A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
story and photos by Madi Koesler
With D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) now under federal control and the National Guard coming to D.C., the fate of people living in encampments remains up in the air.
During a press conference on 11 August, President Donald Trump said that law enforcement had already begun to clear encampments, but Street Sense has been unable to confirm this,
By Sister ’Nita House
I have buried 17 friends in two years. Fentanyl stole their breath. If punishment or shame could end addiction, they would still be here. But San Francisco’s new “drug-free sidewalks” plan does only that: punishes the poor, shames people in crisis, and hides suffering instead of healing it.
Mayor Daniel Lurie’s “Recovery First” law makes abstinence the City’s guiding star. Nonprofits that once handed out clean syringes or pipes are now forced to attach treatment counseling or else lose funding.
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 Marisa Kendall/ CalMatters
In major cities and more rural areas, arrests and citations rose in the months following last summer’s Supreme Court decision. In some places, officials insist the events are unrelated.
Homeless residents of some of California’s biggest cities increasingly are facing criminal penalties for the actions they take to survive on the street, according to a first-of-its-kind CalMatters analysis of data throughout the state.
UPDATE: On July 23, both sides agreed to settle the lawsuit out of court, pending approval by the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor’s office.
What’s at Stake: Coalition on Homelessness is a challenge to the City and County of San Francisco’s efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of unconstitutional practices, including confiscating and destroying the personal property of unhoused people without adequate notice or due process,
by Kenyota
Content warning: This piece contains a reference to suicide.
I was homeless on the streets of San Francisco, and in several cities throughout the Bay Area, for over a decade. During those years I experienced what it felt like to be a non-person. I received the harsh stares, societal shunning and feelings of inadequacy that are common among those considered lost in the world of the unhoused.
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.
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.
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.
