A Publication of the Coalition on Homelessness
On Tuesday morning, chants filled the air as FiDi workers with take-out lunches in hand tried to navigate their way through the sidewalk. Their main obstacles were activists protesting outside of 220 Montgomery Street, the headquarters of San Francisco real estate magnate Neveo Mosser. The activists were led by tenants of two Mosser properties—285 Turk and 425 Hyde—who have levied claims of neglect and greed against the property owner.
For many people, especially Black people, the month of February signifies the annual celebration of Black History Month/African-American Heritage Month. February is designated as a time to recognize African American achievements and contributions to America. One notable consequence is the hero worship of a handful of prominent figures. What’s more, this celebration of Black achievement particularly tends to be sanitized, and this selective representation is often at the expense of erasing a rich legacy of individuals,
San Francisco is at a precipice – deep into a housing crisis that exists within great wealth and economic fuel. Residents more than ever are motivated to see homelessness addressed as property values and rents skyrocket. Housing-insecure renters see themselves in the faces of those on the streets and respond at times with compassion and other times fear-based hostility. Homeowners have spent small fortunes to acquire property. Yet homelessness is more visible than ever with the proliferation of tents throughout the city,
On Friday afternoon a handful of Mission District residents experiencing homelessness found shockingly violent threats taped to their tents. The typed notices referred to the campers as “JUNKIE MOTHER F***ERS” and warned that they would be the targets of vicious attacks if they were still present in the area after sunset that night.
The sign itself contained shockingly violent language, threatening “IF YOU ARE STILL HERE AFTER DARK TONIGHT, the hunters will become the hunted.
Speech
Today, we women are literate, educated, and deliberate. Liberated to lead, we surge forward not only in politics but also in social life.
But first of all, we need to understand what empowerment of women really means, what its impact is. Empowerment is about being given authority and power to do something. It’s about becoming confident, and stronger. Empowerment again means to be aware of one’s rights and privileges and to have the ability to control one’s life in a more meaningful and fulfilling way.
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Did you know that the average literacy level is 8th grade in the U.S.A? As a 44-year-old, it was time to Break Silence to literacy at the SF Public Library at Project Read. I have struggled all my life reading and writing with ADHD and Dyslexia. So, what is the average literacy level in a low- income community? Living in SF more than 10 years, I have been uncomfortable reading and signing legal documents.
When I was just barely 14, I was raped while out on a date by my camp counselor at a sleepaway camp. It’s a tragically common story – a young girl wooed by a handsome authority figure she inherently trusted. I thought I was mature and worldly when I explained I was a virgin and was not ready for sex. Turns out it wouldn’t have mattered what I said because I was part of some crude game,
I’ve been homeless off and on since 2004 here in San Francisco. And through it all I continued to go through my struggle and tribulations, but in 2010 I came back out here with this guy, and to my dismay he truly turned me out in a way I never knew. See, he taught me a lot out here in the streets, and all the while he was hurting and destroying me in the process.
Officer Samayoa’s body camera was only recording because he turned it on, in shock, after what happened. When initiated, the camera (dormant prior) provides the thirty seconds of footage before it “went live”. No sound, just video. Video of a one-shot kill through a police car window. One shot, one kill. Great stats for a videogame. The viewer is familiar with similar videos of similarly unjustifiable police killings of black people in America. Thus,
Early on January 11 tenants and homeless activists from all over California converged on the Capitol building in Sacramento with high hopes and coffee cups in hand. After a year waiting to be heard, a repeal of Costa Hawkins would finally be publicly debated in the Housing Committee, offering a glimmer of hope that rent control might become a possibility in California cities. But that hope was smothered when the legislation failed to move out of committee,
