MTA Passes Permit Program, Step One of Lurie’s RV Ban

by Contributing Author

by Charlie Fisch and Azucena Hernandez

On Tuesday, June 17, the Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) Board of Directors met to approve on a 6–1 vote a refuge permit program that would exempt oversize vehicles from a proposed two-hour parking limit for up to 12 months. Approval of the program is only the first step in Mayor Daniel Lurie’s two-phased RV ban. Members of the End Poverty Tows Coalition and their allies told the panel that this plan will lead to displacement and increased street homelessness while residents struggle to find shelter. 

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The Beat Goes On: The Struggle of LA’s Vehicular Residents and the Venice Justice Committee

by Contributing Author

by Cathleen Williams with Peggy Kennedy

Venice, Los Angeles: A neighborhood for poor people, for renters who used to thrive in cheap apartments on the rundown back streets, a neighborhood famous for its countercultural vibe and freedom, where the wide beach and boardwalk teemed with performers, drag queens, artists, and outcasts. In the 1950s, Venice was a center of the Beat Generation in southern California—a local counterpart to San Francisco’s North Beach.

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Activists Seek “Liberation” of Trans Resistance Site from Private Prison Contract

by TJ Johnston

On a bright Sunday afternoon on May 18, a group of transgender activists gathered at the corner of Turk and Taylor streets in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. The group, Compton’s x Coalition, invited local media, including Street Sheet, to the rally outside the 111 Taylor St. Apartments, which stands on the site of a historic riot over a half-century before.

The rally culminated in two members of a direct action group called Traction SF climbing a fire escape to the roof and dropping two vertical banners that displayed a single message: “Liberate Compton’s.”

The building at 111 Taylor St.

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Compton’s

by Contributing Author

by Cal Lerchi

Do my shoes soak in Trans Magic

At the intersection of Turk + Taylor?

Spirits of queens, queers, outcasts

Throwing shit at pigs who try to police our joy

Try to extinguish our flames that burn together

More radiant than the sun

Does trans magic last?

When the building that used to nourish glorious queers

Is now owned by a massive for-profit corporation

And it is not a coincidence

That GEO Group also imprisons our kin

Along the U.S.-Mexico border

To steamroll over trans history—

Our transcestors

With this disgusting corporation—GEO Group …

Will we support this?

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What Militarized Policing of Homelessness Looks Like

by Contributing Author

By Nicole Rowland and Lukas Illa 

Banner hung at Lake Merritt in Oakland on April 22, 2025. Courtesy of Western Regional Advocacy Project.

The following speech was delivered at a teach-in sponsored by the Western Regional Advocacy Project and other organizations at Lake Merritt in Oakland, California on April 22, 2025. The teach-in was part of a nationwide effort to educate people about the impact of sweeps had on unsheltered people since last year’s Supreme Court ruling on Grants Pass v.

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An Alternative Pilot Proposal: Evidence-based, Effective SF Street Response

by Contributing Author

“Their tactics, what they’re trying to do, they’re just using force. I think they can turn it down a notch, not be so forceful. 

They come up and tell us we’re detained right off the bat. 

Then they dig into our pockets and put everything on the ground. Then if they find drugs or anything, they take us to jail. We’ll get out in a couple days. 

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“Look, There’s Nowhere Else to Go”: Inside California’s Crackdown on Homeless Camps

by Contributing Author
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

by Marisa Kendall and Katie Anastas, CalMatters

It’s been eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed how cities in California and beyond can respond to homeless encampments, allowing them to clear camps and arrest people  for sleeping outside — even when there’s nowhere  else to sleep. 

The July ruling in the case Grants Pass v. Johnson upended six years of protections for unhoused people.

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The City Sets Drug Raids in Motion, Raises Concerns of Human Rights Violations and Rise in Overdoses

by Contributing Author

by Lupe Velez

Mayor Daniel Lurie is delivering on his promise to address the overdose crisis through well coordinated criminalization efforts, much to the worry of drug policy reformers and harm reduction advocates. Throughout his campaign last year, he was vocal about the fentanyl crisis, framing overdoses as the most pressing issue his administration would confront. He stated during his inaugural speech, “Widespread drug dealing, public drug use and constantly seeing people in crisis has robbed us of our sense of decency and security.” He has since passed the Fentanyl State of Emergency Ordinance through the Board of Supervisors,

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Imprisonment Includes Assault on the Soul

by Contributing Author

by Jack Bragen

The messages are hammered in when you’re incarcerated, and you’re expected to believe them. You are told you’re no good. You’re bad news. You don’t deserve anything. Not love, not comfort, not money, nothing. You are undeserving. You are a bad person, and you should be punished.

Other people believe this of you under these circumstances. Try as you might, you can’t control someone else’s beliefs. 

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Vehicle Residents Succeed in Appealing Overnight RV Ban

by Contributing Author

by Lukas Illa

Image by Solange Cuba

On December 10, for the first time in its history, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors overturned a decision passed by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) Board of Directors that would have banned oversized vehicles citywide.

The move prevented the ban from taking effect. It would have targeted streets in the Lake Merced area after vehicle-dwelling San Franciscans were swept from the area earlier this year.

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