Street Sheet recognized for community organizing of people living in vehicles
It is with great pleasure to announce that Street Sheet was nominated for an award at the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) for its coverage of San Francisco’s RV parking ban and the push to organize vehicle dwellers while guiding them through a new permitting process.
Street Sheet made the shortlist in the Best Campaign category, joining =Oslo and Asfalt from Norway, Mi Valedor from Mexico, Hus Forbi from Denmark, and Surprise from Switzerland. INSP announced the winners at its Global Paper Summit in Glasgow, Scotland last month.
There’s a kernel of truth to the awards show cliché “it’s an honor just to be nominated.” Even though INSP gave the award to =Oslo, Street Sheet is proud to be considered among some of the world’s esteemed street publications. INSP judge Jem Collins said that she found evaluating contest entries rewarding.
“It’s been a real pleasure to take part in INSP judging this year, and I’m not just saying that,” she said. “In a journalism industry that’s under immense pressure, it’s been incredibly heartening to see such a range and depth of impactful reporting and campaigns that make a real difference to real people’s lives. This is a very special network.”
Here’s some background on the RV campaign that Street Sheet covered since 2024. San Francisco passed a restrictive law allowing large vehicles to park in the city for only two hours at a time, as well as permits that exempted RV dwellers from the parking ban for six months. The permitting process that lawmakers created was slapdash, to say the least, and created complications for over 500 vehicular households.
Enter the Coalition on Homelessness, the homeless advocacy organization that also publishes Street Sheet. The Coalition and its allies from other organizations helped households navigate the permit process, while at the same time pressured the City to ease up on enforcement and later extend permits beyond their initial six-month period.
Through reportage, opinion pieces and even instructional artwork, Street Sheet followed the Coalition’s ongoing drive—no pun intended—to preserve the rights of vehicular households and urge the City to provide housing services for them. Street Sheet thanks all its contributors on this campaign!
Street Sheet was previously honored at the INSP Awards with Best Project in 2017 for its Voter Activation project, which involved a tabloid-style election guide. In 2022, the paper was shortlisted for Best Vendor-written Contribution.
