Where’s the Care in the Proposed “CARE Courts?”

by Jade Arellano

In early March, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court program, which would create yet another separate court for poor and unhoused people with mental health conditions and substance use disorders. Governor Newsom has explicitly discussed CARE Court as a tool to address street homelessness, and the proposal is consistent with a string of bills nationwide that seek to increase the power of the state to institutionalize unhoused people under the pretense of “compassion.” The devil is in the details,

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Why Mandelman’s Shelter Expansion Plan Doesn’t Fall into Place

by Sara Shortt

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman has been trying hard to get houseless people off the streets. But judging by his new bill, his definition of getting people off the streets does not mean getting them into housing. 

For the second time in two years he is proposing legislation to the Board of Supervisors, where it will be heard first at the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on May 12. If it passes, it would put people into temporary shelter: a tent in a sanctioned camp,

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Mayor Breed Holds Back $3 Million From CART

by Kenneth Madrigal

In the 2021 San Francisco budget process, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously supported the implementation of the Compassionate Alternative Response Team (CART), but Mayor London Breed refused to execute this ordinance, which would activate the peer-led CART teams, because she launched her own version of street outreach called Street Wellness Teams. Yet,  $3 million in funding was secured to begin the implementation of CART,  which currently sits untouched in unallocated reserve for a year.

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NYC’s Supportive Housing Tenants Have a Bill of Rights. Why Can’t SF’s Have the Same?

by Jordan Davis

In late 2021, the #30RightNow campaign concluded when all the permanent supportive housing tenants in buildings under the Department of Public Health were transitioned to a 30% rent standard. At the same time on the other side of the country, another campaign led by and for supportive housing tenants was wrapping up a legislative push. In December 2021, the New York City Council passed the Supportive Housing Tenants Bill of Rights, which would later be signed by the mayor.

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Housing is Safety

by TJ Johnston

Four walls. A roof. Doors that can be locked with a key. These are things that provide you with security, safety and stability when you’re housed. It’s easy to take these feelings for granted. I sure did until I lost my housing, and I had to struggle to keep my security, safety and stability in my newly unhoused state.  

Now, imagine if you’re trying to avoid some asshole who’s harassing or bullying you,

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Abolish Absentee Ownership and Criminalize Rent

by Anonymous

If “activists” want to help the homeless, they can start by questioning the role of property. Two hundred years ago, there wasn’t any “real” property. Workers belonged to ‘manors’ or other post-feudal systems, enjoying just enough agency to make homes for themselves, to shelter in place, and to learn a trade. Goods were shared between workers largely based on need and interpersonal social status. Fiat currency is an historically new method for maintaining class division,

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SRO Collaboratives, the City and the Nonprofits in Between

by Jordan Davis

If you are placed in supportive housing, it will likely be a single-room occupancy (SRO) unit, and you will also come into contact, in various contexts, with the SRO Collaboratives. They tend to get tenants plugged in by holding dinners, giving out free ice cream and getting them involved in neighborhood issues, and yes, an SRO Collaborative got me interested in these oft-ignored equity issues. However, if you dig deeper, you will find conflicts of interest,

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Time to Get CART Rolling

by Sara Shortt

Despite a pledge to redirect funds from the San Francisco Police Department and much rhetoric about police accountability and reform in the wake of the George Floyd protests, Mayor London Breed has been making  a lot of statements recently about the need for increased policing.  This was a key part of her “Tenderloin Plan”, which promised to address a range of street conditions including drug use, tents on the sidewalk, mental health needs, trash and drug dealing.

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My Mother’s San Francisco

by Lisa Willis

I was born in 1969 in the San Fernando Valley, and grew up in Pasadena, so what the hell do I know about San Francisco? I moved here last September, it’s the most beautiful city in the world! But the ugliness of inequality and poverty can be seen everywhere, and it’s heartbreaking! Just this morning, one homeless person died, and three were injured in an encampment fire. It was freezing last night! I was in my safe,

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It’s Time

by Delia Horwitz

Seeing the mother with a young child in her arms broke my heart.  They were standing on a street corner on a cold early December day holding a cardboard sign that said, “Please help.”  

I stopped my car, rolled the passenger window down and asked, “What do you need?”  “Money for a motel room for tonight,” she said, looking into my eyes. Her young daughter’s eyes were dim above her runny nose. I gave the Mom $20 and said,

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