A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
by Darnell Boyd
Why did S.F. officials intentionally leave 45 beds meant for people with mental health issues empty? How dare they leave our most vulnerable population on the streets? They had 45 beds, yet they complained about homeless people screaming in Union Square, Market Street and Sixth Street. These officials went home to their comfortable beds every night for months knowing that there are 45 warm beds that is sitting empty and staff lied about those beds.
By Shyhene Brown
June 1, 2019
I can remember the first time I went to the navigation center. It was a long process getting documents ready to working with my case manager and going through the whole process. Yes, it was hard at the time, but now I’ve got keys to my own place.
It’s a big change from the navigation center. Like the navigation center, I can come and go when I want — the only thing is I have to check in after three days.
San Francisco has the illusion of social services. Like some jesting phantom, they taunt us with a never-ending promise of relief.
A light post image of a blonde woman looking up to the sky on Bryant street in the South of Market district reads: “SF Marin Food Bank – The face of Hope“; the web page of the Glide church has an orange heart around their name next to a montage of smiling faces with bold letters that read: “I Am GLIDE: a radically inclusive,
It would be easy to miss, with Prop C in full swing, with political candidates talking about their “solutions to the biggest challenges facing the city today”, with successive mayors intensifying the criminalizing sweeps of our friends and family on the streets… But San Francisco is making radical steps – leading the country, in fact – with the first ever demonstration model of a safe injection site in the United States.
“Safer Inside: A Community Demonstration” took place in the last week of August,
As we see there is a total of four Navigation Centers here in San Francisco. There is one in the Mission, another on Market, the third at the Dogpatch, and the last one on Army Street.
So I asked a few people about their opinions about the new Navigation Centers and this is what they say. (Mind you, some of these individuals asked to keep their names anonymous during this interview,
I have been at the Navigation Center four times within the last year. Since being a client of the Navigation Center, I have experienced the good and bad from staff. Here is the truth from someone who has been in here for almost 60 days.
When you come in, you are greeted with a smile from the front desk. As you walk in, you are greeted nicely. That’s on Day One. After that day,
It’s Friday afternoon at the drop-in center known as Mother Brown’s on the corner of Jennings Street and Van Dyke Avenue. Despite the iron-gated door fronting the entrance, people drop in freely to check their mail, take a shower, do laundry, or chill out in the reception area. For a nominal fee, Mother Brown’s rents out lockers.
Gwendolyn Westbrook, the director of the United Council of Human Services — the official name of Mother Brown’s — as well as staff describe the place as a community center.
In 2010, my husband and I succeeded in graduating a drug program and closing our Child Protective Services (CPS) case. Before our case was allowed to close, the courts mandated and assisted our family in acquiring a housing subsidy, which we put to use in the Bayview. At that time, the cost of our two bedroom apartment was $1,800 per month. For four years, we resided there and barely ever saw the property management. But in 2014,
Earlier this year, San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) implemented a program known as ‘coordinated entry’ for homeless family shelter, which prioritizes families trying to get stable shelter based on where they are staying at time of requesting shelter. A coordinated entry program, per federal law, should be low-barrier, fair access, inclusive, housing first, and full coverage, but advocates and providers for the homeless, such as Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association (HESPA),
Homelessness continues to be a pervasive social contemporary problem within the San Francisco Bay Area. Advocacy organizations and service providers of homeless people seek to implement policies that minimize barriers that homeless families, youth, and adults are facing. In fact, focus groups consisting of members of the homeless population and/or front line service providers in 12 different homeless service providers and advocacy organization took place.. The survey outcomes revealed interesting findings of barriers within the homeless system.
