Despite Legislative Stalls, the “Right to Rest” Movement Shows No Signs of Resting

by Contributing Author

By Cathleen Williams, Sacramento Homeward Street Journal

Supporters of Senate Bill 634, which if passed would pre-empt ordinances in cities throughout California that criminalize survival activities related to homelessness. Courtesy of Cathleen Williams.

A state bill that would effectively prohibit punishment of homelessness, overriding California municipalities’ ordinances outlawing camping and other survival activities, was introduced in the state Senate on April 23. But most of the provisions protecting the rights of unhoused Californians did not survive its first committee hearing.

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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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Cash Ruled Everything Around Us This Election Season

by TJ Johnston

The 2024 election is likely to be recorded in history as the year of the billionaires. Their money has influenced this year’s ballot from presidential contests to state and local races. 

But even people with ten-figure net worth didn’t get everything they wanted. 

Daniel Lurie prevailed in San Francisco’s mayoral race. Lurie is an heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, and spent over $8 million in his largely self-financed campaign.

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Wood Street Residents Trek on Bikes to Meet with State Lawmakers

by Contributing Author

 by Isidore Mika Székely Manes-Dragan

Image courtesy of Wood Street Commons via Instagram

For the third straight year, a group of former Wood Street encampment residents bicycled some 80 miles from Oakland to Sacramento in a show of solidarity with unhoused Californians.

In their annual caravan to the state capitol, the Wood Street Commons residents rode for three days in October to lobby their lawmakers.

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California pledged $500 million to help tenants preserve affordable housing. They didn’t get a dime.

by Contributing Author

by Felicia Mello/CalMatters

Luke Johnson and his neighbors thought they had found the perfect solution to avoid being displaced from their Silver Lake, Los Angeles fourplex: A state program was offering $500 million to help tenants, community land trusts and other affordable housing developers buy buildings at risk of foreclosure.

With their longtime landlords set on selling the building, Johnson and his neighbors persuaded them to sell to a community land trust that pledged to keep rents low.

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Stop Prop. 36, California’s Latest Prison-Industrial Scam

by Contributing Author

by Cathleen Williams, Homeward Street Journal

“With California dealing with such a serious housing crisis—actually I would say beyond a crisis, we are living through a housing disaster—the idea of re-introducing tens if not hundreds of thousands of felonies into families across California [through Prop. 36] will make that problem not only worse, but it will make it unimaginably worse. It’s not about fixing anything or making anyone safer. Instead,

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The Unseen Toll of Homeless Encampment Sweeps

by Contributing Author

by Hollie Garrett

I watched the correctional officers from the sliver of the cell door window as they strapped on their rubber gloves and set up their metal detectors in preparation of the mass search. I had known this would be coming for days, but that did not simmer the anxiety and stress I felt in my chest and stomach as I watched them prepare to shatter any sense of privacy I may have developed during my stay in this prison. 

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Why Don’t People Experiencing Street Homelessness Accept Shelter?

by Contributing Author

by Stop the Sweeps

We know one main thing: shelter is not being offered to most people being swept from street encampments in the US. There are hardly ever enough shelter spaces available.

According to a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in the case Martin v. Boise — a decision currently at risk of being struck down in the case Grants Pass v. Johnson — cities cannot legally sweep people if they are not able to offer every individual shelter.

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Sweeping Us to Nowhere

by Contributing Author

A RooflessRadio WeSearch project by Tiny with Leajay Harper, Momii Palapaz, Frankie Carter, Alex DeLeon, Jay Paulino

RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr Asuncion with his bus ticket to Nowhere

“Do you know where the bus station is,” RoofLessRadioSOMA reporter Sr. Ascunsion, laughed nervously, throwing back his wavy black /silver hair as he uncrumpled a small piece of paper he held in his hand ”And do you know where this town is?” 

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Assessing the System That Assesses My Disability

by Contributing Author

by Jack Bragen

As a disclaimer, I’d like to emphasize that this piece does not offer proven facts, but merely opinions based on my own experience. And in that respect, it’s not unlike most of my other work.  

I collect my information and draw conclusions through seeing the details in Contra Costa County, where I live. It seems that social service systems, administered by counties, are not designed to make poor people into highly successful people.

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