francisco-based homeless advocacy organization that produces the podcast, and Anya Worley-Ziegmann, coalition coordinator of the People’s Budget Coalition. To listen to the entire interview, go to streetsheet.org/street-speak-podcast or the platform where you listen to podcasts.
This interview is edited for brevity and clarity.
by Lukas Illa
San Francisco community based-organizations enter another city budget cycle with great uncertainty of whether their core programs will exist in four months time. With Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Austerity First budget (my words, not his), San Francisco is once again electing to siphon funding for working-class communities of color to pad law enforcement agencies’ already bloated budgets.
The People’s Budget Coalition has tracked a combination of $62 million expected cuts to the Department of Public Health (DPH),
by Jordan Wasilewski
As of mid-October this year, I have been stably housed in San Francisco for 10 years. For the first time in my adult life, I became a tenant with my name on the lease and am living alone, instead of subletting with others.
That was also my 10th anniversary in permanent supportive housing, my 10th anniversary in a single-resident occupancy hotel, and also my 10th anniversary of permanent supportive housing and SRO activism.
by Tiny
The Federal Government’s Attempt to Starve us and the Emergency Need for our Own Self-determined Solutions
SNAP or no SNAP
These weren’t life sustaining plans
Only bits and pieces of a weallthhoarding trap
To make us feel like we had a life raft
An option to dying of hunger even tho we all pay their pinche tax
What’s happening republiCRAPS –
